Black Friday is around the corner, and so are the fun and headaches of gift giving. Does Uncle Bart want another tie? What size is Elle – you know how she fluctuates. Well, in recent years, we’ve been picking up gift cards. If you know Aunt Myrtle likes books, she gets a gift card from Books a Million or Barnes & Noble. Uncle Bubba may get one from Beer of the Month Club. Not sure what your loved one is into? Just get a general mall gift card, or better yet one from American Express.
Better make sure that you don’t give a card to Harry, who never gets round to taking care of anything. Gift card sellers fail to disclose that the issuer may not honor the gift cards after a certain period of time. Or there may be a monthly inactivity fee after 6-12 months, which drastically reduces the value of the card by the time Harry gets round to using it. Seriously?
Help is on the way thanks to the Credit Card act of 2009; however the gift card provisions will not go into effect in time for this holiday season. After August 2010, the gift cards will be required to remain active for five years after activation and disclose any expiration date. Issuers may not impose an inactivity fee unless there has been 12 months of inactivity and any such fees must be disclosed.
In the meantime, check out this gift card buying guide put out by the Consumer Federation of America to help you with the gift card. Bankrate.com has done most of the legwork for you by putting together the results of its 2009 gift card survey
Happy shopping holidays! Keep us posted if you have additional information that will help the savvy shopper.
At the beginning of this 30-day Blogging Challenge, Elle had seriously questioned David Cassidy’s blog-worthiness. But in David Cassidy? Try Real Man Gilles Marini, she has thrown down the gauntlet, shamelessly suggesting that the young version of David may not be have been worthy of holding a man card!!! Girlyman????
I thought it would be educational to do a little comparison. First, here is a video of Rod Stewart in 1976 performing Maggie May live (thank you worthor on YouTube):
And here is a video of David doing his world tour in 1974 with the audio of him performing Mae live (this is the first video I posted of David in David Cassidy: My New Obsession):
Bali Ha’I / Mae by keithyoong on YouTube:
Now, I ask you: Which one looks more like a girlyman?
Okay, I have to admit it. I’m torn! I’m referring to Sarah Palin’s new book: Going Rogue. On the one hand, I really think she has more than exceeded her 15 minutes of fame and I don’t want to add it. Also, I don’t care what they say, I’m pretty darned sure Sen. John McCain selected her at the last minute without vetting. He thought he could lure conservatives as well as females who were angry at then Senator Barack Obama for not selecting Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate. As if! Anyone knows that Palin is the polar opposite of Sen. Clinton, and not just because Clinton graduated from Yale Law School and had more experience under her belt than waving at Russia from her back door. Their ideologies are completely different.
But now that we averted that near encounter with Palin only a banana peel away from the presidency, I guess I can be a little more relaxed about it. Personally, I was hoping for a reality show. Sarah Palin has that folksy charm. She’s kind of an adventure girl, hunting from a helicopter and helping her husband in his commercial fishing venture. She has the daughter’s baby daddy drama. We know that with a little help from someone else’s money, she has good taste in clothes. And face it, as long as she’s not running the world, she looks like she can be a lot of fun.
And I am oh so curious. I am dying to read about her take on the McCain campaign’s handlers. Reports are that she slams them for muzzling her instead of allowing her to charm the constitutuents, and for sending an unexpected $50,000.00 bill representing the campaign’s expense in vetting her. Why should she pay that outrageous sum for the inefficient vetting job?
We’ve heard she also has it in good for the media and particularly, Katie Couric. Anyone remember Katie asking her about her foreign affairs experience and the economic bailout?
Here’s my dilemma: I really think it makes for a fascinating book. It should be an interesting take on campaigning in America, as well as the inner workings of a mind we had difficulty understanding during the campaign. Palin is a woman who galvanized the Republican Party, while likely being a major contributor to the defeat of the McCain campaign. But at the same time, if I buy her book am I contributing to her appeal, which I do not fully understand? Am I prolonging and expanding the mystique that allows her to weigh in on national and international issues that she does not always seem to fully understand? Am I rewarding the rogue child?
