How do you improve blog viewership? Is it writing, is it racy photos?
No, it’s straight cash homie.
Thanks to BoardingArea for featuring me this week and thank you all for checking out my blog. Everyday I’m going to have a giveaway to entice readers, both old and new, to keep coming and keep clicking.
Today’s contest is simple: Guess where this picture is taken and win a $10 Amazon Gift Card. Closest to the pin wins*!
Terms and Conditions Apply. Not available in all areas. Contest closes 9AM Ulaanbaatar time December 9th, 2014.
Another warm welcome to all of you reading this thanks to my featured appearance on Boarding Area. Each month I put together a list of the best posts from the month before. Tomorrow, I will put out the list for November but today I will provide highlights of the top posts since ThePointsOfLife was born way back in March 2014.
Even though I tell everyone about how easy it is to accumulate points, nobody follows the Points101 guide or comes up with reasons why the points game is not worth their time. Then they fly first class for the first time for next to nothing and are finally believers, posting pics of candy buffets.
To make it easy for my Vegas virgins and frequent Vegas travelers alike, I am writing a comprehensive hotel review of all the places I have stayed in Vegas.
My name is Alexander and I’m the featured blogger on BoardingArea this week.
Worry not, I’m not going to list to you all the Ultimate Reward transfer partners for Chase nor am I going to tell you where you can still find the Southwest Airlines 50,000 offer using Orphan Annie Secret Society decoder pin. Hint: Use Google.
Instead, I’m going to throw in a little of everything from Trip Reports to Seychelles, Mauritius, and Maldives to Travel Guides for those heading for the splendor of South Africa to the desert of Doha. My focus is to show how easy it is to fly on great airlines, stay at over-the-top hotels, and how to enjoy yourself when you get there.
In 1997, the University of Michigan split the National Championship with Nebraska, a misdeed that remains unpunished. Ironically, both programs are in shambles today.
In 1998, the BCS was launched as a way to prevent this from occurring because #1 would play #2 and it would be settled on the field. The flaws of this system are well documented.
In 2014, the NCAA introduced the 4 team playoff system which would save college football from the incomprehensible BCS formula and put smart, infallible humans in control by way of a selection committee.
This 12 member jury system would decide who should be included and who should be left out.
If you’re looking for fair and impartial, keep looking. If you are searching for informed and competent, do the same.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the ‘experts’ on the committee to show you why it is impossible for anyone to get a fair trial:
Tyrone Willingham: Fired from ND, fired from Washington: What does he know about winning as he is a perennial loser?
Tom Osborne: Good old Tommy hails from the aforementioned University of Nebraska who only received the split championship on account that his was retiring the same season.
Pat Haden: Here’s an example of his professionalism. Click here.
Condoleezza Rice: Here’s her interview on why the United States invaded Iraq.
After watching that, are we really supposed to trust her or anyone else on that selection committee to do the right thing?
Here’s what the rankings should be:
1. Florida State: At least the BCS would’ve gotten this right. Florida State should undoubtedly be ranked #1 as they are the only undefeated team.
2. Oregon/Alabama: Although it’s a coin toss as to whom should be #2 I’d give the slight edge to Oregon because they faced a tougher opponent in their championship game and also vindicated themselves convincingly from an earlier loss to Arizona.
3. Alabama: If this was the BCS, do you really think Oregon would go ahead of Alabama?
4. Baylor: Baylor has one loss, TCU has one loss. TCU lost to Baylor. Case closed.
If somehow, someway it was a toss up between TCU and OSU then using the fact set out in #4, TCU should go over crappy Ohio State because TCU lost to Baylor while OSU lost to Virginia Tech.
So again I ask you, do you trust Condoleezza Rice?
I certainly do not.
My disdain for Ohio State and my alumni status from the University of Michigan in no way affects the validity of my conclusion.
So when I read about another restaurant opening in UB that served beef pho, I wasn’t even slightly excited especially since it wasn’t a proper Vietnamese restaurant.
