You Can Make Money Online Without Blogs

If you are an old reader in Googlelady you already read my previous article about Make Money Online with Bidz. I explained how I make money with Bidz or any jewelry store but I focussed on Bidz because its a Jewelry auction and you can get the best deals there check bidz reviews for a better understanding.

Anyways, I would like to update this and show you that you really can make money with this method and the best thing that is totally legal. On October 28, 2007. I created the article and let you know about a new way to make money online, not just with blogs or as many other bloggers talk about. In that time, the Gold exchange rate was $600 per oz, after 4 months the gold exchange rate is 974.70USD/oz, in 4 months it increased by $374 per oz. That means if you followed my gold exchange method and bought your gold in that time let’s say you have 100 oz of gold in your hand, now is time to sell it.

100 oz you bought it 4 months ago at: $60,000 (and that depends on the quality of each oz)
Now you can sell 100 oz of gold at: $97,470

Total Profit: $37,470
that is more than 50% of profits in 4 months.

In my case I have almost 300 oz of gold in my hand and I bought it in that time for $600 per oz. That means 300 x 600 oz = $180,000, and just 2 days ago I sold my gold with the current gold exchange rate that is approx: 974.70USD/oz. That means 300 x $974.50/oz = $292,650. Profits = $112,650.

With this post I would like to show people that also try to find other ways to make money online. Is not only affiliate marketing or making money with blogs. There are also many other ways that you can make some extra bucks doing nothing. In this case investing, I have been investing in many other things like Gold & Forex (in a company and is pretty good).

Make Really Easy Affiliate Income - No List Required

I’ve read suggestions from many Internet marketers that the best way to make money as someone selling their own products or as an affiliate is through a mailing list. That said, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make any money without a list. It just means you have to take a different approach.

The benefit of having a list is that you have the opportunity to build a relationship with a subscriber and perhaps even an existing customer. By opting into your list, they’re literally giving you permission to send them emails and who is to say those emails can’t sometimes ask for money in exchange for goods and services?

The process is simple, you send subscribers interesting and useful newsletters to read and occasionally recommend a product you think the reader will find beneficial. Rather than report your email as spam, your reader might just snatch your affiliate link right out of your hand and run towards the checkout with their credit card in their hand.

Make no mistake, an established mailing list can prove to be a very valuable resource. They aren’t bottomless wells of gold, though. They need nurturing and they can take time to build. Send too few emails and they might forget who you are. Send too many and you’ll just drive them away. That all seems like hard work. Maybe even the kind of work that holds no interest for you. After all, not everyone wants to build a relationship with their prospects through direct email.

Fortunately, there are other ways of making lots of money as an affiliate; ways that don’t have to involve mailing lists.

Some people say that the period around Christmas tends to be slow for sales. Christmas a slow period for sales? The same time of year when the stores are packed with crazy shoppers hunting for the perfect gifts? People aren’t just crafting gifts from junk they find in their garages, they’re spending money!

Personally, over the past 2-weeks or so I’ve made over $600 in affiliate commissions alone and no lists of any kind were involved.

“How?” You might be wondering.

The exact methods I use don’t really matter. Most will be using methods you’re already familiar with or can read about on numerous websites and ebooks. The biggest influencing factor I’ve found to affect my affiliate income is the audience I target with my promotional efforts. Rather than trying to convert people into buyers, I like to target buyers who have already made that decision to purchase and are on the way to complete the transaction.

Think about that for a second. Instead of trying to make a buyer out of someone who may or may not want the product you’re promoting, why not find the people who are already wanting to buy the product you’re promoting and then help bring the product closer to them?

Here’s a digram showing you the concept of how to position yourself for really easy affiliate income,

It’s that simple.

There’s no need to build massive lists and try to convince them to spend money. If you’re better with search engines than you are with lists then this is a great way to make money. Your target audience have already got their minds set to shopping mode. All you need to do is guide them through your affiliate link on their way to make their purchase.

If you’re still wondering how to do this, let me give you just one example of how to position yourself in between the buyer and the product.

A lot of people who are on the cusp of buying a product will use the a search engine to carry out research and often they’ll just search for the product name. This is just one opportunity for you to position yourself in front of the buyer, by presenting something in those search results that will attract their attention. It could be a review of the product or it could be some information revealing a problem with the product, but then offering a solution to that problem.

