Every time I visit my cell phone provider’s store, I walk away with my head spinning and sometimes with my blood pressure boiling. If I refuse to consider whatever featured product the sales people are selling, I tend to get a cold shoulder and the representative’s bright, happy smile turns to a stone cold grimace. Not always, but often.

One of the problems with these places is the huge array of phones and very little understandable information. I suppose I feel the same way a computer novice would feel when purchasing a computer.

The next time I head into my local Alltel store, I’ll be prepared by doing my homework at Phone Arena. Not only can you get the latest news and phone specs there, but they also have excellent reviews of various phones.

I really appreciate being able to go directly to an Alltel section to see the phones there, rather than having to wade through every other carrier’s line. Most of all, I love the forum. I’m all about community and this one is quite active. I’ve been reading about unlocked cell phones and I think I’m beginning to understand. I also found an interesting thread on the Verizon acquisition of Alltel (or is it a merger?) and I’m not quite as upset about it as I had been.

Oh, and if you’re curious, I kind of want the LG Scoop. It isn’t the highest rated, but I like the keyboard on it.

Back in the day (when I had a regular job and regular paycheck) I would occasionally (like a few times each week) bid on items on ebay. Loved that site. It was the best way to feed my inner packrat and at a bargain.

With no job, I didn’t feel right spending money on non-essentials and eventually my ebay obsession faded. I’ve heard, though, that both buyers and sellers have not been terribly happy with the new fee structure at the old auction site and I’ve been expecting someone to step in and swipe disgruntled ebayers. Someone is trying.

I’ve spent a little time looking around Wigix and I like what I see so far. For one thing, it loads quickly and has a clean layout. I don’t really care for sites that are so busy that you can’t possibly take in everything and sometimes, that’s how ebay is. Part of the reason Wigix loads quickly may be due to the fact that there just isn’t as much stuff there. Smaller database, faster load time.

I did a few searches of some favorite terms to see what would come up. “Dandelion” brought only books and CDs, no household items at all. While there’s quite a large list of shoes in general, I couldn’t find specific brands like Doc Marten, Nine West or Asgi shoes. Nor could I find a single Stratton compact.

Wigix could be a nice alternative to ebay but first they need to get the word out. It’s still in Beta so maybe there’s still hope that it will catch on. If anyone has used Wigix, either as a buyer or seller, drop a comment and let me know about your experience. I’m curious. And hopeful.

With our economy in turmoil and our military still in Iraq, some other important issues have been pushed to the backburner during this political season. One such issue is the problem of illegal drugs and our nation’s drug laws.

This blog isn’t the place to express my opinion about drugs or our laws but I will encourage everyone to learn as much as possible about this issue. One of the best books ever written on the subject is Licit And Illicit Drugs by Edward M. Brecher and the Editors of Consumer Reports Magazine. The book is out of print but has been made available online by the Schaffer Library of Drug Policy.

I do have the hard copy of the book and I’m happy to report that the online version is complete. It’s important to note that Consumers Union accepts no financial assistance from the government or advertisers, making their findings unbiased and trustworthy. The information they provide through this comprehensive report is eyeopening.

Whether you’d like to become better informed about the various types of drugs, from alcohol and marijuana to diet pills, coke and heroin or you’re curious about the history of our drug laws, this book has the answers.

If you get a chance to pick up a copy of the book, don’t pass it up. As I mentioned, it is out of print. But do be sure to bookmark the online version. You just don’t get this kind of information for free every day.

My mom is a retired nurse. Back when I was a kid, it was not at all unusual for my mom to get a phone call in the evening from a friend or relative, needing to pick her brain regarding some unusual medical condition or confusing diagnosis.

With the internet and sites like WebMD, everyone has access to their own family nurse or doctor. And yet, those very technical sites leave something to be desired. That “something” is a Been There story from real people. And that’s just what Keith Schorsch had in mind when he created Trusera.

The site is relatively new, launching just this year. And yet it already boasts thousands of users, people who share their own personal health stories in order to help others.

Just clicking through the site I found two excellent articles on Ayurveda and a timely piece about the elderly, dementia and the right to vote. While these articles may not be written by doctors or other professionals, they are well written and speak from the heart.

After registering at the site, you can tell your own health story, ask a question, browse or build a network of trusted people. You can search for topics from family health insurance to breast cancer to elder care.

Trusera has taken the idea of social networking and combined it with a caring environment to assist those who are dealing with pressing health issues. This is a site that every one of us should check out.

I’ve always been impressed by those who can sew or knit or crochet. I can’t do any of those things, and not for lack of trying. I had to face the fact long ago that fabric is not my friend. And so I turned to other creative outlets. Like soapmaking.

Making soap with lye and various oils takes a bit of patience and practice. I was looking for a fun activity that would be faster than making soap and just as fun when I found a great tutorial on making candles. After reading through the basics and moving on to the more detailed instructions, I ordered my supplies and waited for delivery.

My first candle making attempt worked out well. The candles were lovely and I thank Candlewic for providing so much information, especially the safety guidelines. If you use these instructions for children, be sure to take note of the History of Candlemaking. Quite an interesting read.

Even though I prefer to buy my container, taper and tea light candles, I’m glad I gave candle making a shot. It was a great learning experience and now that I have the equipment, I can share the fun with my kids and grandkids as fun craft projects.