Upon entering the cafe, I was overtaken by the warmth of the dining room and the delicious smells of soup and fresh coffee. The Soup Bar as it is called serves many varieties of soup including red lentils, minestrone, cabbage soup, Uzbek chili soup, among others. Feeling a little uneasy by the towering stature of the proprietor, I nevertheless approached the counter, placed my order for beef pho, paid, and stepped aside, hoping I wouldn’t be denied a warming bowl.
Moments later, I was served a tidy bowl of pho along with a fresh roll of bread. While the usual staples of sriracha and hoisin were not offered, visually everything else appeared to be in order.
Understandably trepidatious after being fooled by bad pho so many times, I was hesitant to dive right in. After a few more seconds of pause, I mustered the courage to take my first slurp.
Yum! followed by feelings of relief followed by yum took over as I, like many times before, unconsciously made my way to the bottom of the bowl.
Satisfied, I was ever thankful that the Allied Forces better known as the Soup Bar had liberated me from the clutches of Mongolian soup monotony.
Could it be?Twas.Please sir, I want some more.Plenty of savory, affordable choicesThe Soup Bar has takeaway, leaving me to wonder if I could just take away the whole vat.Soup for me!Me after a great lunch at Soup Bar
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine came out with a list today of the airports with the healthiest food. Here are the results from the 23 busiest airports in the U.S. according to this article from The Detroit Free Press:
1. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport
2. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
3. Los Angeles International Airport
4. Reagan National Airport
5. Newark Liberty International Airport
6. LaGuardia Airport (tie)
6. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (tie) (Home Airport #1)
7. Denver International Airport
8. San Francisco International Airport
9. Dulles International Airport
10. Boston Logan International Airport
11. John F. Kennedy International Airport (tie)
11. Chicago O’Hare International Airport (tie)
11. Philadelphia International Airport (tie)
12. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (Home Airport #2)
13. Charlotte Douglas International Airport
14. Las Vegas McCarran International Airport
15. Miami International Airport (tie)
15. Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (tie)
16. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
17. Orlando International Airport
18. Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport
19. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Not only are the numbers nonsensical because so many of them resulted in a tie but also who really cares about eating healthy at the airport? If you are trying to maintain a healthy style of living, chances are you can connect at ATL airport, stop by the Popeye’s Chicken (which I think has closed since the last time I went there), and still adhere to your chicken and broccoli regiment when you get home without any long term health effects.
Are these numbers relevant to road warriors? Probably not since they are too busy eating unlimited carrots and pretzels in the disappointing lounges found all across the country.
How about vacation goers? Certainly not! When it’s vacation time, it’s time to put the diet on hold and overindulge on junk. Personally, I wait until I arrive on my idyllic beach before completely surrendering to temptation but I understand anyone that no longer cares to wait.
The real issue shouldn’t be which airport has the healthiest food but which airport has the healthiest, most affordable food. It already costs too much money for a Double Whopper meal from Burger King at the airport let alone anything healthy and delectable. I don’t even give Paradise Bakery a second glance at Phoenix Sky Harbor as I already know that a healthy Caesar Salad probably breaks the bank at over $10 coupled with a small Diet whatever.
So thanks for this useless study that won’t change my routing nor my opinion of terrible LAX airport even if it ranks 3rd on the health meter index. I’m more impressed with the free airport shuttle that allows me to walk to the In-N-Out conveniently located steps away.
Are you illiterate? I’m beginning to believe that I am.
Over the past few months, websites have ramped up their cyber security by making users fill out a captcha for just about every click a user wants to make. This is one of the biggest reasons why I don’t bother commenting on fellow bloggers’ posts.
I try to make sense of the stupid combination of letters and numbers but I remain completely lost. Error after error, I finally gave up. Are you supposed to include a space if there is some space looking area in the atmosphere between the captcha phrases? Does capitalization matter? Is that the number ‘1’ or the letter ‘I’. How scary is the kidnapper’s voice if you opt for an auditory captcha?
