New York Traveler.net

Free Ticket Exchange Website

Hmm, here’s something very interesting, a Free Ticket Exchange website. This sounds very appealing to me, because sometimes I win free tickets to something that totally disinterest me (like the Shriner’s Circus or a Mets game) but I would really love concert tickets or movie tickets. B.B. King came to Utica’s Stanley Theatre a few weeks ago, but tickets were a stunning *gulp* $50 apiece! I would have loved to have taken my husband to see B.B. (he’s a big fan– hubs is a musician), but I just couldn’t have afforded $100! However, I always am getting miscellaneous tickets to things that do not interest us. Something like the FreeTicketExchange is a cool idea! This is from their website:

FreeTicketExchange is an online social network of real fans who connect to buy, sell and trade tickets with each other for FREE, by using fanTokens. When you join, you can invite your friends to be your fans. You can find fellow fans that are like you or fans that can introduce you to something completely new. You can even start or join an exclusive group of real fans for your favorite sport, band, performer or play. FreeTicketExchange is an exclusive network that gives the fans the ability to set the price and control the ticket market place. Where fans with a shared interest meet, stay informed, and buy and sell event tickets with each other.

Buy and sell tickets with fans like you!

1. Avoid high fees
2. Choose from whom you buy or sell your ticket
3. Name your price
4. Build lasting relationships with like-minded folks

It sounds interesting, for the benefit of both parties! It doesn’t cost anything to join the community or to buy/sell tickets. I wonder, however, if some states in the U.S. have laws about reselling tickets? I don’t know if New York does. I would be willing to just swap tickets. This website uses fanTokens, so maybe that’s the best way for everyone and for every state. Sounds like a terrific idea.

If anyone has any experience with this, I’d love to hear! Please leave a comment. Thanks!

Frugal Hacks Alert

This is for all you Frugal Hacks out there– if you haven’t heard of Buy.com yet, you have got to check out their deals. I’m in the habit of perusing their weekly specials now. The prices are incredible! A few weeks ago I blogged about how my poor little laptop mouses (or mice or whatever they are called, I’m still not sure!) constantly die on me. They, uh, have this habit of falling to the floor. heh heh. I go through about two or three mouses a year. So I am ALWAYS looking for a good deal. I’m not very keen on paying $25 to $30 a pop for a new mouse. However, I don’t have to! Buy.com has a fabulous deal on a Targus notebook optical mouse for $10! Yes, you read that right! The Buy.com price is 74% off retail pricing. And the shipping is free! I’m going to get a couple of them, and hopefully it will last me, oh, through the summer.

Buy.com also has great specials going on for external hard drives and other computer gadgets, plus stuff like mp3 players, printers, and excellent prices on GPS systems. Check out their weekly specials page here and bookmark it.

What an Xperience!

Oh man. This is an amazing thing. If you like wild and different things to do, you have got to check out this website, the Xperience Days. I think it’s amazing that you can actually do some of these things! You’ll have to see the website to soak everything in, but these things would make terrific and unqiue gifts for an adventuresome dad for Father’s Day, a crazy mom for Mother’s Day, or even for yourself! There’s a ton of stuff for the New York tri-state area, but there are locations all over the United States. Cool!

Basically, this company offers once-in-a-lifetime experiences. For example, take a helicopter ride over the Manhattan skyline (and affordable $110), be a virtual combat fighter pilot (more expensive at $1,900) complete with lessons and video of your exploits, or get a chef for a day in a wine and cheese tasting meal ($400). Those are the things that jumped out at me– there’s a ton more things! Surfing, hot air balloon rides, culinary classes, hang gliding, and culinary experiences are some other things available. Some things are rather pricey, but some things are very affordable! And if you’ve got a group of siblings all willing to pitch in for a Mom and Dad anniversary gift or something- WOW! It could be amazing.

Check out the website! It’s an amazing experience in of itself!

Discount Magazines

Looking for some cheap magazines? By “cheap” I don’t mean “inferior,” I mean “inexpensive.” Magazines prices have been climbing up while subscriptions have been going down. This is a good time to check for discounts on magazines. Companies are eager to please and you can get excellent prices! MagsForLess.com is one such discount magazine business. You can order right from their website. I noticed a couple of travel magazines for sale, but my favorites are the Family Handyman, Country Home, and Log Homes magazines. Mmmmm. The prices are very good for yearly subscriptions. Prices are affordable, and the company is a family-owned business out of New York. Check them out if you are in the market for some excellent deals on discount magazines!

