There are two major changes. The first one is a new logo, which was designed by Eat Breath Sleep Graphic Design. I worked with the designer for about a month in April to complete the product, which I think presents the name of this blog very well. The theme was from PremiumThemes. Though it isn’t custom-made, I am pretty happy with the layout and colors. After making some minor modifications myself over the Memorial Day weekend (since I am not really good at CSS and PHP, even the minor changes took me quite some time), the new design went live this Monday, so it has been there for several days already.

Come over and take a look at the new The Sun’s Financial Diary.  Let me know what and where can be improved. You know your comments/suggestions are always appreciated

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A New Look

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The Federal Reserve announced today that it starts to ship the redesigned, colorful 5 dollar bill to banks on March 13. The new money will enter into circulation and soon reach the hands of consumers. The new $5 note uses improved security features that have been used in the $50, $20, and $10 notes when the current round of redesign began (check out all the security features of the new Lincoln here).

I ran to my bank during the lunch break today, hoping to get my hands on the new bill, and was told they don’t have it yet But I did pick up 20 sparkling James Monroe presidential dollar coins, the first released in 2008

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Hello, Lincoln!

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Starting today, March 1, 2008, New Jersey’s new cell phone law becomes effective. The law makes talking or texting with a hand-held phone while driving a primary offense, which means cops can pull over the drive simply because he/she is using a hand-held phone, whether there’s any other violation involved or not. Before, it’s only a secondary offense. With the new law, violators are subject to a fine up to $250, making NJ the most expensive state for talking one cell phone when sitting behind the wheel (FoxBusiness). The new law also makes New Jersey one of five states (other four are California, Connecticut, New York, and Washington) and D.C. that prohibits using hand-held devices while driving.

But will a hand-free phone, either a Bluetooth equipped phone or a phone with an earpiece, make talking when behind the wheel safer? The answer is not necessarily. My local news station WCBS 880 quoted an IIHS official when reporting the new NJ law as saying

The conversation itself is the distraction.

And there’s no difference whether you are using a hand-free phone or a hand-held one. Accident happens when the driver is distracted.

Well, since now the matter is getting serious, it’s time to dig out my Jabra Bluetooth Headset that I bought a couple of years ago, but never used before because I don’t have a lot of calls, especially when I am driving

*Photo from Cellphonesafty.org

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NJ Drivers, Time to Put down Your Cell Phone While Driving

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I don’t consider myself a player, but I do buy a few tickets when the jackpot reaches $100M. Sometimes 2. Sometimes 3. The most was 5. Since I almost have never won any prize in lotteries, sweepstakes, contest, or drawings at parties, I know my odds of hitting anything big is pretty much close zero. However, the jackpot was too big to pass up, even though the money spent on tickets were like being flushed down the toilet.

This time around, I started to buy two tickets since last Saturday when The Mega Millions jackpot $120 million and bought two again today for next Tuesday’s drawing of $220 million. Like the NY Mega Millions commercial says:

You don’t have the dream if you don’t play the game.

Well, $2 is the price I am willing to pay to just “have the dream” And if you don’t see me post anything next Wednesday, it could be a sign

Do you play lottery?

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Do You Play Lottery?

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Wish You a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous 2008!

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Happy New Year!

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Happy Holidays!

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Then some delicate Chinese dishes for your viewing pleasure

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

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The following is a screenshot of the post I captured two days ago. It was almost entirely copied from my post and the image in the post was a hot link to my picture, yet there was no mention of the original post at all.

I have no problem for others using my material, texts or images, as long as a link to the original post is provided. In fact, I myself use published contents once in a while quite often when the topics really interest me (for example, those under Article category), but I always link to the original article and quote the part I use. The above post, however, doesn’t look right to me because one can’t simply copy and past other’s work and claim it’s his own. So I left a comment asking to link to my post otherwise remove the post. No response after two days.

Since I don’t like the author just use my image without even mentioning the source, I renamed the picture in my post yesterday morning, but not for long, the Credit Card Blog renewed the link in his post as well and pointed to the new image. So the author was aware of my complain, but refused to acknowledge it and make the change! That I don’t understand why. What does he get to lose?