Just use your creativity, put yourself in the shoes of the buyer and ask yourself what you’d be looking for. Then promote your information so that it gets in front of the buyer using SEO, Pay Per Click, article marketing, etc. and that’s all there is to it.

Useful Tools

There are numerous tools that can help you as an affiliate and here is a shameless plug for one that’s helped me a lot; it’s my very own Affiliate Link Tracker; an affiliate link cloaker and tracker all-in-one that I developed after trying and deleting others on the market.

As well as the easy link management element, the tracking features are just as important in helping to improve promotional efforts and reducing costs on dead-end channels.

Some merchants provide more statistics than others. It’s important that you have some mechanism of tracking not only so you can determine which of your promotional campaigns are attracting clicks, but also to ensure the data provided by merchants is accurate. Without any form of measurement of your own, you’re left to rely on what they report and they may not necessarily always get it right.

Affiliate Link Tracker makes it easy for you to stay in control.

Maintaining an Article Directory Isn’t Easy

Not so long ago, article directory scripts were sprouting up all over the Internet marketing scene along with promises of AdSense riches using nothing but other people’s content. Adopters had seen the success of the likes of EzineArticles, ArticleCity and GoArticles to name just a few and now was their chance to sit back for an easy ride on semi-autopilot.

What these adopters didn’t realise was that maintaining the type of article directory that authors and publishers would visit again and again took hard work.

First there was the set-up. Unless the directory was customised, it would look and function just like any of the hundreds of other directory based upon the same script.

Then there were the bugs. The people who had sold them their article directory systems were marketers and not programmers who appreciated the importance of concepts such as testing and maintenance. Their primary concern was to get their scripts developed as cheap as possible and ready to market as soon as possible. The signs were that the pent-up demand was about to be met by a wave of similar scripts so time was of the essence. Thorough testing would have only slowed things down and the rush was about to begin.

Of course, this eventually led to the inevitable; exploits. Like dominoes, the directories succumbed to the will of the web hosts who pulled down directory after directory as they were being compromised through the same weaknesses. Instead of distributing syndicated content they were sending out masses of spam and consuming large amounts of server resources in a runaway fashion. The fact that so many directories hadn’t been customised and so could be searched for by the default text made it almost too easy for the crackers.

Those who were determined enough to get their systems fixed or to seek out better supported systems were then faced with another hurdle; the articles! With so many people wanting to syndicate their content, owners of directories with even a whisker of PageRank would quickly become swamped with an endless number of submissions.

At first, the novelty of reviewing articles was enough to keep them going. Once this had worn off, the process of reviewing would become a chore that would ultimately culminate in a number of choices:

1. Open the flood gates and accept articles without a thorough review.
2. Abandon the directory for something less time consuming.
3. Stick with it. Perhaps even hire some people to carry out the review process.

It’s my opinion that most people who rushed into the directory business settled for the first two options. Those were the easiest choices, but also the ones that would sound the death knell for the directory. Publishers weren’t interested in empty directories or those filled with articles spun so many times over that they read like they were composed by soul-less machines. And genuine authors didn’t want to submit content to sites which wouldn’t result in their work being read and so all that was left was the automated, spun content submissions.

So, if you ever feel like complaining about article directories having quality requirements that are draconian, remember that maintaining an article directory isn’t easy and that maintaining a directory where people will keep coming back is even harder.

If the review processes are keeping your articles out then perhaps they’re doing their job as they were meant to!

Jason Calacanis Did it Again

I was browsing into my favorite blogs and many of them mentioned Jason Calacanis about his session on Affiliate summit. Let’s get back in December, 2006 when he did something similar. Jason calacanis mentioned on his session that "SEO is bullshit, if you generate a web page with good content Google will rank the page properly" . Then after this many sites, news, bloggers started to mention him and believe me he got thousands of links.

Now In 2008, he attacked affiliate marketers saying the following quoutes: (Taken from Zac Johnson)

"Affiliate marketing is bullshit. Thank you."

"Anyone here from PayPerPost? You need to kill yourself. I'm kidding. Well, I wouldn't mind it if you did."

