Magic Castle Hotel Los Angeles

No better place to explore the magic make believe world of Hollywood than the Magic Castle Hotel on Franklin Ave, at the base fo Hollywood Hills. Well, what more do you want than budget accomodation a short walk from the walk of fame, an in-hotel private members-only club frequented by stars, a short subway hop to Universal Studios and the Kodak Theatre and all the attractions of Hollywood Blvd at your doorstep?

It's no Hilton, but the hotel is newly refurbished, rooms are large, comfortable and airy with a good view of the hotel's swimming pool area and best of all, you get to keep your wallet, and your shirt on, when you checkout. More to the point, the rooms are highly utilitarian, with an apartment like feel, since the hotel was an apartment building before morphing into a lodging facility. Out of a total of 40 units, 30 of them are 1 or 2 bedroom suites, and come with fully equipped kitchenettes with microwaves and coffee makers.

In addition, the hotel offers grocery shopping services and a continental breakfast with fresh pastries from the Susina Bakery and coffee by Wolfgang Puck. Rooms and suites are furnished with all the usual amenities, including hairdryers, iron & ironing board, safe, wi-fi internet, coin operated laundromat, cable with HBO and a DVD player with free movie rentals.In short, it's a home away from home for groups and families out on a tour of Los Angeles and the nearby attractions. Then there's the outdoor heated swimming pool.

Room rates start at $139 for a double and in between $149 to $239 for a suite. A one-bedroom suite good enough for a full family of four, with a large living room area, seperate televisions and full kitchen clocks in at $214. Good enough for a glorious Los Angeles family vacation without going broke or into debt.

If you're looking to live like a star for a week and then live on food stamps for the rest of the year, go to the Westin Bonaventure or the Sofitel LA or any of the other upscale Los Angeles family hotels you'll find in West Hollywood and downtown LA. But if you want to make sure your family has a good time, see all the attractions, do some shopping and wining and dining, put up at decent lodgings with all the little comforts of home, and still come out of it with your annual budget intact, then you're looking at the Magic Castle Hotel & Suites.

Info: 7025 Franklin Avenue (Between La Brea & Highland) Hollywood CA 90028; (323) 851-0800; http://www.magiccastlehotel.com/

Argonaut Hotel San Francisco

One of the coolest hotels on Fisherman's Wharf, run by KimptonHotels in partnership with the Maritime National Historic Park, and located half a block from the Bay, the Argonaut (http://www.argonauthotel.com/) is the hotel to be in if you're on a tour of San Francisco with the family. Call it the perfect storm, but the Argonaut has everything going for it, if you look at it from a kid friendly angle. First there's the location which, at least for the Golden State, is second best after Anaheim.

Secondly, there's the Kimpton Kids program or bonus or whatever you prefer to call it, which makes each Kimpton hotel a welcome respite for Mom & Pop who're having difficulty remembering just why they wanted to have kids whose sole job seems to be to give parents plenty of experience in crisis management.

Kimpton Kids literally takes the kids off your hands, by providing adult supervision along with all sorts of diversions and attractions to keep the kids occupied, not to mention taking care of all the drudgery of raising children, like laundry and cleaning up the mess and cribs and strollers and stuff. Combine this with the terrific options to spend a day out in San Francisco - Shopping, dining, sight seeing, ocean cruises and simply experiencing the streets and markets - And you have all the makings of a splendid family vacation which will ooze the stress of urban living out of you like a wet sponge being squeezed.

The guest rooms have panaromic views of the Golgen Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. The decor, as befitting a Bay hotel, has a maritime streak running through the entire hotel including the 239 rooms and 13 suites, and the net effect is that the entire building looks like a giant cruise liner which has accidently run aground. The suites even have a telescope and a spa tub, and you can delude yourself into play-acting Captain Jack Sparrow.

The rooms are loaded with all the requisite modernity, including complimentary internet, coffee makers with complimentary Starbucks coffee (that's one thing you cannot escape from in this liberal oasis), Sony Wega flat screen television, on demand movies and a Nintendo for the kids, in roomspa services, gourmet treats in a stocked honor bar, hairdryer, iron & ironing board, complimentary newspaper, spa tubs with seperate and enclosed glass showers, and you have full Concierge services (they're really good, especially if you forgot to book tickets in advance), room service, laundry and valet and the hotel is pet friendly. Room rates start at $212 for a single room and onwards upto $1049 for a Specialty Bay View suite with two rooms and a jetted tub.