Be Bewildered No More

My kids are tremendous Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett fans. They even have the “gear”: coonskin caps, Kentucky rifles (toy, but they look real), and various Indian paraphernalia. They are also in the process of collecting each and every one of the old television series from the 50s and 60s. Funny! They love Boone and Crockett because they were such rugged frontiersmen. You know– all that exploration in the frontier wilderness, eating squirrels, quoting the Bible, and defending the Constitution!

We were joking recently about something Daniel Boone once said. He was an old man, sitting for a portrait for which posterity to remember him. The artist painting the portrait, a young man named Chester Harding, chatted on and off with the aged legend of old. (Harding’s painting is the only live portrait of Boone, by the way!) The young man asked, “Tell me, Mr. Boone, have you ever been lost?” Mr. Boone reportedly scratched his head and answered with his customary drawl, “Well, no, I can’t say I was ever lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.”

For some strange and utterly uncalled for reason, every time the children and I go out for a drive in the Adirondacks, they bring that little story up. I wonder why! Ha! Maybe it is because I get lost sometimes? I’m always checking out the weekly specials at Buy.com, and came across this gorgeous little gadget.

It’s a Garmin StreetPilot GPS Navigation System! Isn’t it the cutest little thing! Buy.com always has such great deals– this is a whopping 64% off right now. Mother’s Day is right around the corner. Maybe I should drop some hints. Well, the kids read my blog, so WINK WINK, KIDS! Shipping is freeeeee!

Just think– if I get this, I’ll never have to hear how Daniel Boone was “bewildered” for three days, again and again! Although, it’s become a family running gag now. Maybe I could name my new little GPS System “Dan’l Boone,” in honor of the old guy.

Winner of My Little Contest

For my Saturday Photo Hunters post, I asked a trivia question and offered 100 Entrecard credits for the first person who got the right answer. Jesie of Jesie Blog Journey got the correct answer! I’d asked in what movie was this quote by Benjamin Franklin written on a plaque:

Do not squander Time, for that is the Stuff life is made of.

The plaque with this quote was in the 1939 movie “Gone With the Wind.” It is featured early in the movie, at Ashley Wilkes’ estate.

Congratulations, Jesie! I will be sending you your 100 EC credits. Thanks for playing!

Self-Publishing a Book?

I’ve come across some wonderful bloggers who are taking their travels to book form. I’ve been considering it myself. I mean, how many books ARE there about Upstate New York travel? It’s a niche that is being largely unfulfilled. I know some people who have published their own travel guides (Adirondack hiking trail books and specialty tour books) and they have been wildly successful.

I’ve looked into the publishing business, even made submissions for various things, but it is very difficult to get into it. I think because the business is so “closed” it is nearly impossible to get an editor to read your stuff. What to do? Well, tackle the project and publish a book yourself! I love the entrepreneur attitude of writers; why go through the hassle of wrangling with a giant printing corporation when publishing one’s own book can be done? There are several reputable self-publishing companies, like AuthorHouse, for one, that are available. AuthorHouse even offers help tutorials for things like editing and adding illustrations. I remember the “old” days when self-publishing meant Xerox copies of your work compiled in a spiral binder! Things have definitely changed!

Of course, with publishing your book yourself comes marketing your book yourself and selling your book yourself. But the Internet (and especially the blogosphere community) has made this less painful.

What do you think about this? Would you self-publish your book? Do you think a self-published book could do as well as one published by a corporation giant?

Agri-Tourism

Agri-tourism. Now there’s a word I’d not heard before. But apparently it’s a blossoming development in Upstate New York tourism. With the ski season over (did it ever really get started this year? Where was all our snow?) and the official summer tourist season not set to begin until May 31 (why does it start so late, anyway?), Upstate farmers are enjoying some attention thanks to the maple syrup industry.

Here’s a good story from Capital 9 News in Johnstown:

If you’re looking for a sure sign that spring is on its way, you don’t have to go any farther than the Mohawk Valley where maple syrup production is in full swing. Our Mark Repasky was out tapping the trees and finding out how syrup producers hope to cash in on a growing trend.

As the snow subsides and temperatures rise, Steve Savage grabs his drill and starts tapping for sap. “I tap about six thousand trees,” Savage said. To get the most out a season that only lasts between six and eight weeks, Savage has to be ready to go before temps start climbing.

The video clip is very good. It’s short, too.

I’ve visited a few farms as an “agri-tourist.” The kids, however, have only been to one farm, an alpaca farm in Sauquoit, NY. It’s been a desire of mine to take them to some local dairy farms and orchards so they can see what the Upstate economy is all about.

Hat tip Northview Diary.