Also Jason attacked Zac Johnson and Shoemoney, saying the following (Taken from Super Affiliate Mindset ):

• 1. That it was pathetic holding up 6 figure checks, which was peanuts where he came from (Silicon Valley). He then suggested that people in Silicon Valley work 6-7 hrs a day/5 days a week-making 100X more money-while affiliates work 14 hrs a day/ 7 days a week are fighting for table scraps.
• 2. Secondly, he claimed that showing the 6 figure checks was an attempt "exploit poor people," because these checks encourage desperate poor people to click on the make money online ads ( that are on same blogs where the checks are posted). These desperate poor people would presumably click on the make money online ads and get swindled out of what little money they had.

and something interesting is that in 2006, shoemoney mentioned Jason:

While I was at Pubcon I heard a rumor that Jason Calacanis had resigned. Then at one of the parties I talked to a person from AOL and she said that after all the scandals (digg, Adsense (overall Google relationship)) he caused in the last year they had to let him go. Of course its going to come out as a "resignation"…. lalala whatever. I gotta say I always liked him and I wish him the best. I am sure he will be successful at whatever he does. He is a real bulldog.

Here is an interesting comment about Jason:

LOL here we go again. I wonder if this was all planned by Jason. He saw what publicity Ted got and figured it would be some great link bait.

Yeah, you say something like that at an SEO conference and you're bound to get a lot of attention and links. On the other hand if he had said SEO is good, no one would have noticed.

Yes and the same apply attacking Affiliate Marketing and some of the big boys on this industry, he is using the same “marketing strategy”. I think Mr Calacanis read the article from Shoemoney about "top 10 reasons you should like negative press" and really applied it. Thanks to Zac he added a big list of blog and news coverage about this topic.

By the way, I will congratulate Zac because I am sure that he will get tons of traffic because of this.

Affiliate tip: If you can relate some affiliate programs (or you can promote your blog) with Jason Calacanis start your PPC campaigns with his name & last name! you will get a lot of traffic for few cents! (right now the news are hot and I am sure that many people that don’t know Jason calacanis will search about him).

Affiliate Marketing Works: My First $1000.00 Day On Azoogle

As I mentioned on this article: Strategies to Learn Affiliate Marketing for Free I will be posting some testimonials of affiliate marketers making good money from it. My first post of this kind had found it on Digital Point Forum in this thread. aj22 is the one who claim to make that amount of money. Hope this kind of post can inspire you:

3 years, 275 failed campaigns, dozens of landing pages, thousands of man hours of research and PPC tweaking…. but I finally hit my first $1,000 day in affiliate marketing. I solely use Azoogle and Adwords for now, but have experimented with other advertising platforms and networks and will be rolling those out shortly.

(more…)

Dell Latitude D600 touchpad dreadfully slow

The title says it all. I'm really digging Etch, but the default install left the touchpad dragging ass. It takes 4 to 5 swipes to get the cursor across the screen.

Please enlighten me.

EDIT: Requesting to be moved to the proper forum. DUH ME!

Re: I've just re-loaded VMWare Fusion and license does not work..............

you can try below stepsUninstall VMware Fusion and install the fusion VMware Fusion 1.1.1(72241) again.
1) To uninstall following are the steps
a) Quit VMware Fusion
b) Uninstall VMware Fusion (Hard Disk/Library/Application Support/Vmware Fusion/Uninstall Vmware Fusion)
c) Delete the following folder: Hard Disk/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion
d) Delete the following file: Hard Disk/Library/Receipts/VMware Fusion.pkg
e) Delete following file: Home Folder/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusion.plist
f) Delete the following folder: Home folder/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion

2) Install VMware Fusion (double-click VMware-Fusion-1.1.1-72241.dmg and then double-click "Install VMware Fusion")
3) Enter the serial number you got with VMware Fusion 1.0(51348)
4) Please be sure to install the latest version of VMware Tools in your Virtual Machines
after installing Vmware Fusion 1.1.1 (72241)

Note that above mentioned steps are to uninstall and reinstall the fusion application. By doing this there wont be any changes in the Virtual Machine (Guest OS, Application installed and Data saved).