Dining options at the Argonaut, in addition to the excellent restaurants on Fisherman's Wharf, include the next door seafood restaurant, the Blue Mermaid Chowder House & Bar. The restaurant provides a resonably priced menu with attractive options for full family dining, along with a splendid outdoor patio seating so as to be able to enjoy the view.

Info: Argonaut Hotel :- 495 Jefferson Street at Hyde, San Francisco, CA 94109; Reservations: 866-415-0704; Hotel: 415-563-0800

Web links: San Francisco family hotels, restaurants, shopping, visitors, City Pass

Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa

As you roll to a stop in front of the brilliant blue waters of Monterey Bay, the fresh tang of the salty ocean wind hits your nostrils and your lungs fill with the freshness of the Pacific. The sound of waves breaking against the rocks below beckons you to waters edge where otters slip and slide in a messy tangle of squeaks and grunts, creating a contrast to the peace and harmony of the ocean stretching out into the horizon.

Behind you are the pleasures of Cannery Row and the wonders of the Monterey Bay Acquarium, three blocks from the hotel. Welcome to the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa, sitting on a ledge overlooking the Bay.

Once inside, the stately European architecture, the dated decor and the sheer spaciousness of the resort, dripping with luxury, make it obvious why the Monterey Plaza is regarded as one of the premier holiday destination hotels in the Golden State. One might think that with such an unmatchable location and tourist attractions nearby, the hotel would just focus on the rooms, and let the guests enjoy Cannery Row and the Bay and nearby beach towns.

But the Monterey Plaza seems to harbor no such charitable intentions, and aims to keep guests in-house as much as possible with a bevy of superlative services and amenities, including a fell featured Spa on the top floor with a sundeck and a birds-eye view of the Bay, a couple of award winning restaurants - 'The Duck Club Grill' & 'Scooter's Bistro on the Bay' - which dish out superlative cuisine, and other special events organized to keep the guests happy and busy.

The 290 guest rooms and suites, with a view of either the Bay or Cannery Row throough large draped windows, aren't so bad either. As with the structure of the building, the rooms and furnishings are awash in a distinctly 19th-century Biedermeier style, with ceiling fans and large marble baths. In-room amenities include a writing desk, coffee maker, iron & ironing board, a wet bar & stocked mini-bar & a refrigerator, and television with on command video systems. Additional itens, such as cribs and rollaway beds are available upon request. Room rates start at $240. $20 extra for a rollaway bed. Cribs are free. Children 17 and under are allowed to stay free if sharing a room with adults.

The hotel also offers specials 'Family Getaway Package' for $515 per night, which covers everything required for a full family Monterey vacation, including deluxe accommodations for two adults and two children in a suite with connecting rooms, passes for the full family to the Monterey Bay Aquarium good for two consecutive days, Breakfast in the Duck Club Grill and lunch or dinner in Schooner's Bistro, complimentary in room family movie, and waiver of the nightly $25 resort fee charged to other guests, which includes 24-hour valet parking, wireless internet access, and use of the spa facilities for guests 18 and older. Simply put, you pay for the hotel, and everything else gets taken care of. It doesn't get better than this, if you're looking for a family hotel in Monterey.

Info: 400 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA 93940; (831) 646-1700 or (800) 334-3999

$80M Clement Monterey Hotel Coming Soon To Monterey

Brian Miller, GlobeSt.com, writes about the first new hotel to open in Monterey in 20 years - The 208 room Clement Monterey hotel will open in May across from the Monterey Bay Acquarium, at an estimated cost of $80M. Located 120 miles south of San Francisco, the hotel is rising on a historic waterfront site once occupied by the Del Mar Canning Co. The street address of the project is 750 Cannery Row. The 208 rooms include 19 suites and 189 guest rooms, most with views of Monterey Bay. All rooms have a king-size bed or two double beds, marble and granite bathrooms with soaking tubs and walk-in showers, flat-screen televisions and high-speed Internet access. Other amenities include a restaurant and bar, a full-service spa and a Kids Club.

In related news, a runaway tour bus crashed into the Monterey Bay Acquarium. The 40-foot Coach USA bus rolled downhill on David Avenue, about a block and a half away from the aquarium. Along the way it knocked down several street signs and hit the front end of a car. The bus also sideswiped an office building before ramming into the aquarium.