And the challenge continues, not just to keep blogging every day, but also in questioning my chosen blog topic: David Cassidy’s sex appeal. In a comment to Elle’s David Cassidy? Try Real Man Gilles Marini post, she claimed that David Cassidy’s “then” voice never “did float her boat.” Seriously? She also said that her “formative years were spent drooling over an older man, Rod Stewart.” British Fan very helpfully suggested that if she liked the “smoky vocals” of Rod Stewart, perhaps she’d like David’s Tomorrow (thank you British Fan!). Of course this video affords lots of great pictures of David “then”. So what do you think Elle?
By now, most of us are sick of the health care debate raging here in the U.S. I think it’s finally dawned on everyone that something has to be done, even if only for political reasons. Here in America if you work for a company large enough to have some clout in negotiating health insurance rates, you’re golden. And if you are poor enough, you may qualify for programs. The squeeze is in between: the self-employed, or those who work for small businesses.
There is something wrong when: families face foreclosure because they had to borrow money from their home to support an ailing parent; small business owners have to pay over $2,000.00 monthly for one family’s insurance; a retired person on fixed income has to debate whether or not to continue paying for her $800/month insurance; an uninsured individual has to file for bankruptcy to get out from under the debt created when he had cancer.
Well, it appears that we are getting closer to a health care overhaul. But we still have our stumbling blocks, including the public option. People are afraid it will lead to socialized medicine, and take away from their current health care options. Never mind that the insurance companies have been placing limits on us and our doctors for years, and that the public option is merely an alternative (but that’s another topic).
Critics of the major overhaul cite anecdotes of a failed health care system abroad where the elderly are denied care and health care in general is more restrictive. But I have to wonder whether this is true, given that they are the same persons who accused Obama of wanting to create death panels for the elderly. I thought it appropriate to hear from our readers, since I know our Cassidy people hail from Canada and England, among other places. Please write and tell us: What country are you from? What has your experience been? Do you like the health care you currently have? Encourage others you know to write and inform us. We will report back to you in a future post. And thank you for weighing in.
Since Elle did a post yesterday on dancing, I thought it would be fun to blog about David doing a little salsa. This is the “now” David. So admittedly, he’s not Gilles nor Cristian, but he’s also not Girlyman! Seriously!
Not bad. Not bad at all. He’s got a bit of Latin hip action goin’ on. Nice!!! Either he’s done this before or he’s a really fast learner.
He’s only on the video for the first 4 minutes. Thank you for the clip, Daydreaming David!!! Enjoy!!!
When Staingirl Kaye and I first embarked on our blogging journey, I envisioned us as the Oprahs of the blogosphere, teaching, entertaining and always opining on anything and everything that interests women “of a certain age”. Yes, this could occasionally include talking about guys and other issues that arise there. After all, Oprah does that. Little did I guess that staingirlz.com would become a David Cassidy lustfest. Kaye knows I don’t get this. After all, the older videos are of him at the age of my oldest son (Eww!), where he actually looks a little like a Girlyman. And the newer videos of the older David Cassidy… The man has aged nicely enough, but he’s no sex god.
Okay you Cassidy-ites, tone down the hate mail. And my dear progeny, don’t barf, and don’t hate on me. One time only, and for the sake of educating the Cassidy people, I am going to dedicate my post to a real sex god: Gilles Marini (otherwise known as Sexy Naked Neighbor from Sex and the City). Here is a man who knows how to move and really seduce a woman:
More importantly, Gilles Marini has the goods that go with the movements. I did not try to find a clip of Sexy Naked Guy because this is a family-friendly sight and kids don’t need to see full frontal nudity. But here’s a cute clip where he is causing quite a stir with the Walker family on Brothers & Sisters as the new French lover of one of the sisters. The goods (and I don’t mean the bulge) become more visible at the end of the clip:
Not surprising that the powers that be at Brothers & Sisters have extended his original five-episode contract with an additional four. Gilles Marini, there’s a young man not caught in a time warp that I can go cougar on without feeling like a pervert (David Cassidy, Seriously?)! Have at it Ladies, and easy on the hate mail.
I don’t know about you, but I’m still recovering from the dazzled state I found myself in late last week from ogling all those radiant David images. Wow, that was an intense lust fest!! (Seriously, Elle ) Thanks!!! We’ll have to do that again soon. LOL!!!
So today, I decided to post a few videos to one of his songs that, surprisingly for me, overrides the ever-present erotic nature of David imagery with a feeling of falling head-over-heels in love with him every time I hear it. I hope you like it because I’ve got three renditions of the same song. LOL!!! (Effusive as ever.) If anything, it’s interesting to hear the change in his voice over the years. These are then, now, and in between versions.