Back in the Big Smoke - Bangkok, Thailand

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Bangkok, Thailand

Spent all day on a bus to Vientiane, then dashed over the border to thailand at the last minute, with some company, thankfully. i met a canadian fellow on the jumbo into vientiane proper who was in a hurry to get to bangkok too, don't think i would have risked the trip that late on my own, didn't fancy sleeping at the border. we really did cross in the nick of time, on one of the last shuttle buses. the change in country was instantly obvious, even in the dark of night. the shuttle bus was strangely decorated with red, heart shaped seats, and an almost mirror like surface around the rest of the bus, it was a bit kinky/disco and so not laotian. We again were lucky enough to make it on to the last night bus to Bangkok. hardly a relaxing experience we were right near the bus driver and his thai/country music blaring all night long. it was all worth it. made it into bangkok in the early hours of the morning, was able to check into the hotel and have a sleep before nik arrived. over the next few days we took in khao san road and a few of the more famous sites. we couldn't get into the palace, as we discovered the country was still in a state of mourning for the kings sister who's recently passed away, and she was apparently lying in state there. the reclining buddha was amazing, as were the surrounding grounds and chedis and temples etc. on our way back up to see the standing 50m buddha we met someone who layed the groundwork to get us caught in another scam. it was a tuk tuk scam that they claimed was a government initiative to improve tourism (duh, how did i fall for this crap). it was an exceptionally cheap tour around some of the city sights but the catch was we had to go to certain places "to have a look" at their products. presumably the idea was we'd buy something and the driver would get a commision. at the second place we were taken to i walked in and out while nik waited in the tuk tuk. well, i managed to piss the driver off so much that he left us at the next temple without even taking payment. i knew as soon as i'd walked out of the shop (it was a travel agents) that he was pissed, but he wasn't saying anything. when we'd already left he told us off, and we said we'd go back and do as he'd asked, that is go in and "talk" for 5 minutes. he wouldn't take us back but he took us to another travel agents to do the same thing, we assumed this'd accomplish the same thing as we hadn't quite figured out the scam. but no. he was still pissed off, and he copped a ticket from the police as he was driving us around too, so it really wasn't his day. we got some back though. in the second travel agents we sat down to gather some information about potential destinations over the next few days, and the travel agent was an absolute galah. we were of course asking about the cheapest options. she tried to sell us a train ticket, sleeper, air-con, but it was way too much money, so we asked about 2nd class sleeper, and she got angry and said "well if you wanted cheap than why not go by bus!?". we said we'd like to if it's cheaper, so she went through the process of telling us about the bus, then when we asked the price it was more expensive than the train! we asked her what that was all about and that's when she tried it on. "are you 100% australian?" what... "are you sure you're 100% australian? because i know australians and they are all very friendly, open people, they are all willing to talk and be honest but every time i say some thing to you you shut me down. you are very rude for australians." i stood up and walked out. nik, of all people, was apologising to her for not buying a ticket with her. i still don't understand what she was trying to accomplish... we left for krabi the following morning, on a bus ticket that was a quarter of the price she was showing us.

Dennis Quaid Insists Medical Mistakes Are More Common Than People Think

Dennis Quaid and his wife Kimberly are set to scare TV viewers on Sunday night with terrifying statistics about America's medical mistakes. In a taped "60 Minutes" news special, the couple has spoken out about their twin babies' November health battle when they were accidentally given an overdose of blood-thinning drug Heparin by staff at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Read more!

Celebrity Birthdays, March 14

Happy Birthday to "Billy Elliot" star Jamie Bell (1986), Hanson keyboardist Taylor Hanson (1983), "American Pie" actor Chris Klein (1979), TV actress Catherine Dent (1965), "Weekly Top-40" deejay Rick Dees (1950), comedian Billy Crystal (1947), movie director Wolfgang Petersen (1941), prolific screen legend Michael Caine (1933), music producer Quincy Jones (1933), and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein (1879; d. 1955).

Read more!

Re: increase disk space in vmware

Yes you can but you need tools to do so. I used Norton Ghost 8.

There are other tools, basically Disk Clone Tools just like you would have used to clone physical machines.

You add a new VMDK disk larger in size. Then clone the smaller one over. Then delete the smaller disk after testing that the clone work.

MS may require you to reactivate you windoze after finding itself in a new HDD.

To really do clone without installing Norton Ghost 8 into xp, I made a bootable ISO image via the Windows 98's emergency boot disk images and then had the Norton Ghost inside the ISO file. I would boot on that ISO image as a virtual CD to do clonings. They are swift and faster in virtual PCs than actual PC.

If you want to save your troubles, you can use another method:

Don't clone. Just add a new larger VMDK disk, get it mounted at a mount point, e.g. Documents and Settings or where else that you have most growing data. And move your data inside that new disk. XP can accept mounted volumes, which could be physically a new HDD or just a new VMDK disk.

To really do so, the procedure is to add a new VMDK virutual disk, have it formated via Computer Management of XP. Then1st have it mounted to a temp folder and then move your bulky data inside. After moving (empty that data folder clean into the new virtual disk, including hidden folders and files) shift the mount point over to that now emptied folder.