And stealing attention from the much ballyhoed whales and bigger fish in Monterey Bay are tiny sardines. Melissa Schilling, Santa Cruz Sentinel, has a detailed article on the re-emergence of the sardines and the benefits for both humans and the environment. Studies by researchers with the Seafood Watch of the Monterey Bay Aquarium suggest it's the topical temperatures of the water itself that dictates whether the giant herds of silver swimmers stay or swim on. Eating sardines is good for you and good for the environment -- because they simply hurdle into local shops as fresh as can be. There's no long, overnight plane ride like fish from Hawaii [mahi mahi], Chile [Chilean seabass] or Alaska [salmon]. Instead, sardines hit fresh fish counters, such as those of The Fish Lady, caught just that morning.

Pepper Tree Inn Palm Springs

The two pepper trees originally planted by Dr. Pepper at the Pepper Tree Inn, Palm Springs are no longer there, and have been replaced by new trees. Same as the Inn, which has been completely renovated and has morphed away from its original 1920 style into a Spanish colonial boutique hotel with intimate and peronsal care for the guests in each of the hotel's 32 rooms.

The Pepper Tree Inn sits sandwiched between the uptown Gallery District and downtown Palm Springs, so guests at the Inn get the best of both worlds, with antique shops, art galleries and boutiques of the uptown side competing with the trendy restaurants, Spa's and designer brand boutiques of the downtown area.

The new version of the Inn is a highly stylised and artistic rendition, with the two stained glass leaf gates at the entrance, worth a whopping $25,000 each, setting the tone for the inside. Hand painted intricate designs and shades on the walls give each room a distinct identity and the rooms themselves are divided into a range of types and sizes, with varying amenities such as jacuzzis, fireplaces and patios, along with a view of the poolside area on one side and the imposing San Jacinto mountains on the other. The shaded glow of the lighting, the solid furnishings, the ceiling fan and the artistically painted walls combine to create a certain rustic charm which you won't find in a chain hotel or big spa resorts dotting the Palm Springs area.

Best to schedule visits during weekdays, since weekends cost upwards of $30 extra over the weekday price. A standard two bedroom suite for a family of four would cost around $329 on weekdays and $359 on weekends. If you're planning for a full week, the hotel offers half a day free on a 4 day booking and 1 full day free on a 5 day booking.

For hotel offers all the usual amenities in-room, including flat screen LCD television, coffee maker, iron/ironing board and a refrigirator, all of which are tastefully tucked into the wodden structure, thus enhancing the apparent size of the rooms. There's a dining area where you can polish off muffins, cereal, fresh juice and coffee for breakfast before you set out for an exploration of Palm Springs. Half a block on either side of the Inn lie the Palm Canyon theatre and Koffi, which serves some really mind-blowing coffee, sandwiches and pastries.

Info: 622 North Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs CA 92262; (760) 318-9850

Web Links: Palm Springs family hotels, attractions, golf courses, spas, shopping, restaurants

Governors Inn Hotel Sacramento CA

Old Town Sacramento is probably one of the most under-rated tourist areas in the US, inspite of having a truckload of historical landmark buildings and a breathtaking natural beauty along the banks of the Sacramento river and the marshes of the Delta. This is because Sacramento is often treated like the poor cousin in a family of rich brats, struggling to divert attention from the world famous attractions of the SoCal coast, the natural splendour and wealth of the Wine Country and the vastness of Palm Springs and the desert parks.

But being the Black Sheep in California's tourist wars has its advantages. For one, less tourists mean lower prices for hotels, restaurants and services for visitors. Secondly, the staff you'll encounter in Sacramento hotels are infinitely more friendly and attentive than their overworked counterparts on the Pacific Coast. What this all means is that Sacramento, with all its history and old town attractions, virginal natural beauty unspoilt by chain resorts and high-rise condos and hordes of garbage dumping tourists, relatively cheap hotels and friendly staff, is perfect for a family vacation.

And perfect among family hotels in Sacramento is the aptly named Governors Inn Hotel, straddling the center between the State Capitol and Sacramento International Airport, minutes away from downtown Sacramento, Railroad Museum, historic Old Town and the upscale Westfield Downtown Plaza.