The then and now Could It Be Forever videos were my first David Cassidy posting idea for staingirlz.com, even before Elle’s 30-day blogging challenge was conceived. The “now” video embedded is, in part, a tribute to the “staingirl.” If you do not know what a staingirl is, this will give you a “big” hint. LOL!!!
Which is your favorite version? And while you’re at it, are you a staingirl? Or do you wish you were one?
All three of these videos were created by Sumerkis38 on YouTube.
Then (eyelash and uber superpuppy alert):
In between:
Now (The bra is alive. LOL!!! I love how he does the “love you” and “be still my heart” gestures):
It’s hard to believe that we’re a little over half-way in our 30-day blogging challenge. And have we learned anything? Yes, Kaye, Daydreaming David, et al. were right. Apparently, David Cassidy is bloggable (and I still have to ask, “Seriously?”). But now for the real question: “Is content king?” If we write the content, will the search engines pick us up, and send people in our direction?
And the answer is a qualified yes. Our traffic has picked up substantially since we began our 30-day challenge, but it’s interesting to see where the traffic is coming from: 42% comes directly to us, 47% are referred to us from other sites, and 11% comes through the search engines.
I assume that the direct traffic is people who know us, whether because of having come across us in prior posts or already being in contact with us for some reason or other. After all, staingirlz.com is not yet widely known. The breakdown of the referred traffic is interesting: the bulk of our referrals are coming from daydreaming.blogspot.com (no surprise there if you have been following the David Cassidy posts and the comments). I would hazard a guess that a good chunk of our direct and referral traffic is coming due to Kaye’s networking with other David Cassidy bloggers.
Surprisingly, we are also getting referrals from digg and facebook. I have no clue as to the facebook referral. We have not yet branched out there. But digg stems from an article submitted to digg.com in September: Socialist Propaganda and Death Panels for Granny, Oh My! It got very little traffic back then, but seems to be bringing us more traffic since the beginning of our 30-day challenge.
And as for the search engines? They are picking us up, but not in the same proportion that we receive traffic from other sources. I have noticed, however, an uptick as time goes on. During the two weeks preceding our blogging challenge, we only received 1 hit from the search engine. During the first 15 days of our challenge, we received 45 visits via a search engine. Still not fabulous, but a major increase and the trend appears to be a steady increment. I had read elsewhere that it takes three to six months for search engine traffic to build up.
So what have we learned so far? If you write it, they will come, albeit slowly. We have been at this only 16 days, but I think that consistent posting does increase traffic somewhat. Other approaches appear to be more effective. Kaye’s social networking with like-minded people on David Cassidy proved to be a very effective way of bringing traffic to our site. And submission to other sites, such as digg also appears to drive traffic. We will give you a final report at the end of 30 days.
Hi friends!!! I’m a little late this morning in posting, I apologize. And “Hello!” to Elle’s progeny. You must be getting a bit of an education in reading these posts and comments, huh? Did you know that grown women could go so gaga over an idol? LOL!!
When I had the idea of showcasing David’s eyelashes, I remembered this one video I loved because there were so many close up pictures of his beautiful face while he was performing. That is where the image Eyelashes All Over The Place came to mind. But when I did that post, I had somehow lost track of the video. I couldn’t find it again because I had forgotten the song that accompanied it.
This past week, Daydreaming David’s Live Wishlist blog post spurred me to take out some time to learn more about David’s work. In doing so, I finally stumbled onto that video again!!!! It was immediately obvious because I had left one of the most recent comments about it: “Eyelashes all over the place.” LOL!!! I’m so elated to have found this again.
You can really appreciate the man’s beauty in these pictures, and the eyelashes especially at 2:57!!! It’s amazing they can cast such shadows on his lovely face.
Now, I know most of you have probably already seen this video, but perhaps you don’t remember the special surprise embedded in it??? I know it’s not Easter, but there is a special prize Easter egg here for you to find. It’s an easy one. You can’t miss it. LOL!!!!!
From cherishdavid’s YouTube channel (thank you, thank you, cherishdavid), get ready to become intoxicated once again from this abundance of evocative David images:
) Thanks!!! We’ll have to do that again soon. LOL!!! 