Wine into liquor

This video shows how you can concentrate wine into harder alcohol by repeatedly freezing it and separating the water using a salad spinner.
Props to Whiskey Forge.

Coupon sharing

Here's a new coupon-code sharing site: Tjoos.com.

Low cost decorating tips

Here's how to make a disco ball by cutting up used CDs.

Shhh!

I accidentally discovered something. If you have a Netflix membership you can buy previously-watched movies for cheap. But that's not the secret.

The secret is that if those movies have scratches or are unplayable, Netflix will send you a new one without asking for the old one back. And then you can sell the unplayable one to a used movie store and pocket the cash.

Feedback

Thanks to Feedback Magazine for the interview with me in the new Summer 2007 Live Like a Rockstar issue. I tried to cram in as many tips as possible into it.

Fixing a Wet Phone

My friend told me she found a way to save a cell phone that's been dropped into water (usually the toilet).

Take it apart and put it in a food dehydrator on the lowest setting for a few hours, then reassemble it and charge it up without turning it on. Then turn it on after it's fully charged.

She said she'd done that for two phones and saved them both.

Organize your life and your budget

Have you noticed that people who are the worst with money often have the messiest apartments? One of my friends makes nearly five times what I do but is always broke. He doesn�t buy expensive stuff, but he just can't keep track of his money, and actually stopped even trying to balance his checkbook years ago. Not coincidentally, his apartment is a rat's nest of dirty laundry, unopened mail, and magazines. He's always paying late fees and buying things he already owns because he forgets he owns them.

Another friend of mine makes barely more than I do (and I'm the lowest-paid person I know), yet travels the world constantly, taking trips at least twice a month and touring countries I've never heard of. His apartment, while not perfectly clean, is incredibly well-organized.

Recently I bought a book on getting organized that has surprisingly helped me budget better and get more work done, because I've reduced the clutter in my apartment and the clutter in my head.

Read the rest of the article here.

Netflix adds free online movies

I don't know if this is brand new or I just noticed it, but Netflix now allows you to watch some movies online for free (as long as you have a paid membership). They allow you one hour of watch time for each dollar you pay per month. (So a $20 membership gets you 20 hours worth of additional movies each month.) So you can get more out of your membership on those days when you're waiting for new DVDs to come in the mail.

Deals Du Jour

DODTracker.com keeps track of multiple deal-of-the-day websites (such as Woot.com and AtomicShopping.com) grouped into various categories.

Free Days at the SF Academy of Sciences

San Francisco residents get free admission to the Academy of Sciences on certain weekends. The schedule is here:

http://www.calacademy.org/geninfo/newsroom/releases/2007/NFD2007.php#schedule

Party Crashing Tips

From Radar Magazine:

The Thin Red Line
Oscar invite get lost in the mail? Expert party crashers on how to slip past the ultimate velvet rope
By Shana Ting Lipton

In 1974, 33-year-old sex shop proprietor Robert Opal made history. After counterfeiting a press pass and deftly navigating security, this industry outsider and total nobody gained backstage access to the most exclusive event in Hollywood, the Academy Awards. Not content to just soak up the star-studded atmosphere, when the debonair David Niven came on to introduce Elizabeth Taylor at the live taping, the mustachioed intruder ran across the stage naked, flashing a peace sign. After being apprehended by security, Opal was ushered backstage to meet the press corps, resulting in a brief brush with fame when he subsequently hit the talk show circuit. The nude gate-crasher's renown ultimately earned him a paid gig as a professional streaker at one of dancer Rudolf Nureyev's parties, but to a handful of hardcore, veteran party crashers, the incident has earned him something more; it's earned him the status of legend.

Opal's experience is a dream scenario for many top-tier party crashers—yes, there are tiers—who've turned this social sport into something of an art form. And though getting into the ceremony itself is something of a Mission: Impossible in a post-9/11 world, sneaking into exclusive Oscar after-parties can prove just as challenging. Would-be interlopers wear costumes, bring props, fabricate scenarios, hide behind overweight people or clusters of celebrities, and make scenes, all in the name of hobnobbing with the A-List—or rather, for the thrill of outsmarting some of the most well-regarded bouncers in the business. Shunned by the ice queen at the clipboard and relegated to bottom-feeder status in the social hierarchy, gate-crashers may be publicly mocked as party pariahs, but on another level they may well be the everyman heroes of the Bling Epoque.

SUPER STREAK Opal at the Oscars

According to Rex Reginald, the self-styled "King of the Party Crashers"—who claims that his story outline and party-crashing handbook were co-opted by New Line Cinema when they made the film Wedding Crashers—gate-crashers in Los Angeles make up an exclusive society that boasts perhaps 50 "really elite" members. "It's almost like the mafia," he says. "You have to be brought in and become a 'made' crasher."