There’s always someone on the internet who knows how to do something cool or interesting and is willing to share it with the rest of the online world. Take, for instance, Sherwood Clay Randall Jr. or just “Clay” as he prefers. His site looks a little old, like maybe it’s been there since the mid 90s, but it’s just as entertaining and informative as when he put it there.

It’s true that I enjoyed reading his mom and his family but my favorite part of his site is his Money Origami page. Seriously, this guy has step-by-step instructions on making a pair of glasses, a serpent and a spider, a Christams tree or gift box, all using a dollar bill or two or five. How cool is that?

My first thought when I saw this was that my younger kids would love learning Origami using a dollar bill. Then I realized that the little gift box with a candy kiss inside would be a cute birthday party favor. Heck, even most promotional products cost more than a dollar each and aren’t nearly as fun. Oh, and then my older kids started practicing money origami because they said it would be a cool bar trick. Ha!

If you’re looking for a fun project for the kids when they’re hanging out being bored or you need a cute party favor or even an interesting bar trick, check out Clay’s money page for more than a dozen cool things to do with a dollar or two or five.

Are you watching the housing market and wondering what might happen next? Have you been trying to sell or are you hoping to qualify for a loan to buy your first home? Or maybe you’re just hoping you can continue to make your mortgage payments until the economy stabilizes.

With housing prices so low, this would be a great buyer’s market except for the difficulty in securing financing. Rather than doing nothing, this is a great time to do research and figure out what neighborhood you might like once our economy is in better shape. That’s what I’m doing by keeping an eye on homes and neighborhoods at Cyberhomes.

This one-stop home finding site can narrow down your search by zip code or street address, minimum and maximum price, bedrooms, bathrooms and even foreclosure sales. You can search for specific schools and there’s even rental listings. The reading room has some very informative articles including A Homeowner’s Guide to the Financial Crisis.

Unless you’re in the market for St. Martin villa rentals or your own private island in the Pacific, you’ll find exactly what you need at Cyberhomes.com. The site covers buying, selling, renting and even moving. This really is a one-stop site for house hunting.

Most of the sites I blog about here have the potential to appeal to a wide audience. I’ve only occasionally mentioned any type of spiritual site. Although I have a spiritual blog for those who are interested in my meditations, it isn’t really a “review” site. I mention this so that if spirituality with a Christian or Catholic bent offends you, just skip this post.

My grandmother said the Rosary every day. My dad keeps his Rosary near his bed; he can’t remember all the prayers to say it anymore. I’ve always loved saying the Rosary but I can never remember the mysteries for each decade. The Virtual Rosary has solved that problem for me.

There are two important parts to the Virtual Rosary site. First, the Virtual Rosary is a free computer program that runs on Windows, from 95 to Vista and Palm. (Mac and Pocket PC versions are not yet available.) The software detects the day of the week and walks you through the Rosary with the appropriate Mysteries for that day. It even includes the Luminous mysteries, which I just love. The site also offers additional modules so you can use other meditations, change the graphics or install other languages.

The other part of the Virtual Rosary site is integrated into the VR software. Prayercast is where you can enter your prayer request so that others praying the Rosary can add your intentions to their own prayers that day. At the bottom of the Virtual Rosary software, you’ll see a new prayer request for each Hail Mary.

If you’re like me, you have parents who don’t really need anything for birthdays or Christmas. I’m always trying to find something to give them. Oh, sure, I’ve bought pretty picture frames and filled them with pictures of the family as a gift. I’ve picked up a special book here and there or a favorite movie that one of them would like to see again. This year I’m installing the Virtual Rosary on their computer so that my dad can read the prayers that he no longer remembers. In fact, I think I’ll make a point of saying the Rosary with him at least once every week, too.

Prayer is powerful.

With winter just around the corner, cold weather lovers are probably looking forward to that first snowflake. (The rest of us are still dreaming of swimming pools and sunny days.) My kids, especially, love this time of year. When they were younger and fall lingered too long, they’d sit around cutting out paper snowflakes.

If your little one isn’t quite ready for scissors or you just want to avoid the mess right now, you can still have snowflake fun with the Make-A-Flake site. Just click on Make Your Snowflake and when you see the scissors, place them over the paper. The center of the scissors will turn green and then you start cutting.

You can undo a cut or redo one. You can preview your flake and save it or go back and cut some more. You can save it as a jpg or download the eps file. And if you click on Gallery, you can see your flake online.

As you prepare for your holiday celebrations, dishing up holiday appetizers and wrapping gifts, bring up Make-A-Flake site to keep the kids busy. They have a blast creating unique designs and you won’t have any little pieces of paper to clean up when they’re done!

Everyone knows that Google set out to create digital copies of every book for searching or whatever. And then there was some (expected) uproar over copyright. Laws are laws, you know. But did you know that there are websites that offer the full text of many books and that it’s perfectly legal? Once such site is The Literary Network.

This site offers the full text of over 1900 classic books and over 3000 short stories and poems. Its database of Quotations numbers over 8500. You can find more than 250 authors listed here, each with a bio page and a searchable collection of works.

I know some people would rather fill their hard drive with music or video; I prefer books. With the Literary Network, I don’t have to download a thing since it’s all right there, completely searchable. When I find sites like this, I can’t help but think how useful this would have been when I was in school, back in the dark ages. I imagine any student or teacher would love to bookmark this for future reference. As a parent, I know I’ll be hanging on to this site for the kids.