All knowing, all intrusive Google literally must’ve seen my struggles because they are introducing a smarter way to captcha the spammers. See what I did there? It’s called re CAPTCHA.
re CAPTCHA uses images like kitty cats not jumbled letters and words to detect if you are a robot or if you are a human. This should make leaving angry, disapproving comments on people’s pointless posts less cumbersome.
Google’s re CAPTCHA brings me back to my childhood days when I used to have to spot what item didn’t match, an exercise handed out by substitute teachers to control antsy school children excited to have a free day.
Let’s just hope that I can still remember the classification system for organisms:
There are certain places in the world that march to the beat of its own drummer, that have its own unmatched charisma and charm. In the United States, New Orleans is that place.
To make it happen, I used my free companion ticket from when I had an Amex Delta Platinum card, my pull with the Michigan Alumni association to secure tickets, and my first stay ever as the proud new carrier of the SPG card from American Express. Incidentally, we were bumped to first-class after volunteering to give up our seats.
You could say that this was the inaugural trip of my professional career at ThePointsOfLife since for the first time I was trying to meet a minimum spend and target my efforts towards gaining Gold status.
Of course, this overview coincides with the firing of Brady Hoke, a man who was in over his head as coach of the University of Michigan, a program that needs serious self-examination.
Today I’m focusing on the positives: the hope that Michigan had following that victory and the great time had by all in the Big Easy.
Here’s the picture preview:
First-class drinking at 9AMHurricanesSuperdomeGreat seatsHappy Times at MichiganThe aftermath
Attention! Attention! All you Blackberry lovers out there. That includes me, myself, and I. Blackberry is giving away the kitchen sink from its headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario if you’ll trade in your iPhone and switch back to the good life of a keyboard and non-existent apps during this extended celebration known as Cyber Monday.
Yesterday Blackberry released its new phone called the Blackberry Passport and it is a beauty. Seriously, I want it now. As Blackberry’s only customer, I was hoping they would send me one for free. Basically, they are as I get hundreds of dollars for turning over my retired iPhone 4S. So is this Blackberry’s idea of a Cyber Monday promotion? If so then once again they have failed to drum up support since a) nobody knew about it or b) nobody cared about it.
I warned Blackberry years ago in a candid letter that their company would face a downward spiral if they did not heed my advice. They did not. Now, they meekly have introduced another device at the worst time and in the worst way. While I agree with the strategy of giving away the phone for free so doubters can see its greatness (a strategy effectively implemented by T-Mobile to gain subscribers), I do not agree with the timing and the nonexistent promotion.
How can they give away the phone for free? Simple, these phones cost next to nothing to produce. (See Foxconn’s working conditions and wages for workers who produce the iPhone.) But why on the day that everyone else is giving everything for free would Blackberry try the same thing?
Because they are stupid. Their last phone release came right around Christmas when everyone already had their Turbo Man iPhone nestled safely under their tree. This time they thought they’d get a jump on those holiday shoppers by releasing it on the busiest e-commerce shopping day of the year. Dear Blackberry, users who recently purchased the iPhone 6 are too hypnotized by their 12″ screens (something that Apple users swore they would never want) to care for a free Blackberry.
Blackberry, a Canadien company, was hoping that Cyber Monday would trigger a metaphorical Boxing Day where shoppers would fight to get their hands on this latest device. Instead, I predict executives of Blackberry will awaken to the second coming of Black Tuesday, resulting in what may be an unrecoverable descent in their stock.
Did you spend too much on Black Friday? Can’t afford anything great even with a Cyber Monday Deal promotion? Desperate come Worthless Wednesday? Wondering why there isn’t a Black Monday for your student loan payment?
Do these sound like daily problems that are affecting your life?
Now, for a limited time you can say goodbye to all the problems of your life with the purchase of my book Everyone’s Advice Is Wrong. Not only will the book change your life forever but if you act today, you will receive 10% off of the MSRP.
That’s right, changing your life has never been this easy and, as of today, never so cheap!
But wait, that’s not all. Amazon Prime members get free next day shipping!
So in the words of Jay Z, “What the hell are you waiting for!”
I know if you buy my book (which is available here) you’ll come back to ThePointsOfLife for all your self-help needs.
