Big Giveaways, SPAM and Random Thoughts

It is rare that I run big giveaways on this site (mostly because folks won’t give me stuff to give away, and when they do, I tend to keep them), but this week, I announced the big giveaway of 5 on-line licenses for Turbotax (so you use it on-line, you don’t get the version that runs on your PC). The response so far is better than usual, but there aren’t that many entrants just yet, so you have a good chance of winning. The draw closes on Valentine’s Day, so you can give your loved one a late gift (something every woman wants, tax software).

I also learned that it is possible to SPAM your friends accidentally if you use Gmail. I ended up only sending a fairly innocuous e-mail to about 350 people, where I learned that many folks’ e-mail addresses have expired, and I actually got in touch with a couple of folks I hadn’t spoken to in a while. This taught me that (a) you must continue to be vigilant with technology or it will eventually make you look like an idiot and (b) it is important to clean out your contacts list more than once every 5 years.  I also learned that in French a SPAM (e-mail) is called un pourriel, which is useful too (note it is masculine).

Weekly Recap

Explosions rock downtown Ottawa!  I think this has to do with the new Trains going in, but it might just be for construction, either way it does make life exciting:

• With Romney Rolls and Sunday’s best, I recapped my Twitter add-ons for the week, along with a quick quip about the GOP and Reality TV.
• Some neutral news from Stats Canada about Employment Numbers Hovering in January, but evidently good news was expected?
• You have until Valentine’s Day to Win Turbotax On Line for Free, and then you will have missed out. Remember to follow the comment format, it’s important.
• I found out that the CRA is trying to educate we who don’t like reading with Did You Know the CRA has a Youtube Channel? Note the comment complaining about the content.
• Going a little off the rails with Choosing a Career: an Interesting Paradox, where I misused Paradox (I think) and showed my own Xenophobia too.

And thanks to those who added me on Twitter I am now over 1000 folks who follow me, woo hoo! Check out my facebook page as well (but no I won’t be buying Facebook stock because of this either).

Links for the Week

Facebook’s IPO was big in the news, but RIM is still out there bubbling up, and TAX TIME is even more important too:

• The Blunt Bean Counter points out that He May be Old But he is not Thrifty, which is a refreshing bit of honesty from someone who talks about money.
• Tom at Canadian Finance Blog wonders Perks or Pay? What makes your job worth it? Pay is the simple answer for me, started off wanting a career turned out all I wanted was a pay cheque.
• Mr. Money Mustache let his wife write something with Mrs. Money Mustache Remembers, if she’s like my wife she remembers everything (I do wrong at least).
• Larry MacDonald waxes poetic about 7 Suggestions for Investing your RRSP Contributions, Canadiana includes beaver ponds?!? OK Larry.
• Michael James finally gives up and gives us His 7 Links Project, where he outlines some of his works.
• Canadian Capitalist points out the folly some follow in Investing in Magazine Stock Picks (a bad idea)
• Rob Carrick  from the Globe and Mail brings us Mom, Dad and their parasite kids, parasite single kids scare the hell out of me too!
• Notre copain at My Own Advisor gives us an interesting heuristic on which savings vehicle you should use with If You Spend Your RRSP Refund – You Should Use a TFSA.
• Boomer of Boomer and Echo echos a sentiment heard many times in this blog I Hate Paying Fees (do I ever!).
• Miranda at Planting Money Seeds, asks Are you Judging other People’s Personal Finance choices? Yes, that’s what I do here, that and write weird side stories about teaching English in Africa.
• Gail Vaz-Oxlade was out of town but wants us to delve into her archives to find a favorite of her posts.
• Preet wags his finger at us and makes an accusatory statement: I hope you are not waiting for an RRSP refund. I don’t want to answer, I am afraid he’ll tie me up in a double windsor and take me out to the wood shed for a beating!

Other Bookkeeping

Remember my RSS feed is available too, for those who enjoy reading without looking at my crappy page lay out, and I have added an RSS Comment Feed as well.

Have alook at my micro-blog on Twitter, where you can see a whole plethora of good articles and pithy comments by me as well. Twitter feed where I re-tweet many great articles by some of my featured writers (and make the occasional odd or off colour commentary on life (in 140 characters or less)). I am also on Digg as Big Cajun Man, on reddit, Tumblr and other Social Media sites (look for the BigCajunMan userid) as well.

If you have social media accounts, don’t forget to vote for my posts (see the nifty dashboard on the bottom of each article, where you can cast your votes). As they say in Quebec, vote early and vote often!

This site is iPhone Friendly (and Android , iPod Touch and iPad Friendly), enjoy it on the go, in a readable format for the device. If you are reading with an iPhone or Android device, drop me a comment and tell me if this needs any improvements. This site is also in the Kindle US Blog list, if you are interested, not available in Canada yet (because no Blogs are available in Canada on a Kindle?!?).

A Video for Blasting

I give you one of the funniest demolition experts ever, Blaster Bates. The video itself is a little NSFW, but only if you can understand a Lancashire accent. My Dad loved hearing this comic, and I loved how he made my Dad laugh.