You will then find that your XP OS still booting from the old VMDK disk, and your new spacious HDD will take your new data from now on. That should entirely avoid a clone and avoid MS to trouble you to re-activate your petty MS license.

Inflatable Sports - Guangzhou, China

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Guangzhou, China

Inflatable Sports
Foosball nut? Do you spend hours in your basement or garage perfecting your spins and blocks with your stationary defenders and wingmen? Can you beat your friends with one hand tied behind your back? Maybe you need a challenge? Next time you are having a party with your closest foosball-loving friends, consider a human foosball arena.

Human foosball arenas provide a new challenge to soccer and foosball fans. Inflatable human foosball arenas are a new team game based on the rules of soccer and foosball combined. With ten players in a 30'W x 8'H x 55'L life-size arena, human foosball can provide your party with hours of entertainment. Two teams of five players are harnessed at their waists to movable poles similar to foosball tables, and are only able to move simultaneously with their fellow players. Usually played with a Nerf soccer ball, the tall netted walls provide spectators the opportunity to cheer their favorite team as they kick and block their way to victory. Of course, no spinning is necessary in human foosball.

Is your company looking for a great way to promote sportsmanship and team work? Human foosball is used in many company outings.

The game is a great way to promote team-building or just a great option for a fun-filled company outing. Instead of doing the same old tired trust-building exercises of falling backwards, harness everyone together for a friendly human foosball game.

Maybe you are just looking for a fun new idea for a party with your friends and family. Organize a multi-team tournament of human foosball in your backyard for your next barbeque or block party.

Of course, kids love human foosball as well. Next time you need to plan a birthday party for the little ones, a human foosball game will keep them entertained and occupied for hours. The inflatable walls and nets are a safety option for parents.

Human foosball arenas are available to purchase and rent. If you plan on purchasing an arena, you better be a true fan as prices are higher than $2,500 for an inflatable arena. Maintenance and storage of a human foosball table may be more work then it is worth. Human foosball need 110 watts of electricity to operate properly.

Rentals for arenas are for three days and require a deposit of $5,000, which will be returned after three days if the inflatable is not damaged in any way. Rental rates vary between $2,000 and 3,000.

Married at Last! - Poipu, Hawaii, United States

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Poipu, Hawaii, United States

It's finally official... after 12 years of dating. Allison and I were married at a quiet and secluded beach on the island of Kauai.  The wedding spot was absolutley amazing and Allison was beautiful as she walked down the beach with her father.  Our friend Carly presided over the ceremony as our families and a friends stood around us.  It was the perfect ceremony for a perfect day.

Atardecer maravilloso, Tortugas, y Playitas! - Mazunte, Mexico

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Mazunte, Mexico

I decided to do the afternoon of today separate because we did something completely different, and then add the work at the hospital in the morning to the post tomorrow.

Today, after being at the hosp ital, Rebecca and I decided to go ahead and get lunch in Pochutla instead of riding back hungry to Puerto Escondido.  Well, we went to a small taco place across the street from the hospital where we saw some of the doctors that we had shadowed.  For only $1.50, I got two two chicken and onion tacos with tortillas made just for me, and two helpings of rice and beans.  Amazingly delicious and very affordable.

Kind of on a whim, we decided to take a colectivo to a small beach town in between Pochutla and Puerto Escondido.  A colectivo is a pickup truck that has a little canopy in the back with wooden benches.  People pile into them to get to various places quickly and cheaply.  You ride with all sorts of people from school children, vaqueros (cowboys), and little old ladies to chickens and construction tools.  You just hop on a knock on the window when you get off and they tell you how much it cost.  I'll have to take a picture of one before I leave.

Well, anyway we went to a turtle conservation aquarium where you can see various types of turtles native to Mexico.  The little pueblito of Mazunte (pop. 450) used to be dependent on hunting turtles.  This was outlawed in 1990 and various coop and sustainable development projects were started in the town to offset this huge blow to the towns economic stability.  This turtle park brings in many tourists to the area which help the economy and bring more recognition to its amazing beaches and vistas. 

We saw many kinds of turtles and even a seal.  Apparently, this seal is a cold-water seal that somehow found its way to Mexico.  It was found on a beach poor thing and they decided to bring him to the aquarium until they can figure out waht to do with him.  He's just a little guy, but he seemed really confused of why he couldn't get out of his tank :(  They had HUGE marine turtles and various kinds of desert turtles too (are those tortoises? not sure). They also some turtle babies to help in the conservation efforts.  So cute!

