I’m sure you’ve heard how a lot of Hollywood stars appear in commercials or ads overseas because of the enormous payouts they get. Tommy Lee Jones is just one example of someone who does this (though there are many more, including big names like Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Kiefer Sutherland, etc.). Jones has been a spokesperson for BOSS coffee for as long as I can remember — definitely more than five years.

Anyway, here’s a picture my husband took of one of Jones’ ads on a vending machine near our Japan condo. Just thought you guys would like to see it!

As my husband can certainly attest, I misplace my keys at least twice a week. Usually this happens inside the house, which makes it a relatively easy matter to find them again. But I’ve also been known to leave my keys in restaurants, dressing rooms, and supermarket carts, which leads to a whole other set of problems as I’m sure you can imagine. That’s why I’m very interested in getting a fingerprint lock like the ones featured at BrickHouseSecurity.com.

These fingerprint locks use a biometric reader to scan the homeowner’s fingerprints and then grant entry. That means I would be able to get into my house without having to keep track of a key and without having to remember a PIN. Not only is that convenient (and just the thing an absent-minded person like myself needs) but it’s also very cool. None of my friends has this kind of lock, and I know they would totally be blown away if they saw one of these devices on my door!

The best part about the fingerprint locks at BrickHouseSecurity.com is the low price. I thought these products would be well out of my price range, but that’s not the case at all. Right now I can get one for less than $200, which is an excellent deal. I’d rather spend that kind of money on a fingerprint lock than on repeated calls to the locksmith.

A fingerprint lock for my home would solve half of my lost key problems. Now if they’d only develop something like this for my car, I’d be all set!!!

I’ve blogged before about how my husband and I really want to move out of the Chicagoland area to a place that has nicer weather. Of course, that’s not the only criterion we have in mind. Our destination also has to have good school systems, a low crime rate, and a booming economy. My brother made an offhand suggestion about Orlando, and that got me thinking.

Well, why not Orlando? We go there often enough for our family vacations. Why not live there? It’s a nice community with plenty of things to do on the weekends. The tourism industry pretty much ensures that we would always be able to find some kind of fun and interesting job, plus we’d get that beautiful weather we want so much!

Just out of curiosity, I ran some Internet searches about housing in that city. It turns out that the Orlando luxury real estate market is really thriving these days. I found some luxury condos that would be perfect for our small family — and they were actually well within our price range. Maybe we should work an appointment at the Buyers Broker of Florida offices into our next vacation to see what kind of properties they can show us.

I bought a PSP for myself earlier this month plus a couple of games, including Hot Shots Golf. Man, I can’t get myself to stop playing this thing! Hot Shots is a very fun game with cool graphics, non-annoying background music, and challenging (but not impossible) gameplay. I play at least four or five full rounds per day as I try to win as many accessories for my characters as I can. I love the fact that I can changed up their outfits and all that. It’d those little things that make video games more fun for me.

What’s really weird is that I don’t even like golf in real life! I haven’t played since high school and I barely ever watch it on TV anymore. But when it comes to video games, golf is one of my favorite types. Go figure! It’s probably because this kind of game is more relaxing than, say, a racing game or a shooting game.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a fun game for your PSP, I recommend Hot Shots Golf!

If you do a lot of online shopping, then you probably already know about Overstock.com as a store where you can get tremendous discounts on authentic brand-name products. But don’t forget that just by spending a few extra minutes searching for relevant coupon codes, you can save even more money on every order you place.

For example, I checked out CouponChief a couple minutes ago and saw that they have nine (count ‘em: nine) different Overstock.com coupons that can immediately be used for additional savings.

I wouldn’t dream of shopping online without browsing through CouponChief first!

My husband and I have been thinking of ways to invest our money so that it has a chance to grow into a nice nest egg for our retirement years. Right now, whatever extra money we have just sits in a savings account earining a very low interest rate that won’t add up to much 30 years from now. We’ve been tossing around a few ideas and one investment vehicle we’re both intrigued by is silver.