The hotel offers budget accomodation for the entire family with a lot of freebies thrown in - Complimentary airport & train shuttle service, complimentary breakfast, complimentary parking, complimentary high speed internet, complimentary phone calls...The hotel also offers use of a fitness center, meeting rooms with a business center equipped with audio/video equipment, outdoor swimming pool and spa, room service, housekeeping and same day laundry services. All this in addition to 'service with a smile' - A genuine smile. There's a lot more, but I think that gives you a fair idea of the value that you can get in Sacramento, for much less than what you would pay at a similar size hotel in LA or San Francisco or San Diego.

A stay here is sure to slow down your pace and maximize the benefits of a relaxing holiday poking around the historic landmarks and quaint pleasures of the Old Town and the Delta, topped off with a liberal helping of old world hospitality and tasty California cuisine.

Governor's Inn offers 133 beautifully decorated and furnished spacious rooms and suites, comfortable, oozing old world charm with a leafy view of Sacramento's windy tree-lined streets. The rooms are fully furnished and equipped with all the modern conviniences and gadgets that you might need - Coffee maker, internet access, Cable TV with free HBO, CNN and ESPN, in-room movies, hair dryer, iron/ironing board and a complimentary bowl of fresh fruits. For a family, the hotel offers a two room suitewith a seperate living room and a King size bed, a sofa bed, work desk, two television, microwave and refrigirator. All guests are offered complimentary breakfast and an afternoon managers' reception with tea, along with a free copy of the Sacramento Bee. A single room costs $93 and a double $103, per night.

Info: 210 Richards Boulevard Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 448-7224

Castle Inn & Suites Hotel Anaheim California

What the Castle Inn & Suites Hotel, Anaheim, CA, offers for the ultimate in family vacations is location. And you couldn't ask for a better location - Slam-bang across the street from Disneyland® Resort and minutes from Downtown Disney® District Disneyland® Resort.

That's a lotta Disney's in one sentence, and its all waiting for you, when you take a look out of your Castle Inn & Suites hotel room window.

You really can't ask for much more than this, but they do offer you more - Accomodation for the full family in spacious rooms with queen size double beds starting at $112 for a three night stay for a family of four, including two adults and two kids.

It works out to about $40 for an entire family per night - And you're sleeping with a view of the Disneyland® Resort. If you want to splurge, you could go for a double room family suite, which will set you back $152 for the same terms - 2 adults, 2 children, 3 nights. The family suite has two rooms, one with a single king bed, and one with two queen beds. Both rooms have television, and the room with the King Bed additionally has a refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker. One bathroom combined for both rooms. This is the most reasonable you can expect in terms of cheap family hotels in Anaheim, CA.

Of course, there are a few downsides to this reasonableness. For starters, there are very few add-ons or luxury amneties or services. What you see is what you get. Secondly, it may look like a fairy tale palace from the outside, but the reality inside is well...a bit different. Let's just say the hotel is a bit rundown and hasn't had a makeover since probably before Mickey was born. Meaning that you're not about to smell the fresh paint or work out exactly what color the room was when it was first painted. Like I said, there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Still, the hotel does offer a heated pool, whirlpool and a children’s wading pool, a gift shop, valet laundry and coin-operated laundry facilities, complimentary morning coffee and faxing services. Bottom line - The Castle Inn & Suites hotel offers cheap accomodation for the full family in front of the Disneyland® Resort and that's just about all there is to say about it.

Info: 1734 S. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim, California 92802; (714) 774-8111

Handlery Union Square Hotel San Francisco

The Handlery Union Square Hotel calls itself a family hotel with a European flair. In fact, The Handlery, located at Union Square, San Francisco, between Mason and Powell St., has had its fair share of European travelers, even before it morphed into an EU friendly upscale boutique hotel with a 2002 makeover. Whether or not the English and the French and the Germans like it, the Handlery certainly is way more Mom and Kid friendly, in comparison with other family friendly hotels in San Francisco.

For starters, the hotel is situated slam bang across Macy's (for which the hotel offers discount coupons), with the Westfield San Francisco Centre, the largest shopping center on the West Coast, located minutes away, not to mention the cable car at the corner, and as such the hotel provides an ideal base for quick shopping expeditions for Moms at some of the world's finest brand name shops without having to stray too far from the kids. Also, the hotel frees up parents from daily drudgery, with same day laundry and dry cleaning services, maid service and full room service to take care of everything from in-room dining to cleaning up after a horde of precocious teenagers.