Actually, the URL of the website looks familiar so I searched my email folder and found a message from the same author a couple of months ago asking for link exchange. Is it possible that since I didn’t reply the email (and didn’t agree for the link exchange of course) the author was mad about me so he decided to ignore my request this time ?

Hi,
My name is Adam xxxxxxxx and I am the webmaster for www.0-apr-creditcards.com/blog. Which is called Credit Card Blog and I was reading over some of your posts and really enjoyed what I read. I was wondering if you would like to add me to your blogroll and I will do the same back to you. I feel like our readers could benefit from each others posts. Please let me know what you think.

Have a Good Day
Adam

Well, Adam, if that’s the way you enjoyed my posts, you can stop it now!

BTW, when I went to Credit Card Blog again last night to see if the post was removed, I found it was still there yet with a new image! Since the picture was quite disturbing, I don’t want to show it here, but I did take another screenshot of the post (the picture is still there, so no link to my screenshot now).

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What to Do with Plagiarism?

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1. Plannin’ on some kissin’? 5 Foods to Keep Your Breath Fresh! by Ross — I have been wasting my money on mint
2. Top Five Super-Fun Ways To Stay Super-Fun Fit! (Betcha didn’t think of these.) by Julie Alexander — Too bad I can’t do them while I am writing this post.
3. Joy’s Top 5 THAI FOOD Cooking Recipes from Thailand! (^v^) by Joy Buasi — I LOVE Thai food.
4. Top 5 Mother’s Day Gifts for a Homeschooling Mom by Summer M — I can use some tips.
5. 5 Beauty Products Which Can Save Your Life by Andrea — Including soap made out of bamboo?
6. The Top Five Reasons NOT to Read This Blog by Kathy — I am guilty of spending too much time on blogging.
   
7. 5 ways to get your kids to talk about school by Mike — One day I will have to use them.
8. The Power of the Future: Top 5 inventions of Nikola Tesla by Danica Radovanovic — It’s always good to know how we get here today.
9. Self Improvement Strategy: Top 5 Reasons to put a STOP to Top 5 Lists! by Aaron Potts — “Enough is Enough!”

Finally, a little bit about China (sort of)

China’s Top 5 Most Beautiful Girls by fiLi

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Today’s 10 Top 5’s

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1. Top Five to Do While You Live by Mark — And it includes “Go Nowhere, Do Nothing?”
2. Top 5 Reasons Personal Finance Blogs Are Better Than The Media by Canadian Dream — I wonder.
3. Top 5 Cutest Gadgets Ever by Cutie — Gee, they ARE cute.
4. Top 5 Physical Therapist Recommended Body Hacks by Eric Robertson — Could be very helpful.
5. Do You Know These 5 Easy Ways of Making Online Friends? by kayliz — Only if that’s what you want.
6. Top 5 Hottest Blogger Fantasies by Sharon Sarmiento — I don’t know how much my blog worth. Or do I really care?
7. Top 5 most entertaining foreign films of the last decade by Jithin Jerald — Have you seen any?
8. Five Keys to Developing the Heart of a Champion by Ian McKenzie — The 5C approach.
9. Top 5 Reasons to NOT Get Married by Kerri Aldrich — Somebody must have top 5 reasons to get married :))

And finally

Top 5 videos to take the edge off of a long day by pearl — At least it worked for me.

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Today’s 10 Top 5’s

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1. Top 5 Healthy Relaxation Techniques by Jacob — Now I don’t have to go to the gym.
2. Top 5 Steps to Securing your Data by Geoff — Make sure your data is safe and secure. I like the “Encrypt sensitive data” tip.
3. Top Five Ways To Creatively Acheive Your Goal by Lexi Sundell — To acheive your goal, you have to “Take action on your best ideas.”
4. How To Figure Out What To Read Next–Top Five Resources by Superfast Reader — I found Amazon.com recommendations are quite valuable as well, not just for books.
5. Top 5 freeware PC utilities by Gili — I have been using Adobe all the time and just found Foxit Reader is an alternative.
6. Top 5 WordPress Plugins That Help Increase Comments by JohnTP — I will have to use them myself.
7. Five Super-Duper Easy Ways to “Green” Your Life by lornadoone — Reduce, reuse indeed.
8. Make Your Children Healthier by Feeding Them More Sugar by Allen Holman — What? But don’t let the title fool you!
9. The Top 5 Time Savers in My Kitchen by Maricar — And I have a thermal cooker.
10. 5 Gifts for Mom That Won’t Ever Go Out of Fashion by ispf — Now I know what I should do, :))

And here’s my submission: Top 5 Reasons I Started and Continue A Personal Finance Blog

Enjoy!