Read the rest of the story here.

Back to School

Back to School…Again

The Fringe Benefits of Community College Classes

By Camper English

Usually people sign up for community-college classes to enrich their lives: to learn a new language, get better job skills, or study a subject that they care about. But there are several ways these classes can also enrich your wallet—and by a lot more than you think.

Read the article here.

Now that's cheap!

Yesterday in the laundromatt a guy was typing away at his laptop and I noticed he never checked to see if his washer was done. Later I realized that he wasn't doing his laundry at all, but there stealing the wireless connection from the cafe next door because he was too cheap to buy a coffee.

More Thrifting Tips

Going Thrifting

Mastering the Art of Thrift-Store Shopping

By Camper English

Thrift stores are more than places to pick up other starving artists. Thrifting is an activity that costs very little money, and spending all day shopping won’t break the bank as much at Harry’s Junk & Junk as it will at Hermès. And luckily, those stores are rarely next to each other at the mall, so you’re not as tempted to cross-shop from one to the other.

In most cases, the thrift clothes are cheaper than new ones, but not always. You’ll pay more for an ironic “Hammer Time!” T-shirt now than you would have in the ’80s. These days the thrift industry runs pretty efficiently, with some people making a living (or at least good pocket change) buying items from low-end thrift stores and reselling them to high-end ones. So the trendy thrift stores in the trendy parts of town end up with only the most expensive clothes, and it can feel like the lower-end stores have already been picked over so much that they have nothing but junk.

But the advantages of thrifting are many. You can find crazy clothes at the Salvation Army and Out of the Closet you won’t get anywhere else, like an acid-washed denim jacket that says “Bad Boys Club” in neon on the back. (I actually own one of these thanks to thrifting. I’m just waiting for acid-wash to come back into style…)

read the rest of the story here.

How not to rob a liquor store

How not to rob a liquor store

Sell It

Hawking Your Wares

Pointers for Selling Stuff In the Online Marketplace

By Camper English

As selling items online gets easier, it’s actually harder to sell anything. You go on eBay now and find used items, new items, services, things stolen out of celebrities’ trash, and intangible goods like teenagers’ virginity. It’s gotten so that it is harder to sell a used jacket online than it is a jelly bean shaped like Jesus.

In a previous column, I wrote about selling used books, CDs, DVDs, and clothing to physical stores. I think that’s the way to go when you’re trying to unload regular items you can still buy on the market, and turning a big profit is less of a motive than clearing out closet space and getting a few bucks as a reward.

Say you’re just doing a spring cleaning or preparing to move. You’ve got a whole bunch of disparate, not-terribly-expensive items that you want to get rid of in a relatively short amount of time. Do you really want to spend hours and hours at the post office mailing individual items all over the country?

If you live somewhere you can hold a sidewalk sale or garage sale, it’s probably easiest to unload stuff that way. But if not, consider putting your items for sale on Craigslist (or another local Web site, if there is such a thing where you live). There is no need to make a separate post for each item, which is another time-saver over eBay. Just list all the items and their prices, and include photos of everything. If you have a ton of stuff, consider uploading all the pictures to Flickr or another photo-sharing Web site and pointing people to that site. (On your Flickr photos, add the prices in the comment section so people don’t have to look back and forth between sites.)

Read the rest of the article here.

Not a bad idea...

PRODUCTION RIDER
FOR KATE KERSHNER'S
HOLIDAY VISIT HOME
TOUR.

BY KATE KERSHNER

- - - -

Please note the following points that shall be adhered to on Kate Kershner's Holiday Visit Home Tour. It is in the best interest of the VENUE (i.e.: JIM and CAROL KERSHNER'S rancher on 34th St. and the inhabitants therein) that these demands be strictly followed, if the VENUE ever wishes to see the TALENT (i.e.: KATE KERSHNER) come back after the 2006 Tour. This written agreement must be agreed upon and given no amendment unless specifically addressed with the TALENT.

Please also note that this rider would be unnecessary were it not for the now-canceled OPENING ACT (i.e.: Mike Kershner, brother and ultimate betrayer of TALENT), who got a little too popular (i.e.: a little too married) to come on Tour this year. TALENT, who no longer trusts anyone after OPENING ACT left for his own fancy TOUR and new VENUE, feels it best to have everything on paper. Although this document is not legally binding, it does work in accordance with the strict legality of the OFFICIAL CONTRACT (i.e.: Kate Kershner's birth certificate, verifying JIM and CAROL KERSHNER as Parents, and thus responsible for all future happiness).

