Even though the economy is bad, we still need a little vacation now and then. I’ve been doing some research into saving money while still having a nice trip. I’ve been checking out some of the online travel websites. It seems that they all find very similar travel deals when searching for plane fares and hotels.

I can recommend a good website that will lead you to good deals on hotel reservations. Basically you want to use a travel website that has a reputation for providing a trouble-free vacation. Then I was thinking about where to go where it’s easy to find good prices on air travel or where I can drive my car. One obvious choice is Southern California. There are several airports and lots of activities for all seasons of the year.

A lot of vacation ideas are provided at the SoCal Vacation Guru site. It focuses mainly on Orange County and Los Angeles County, but will eventually expand to provide more information on San Diego County and the Inland Empire desert and mountain areas as well. But there’s great information about Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood, the beaches, shopping, dining and other activities. There are discussions about saving money and how to arrange for the best trip if you only have a limited amount of time.

If you are a roller coaster fan, the SoCal Vacation Guru compares the major southern california theme parks on their thrill rides (Six Flags Magic Mountain and Knott’s Berry Farm win in that category). In fact there are few places in the country where you can visit a half-dozen theme parks within a couple of hours drive from each other.

The SoCal theme parks include Disneyland (with Disney’s California Adventure), Knott’s, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Universal Studios Hollywood, SeaWorld and Legoland. Of course visiting all of those would not be particularly cheap, but you could fit a lot of vacation fun into a short period of time, so you might save on airfare and hotel reservations.

Winter and Spring are probably good times to schedule a vacation, as the crowds are often lighter then at many Southern California vacation destinations. Compared to other parts of the US, the winter and spring weather in California is very reasonable.

Also, it looks like the economy has a lot of hotels really wanting our business. We might get better deals now if fewer people are taking rooms and buying tickets to theme parks. Anyway, just some things to consider as we live with the recession.

Everyone wants to save money while traveling, as well as save time. For most people, there has to be a trade-off of sorts, but now more than ever, you can find excellent savings on flights to chicago, Miami, New York, and more.

Ask Nicely

You would think the price of fuel going down would have a big impact on prices, but it is actually a decrease in the number of passengers offering travelers the best prices. Not only can you get great savings right now, you can also get bonus frequent flier miles and other amenities thrown in for no extra charge.

Now is the perfect time to ask for a break. Upgrade and switch those coach seats for business class, or check out non-stop chicago flights instead of the red-eye with that lengthy layover. Be polite, and your customer service rep may be able to work some real magic.

Go the Extra Mile

Big airports offer some of the best deals in the world, but do not be afraid to look at alternatives. You can save hundreds of dollars flying to Tampa instead of Miami, for instance, and renting a car for the drive down.

Don’t have time to rent a car? No problem. O’Hare may be the busiest airport around the globe, but you can still save money on Chicago flights Midway International. Smaller airports in big cities often cater to budget carriers, like AirTran or Sun.

Traveling cheap and traveling fast do not have to be mutually exclusive. You can have both if you hunt around, and there has never been a better time for airline deals than right now. For more on flight deals, check out costlessflights.com

FLAC is a Free Lossless Audio Codec that is pretty popular with music fans and especially self-described audiophiles. This includes both Windows and Linux users, and various software tools are available for dealing with FLAC files. However, for some strange reason, FLAC-support is next to none on the Mac. Which might be a problem if you want to listen to your high-quality audio files in iTunes. Also, some older hardware players don’t support FLAC at all.

So what can you do in this situation? Convert the .flac files to a format that is recognized by iTunes/whatever other application you’re using. In the case of iTunes, MP4 is probably the audio format you’re looking for. For older hardware players, you would typically need to convert the FLAC to MP3. However, in this post I’ll focus on the flac-to-mp4 example.

There are various applications out there that you could use. If you’re currently using Windows, I would suggest the dbPowerAmp converter. You can get it for free and it supports a whole lot of audio codecs, including MP4. You can see a short example of how to use dbPoweramp in this flac to mp3 converter article (the example doesn’t use MP4, but it does explain the interface and settings pretty well).

In case you’re using Mac OS X, dbPowerAmp will be out of question as it doesn’t have a Mac version. Instead, use the X Lossless Decoder. XLD is a fast converter that supports a number of lossless formats and has a nice GUI. It can convert between FLAC, MP4, M4A, Ogg, Wavpack and other formats.