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Today’s 10 Top 5’s

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In order to prevent user confusion, we do not permit Google ads or search boxes to be published on websites that also contain other ads or services formatted to use the same layout and colors as the Google ads or search boxes on that site. Although you may sell ads directly on your site, it is your responsibility to ensure these ads cannot be confused with Google ads.

The good news is that the ad link appears in the post and a preview window will appear if you also have Amazon.com Product Preview enabled. So the ad will show up in a different format from Google AdSense ads. With this program, it is convenient to bloggers who want to promote Amazon.com products because now you don’t have to build individual link for each product.

The following are some description about the program from the email I received from Amazon.com and don’t forget to check out their FAQ page for more details about this program:

Who Should Use Context Links?

Context Links are for people looking for an easy way to generate money from the content they write. Bloggers, review sites, and people that have archived pages that are currently not monetized are excellent candidates for Context Link.

Why Should I Use Context Links?

Earn Additional Referral Fees - By identifying and linking relevant phrases in your content, Context Links will unlock new advertising inventory, thereby providing the opportunity to earn incremental referral fees.

Convenience – Embed a piece of code on your page one time and automatically monetize both current and future content. This saves you the time from having to manually create Text Links.

Delight Your Site Visitors – Context Links provide your site visitors links to relevant products on Amazon.com, and the interactive preview functionality allows them to view these products in the context of your website without having to leave it.
Why Launch With a Beta?

We want your feedback. We have just completed a closed Beta, and we are proud of the results. An open Beta will allow us to gather more feedback that will be instrumental as we continue to improve Context Links.

How Do Context Links Work?

After you embed one simple piece of code on your pages, Context Links will identify and link contextually relevant phrases within your content to Amazon.com products. If you enable the preview functionality your site visitors will see a preview of an Amazon.com product relevant to the phrase we selected. Clicking on the link will send your site visitors to the product detail page on Amazon.com, and you will earn referral fees just as you would with any link you hand-picked.

Setting up Context Links for your website is quick and easy. Simply:

1. Visit Associates Central->Build Links->Context Links
2. Specify the maximum number of links you’d like on each page
3. Optionally customize the display of the links with a couple clicks
4. Copy/paste the generated code into your pages

Can I Customize the Links?

Yes, we have provided numerous customization options for Context Links allowing you to control:

• the number of links on each page
• which portion of the page will be linked
• which Amazon product categories are linked
• the matching of exact product names only
• if preview windows will appear when your site visitors hover over the links, and the style of those windows
• the options of single underline, dashed underline, and double underline link formats to indicate to your site visitors that they are Context Links

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Amazon.com Introduces Context Link Program

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No Network at Home

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Well, if you are eager to get all these information, but don’t know where to go, DataUniverse is the place you should check out. DataUniverse is an online database provided by Asbury Park Press. With DataUniverse, NJ residents can find an array of public information, including:

• Salary information of about 275,000 NJ public employees
• 187 NJ fire districts taxes
• Death record from 1962 to 2006
• NJ school report cards from 2003 to 2006
• County, district, school SAT results from 2003 to 2006
• NJ crime records from 1996 to 2005
• Property sales records from 1996 to 2006
• Over 3 million property owners and assessments
• Information of NJ state employees
• NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission records political contributions
• Records of all NJ certificated public school teachers
• NJ DoC state inmates information
• NJ sex offender internet registry
• Sources of medical information
• NJ consumer affairs

And, here’s the search result of Jon Corzine, the governor of NJ, who doesn’t collect the $185,000 annual governor’s salary.

Considering the depth of his pocket, it shouldn’t surprise anybody.

*Photo from PCUSA.org

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NJ Residents: Check Public Information Online at DataUniverse

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SEO for Firefox is tool that will let you check your Google PageRank as well as links with search engines such as Yahoo, MSN. It also shows Alexa traffic ranking and del.icio.us and Technorati links. It's a very convenient tool for bloggers who want to get some statistics about their blogs. However, the developer of this extension suggests that 

If you are casually surfing please turn this extension off. Only turn it on if you are actively researching a market.

