Mishmash Musings

If you’re one of those people who can’t seem to get enough of Paris Hilton, you might want to cancel your subscription to US Weekly. I just read an article revealing that US has decided to stop covering the hotel heiress for the foreseeable future.

A spokesperson for the magazine said they believe most people are just sick of Hilton and they won’t include her in any issues unless she does something substantial, like have a baby or something. US Weekly doesn’t believe this move will be detrimental to sales, but won’t go so far as to say it will have the opposite effect (i.e. improving sales).

Personally, I think US Weekly is doing a good thing by taking a stand on Paris Hilton. She doesn’t do anything! She’s just famous for being famous, and frankly, the whole thing has been played out for a long time now. Plus, all other media outlets cover Paris, so this is a good way for US weekly to separate themselves.

US is one of my favorite mags, and I’ll continue to buy it no matter what!

I just read about a cool new summer photo contest sponsored by WeNeedaVacation.com. In case you’re not familiar with the site, WeNeedaVacation.com matches up vacationers with homeowners who want to rent out their property. So for example, if you were interested a Martha’s Vineyard vacation rental for your next getaway, you’d check out WeNeedaVacation.com to see all the properties available for rent in that locale.

Anyway, back to the contest: WeNeedaVacation.com has put out a call for photos that truly capture the “spirit of vacation.” That line is open to your own interpretation, so you can submit any kind of photo that you think best fits the description. It could be a picture of your kids building a sandcastle on the beach, a group of your friends enjoying a day on the links, or you and your significant other sipping tropical drinks in front of the perfect sunset.

Once you decide on a photo, go ahead and submit it to WeNeedaVacation.com. If your photo gets accepted into the contest, they will donate $5 to the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. Then, the WeNeedaVacation.com staff will choose 10 or more finalists, and voting for the grand prize will be opened up to vacationers, homeowners, and website visitors.

At the end of it all, a lucky winner will walk away with a $1,000 credit towards their next WeNeedaVacation.com rental! Important restrictions do apply, so please visit the site to read the complete contest rules in detail.

Good luck to all entrants, and I can’t wait to see who wins this one!

I usually hate housework and put it off as long as possible. There are a couple of things that I have to do on a daily basis, like vacuuming (my dog sheds like crazy, so this is a must) and the dishes, but I tend to let everything else slide.

Well, for the past couple of weeks, I have been totally staying on top of the housework and doing all chores almost every single day! We’re talking toilets, floors, tub… I’m cleaning everything two, three, four times per week!

I think I’m doing this because my writing gigs have slowed for the summer and I haven’t had to go into my office job very much this month, so I’ve got a lot of extra time on my hands. I can’t just sit around on my butt all day long, so I’m channeling my energy into cleaning.

Whatever the reason, I have to say that I love the results! It’s so much easier to maintain a clean house by doing a little bit every day than to let things pile up and tackle huge projects once in a while.

I hope I can stick to this routine!!

When I worked in the corporate world, it was part of my job to attend various trade shows in order to keep up with the latest trends in the automotive industry. I didn’t have to sit at a booth or anything like that; instead, I got to walk around the convention center and take a look at everyone else’s booths.

Although walking around all day like that got to be pretty tedious, there were some perks involved. For instance, I was entitled to free meals and got to stay at nice hotels. In addition, I always received tons of imprinted promotional products from the booths I stopped by, so I could count on leaving with armfuls of cool, useful items like hats, calendars, pens, cups, t-shirts, keychains, lanyards, tote bags, umbrellas, and just about anything else you could think of.

And these aren’t cheapo products either. I think they must have come from a site like Gimmees.com or something because they really were top-quality items, and Gimmees.com has a reputation for delivering only the best. I have actually checked out the Gimmees.com site myself on a couple of occasions, and was impressed by both the sheer number of promotional products available for custom imprinting, and by the low minimums and great prices.

In fact, I’ve got a couple of different ventures that I want to promote this year, and I think I’ll be using Gimmees.com when the time comes!

Well, Paris Hilton was released from jail a little after midnight last night, bringing an end to her 23-day stint behind bars. As you might expect, there was a huge crowd of reporters gathered outside to witness the release and take pictures of the “event.”

But if you’re hoping this will be the last of the Paris Hilton saga, you’re extremely deluded. Paris reportedly has an interview scheduled with Larry King for Wednesday, June 24 at 9pm EDT. God only knows what she’ll have to say during that show. I’m almost tempted to tune in just to see if her claims about her ditzy blond image being all an “act” are true.

Almost.

Photo from Reuters.

I have several friends who work in various positions in the health care industry, and one thing they seem to have in common is that they love shopping around for fun scrubs that really reflect their personality. If you’ve ever been to a hospital or clinic, then I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. Not everyone wears those plain, solid scrubs. Instead, many doctors and nurses prefer scrubs with different prints, such as balloons, animals, flowers, cartoon characters, and more because they find that these patterns help put patients at ease and make them feel more comfortable in what can otherwise be a pretty scary setting. That makes sense, doesn’t it?

Anyway, I was wondering where my friends buy these cool medical uniforms from. There’s a uniform supply store at the mall near my house, but they only have plain stuff, so I know my friends don’t shop there. I’d be willing to bet that they buy their scrubs online from a discount website like UniformCountry.com. In addition to discount scrubs, that site features lab coats, nurses uniforms, and accessories from top manufacturers such as Barco, Cherokee, White Swan, and LA Rose — all at very competitive prices.

If you’re a health care professional, I’m sure you’ll find the UniformCountry.com site to be very useful, so go check it out right now!

I was playing around on YouTube over the weekend when I came across a link to a cool site called SideReel.com. This site has links to a bunch of TV shows that you can view online without downloading anything. I’m not too sure about the legality of the whole thing since these are current works that are almost certainly subject to copyright, but I don’t know. Maybe they have a special licensing deal or something. If not, I’m sure the suits will be by to shut them down soon enough!

Since I mostly work from home, I rarely take an entire day off and just relax. I always feel that I should be writing, networking, or doing something else that will help me make money instead of just sitting around.

Well today I wasn’t feeling up to doing much of anything, so I decided to give myself the day off without feeling guilty about it. All I did was go shopping, watch TV, and indulge in some of my favorite junk food. Plus, Jerry took our son out for most of the day, so I was able to watch my shows in peace and quiet. It was awesome! I cranked out two episodes of The O.C., two episodes of Cagney and Lacey, and three episodes of House. I told you it was a lot!!

Anyway, it’ll be back to the grind tomorrow. I already have three writing assignments queued up, so I can’t afford to spend another day like this one!