LOAD IN:

TALENT arrives alone. Upon arrival, do not ask where CREW is. Do not get clever by saying boyfriend/your friend/special friend instead of CREW. Consider VENUE forewarned that when TALENT feels VENUE can act appropriately around CREW, TALENT will bring CREW. So TALENT will be arriving alone.

Read the rest of the McSweeney's story here.

I thought the two thousand I paid was a lot

Tax scofflaw's $200 million has buoyed state's cash flow

By AARON C. DAVIS, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, December 28, 2006

(12-28) 17:54 PST SACRAMENTO, (AP) --

We may never know if Taxpayer X is a Silicon Valley billionaire, Hollywood celebrity, or some other fabulously rich Californian.

But what's clear is that Taxpayer X did what few can fathom: settle up with the state this year for a whopping $200 million or so in unpaid taxes, almost single-handedly keeping the state's cash flow on track.

State officials can be penalized with jail time in California for disclosing taxpayer records. So the state has declined to share any details about whether one of its wealthiest residents was a scofflaw illegally sheltering money, or an heir paying up on an old family fortune.

Yet state officials also haven't been able to entirely keep Taxpayer X's existence a secret.

"This was a personal income tax matter, so this is an individual," said Patrick Hill, spokesman for the state's Franchise Tax Board, when asked to explain a spike in state personal income tax revenue of about $200 million last August. "We have taxpayer confidentiality ... I'm just forbidden from disclosing or characterizing this."

There are, however, clues about Taxpayer X.

State financial reports released this fall show budget officials expected an influx of $200 million in audit revenue last year after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered individual taxpayers amnesty to get right with the taxman.

Leading tax preparers in the state who helped clients navigate the clemency offer said they had heard about a "monster" deal with an unnamed taxpayer.

"It happened the very first month of the amnesty," said Claudia Hill, owner of a highly respected Silicon Valley tax firm, Tax Mam, Inc., and editor in chief of the Journal of Tax Practices and Procedures. "We were all laughing when the state came out so quickly and called (the amnesty) a success because the scuttlebutt was that it was all from one person."

Without more details about Taxpayer X, Hill and others said it would be impossible to gauge how much income he or she may have been hiding from the state, but the settlement could be a record in the state for an individual, several tax experts said.

Based on the state's top tax bracket, simple math says Taxpayer X paid on income in the neighborhood of $2 billion.

But was Taxpayer X a scofflaw?

"You can read between the lines," Hill said, elaborating broadly about the state's tax audit and amnesty programs, "These are the big nets for the big fish, and so I think it would be accurate to say these are high earners who are settling up with the state."

Exactly how much Taxpayer X paid California is unclear. In a recent report, the state's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office listed $200 million in revenue this year from "an audit payment that had been expected in 2005-06." Other state reports have been more vague, saying audit receipts were far above forecast the month the payment came in.

Taxpayer X's payment alone could cover the cost of several state programs this year. For example, it's at least three times the state's annual budget for the California National Guard.

As sales tax receipts and other state income has fallen in recent months with a slowdown in California's construction and real estate sectors, Taxpayer X's payment has gone a long way toward maintaining the state's cash flow. For the fiscal year that began in July, the state is $47 million below revenue projections. Without the tax payment, the revenue gap would be five times as large.

"The name would be fascinating," said Assembly Budget Chair John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, when told about the case.

Identifying Taxpayer X wouldn't be easy. Forbes magazine lists more than 300 billionaires in the United States, scores of whom keep homes in California. Laird said lawmakers were not privy to details of the settlement.

Hill said there's certainly much more the public will never know.

"To me, this case says there was someone out there feeling incredibly guilty about something. Or someone who inherited an incredible estate and was being incredibly cautious."

Following through with your New Year's budget resolution

Let me guess: One of your New Year’s resolutions is to either get out of debt, start a savings account, or save up for something big like a vacation, a house, a new car, or an overpriced piece of mid-century modern furniture. You’re not alone. Promising to be better with money is one of the most popular resolutions people make, along with resolving to lose weight.

I make those same resolutions every year also. I do so-so on them, but that’s probably better than most people who don’t do a damn thing. I make do with a small income, but have almost no debt. The weight—well, let’s leave that for a fitness columnist. Here are some starter tips on paying down debt and increasing savings.

Read the rest of the story here.

How stoned did he have to be to make the call?

Man Calls 911 to Report Stolen Drugs

A Wichita man called 911 to report he was the victim of an armed robbery. The theft? A pound of marijuana worth about $1,100 that he had been trying to sell at his home.

The victim told police Thursday that a buyer had pulled out a sawed-off shotgun and stole the drugs.

Police brought in a drug-sniffing dog to the house and located more marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

The victim was booked into Sedgwick County jail on several charges, including possession with the intent to sell drug.

The thief has not been found.