General
Heard of Effexor?
Aug 14th
Recently I received a review offer for Effexor medicine/pills and I honestly didn’t know what to expect or what the medication was useful for. To be honest, generally when I feel a bit under the weather, I treat myself to a tylenol and that generally makes things a lot better.
Interestingly enough, this past week I wasn’t feeling too great and just a little R&R was able to help me feel just right. Now, onto Effexor. The reason I accepted the review was because I want to know what exactly the pill is used for. Modern medicine can cure a lot of things and if there is something out there, I am genuinely interested in learning some more about it. Essentially Effexor is used to treat depression or anxiety disorders – social anxiety, panic disorder, etc. These are referred to as “Venlafaxine” and are in a class of medications called selective serotonin and norepinephrine reputake inhibitors (SNRIs) – some long long words! These are just natural substances in the brain that help maintain the mental balance. Seems quite simple but I’m not sure if they work even though I read a bit about them and do know they work.
Seems like there are some warnings about such medications for those under 24 and obviously consulting with your doctor is necessary but I had to take on this review only to learn a bit more about something that I had apparently not heard about but something that is quite widely used.
Are you a big believer in medication or pills or are you like me where you figure a couple days of R&R will help you feel better?
Using Re-Manufactured Ink Cartridges?
Aug 14th
Recently I jumped into the big printer scene and purchased an HP Officejet 6500A. Its one of the larger printers that HP makes and its an all in one (as most printers are these days) – Fax, Copy, Print and Scan. Interestingly, for me at least, the printer comes with 4 separate cartridges – 1 for black and 3 color – cyan, magenta and yellow.
My old printer was also an HP and mostly the HP brand has been good to me and thats why I stick with them. The problem now becomes that I paid $200 for the printer and the set of ink costs $50 but then I started thinking about re-manufactured ink cartridges. I know that I had tried it once and it wasn’t so successful and the biggest reason for that is because I had to refill it myself. Painful and disappointing and I was half way covered in ink.
I know a lot of people purchase these re-manufactured toner cartridges and there are a few popular websites such as RetailBlue (an Australian website) and a few others and noticed that the difference is substantial – 40% less than the retail value of the cartridges. Theres really no hassle since you buy directly from them and they ship it to your door.
Further, I realized by reading on Retail Blue that these cartridges are better for the environment – it makes sense because many components of a cartridge can be used over and over again because they either have a long service life and some of them last forever and by just throwing them away, you could recycle them. Think about how much ink is used daily in your office and so forth and suddenly recycling the cartridges sounds like a better idea. The process itself to recycle the cartridge looks at the cartridge housing as well as the nozzle, the electronic circuits, the replace drum and is then filled with the exact ink or toner formulation. Essentially these cartridges exceed OEM standards so why not? Save yourself some money, save the environment and go green!
Now my question is, how many of you recycle your ink cartridges and if you do, do you purchase ink from a remanufactured ink and toner cartridges store? Whats your favorite store?
Home Improvement – DIY or YellowBook
Aug 13th
Any Home Depot or Lowe’s fans in the audience? I would like to say Im a big DIY fan and although fixing and building parts of a computer are more my thing, sometimes I want to try my hands at putting together things that may not be working as expected around the house – thats where I usually head out to the local DIY store.
Fortunately for our friends overseas, a store called Wickes is able to provide them with home improvement tools but whats interesting is that they actually design their own home improvement products which are designed to meet the requirements of DIYers, tradesmen and individuals involved in general repair and maintenance. The Wickes brand actually owns 200 stores, by comparison Home Depot has almost 2,250 stores in the US and Lowes has almost 1,750 stores. Not too shabby overall though. They opened their first store about 40 years ago and they have over 8,500 products.
The reason I’m talking about Wickes is because recently the idea of expanding the house came into my mind and that meant needing floor boards and wallboards/plasterboards (sheetrock) and when I did a search, I came up with Wickes. What really got me curious was the idea that DIY, specially in these economic times, has to be doing well and I believe that Home Depot did really well in terms of its overall Q2 profits and it seems like the trend will continue even if the economy does pick up.
My question then is this, when it comes to repairs or maintenance whether its to your home or your trusty computer, do you prefer the hands on approach (DIY) or hands off approach (let me call someone!) ?
Do You Buy Mobile Accessories?
Jul 1st
The other day I came across a pretty hot deal for my Motorola Xoom – a bluetooth mobile keyboard and a HD Speaker dock that generally retail together for about $200 + shipping were selling for about $55 with free shipping. A pretty tempting deal considering that each item was being sold on eBay individually for more than the $55 that I would be paying for it but then I started to think, what would I use them for?
When it comes to my cell phone accessories too, I’m not one who goes out and buys every single accessory and I think its better for me anyway because generally when I have in the past, I never end up using it but I know that lots of folks love their mobile accessories and thats why I decided to accept this review. MyTrendyPhone.com sells accessories for pretty much all mobile devices, whether its phones, iPods, cameras and video cameras for reasonable prices. They have a price guarantee and a satisfaction guarantee so if you find a lower price elsewhere, they’ll match it and if you’re just not happy with the product, they’ll gladly accept the return. Its one of those win-win situations for consumers like me, who really can’t make up their mind but generally if I have a product in my hand, I can make up my mind pretty quickly.
After searching their website for Xoom accessories, I realized that they not only sorted in the standard Motorola gear but they also pulled in other OEM replacements and other compatible products which was good and although I’m not in the UK, the pricing did seem fine to me from that point. Some of the adapters and such were only a few dollars which is a good price point. The question that I have for you is – what kind of accessories do you usually purchase with your mobile device – Whether its a cell phone, tablet, laptop, etc?
Sentsy Wickless Candles – Success Story
Jun 30th
The review that I have today is quite a neat one, its actually a success story about how two stay-at-home moms took their awesome idea mainsteam and ended up creating a very unique product. Scentsy are safe, wickless alternatives to regular scented candles and its one of the most successful direct selling companies. Basically these candles use the warmth of a light bulb to melt scented wax rather than the traditional wick and flame.
Scentsy Products are not only safe but they stem from a really creative concept of making candles safe. We hear so many stories about people leaving their candles burning in their home and it results in a tragedy and so something like this is not only a good product but its more of a safe alternative to the regular scented candles that you and I would use in our homes.
Scentsy generated more than $700 million in revenue in just 7 years and today it has almost 100,000 independent Scentsy consultants that share the exprience throughout the US, Puerto Rico, Guam and Canada. Its really interesting how the direct selling concept works because its more of a door to door type thing or where one Scentsy consultant puts together a small event for potential customers. Its a great idea, a great concept and a really great story considering that the company’s first home office was a 40-foot ocean shipping container on a small sheep farm. Things come a long way and this story shows exactly how dreams come true.