To help parents make a quick getaway without being missed, and to keep the kids occupied, the hotel provides babysitting services via the Concierge and a heated outdoor swimming pool, and a friendly multi-lingual staff well trained to provide service with a smile to customers of all ages, from frisky tiny tots to cranky grandparents. In addition if you are in San Francisco on a business trip, the hotel offers you an oppurtunity to combine a family vacation with your business, with a state-of-the-art business center, a fitness center, gift shop, an ATM and an upscale dining restaurant located next door, ideal for business lunches.

The rooms offer plenty of space, comfort and entertainment for the entire family, with two double beds, cable tv, on demand movies and video games, mini refrigirators, wi-fi internet, coffee and tea makers, hair dryers, iron/ironing board, and individual climate control settings. Rooms in the Club Section offer a few sweet extra specials for the family, including balconies with a view of the city, and overlooking the pool (all the easier to scream at kids who don't want to get out of the pool), complimentary newspaper, electric shoe polishers and a seperate vanity area with a lighted make-up mirror.

But the best is yet to come. For a standard room with two double beds and room for a family of 4, including two adults and two children, the hotel charges a nightly rate of $189 plus tax. If you go for the family getaway package special, the rate drops even further to $179, which includes one complimentary kids funpak, two complimentary ice cream sundaes at the Daily Grill Restaurant and Bar nextdoor, complimentary valet parking with 24 hour in and out privileges, two complimentary cable car passes available from the concierge, Pier 39 Funpak and Macy's Discount Coupons. If you want more than one room, the hotel offers family friendly accomodation with connecting doors between rooms.

Info: 351 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102; (800) 843-4343

California Family Travel Guide

That's what this blog is going to be about from now on - A California family travel guide. I'll be writing about all the places I visit in California, from the SoCal coast to the Sierra Nevada and Palm Springs. I'll be writing reviews of family friendly hotels in San Francisco, as a start. We'll take it from there and see where it goes.

I'll also be writing restaurant reviews and descriptions of the local attractions in each place I visit. And in between maybe some travel tips and suggestions to make your travels safe, comfortable and easy. In short, as of now, this is a travel blog.

My latest scribblings

Been busy lately, writing and researching. Not much time left over to water the plants here on blogspot. A small list of latest literary outpourings :
Update: Getting Into College, or you can go straight to the horse's mouth and find out everything bout college admissions or land up at the student zone for college & university guides. The Student Zone is an international student community and lifestyle site which features advice, university & college guides, competitions, graduate and gap year information.. And if you stumble upon any more college videos, add them to the list, or post in comments. You can find more helpful links in the online education program directory. Or here:
Distance Learning Courses - Open College Courses in complementary health therapy. Study at home for an approved & recognised OC Diploma award.
http://www.opencollege.info/
Or here: Online Universities - Search for the best online college and earn your degree online in your required subject.
End-Of-Update ( Yeah - I do know a bit about coding...)
College Admissions Explained
The Works of Ayn Rand
The Best President of U.S.Of A.
What is the internet?
Define spammer, hubber and a great hubber.
What are the best websites for news?
Internal Linking Unplugged
Protecting Your Identity from Google
Global Warming Solutions
Iraq Strategy
Drive heavy traffic to your website without spending a fortune
Rep Ron Paul (TX) - Domestic Policy
Adding Search to Your Website
Online Business Tips
How Google Adsense works
Diet Free Weight Loss
What internet browser you prefer to use?
Will Al Gore run for president in 2008?
How To Write A Hub
Book Writing and Publishing Help
Widgets 101
10 Most Useful Sites on The Internet
To see all hubs, visit my hubpages.com profile.

Feast or famine? Half the week I don't have time to focus, with multiple clients emailing and harassing me for getting the work done faster. Then they all dissappear and I'm left twiddling my thumbs and watching reality television and reading the News until the next attack. Memo to my clients - If you're co-ordinating attacks on me, could you please come in one at a time, so I can keep youall happy?

Spence Diamonds Guide to Jewelry and Allergies

I was doing some market research for a client, and I'm simply amazed by the specialization in each sector. I mean, when you talk about selling to women, it's a fine art. And totally different from selling to men. Men want something which works. When you're selling to men, the main aim is to seem genuine, in other words something which is not a con job. All my writing has been targeted for men, including most of the work I do for clients. This one job is slightly different. It's got to do with diamonds and jewelry. So I thought I'd get to know the market, and existing written matter, before I jumped in myself.