We stopped by a natural cosmetic products coop that was created for the people in the town.  They use natural and organic things found in the area and with help from the Body Shop they were able to create this great little store where you can get various products pretty inexpensively. 

Then we walked to Playa Mazunte.  I have to tell you that it is absolutely gorgeous.  There are little cabanas lining the side of the beach, but other than that, it is very tranquil and beautiful.  We enjoyed ourselves, rolled our hospital khakis up and got a little wet.  We also got some snacks to enjoy on the beach as we laid on the rocks to dry off.

In Rebecca's Lonely Planet book, they talked of an awesome sunset spot called Punta Cometa. It is a 30 minute hike to the top, but it is so worth it.  This adorable blackish-brown doggie came with us the whole way and made sure that we got there ^^ The forest there was kind of dry because it is the dry season, but it was nice see more green.  There were also these HUGE cacti when we got to the top.  We sat on Punta Cometa and watched the sunset.  We didn't have a flashlight to get back so we left before we wanted to and as we were walking back the sunset just got better and better, but we made sure to turn around to get more pictures. (Don't worry, I'll post plenty!)

It was kind of an issue getting a colectivo back to the carretera (highway), but when we got there we chatted with a taxi driver until our bus got there.  People in Mexico are jus so friendly.  They love to talk to people and ask tons of questions.  It's a great way to practice Spanish.

Got back at 9pm, had an awesome dinner cooked by our host mother.

All in all, an amazing day and so worth getting my khakis filthy!

Sheiph

P.S. Check out the photos if you want (for those of you on facebook) by clicking on the orange "View Original Post" Thanks!! They're awesome!

Urgencias - Pochutla, Mexico

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Pochutla, Mexico

Thursday and Friday I spent my time in the Sala de Urgencias (or the Emergency Room). I mostly shadowed the two interns that work there.  They were both really nice; it was pretty cool to see how a smaller community emergency room works after working at the one by my house (in Munster, Indiana).

Thursday was pretty chill.  It really wasn't that busy.  The stuff that we saw was mostly stuff that you see on a normal basis in Mexico.  Pregnancy, accidents, infections, etc. One thing that I saw that was pretty interesting was a woman came in with a relatively large mass in her breast.  They weren't sure if it was a cyst or a tumor, but they won't know what it is until they do either a biopsy or an X-ray.  Other than that there were a couple of women in labor, a bladder infection, and a broken leg.

Friday was VERY busy.  First, I saw a woman who came in with labor pains whose baby had his umbilical cord wrapped around his head.  They were examining her when suddenly an ambulance ame in. 

Two small brothers had been poisoned by what, they didn't know.  I had never seen this before.  It was very devastating to see two young boys so incredibly sick.  I can't even fathom what the mother was going through to have both of her sons obviously struggling to even breathe.  They were screaming in terror and pain, having trouble breathing, and salivating.  They immediately took the smaller boy to the trauma room because he was in much worse condition, but the older boy (and by older I mean three years old) was simply taken to a regular emergency room bed without a monitor or anything like that.

I stayed with the older boy pretty much the entire time.  He was absolute terrified (for obvious reason) and kept trying to remove his NG tube which could not have been comfortable at all.  In some ways, they were not prepared for such an emergency.  For example, the intern gave him the NG three different times because of various issues.  There was also sanitation problems with not everyone wearing gloves all the time.  Also, it kind of felt like there were too many doctors in the room. (Three attendings + two residents + two interns + many nurses), but overall, they did a good job.  The boys were stabilized when I left.  Mostly, I was just there to help with holding the young boys legs, making sure he got enough oxygen, talking to him to help calm him down, things like that.  Pretty simple, but every little bit helps.

One of the residents was really great.  When I told her that I was a student, she explained everything that was going on and when through the basic steps of doing a basic pediatric examination. She was from DF (Mexico City or Districto Federal) doing her four months of service at a rural hosp ital that is required of all residents in Mexico.  I can tell that I am understand more Spanish all of the time, but it was very hard for me at times because people would ask me for stuff, but I wouldn't know what it was.  Although I speak pretty fluently, there are many vocab words that I still need to learn especially medical ones.  I learned that the hard way.