So if you want to use it, only use it when it's necessary. This extension can be turned on and off and configured to display only the data that you are interested in. Of course, Google Toolbar for Firefox can also display the PageRank information. 

If you installed AdSense and to check how you are doing today, AdSense Notifier can simplify your task. It's a tool that displays page impressions, clicks, and earnings of the day for both ads and search. The extension automatically refreshes very 15 minutes (the minimum interval) and by a simple click, you can log in you AdSense account. 

 These extensions may not enhance your blog, but they are very convenient.

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A Couple of Firefox Extensions for Blogging

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Well, it's long over due, but we finally got our first snow of this winter! I hate to drive in the snow, but I like the change of each season and mother nature should give us what we should get in each season. 

It's winter, so LET IT SNOW!

*Photo from CalgarySnowMobileClub.

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Let It Snow, Let It Snow

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There are several lifetimes' worth of promising literary leads here — 544 books in all. An 85-page appendix providing enlightened summaries of all the works mentioned is worth the price of admission all on its own. But to get you started, here, in all its glory, is the all-time, ultimate Top Top 10 list, derived from the top 10 lists of 125 of the world's most celebrated writers combined. Read it and — well, just read it.

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
7. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
9. The Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
10. Middlemarch by George Eliot

*Photo from Wikipedia showing the cover of the classic UK Penguin edition of Anna Karenina.

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The 10 Greatest Books of All Time: Have You Read Them?

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Wish Everybody

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PayPerPost gains a number of powerful blogger support tools including Performancing Metrics, the leading, free blog analytics service, and Performancing Exchange, an online "classifieds" for bloggers.

However, PayPerPost doesn't "acquire the Performancing for Firefox blog editor technology and the Performancing Partners ad technology." Therefore, I think the Performancing Partners ad on your blog (if you have one) will not be affected by this deal, at least for now.

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PayPerPost Buys Parts of Performancing.com

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Now I am done for today.

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Now I’m Done

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Best Wishes to You and Your Family This Holiday Season! 

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Merry Christmas!

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A couple of days ago, another piece of deal news surfaced and this time it was at Toys R Us. Again when I got the news, all were gone. Though my daughter didn't make any request for Christmas (she's less than two), I felt pretty bad as I wasn't able to get what I thought a funny toy for her.

Then today, without expecting anything when we walked into a Kmart store to buy Christmas tree, we found several boxes of Elmo TMX on a table near the counter! A real surprise.

My daughter didn't get to play it just yet and don't know if she will like it or not. If she doesn't, it still a fun toy even for adults.

*Photo from Toys R Us.

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Finally, I Bought a Elmo TMX for My Daughter

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• Bought another Piece of Gold from Bullion Direct
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The tool is free, but only up to 10 stocks can be displayed, one with chart and the other nine quotes only (as you can see on the right sidebar). For the purpose of displaying stock prices, the tool does the job though the quotes are delayed (of course) as those free quotes you can get from any where (got to pay for real time). It's not an essential tool for blogging, but I think it's convenient and fits quite well in the general contents of a PF blog.

Though I didn't pay a penny for the tool, it isn't really free as Yahoo displays its stuff (quote search, web search, and ads obviously) on the bedge. That's free advertisement for Yahoo! 

Anyway, if you want to try it, click here.  

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Add Stock Quotes to Your Site for Free

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The United States is honoring our Nation’s Presidents by issuing $1 circulating coins featuring their images in the order that they served, beginning with Presidents Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison in 2007. The United States Mint will mint and issue four Presidential $1 coins per year, and each will have a reverse design featuring a striking rendition of the Statue of Liberty. These coins will have several features that are unique to United States circulating coinage.

I love the state quarters and have collected all those have been issued (not just state quarters, but all kinds of coins from different countries I can get). Since people don't use the dollar coin a lot, I guess it will be a little harder to get one as changes. But I can always change some the bank.

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Coin Collectors: Here’s Your George Washington Presidential Dollar

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Finally, happy blogging, reading, and participating!

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Thanks, Flexo

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