Precious metals are usually a pretty safe investment from what I understand. Since we simply don’t have the funds to buy platinum or gold, we figured silver would be the next best thing. It’s possible to buy silver bullion in the form of coins or ingots (bars) through intermediaries like the Monex Deposit Company. Then you can either take physical delivery of the silver or have it stored in a bank or depository for you.

Silver prices are pretty low right now, so this seems like an excellent time to buy. We’re really going to have to give this some serious thought!

I’ve become a fan of the TV show Justice, which airs on FOX. It stars Victor Garber, Kerr Smith, and two other regulars (whose names escape me right now) as a team of defense attorneys who take on high-profile cases. Although it’s certainly not the best show I’ve ever seen, it’s definitely fun and I usually end up enjoying the entire hour.

But I’ve been hearing rumors since October that the ratings aren’t where FOX execs expected them to be and that the show is in danger of getting canceled. Now, I periodically hear conflicting reports from different sources. Some people say that yes, Justice is definitely gone. Others say that FOX is going to try putting it in different time slots to see if that helps matters.

I hate not knowing whether I should bother to keep watching the show or not! If you know what’s going on with Justice, drop me a line. My email addy is in the sidebar to the right.

(Photo from Yahoo TV)

I recently completed my Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and have been looking through the classifieds to see what kinds of jobs are available for people with my qualifications. Unfortunately, it seems that more and more employers are requiring graduate degrees from their applicants.

Because of this, I’ve been thinking about starting an online MBA program. One school that really caught my eye was Capella University. Capella is a fully accredited online university that serves more than 16,000 students worldwide. Their MBA program is respected by industry leaders and is an affordable, convenient alternative to attending classes on campus.

I’m going to enjoy a couple months off here and then I’m going to give Cappela University’s online MBA program another look. Getting a Master’s from Capella would definitely help jump-start my career!

As if the cost of buying a new home weren’t enough, don’t forget that you also have to pay a commission to that helps you close the deal on your new place. That’s why when you come across an offer like this one, you should jump on it.

Right now, if you work with a Raleigh real estate agent from ListWise, you’ll get a rebate for 50% of the commission paid to them at closing! It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this can add up to significant savings, so browse through the ListWise website to see how they can help you get settled in North Carolina.

I know that Sudoku has been wildly popular for a long time now, but I just started playing a few days ago. I was turned off by the fact that the whole thing deals with numbers — I thought it was math-related or something! But that’s not the case at all. Sudoku is based on logic/reasoning and is every bit as addictive as people say it is.

There’s one website in particular that I’ve been playing on. It’s called WebSudoku and it claims to have “billions” of free puzzles. I don’t know if that’s the case or not, but seriously, I wouldn’t be able to tell if I got the same puzzle twice anyway.

I like WebSudoku because there’s no signup involved at all. You just pop onto the page and play as many puzzles as you like. The best part of this site is that there’s a button that allows you to check your progress. That way you can instantly see if you’ve made a mistake and can correct it before the puzzle becomes unmanageable.

If you haven’t tried Sudoku yet, I recommend giving it a shot. It is actually quite fun!

A couple months ago, I said I was giving up on Desperate Housewives, and I did manage to stay away during all this time. But my friends who watch the show have been telling me that the quality of this season has been very good compared to last year. So I gave in and started catching up on DH via TiVo.

I have to say that I am quite impressed with what I’ve seen! I like that every character has a decent storyline going on right now and how interesting those storylines actually are. As of today, I’m all caught up (I just finished watching 3×10 last night), and I can’t wait to see what happens next! Of course the show is going on hiatus until January, so I’ll have to wait a good, long time. Hopefully, it’ll be worth it.