There's this one site, DiamondArticles.com, which is just what its name says - Everything about diamonds. There's even an article from Spence Diamonds about how rashes on your skin caused by jewelry are mostly related to nickel allergy.
"The bad news first: Once you’ve become sensitive to nickel, you’re likely to stay that way for the rest of your life. The good news is that over time, you may become less sensitive to nickel allergy."

Notice the format of the article. First there's an explanation that allergies are for real, and selecting the right kind of jewelry does not necessarily mean that it should be costlier than your neighbour's newest purchase. They go on to explain how contact with nickel affects your skin, and then deliver the punch line. That's the line which I quoted above - Good news and bad news. Bad news is that nickel allergy is not curable. Good news is that nickel allergy can be contained,and you can still enjoy the finest jewelry, provided you choose the ones which won't hurt your skin. And the good folks at Spence Diamonds know just what you need. So step right in and check it out today.

Any woman with a nickel allergy problem, after reading this article, will immediately pick up the phone and call the Spence Diamonds showroom, or head over to it. And I now know just how I'm supposed to write copy for selling jewelry to women.

Hubba Hubba

How would you like to be a hubber? Then you can post how to guides like Generate Static HTML Pages From A Database or Table Tricks for SEO. Course, you still need to have used or done the things you want to write a guide for. I mean, if you haven't used it, and don't plan on using it, what's the difference between static or dynamic pages and toilet paper? Ok, so one's a page and the other's a paper, but that's not the point, huh? If you don't know what to do with dymanic pages, you might as well flush 'em too.

Wanna write interesting guides? You can make a ton of money, and take pride in your creations and the depth of your wisdom. Just the small matter of learning how to do these things, but I'm sure you can get over that.

There's an ad on Craigslist where a publisher wants you to write How To guides. You write, they sell, everyone makes money - If you can write 'em.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/wrg/362865573.html

Hope you know how to flip your house.

Understand Your Credit Card

I've been doing some freelance writing for a client on debt management. Needless to say, I had to do a heck of a lot of research, just to understand all the terminology, leave alone offering expert opinions. The bewildering array of terms include debt snowballs, credit scores, APR, Prime rates, etc.

My point here is that it's necessary to understand everything about credit and credit scores, especially if you're working from home, freelance, without the backup of a formal organisation to take care of you. In the course of my research, I bumped into a very interesting credit card site, CreditorWeb.com. I spent a lot of time browsing through credit card forums and informational sites, but very few had precise and concise data to offer. But the folks at CreditorWeb seem to have developed a few really great tools, such as the 'Balance Transfer Savings Calculator'. This nifty tool will list the amount you save by transferring your credit balance from your current card.You enter your current card details, and it spits out a list of cards, detailing the exact amount you save for each card.

What this really means is that you don't need to pore through the small print for every card. Transferring your credit balance to a new card which saves you money is a commonly suggested method of reducing your debt. But to know exactly how much you save, and for which card, is something which a lot of us don't do, if only because arriving at the figures is a time consuming and burdensome chore. With the 'Balance Transfer Savings Calculator from CreditWeb, it's not so anymore. Checkout out this tool and other useful tools for WAHMs, such as the Credit Card Processing Comparison Tool, which compares merchant account / credit card processing plans to find the best deal for accepting credit card payments online.

Seven Things the CIO Should Know About Telecommuting

Esther Schindler has a mega epic on telecommuting in CIO.com.
"Telecommuters also need to adopt techniques for working at home, both to keep their sanity and to move their career along."

True that. But I think I lost my sanity a couple of decades before I became a freelancer. Anyway...It's a pretty good read, though I ddn't make it past Step 1. Why people break up articles into multiple pages, I will never know. For one, you lose a lot of visitors ( like me ), who have no interest in further clicking. Second, you waste a heck of a lot of bandwidth, and time, reloading the subsequent pages ( seven in this case ). Why not just make it one big page. Scrolling down is easier than clicking and clicking and clicking..... How many people read all seven steps? I'm guessing very few. How many more would have scrolled down and read the entire article if it was one big page? Uh....Not many, I guess. Bulleting points and quotes and facts is all fine, but where's the humor? Without humor, a web page is a dead pond, just so much more junk. Note to Esther Schindler - Get a sense of humor. It's on sale for $9.95 on eBay. Discount sale!