Oh, also here are some pictures of the hosp ital.  I made sure that the faces of all the patients were covered or not visible in the pictures to maintain privacy although there aren't any laws that are actually enforced of the type in Mexico.  I also made sure to ask consent first.

Shivaratri and Bhaktapur - Bhaktapur, Nepal

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Bhaktapur, Nepal

Shivaratri and Bhaktapur

Lake Manyara National Park - Manyara, Tanzania

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Manyara, Tanzania

February 26, 2008
The safari agency picked us up at the Buffalo Hotel this morning and took us to the Kindoroko Hotel (just two blocks away) which is where we will stay after our safari, so we leave out luggage there except what we will need on the safari. Here we are told that we are not going on safari by ourselves but will share the vehicle with two others. Otherwise we'll have to pay $190/person/day rather than $150. We say that is okay. Then we are told that because some client was stung by a scorpion and was now in the hospital we have to take a four day safari rather than the 3 day one we had planned on. This part doesn't make any sense but since we will spend the additional day in the Serengeti National Park proper Irina is happy with that so we pay the extra $300 for the extra day. Our safari cost has risen to $1200. Arvid frets about this, but Irina says we couldn't tell people we went to Africa and not did see the Serengeti.
Our first day on safari is to Lake Manyara National Park. We are traveling with our driver Steward, the cook Goodlove, Sven an older Swede, and Monika a South African who moved to German 25 years ago. Goodlove says very little but does a good job cooking and helping Steward set up camp. You see we are not staying in a room at a lodge as promised; we are sleeping in tents outside the lodge. Steward, the driver, is nice enough but has a habit of moving the vehicle just as we are about to take a photo of some exotic animal and then stops behind a bush from where we can't see it. The Swede got divorced about 6 years ago and went to the bars in Phuket Thailand for the girls but tells us he was disgusted and left after two days. He's not in very good health and puffs and grunts a lot. But he is very friendly. Monika is a ditzy blond in her late 40s. She is also very friendly. Her husband is back in Germany where he is taking exams for his second career in German and English literature after retiring from a corporate job. She came to Tanzania to teach English for 2 weeks in Moshi, which she will do after the safari. She is constantly asking the driver dumb questions like: "Why do the Masai men carry those sticks, do they get them from their fathers?" Irina says she is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. But she is so chirpy and Pollyannaish - "Oh, isn't this all so beautiful!" -- that she pulls it off. As far as we can tell she has never had to work for a living. She has this vulnerable helplessness which some men find attractive and it has work for her. But Irina doesn't find it endearing. Monika tells us that after Victoria Falls we just have to go to the Okavango Swamps. Arvid asks about the tsetse flies? "Oh, we just flew into the swamp on this little airplane, it doesn't cost much. A man poles you around in a little boat. It was so beautiful. We didn't have any problem with the flies." We tell her we'll think about it.
Lake Manyara National Park is bordered on the west by the Great Rift Valley Wall. It is a dramatic setting in which to see the wild life. We were supposed to camp at a lodge in the park but instead we are staying in the town of Mto Wa Mbu in tents on the grounds of Lake Manyara Lodge.

Scotland - Oban, United Kingdom

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Oban, United Kingdom

Our 10th anniversary - what a beautiful country and the weather - we were blessed. We loved the whole experience from the food to the kilts to the gaelic influence.

NE Thailand - Surin, Thailand

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Surin, Thailand

The 'bus' was more of an open jeepney back to Pakse, but was relatively atraumatic, despite my mild hangover. The ride to the border was about 60km, which took far longer than I'd expected due to a headwind and recalcitrant backsliding leg muscles. My visa-free entry for 30 days was stamped with little ceremony, and I emerged into the Kingdom of Thailand.

That Thailand is a kindom was a fact never far from my consciousness. A while ago a Frenchman was sentenced to 10 years in jail for defacing an image of the king. (he was pardonned before serving the sentence. The king's not stupid.) At the time, I wondered how he'd come to locate an image of the king to deface so publicly that he was caught. Within five minutes of arriving in Thailand, I realised how ridiculous that question was. Banners, posters, flags and stickers with photos of the king are attached to almost every flat surface in the kingdom. Billboards are erected in prime advertising locations simply to praise the king. The Thai flag, the yellow budhist flag which flies alongside it, and the image of the king, are by far the most pervasive and defining symbols in Thailand.

