Archive for June, 2009

Reasons to Get Trip Travel Insurance

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Whenever I go on a trip abroad I make sure to get trip travel insurance.  You might think that nothing will happen to you on your trip, but as they say, plan for the worst and hope for the best.  Often these types of insurance coverage cover everything from your medical bills to getting something stolen during the trip.  You can ask my friend Scott about getting stuff stolen.  He’s had his expensive cameras stolen on his trip through eastern Europe, but luckily thanks to his travel insurance he was able to get the money back.

Insurance is piece of mind against anything bad from happening. I’ve often freaked out about having my laptop stolen or my passport. 

Where I Booked My Trip Travel Insurance
I used to use a service like Multi National Underwriters Insurance, with no problems, though maybe because I’ve actually never had to actually use it.  This time I booked using SquareMouth.com which compares insurance companies.  I ended up booking through Seven Corners which had the best rate for what I needed. 

I’ll be leaving this Sunday and coming back in the middle of August for a two month trip through Argentina and maybe Chile and Uraguay if I’m fortunate enough.

How To Get Passed Blocked Websites

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

For whatever reason your computer might be blocked from viewing certain websites. There are a number of easy ways to get passed any block whether you are at the office, blogging through the great firewall of China, or just on a library computer.

The easiest way to get passed any blocked websites is by simply accessing a proxy, or getting a vpn. Currently I use a VPN which allows me to tunnel my internet traffic through a different ip address (mine being located in Switzerland). Software like hidemynet.com or an internet website like http://hidemyass.com/ will actually help you bypass blocked websites.

These services are also great for hiding from your workplace what you are really doing on the internet. They won’t be able to see that you really spent half the day searching YouTube.

blocked website

The Most Expensive Billion Dollar House

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

If you ever wanted to show off, why not buy a billion dollar house that will most likely impress just about anyone.  Well someone did it and built the world’s most expensive house. Mukesh Ambani, the fifth richest man in the world, built his house in Mumbai. This host costed $2 billion, is 550 foot high, 400,000 square foot home in which five people live.

Yahoo Finance actually takes you inside the house with photos of this magestic palace. Link

Take the large ballroom with 80% of its ceiling covered in crystal chandeliers. Does anyone need a house like this? No. But if you have billions of dollars why not? He created jobs for the indian people by using indian labor, indian materials, and purchasing property right in the heart of Mumbai.

I’d rather use my 2 billion dollars to buy 10,000 $200,000 homes around the world, but that is just my opinion…

Is Blogging a Hobby or Full Time Career?

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

When I started out blogging it ended up as a hobby.  I didn’t have any major expectation for my blogs, just an outlet for creativity and a hobby I could do in my spare time.  However with any hobby, I make it my mission to improve at it.  For blogging this meant getting more traffic, increasing my seo strategies until my blogging was no longer a hobby but  rather a full time career.

Since then I’ve had to expand to other hobbies since Blogging isn’t as much of a hobby anymore.  Now I find myself Djing, traveling, and learning languages to help pass the time.

You realize that your hobby isn’t a hobby when you can’t treat it as just something fun you do in your spare time but rather something you use for survival and isn’t just fun and games anymore.