My son is turning four soon and I want to redecorate his room as part of his birthday surprise. Right now, he still has a lot of baby-related motifs on the walls, which don’t really hold his interest anymore. I didn’t know where to start, but as I was surfing the ‘net tonight, I came across a unique product called Wallhogs.

What are Wallhogs? They’re huge (up to seven feet tall) custom-made graphics printed on semi-adhesive vinyl that go right on your wall to give any room in your home or office a one-of-a-kind look and feel. Wallhogs can be made out of your favorite photos, which means you can order nearly any kind of image you want. The final product is extremely durable and feels like paint after it’s applied to the wall.

I have a bunch of very good high-resolution motocross pictures that I snapped with my Nikon D70 camera, and I think those would look fantastic as Wallhogs. My son is totally into MX right now, so I know he would go crazy over something like this! I can’t wait to order one!!!

So have you seen this AP article that lists the 100 best television catchphrases as compiled by the TV Land cable network? There are definitely some great lines on there, but I don’t agree with all the quotes. First of all, I didn’t think there was a reason to combine television quotes with political ones. How could you ever compare, for example, “Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis” with “Ask not what your country can do for you…?” It’s kind of ridiculous to have those two quotes on the same list, in my opinion.

Second, I thought the list should have been limited to phrases that were used over and over. After all, doesn’t the very term “catchphrase” imply that the phrase gets repeated? Because of that, I’d eliminate “Oh, my nose!” Marcia Brady quote and the “Welcome to the O.C., bitch” line. Those were only said on the shows once, weren’t they.

Questionable omissions:

How they could list “No soup for you!” and “Yada, yada, yada” from Seinfeld but not put in “Master of your domain” is beyond me.

How about “Kiss my grits!” from that old sitcom Alice? Hey, if they can quote something from What’s Happening!!, they can fit in Alice.

No nod to daytime soaps at all? Not even “Like sands through the hourglass, these are the Days of Our Lives?” I never watched that show, but I still know that phrase.

They’ve got several SNL references on there, but not “More cowbell.” That was a hilarious skit that took on a life of its own. Come on!

“I pity the fool” from Mr. T on The A-Team.

Since they included commercials, why not “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up?” Those were unintenionally hilarious!!!

Ah, well. It’s all in fun, I guess.

I’ve been playing fantasty football for a few years now, but have only participated in free leagues with nothing more on the line than bragging rights among my friends. That’s about to change, since I just learned about the American Fantasy Football League, or AFFL.

The AFFL is a high-stakes fantasy football league with unbelievable payouts scheduled for the winners. I mean, we’re talking about a $200,000 grand prize for the winner of the Platinum League! That’s simply amazing. Even the lower level leagues have tremendous payouts. For example, in the Bronze League (entry fee $100), the overall winner receives a cool $25,000. In the free league (Copper League), the winner takes home a 40″ Sony flat panel LCD TV. Plus, payouts go to 12 different finishers in each league, so even if I don’t win the overall, I’d still have a shot of getting a prize.

This definitely sounds like a fantasy football league worth participating in. Check out AFFL.com for all the details!

I read the novel Atonement by Ian McEwan about a year ago as part of my quest to read the “100 Greatest Novels of All Time.” I read an electronic copy, so didn’t really notice that the book was published so recently (2001). That kind of makes me wonder if it deserves a place on the “all time” list, but I guess that’s material for a different post.

Anyway, according to this Reuters article, fellow author Lucilla Andrews claimed that McEwan plagiarized her work. Of course McEwan denies the claim, and now Andrews has died at age 86, so I doubt that much will come out of this. I’ve never read any of Andrews’ work and am therefore unable to judge for myself.

McEwan does acknowledge that he was “inspired” by Andrews’ novels and pointed that fact out many times, including in the Author’s Note section of Atonement.

As for the novel itself, I thought it was mostly boring. The end provided a jolting twist, but it took me forever to get into it.

Oh, and I’m also happy to see that my favorite actress, Keira Knightley, will be starring in the screen version due out in ‘07!