Due to an unconventional approach to road numbering in Thailand, whereby two roads, one a minor road going nowhere, and the other a cross-country thoroughfare, were numbered identically, I took a 10km detour to a large resevoir. This made reaching the first real town in Thailand impossible before dark. I found what appeared to be a resonably smart resort, and pulled in to investigate. After riding around for several minutes, calling out and finding no-one, eventually a local workman cutting firewood on the bank of the resevoir went to find the custondian. She appeared from a houseboat on the lake,

-Hi! Can I sleep here?
-It is not open yet! I am just caretaker.
-Oh...  Can I sleep here?
-Oh... Ok.
-How much do you want?
-Well, when it's open, it's 250Baht. But it's not open! Just pay what you feel.
-Thank you very much.

She brought a thin mattress to lie on on the floor of one of the huts, and even a fan. The bathroom was clean with cold running water, so I was perfectly happy. There was no restaurant nearby, and I set about heating up some plastic noodles I'd been carrying as emergency 'food'. Just I was about to dig in, the caretake arrived with a huge bowl of rice, a massive omelette and a saucer of fish sauce, left them with me, and, without a word, left. I abandonned the noodles in short order.

The shower was clean and the water was blissfully cool, so it was a pleasure to rinse off the grit and filth of the road. Until, reaching up for the handle of the showerhead, my hand closed over something strange. Blinded by lather, all I could tell was that it was cold, and slimy. Until it jumped onto my back. I'm not overly squeamish, but I don't think many people would relish the attentions of a 4 inch long tree frog while taking a shower. I leaped out into the room, which, being unfinished, had no curtains, grabbed my baseball cap and used it to flap at the frog clinging to the small of my back. This provoked it to jump into the cap, from where I could fling him back out into the forest. Fortunately, no-one was walking by as a naked falang wrenched open his bedroom door and hurled a frog at them. I pulled on some shorts, and proceeded to investigate the room a little more closely. I've never played squash, but I suspect I'm a natural. Ten minutes later, after locating, provoking, netting mid-flight and tossing 4 more frogs, I declared the plague contained, and finished my shower.

I made an early start the next morning, after paying the caretaker. This could have presented a problem, as the cashpoint at the border had only given me 1000B notes. Fortunately, 16months previously, my brother had given me 200B and a cigar. These had been carried all this way, and the money couldn't have been put to better use.

I rode about 50km in the first two hours that morning. This was seriously fast progress compared to recent efforts. A consistent wind from the east was pushing me along at a sustainable 25km/hr. I had a look at my map, and found that if I could maintain the pace all day, there was a convenient town almost exactly 200km away. Flush with the success of my first 200km day, keen to make up some time in order to reach Bangkok, and there being little else to do in this flat, pastoral corner of Thailand, I decided to push for 250km. After 10 hours of riding and about 15minutes of breaks, I arrived, exhausted, in Surin. I flopped in the first motel I found, and consumed the complementary bottles of water in record time. I was encrusted with the salt residue of perspiration, which scratched my sunburned skin. The desire to lie down and never move again was quashed, in deference to the long-term benefits of showering, spraying after-sun and drinking oral rehydration solution with several gallons of water.

The next four days were relatively easy rides, through the scrubby desert landscape of paddy fields in the dry season. The towns were huge, compared to Laos, the roads busy with modern cars. The only affordable accomodation was low quality and morally dubious motels. The famous Thai cuisine did not materialise, I was still living off the grilled chicken, sticky rice and spicy papaya salad that I came to love in Laos. There was grilled 'bushmeat' (rats) on the road into Bangkok, but I resisted the temptation.

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Trying not to fry them

Plug adapter for Argentina and Uruguay?

I am going on a trip to Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Iguazu Falls (Argentinean side). I'm going to be staying in business-class hotels (Sheraton Montevideo, Hotel Emperador Buenos Aires, Iguazu Jungle Lodge). I am taking my iPod and the battery charger for my Canon SD870IS (both dual voltage/frequency), and I am researching what type of plug adapter I will need. It looks like most places will either have this two-prong plug, which is similar to the plug used in many countries, or this three-prong plug, which is similar to the plug used in Australia and New Zealand. Just when I think I will be able to get by with a simple universal adapter, I notice this warning regarding the three-prong plug found in AR and UY: In Argentina and Uruguay, the neutral and active wires are reversed from what is used in other countries. Now what? Should I just wait until I get there and buy a plug adapter at the airport? Any first-hand knowledge or general advice would be much appreciated.