When I first started on Twitter, my background was a Dave Matthews Band wallpaper. It was fine for me then, but I felt like there was so much more to me then DMB.  So I designed a new background:

Since I made it in March of 2009, I’ve gotten at least one @ reply a day complimenting it.  Although many people use TweetDeck and don’t see your profile very often, there are many others that do.  Besides your picture and your bio, that’s the first thing they see.  Why not make it a little original?

BASIC BACKGROUND BLOWOUT!

Until 10/31, basic background designs for $25!

This really is an incredible value.  Other companies on the web are charging $23 just to put your picture into one of their stock designs. They don’t have too many options, which means a whole bunch of tweeps will have the EXACT same background as you.  Who wants to be like everyone else?

Business Owner? Basic design for $35!

You can see some samples of designs I’ve done here.  What is a basic design?  It includes up to 10 pictures, a logo (if you have one) and contact information (including links to other social media sites).  A basic design is for the left side of the page only. If you want a complete page design (like @infinite_quest‘s page), prices start at $75.

Hurry! Due to high demand, the price is increasing on November 1st:
Basic / Complete Personal page = $50 / $75
Basic / Complete Business page = $75 / $100

*All backgrounds are designed to fit on a screen with 1280 x 800 resolution. Price does not include stock photo fees (if any). These will be discussed before any photos are purchased for your background.   I require full payment via Paypal for basic backgrounds before I begin design work.  I can take a 50% deposit on complete designs to begin work.  Remainder of payment is due before I will release background design to you via e-mail.  Turnaround time is 3-5 days. You will be able to see drafts as I work on it right on Twitter.  Work will begin when I receive all pictures/info and payment via Paypal.

Since I am flat broke and have nowhere to go anyway, I thought I would share this with all of my readers who travel on a regular basis.  I have not traveled on an airplane since September of 2001. Seriously, 8 years ago.  I remember the exact month since it was 2 weeks after 9/11.  I flew on Southwest to Baltimore, MD and it was the scariest flight ever.  I was so paranoid of someone hijacking the plane.  Thank goodness the flight was only an hour.  Anyway, enough of my travelogue.

I recently came across this new deal from JetBlue:

Enjoy unlimited travel with our All-You-Can-Jet Pass! For just $599* you can take JetBlue anywhere you like, as often as you like, from September 8 to October 8, 2009. Use your All-You-Can-Jet Pass for business, for pleasure, to visit your favorite cities or to meet with a client. You might as well just do it all! With more than 50 cities to choose from, and for just $599, it’s a deal you can’t pass up.

If you read the fine print though, there are some things travelers should probably be aware of before signing up:

1. Domestic taxes and fees included, but if you want to travel internationally or Puerto Rico, taxes and fees are not included.
2. You may only book one flight per city per day; if JetBlue finds you have violated this policy, they will honor only the last booking made and cancel your other bookings from that city on that day.
3. If you don’t show up to a scheduled flight, your pass will be placed on hold, any reserved pass flights will be canceled, and no new flight segments wil be able to be booked until the you pay a $100 no-show penalty.

Hope this helps any frequent travelers.  I wish I had somewhere fun to travel to for a month.  Instead I will just blog about it.  If you go anywhere good, send me a postcard!

You know those DVD rental kiosks that you see in the supermarket? Well, I always walked by them and never paid attention while I went to Blockbuster. For a few years after I met Harry, I signed up for Blockbuster Online.  This worked out for us because with a $17.99 per month membership, you got 3 DVD’s a month and 2 free game rentals.  Then, Blockbuster decided to screw its members over upgrade their memberships and take away the free game rentals and replace them with “in-store exchanges”.  While this may have been an upgrade to some, we loved the game rentals.  You would think they would give you a choice.

Anyway, back to the kiosks. They are run by DVDXpress and those people are GENIUSES. They have brand new releases as well as the top releases from the past year.  The rentals are $1/day.  Yes, that’s right, brand new rentals for $1.  Blockbuster charges over $5 for 2 days, and I normally don’t even need it for 2 days.  Who rents a movie the day BEFORE they are going to watch it?  There is no membership to fill out, you just have to swipe your credit/debit card in case you decide to never return to the kiosk again.  They e-mail you a reciept when you rent it AND when you return it.  And the first rental is FREE.  That’s right, FREE.  There is a promo code right on the kiosk for first-time renters.  I strongly recommend trying out DVDXpress next time you go to rent a movie.  You can find the nearest kiosk on their website.