In other news, The Palladium Times has an article advising telecommuters to get a postage meter??
Update : If the link doesn't work, it's probably cause they're hiding the page, being ashamed of peddling a postage meter. And here's the proof. Don't ask why I was searching for postage meters....

In other peddling, citizen journalism aggregator Groundreport.com is touting their $1000 contest for best freelance news report - which went to Desi Zavatta Musolino, from Italy, who posted a news story about a naked tourist who crawled into a fountain.

The How To Boomlet

How to write a how to about writing how to's? Don't ask. Cause I won't tell. cause I don't know. Either you got it or you don't. The reason I bring up this subject is because, as a freelance writer, I've been asked to write 'How To's' by multiple clients - Three of them, to be precise.

Goes without saying that to generate a decent amount of revenue, I'd need to write 3 how to's a day. Problem is, what the heck do I write about? I mean, there's only so much you're an expert on, and can tell other people how to do that. After that, it comes down to the fact that you learn on the job. I have, in the last couple of days, pontificated on how to toilet train your cat and how to build traffic to your website. I'm racking my brains to come up with more how to's every single day.

How To sites, like Koonji, HubPages and Spongefish ( coming soon ), are looking to cash in on the increased trend of searching online for a solution to every problem - Be it debt management, buying a house or finding the nearest and cheapest barbershop. There's only one small problem - There's an information overload, and most of it is crap. I mean, heck, I don't even have a cat, and I wrote a how to on how to toilet train my fictional cat. I say this with no shame, because I did my research, and what I wrote indeed works. But, how many others can say the same? I have no clue, and I figure that sooner or later, folks are going to realize that they're being taken for a how to ride. Meantime, though, I intend to make hay - And how.

Journalism Meltdown

Take a look at this. Journalists are twisting themselves into knots about whether or not it's acceptable to allow email interviews to replace the conventional face to face or telephone interviews.

Situation is so bad that they're doing email interviews about whether or not email interviews are acceptable. "But in the digital age, some executives and commentators are saying they will respond only by e-mail, which allows them to post the entire exchange if they feel they have been misrepresented, truncated or otherwise disrespected. And some go further, saying, You want to know what I think? Read my blog.....My interviews with Rosen, who writes the Pressthink blog, were conducted by e-mail." - Media Notes, Howard Kurtz

One thing they're missing. It's all navel gazing. It's journalists and bloggers, talking about journalists and bloggers. In short, it's all within the media. Who gives a rat's ass whether the media interview themselves by email, phone, in person or by pegion courier? If Tony Snow or Karl Rove refused to do an in person interview, asking instead for an email interview, that would be news. Note to the MSM - Please stop, before you prove yourself to be the asses people think you are.

A Woman in Charge - Carl Bernstein

As the whole world probably knows, there's two books out on the life and times of Hillary Clinton. One of them is Carl Bernstein's 'A Woman in Charge'. It's been considered conventional wisdom that these books are 'hit jobs', on Senator Clinton, out just in time to co-incide with the '08 campaign building up. But I read today an excerpt from the book. So here's the deal, from the horse's mouth.

---

A Woman In Charge, by Carl Bernstein

---

"A sitting first lady of the United States was going to the state of New York where she had never lived and run for the Senate — while she was in the White House. And pull[ed] it off. Every political consultant in the world would say, Preposterous, it’s goofy. Where did that come from? And she did it.

Yet her credentials—as his wife, as a lawyer, and as a political strategist uniquely positioned to salvage the Clinton epoch—were unimpeachable."

Uh...doesn't seem anywhere close to a hit job. If anything, it only adds to the Hillary aura, as a fortress of determination, ambition and importantly, success. That's the key here. Bernstein repeatedly hammers home the point that Hillary got things done, and she had the backbone to do it and stand stiff against headwinds. If anything, it'll help earn a few votes and some poll points. Admitted, this is just an excerpt, and there are others which are not so flattering, but all said and done, no hit job this. I wouldn't be surprised if Carl Bernstein ends up writing President Hillary Clinton's memoirs.

