i got worms.

I finally got my worm/compost bin set up on my poorman’s patio.  Here is a before and after picture.  Once I have some more time, I will go in depth into how I got my bin up and running.  Until then, enjoy these.

I know, scrumdiliocious right?

hundreds out. dollars in.

I’ve been mad at myself lately because of my lack of posts and photos. And it’s partly from now having a camera with me all the time. I’m not one to always carry around my DSLR, as it can be a burden, especially when riding around. There has been so many moments lately where I all I needed was a point and shoot. And my old Canon just wasn’t cutting it anymore.

So I went out and picked myself up a new piece.  But here’s a picture of the old first.

I wanted something that could compliment my SLR, something that was light and ultra-compact with decent photo clarity; or simply put, a solid camera. Enter the Panasonic FX37, a small viewfinderless camera with a Leica lens. It lacks a lot of manual controls, but what it lacks in options it makes up for in wide-angleness. The lens is a super wide 25mm, which is a lot wider than the Canon ELPH’s 33mm. When we’re talking about wide angle shots at that level, every mm counts. The FX37 also boasts a maximum aperture of  2.8, while the TZ5’s maximum is 3.3.

Since this camera features a wide angle lens, I returned my Tokina lens..for now. At three times the price of the FX37, I can save some money now and splurge on a new lens and maybe even camera body later on.

I will definitely be bringing this camera along with me everywhere, especially when I can’t lug around an SLR. Hopefully I can update this blog now with more pictures.

So what am I going to do with my old camera you ask?   Why, send it over to Gazelle of course.  I’m sure someone can put my old camera to good use.  You may remember that sometime ago I sent in my mp3 player for some cash.   Since my camera is just sitting there, I might as well get a few bucks for it, I mean all I have to do is pack it up and drop it off at UPS.  Since my last transaction went without a hiccup, this time should be no different, and I should have $15 in my Paypal account in a few weeks.  Drinks on me!

Conan is green. Radiohead is green. Are you?

Gazelle: a 15 sec review.

I wrote a post a couple weeks back about Gazelle.com, which is a site that buys back your used electronic items.  Earlier this week I received payment from them.

If I were to give them a letter grade from my experience, I would give them an A-.

Here’s the breakdown:

Ease of use:  If you know how to get on the internets, you should be able to navigate through the site.  A

Shipping:  They provide the postage, invoice, and label.  All you have to do is package it nicely and drop it off at UPS.  A

Turnaround time:  Approximately 2 to 3 weeks, from the time you drop it off at UPS.  A

Customer Support:  They have an online chat system, where you can chat with a rep.  A little slow, but it works.  B

Money:  I opted to get my money through Paypal, which went smoothly. A

Trade In-Value POLICY:  I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by how much they offered me for my old MP3 player.  They gave me a quote of $48.

However I kept checking over the next couple of weeks and the price kept going up!!!  Good right!?!  The quote for my exact same MP3 player kept going up, from $48 to eventually $59, where its at right now.

The problem was that they won’t match the latest quote, they go with the quote that you print out and ship with your item.  So I essentially lost $11 for sending it in early.  And I know that I included the cables for the second one, but I ended up finding the cables and sent them in with the package. B-

I would still highly recommend  Gazelle.com.  All you have to do is print and ship, and within 3 weeks you can get a nice little cash treat for crap lying around your house.

Useless electronics.

Sorry about the lack of posts this past week.  I hope everybody had a good Easter.

I’ve stumbled across some goodies recently that I plan on sharing with you guys later this week.

On to today’s post though.  I had this old MP3 player that was just lying around collecting dust.

I didn’t want to bother selling it on my own, since it would probably cause way too much hassle.  Then I found out about Second Rotation.

Second Rotation allows you to send in your old electronics for cash money.  You simply check the value of your item on their website Secondrotation.com.

After they give you a quote, you print out an invoice and pack your item up.  They provide free shipping!

I packaged my piece of quite nice, and dropped it off at my local UPS store.  Although I have heard some bad things about this place (i.e. sending the items back to you w/o proper packaging)I decided to give it a go.

That beats throwing away my mp3 player, and it’s also like getting a bonus for recycling.

Hopefully I will report back to you with the $48 in my Paypal account.