Good luck and enjoy your brand-new MP4 music.

Few of us get the opportunity in our regular jobs to change who we are. You might take on a professional role, like doctor or teacher, but you’re still you. Unless you’re talented enough to work in theater, or perhaps work as a private detective, you probably don’t get many chances to play a role other than yourself.  Those who enjoy it have to actively seek out chances to do it.  What if you had the chance to do it in your job (and didn’t have to worry about being shot at, like James Bond)?

Well, there is a job you can do, and earn money while you play a part – in fact, a different part nearly each time you do it! The profession: mystery shopper! The name “mystery” might be misleading, as you’ll not be solving crimes, or anything like that.  Mystery shoppers buy goods and services and report back to their employing company on what they’ve observed and experienced, based on their anonymity. Role-playing is an important part of that anonymity, and there’s where the fun begins!

Lest you believe that it’s all fun and games (or Bond girls!), you need to know that working part- or full-time mystery shopper is serious business. It requires you to be self-motivated to get your work done and to know how to properly give written feedback to the companies who want information about their goods, services and employees.

You’ll be able to earn money while you ‘speak’ for fellow consumers – all while having some fun!

Confidentiality is paramount to the mystery shopper and the companies that employ them; therefore, the role playing is not like playing a part in a play. Any electronic equipment like cameras or recorders you might use are not to be used the way you might see on TV. Discretion, discretion.

To be a successful becoming a mystery shopper, you’ll need to follow closely the details presented to you in whatever assignments you accept. Of course, you’ll not be expected to play any role that’s outrageous (alien from another planet, etc.), but if you enjoy putting together details of another person’s life, you’ll love playing the shopper, diner, car buyer, etc. 

As a shopper jobs, you’ll be able to dine out, buy retail goods and services like salon visits, even shop for big-ticket items like cars and houses – as yourself, or in whatever role your employer needs you to play. If you are a flexible, creative person, with a  great imagination for role-playing and keen observational skills, mystery shopping is for you!

Most exhausted individuals don’t know that the greatest contributor to their lack of a good night’s rest could be the mattress they sleep on. There are a number of distinct compounds that form mattresses and particular sorts do better for some folks than they do for others. There is one common thought for sure, memory foam rises above the rest as a forerunner when it comes to mattress materials.

We love organic bed sheets. We can be sure they are free from any manmade pesticides. Consider organic bed sheets as your bedding. They cotton is grown organically. Some people even say they get a better sleep because of it. Compare the different prices on organic king sheets here.

Specially soft foam makes up memory foam mattresses and originally was used by NASA for people who needed protection on space journeys and who braved bumpy rides into the cosmos. Memory foam works by distributing body weight and offering some cushioning while still remaining firm. This provides a great deal of benefit especially for people who are having difficulty sleeping because of pain or because their current spring mattress is too hard and uncomfortable.

Most companies sell a popular memory foam called visco elastic memory foam primarily because it is cheap to make yet has very positive benefits to getting a good night’s sleep. There are several various styles of affordable memory foam to meet your sleep needs. Regardless of the type of foam you use the benefits are still outstanding.

The foam cushions the body which takes pressure off muscles and joints but it also prevents a number of problems with pressure points that come from awkward sleep positioning. Those sleepers who prefer to lay on their sides, shoulder and hip problems can develop so a standard spring mattress can create aggravated muscle tautness that keeps them from getting a full night’s rest. This is why foam is the sleep mattress of choice for many people.

No matter how you like to sleep foam mattresses will form to fit your body in the right spots further eradicating muscle discomfort. There are some people who may believe that a sleep mattress made out of memory foam is going to be too soft, but there are various types of foam with various concentrations.

There are also many configurations of layers of foam pads so by adjusting the densities of the layers the combinations are endless and you can create a sleep mattress tailored to your individual needs. You may be the type of person who prefers a thinner foam mattress but if you need something firmer consider a combination of light and heavy or just begin with the thickest ones first.

How much you weigh is a consideration when putting together a foam mattress so make sure that the foam you choose fits your body and weight type. Your proactive approach to choosing your foam mattress type will help you get the night’s sleep you need and a mattress that will provide you comfort for a lifetime. The great thing about memory foam is that it returns to its original shape during the day so you can easily keep your foam mattress maintained by rotating and flipping it so you can get the most out of your mattress without worrying about it becoming saggy in the middle like with spring mattresses.