Or, and this seems more likely, failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's memoirs. On a related note, what do you think she's going to do if she loses? Where does the Clinton saga go from there? Will they do a Bill & Melinda Gates kindof thing, or will she try to emulate Teddy kennedy and become a revered figure in the Senate? Or is there another twist to the plot left? Something tells me the next twist in the plot will come from Bill, not Hillary. Keep tuned, or read the friggin book.

Sell a Book in 3 minutes

You got 3 minutes. Make your pitch. If you manage to con an editor, you're a published author. If not, you're one of the 15 million wannabe book writers in the United States. The Scotsman has chronicled the sad state of the chroniclers.

"If you think speed-dating is tough, try selling your book to an editor in three minutes. That's what hundreds of aspiring authors were doing this week at a New York trade fair, and the odds were against them."

Hire a pro and bring him along to the fair to make the pitch. Better yet, hire a famous and published author. It's all about the art of selling. You can't write? Get a ghost writer. Your entire life is a series of non-events? Not a problem. Make it up. You can always go on Oprah and fess up to spinning a yarn or two. It's all about buzz and celebrity.

In other wannabe writer news, Listenandbeheard has an informal gathering of writers, where you're supposed to read out your scribblings and participate in burying anyone who has the nerve to read out aforementioned scribblings. Ten to one, they'll end up debating publisher rejection horror stories.

Literary Inferno

In a new twist to the information wars, Tom Wayne, Kansas, Mo., voices his protest in support of the writtem word by means of..Burning books. Article in StateNews.com has the fiery details, "Recently, when he attempted to clear out some of his collection he found he could not even give the books away. Wayne's collection contains everything from popular titles to obscure books, such as a bound report from the Fourth Pan-American Conference held in Buenos Aires in 1910.

Libraries and other used bookstores turned him down, saying they were too full. In his irritation, Wayne decided to get rid of his books by burning them.

Wayne said he burned books as a protest of society's lack of patronage for the written word."

Now this is one idea which may just catch fire. This is just begging for a discussion on the importance of books and the benefits of reading, but let's book ( no pun intended....well, maybe ) that for another day, when my writing talents are capable of producing a few more sparks ( intended ).

In other news, Solomon Rothman, writing for WebProNews.com, explains the importance, and joy, of blogging to build a community.

And, in news even closer to home, I just found out that Google has a Supplemental Index. And this blog happens to be one of the many proud participants in aforementioned project. Best way to break out? Start praying. And all this after I write a fawning super epic about the value and importance of Google to the economy and the world. Talk about gratefulness.

Telecommuting for Newbies

Having hammered a lot on telecommuting during the infancy of this blog, and then left it alone, to focus on loftier issues absolutely unrelated to freelancers and freelancing, I'm feeling the urge to re-visit the advantages of working from home.

What you get - No commuting hassles, gas bill savings, more time at home, freedom and independence. What you lose - Face time with the boss and colleagues ( invaluable for career growth ), lack of awareness of workplace changes and problems, loss of discipline ( debatable ). That just about sums it up.

Notice one factor. The pluses are all tangible and immediate, meaning you're getting the benefits today. The minuses, on the other hand all refer to problems which might crop up sometime in the future. Put another way, a telecommuter gets his cake, eats it, and might face the scary proposition of starving tomorrow. The office-goer, on the other hand, just gets to look at his cake, and appreciate that the chef is working on the cake and it's going to be bigger and better tomorrow.

The best way, as is often the case, lies somewhere in between. You get to telecommute whenever possible, and report to the office whenever necessary. But this is easier said than done. There are 45 million Americans telecommuting today, and federal and state governments are scrambling to come up with legislation and rules for taking care of the arising issues. Connecticut was one of the early states to jump onboard, and remains today the trailblazer for facilitating telecommuting with it's statewide initiative Telecommutect.

In the end, though, it's going to upto your boss and you to hash out the deal. For example, you could be allowed to telecommute on Fridays and Mondays, leading to an extended weekend at home, with the office work to be done on the remaining days. There's no law which can govern such arrangements, and the undesired side-effects arising from such arrangements.

Also to be noted is whether both your boss and you trust you to have the discipline to get the work done. Second, are you so invaluable to your company, that you can afford to sit at home and be secure that no young whipper-snapper who virtually lives in the office is angling for your job, back at the office? If you can answer both questions in the affirmative, then do the right thing and help your country, save the gas bill and enjoy working at home.