Adam Jewell - Search & Affiliate Marketing

The folks at WebmasterWorld have just recently opened up registration for PubCon 2008 in Las Vegas Nevada November 11-14, 2008.

Early registration through July 1 is only $799.00 per person.
Register by August 20, 2008 and pay only $899.00 per person.
Register by October 31, 2008 and pay only $999.00 per person.
Wait till after November 1, 2008 and ante up $1,499 per person.

In addition to always having a GREAT conference, the cool thing about PubCon is that there is always a way to save some cash and register early so you don’t have to have a huge corporate budget to be able to afford to go. Yea, $799 isn’t a drop in the bucket for most people but compared to a lot of other conferences it is a really good deal.

There are some discounts for registering multiple people and there is also a PubCon networking only pass available for $150.00. There are not usually any other discounts available for the conference with the exception of a $50 or so off coupon available to WebmasterWorld supporters. I haven’t yet heard any mention of such a coupon.

Don’t miss out on one of the best Internet Marketing conferences of the year. Register for PubCon now and get the early bird rate of $799.00!

The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing a little bit and it was a great day to get to Marsh Creek Lake the day before Memorial day. Anything outdoors is a great opportunity to get away from work and try to leave it behind at the office. I went windsurfing at Marsh Creek Lake once last year on a rental Mistral Prodigy and had a blast so decided to buy a setup from www.Windsurfing-Direct.com. I got the Bic Nova 180 with a 7.0 sail in January with free shipping for around $1,500 with shipping included. As a relative newbie, I didn’t have much idea about what to get but Glenn Morton up there seems to have provided excellent advice! Had I found this guy to rigging a windsurfer prior to heading out to the lake, it may have made the lesson not necessary but regardless, Jaque at Marsh Creek Lake provided excelent instruction on how to get everything put together and get out on the lake.

I’m about 6 feet, 180 lbs and this was my second time windsurfing. The Bic Nova 180 is a pretty cool board. You can put in a centerboard, it has a fin on the back of it that screws in. The 180 means 180 liters which is a measure of the volume or buoyancy of the board. For me, the Nova 180 was pretty stable but not anywhere near as stable as the Mistral Prodigy. When you first start out windsurfing, you tend to stand with one foot slightly in front of the mast and the other one behind the mast. The Bic Nova 180 is a fairly thin board in the front. When starting out with a more forward stance to get your berings, this aspect of the board proves to be a bit challenging. The front of the board tends to go under water and can throw your balance way off if you put much weight on your front foot. A little more buoyancy in the front of the board would be nice at this point in the learnig curve.

The combination of the Bic Nova 180 and a 7.0 sail makes for a setup that will be a rocket in medium to heavy winds. Today (May 25, 2008) the wind at Marsh Creek lake wasn’t very strong but every once in a while it would pick up and the board would start to leave a wake and that thing would start to haul! It was just enough to get a taste of how powerful this thing will be in strong winds and how challenging (and how much fun) it is going to be to get used to this board and learn to fly.

Today was about a 45 minute rigging overview, 45 minutes of instruction on the lake and then about another 2 hours of cruising around (mostly slowly) on the lake. I probably fell off the board about 10 times into the (very) chilly water and only once ended up under the sail as it smacked me on the head as I went down with the sail. Between the unseasonably cool tempertures and heavy rains lately, the lake water was really cold. Had the sun not been out, it would have been a bit to cold to be out without a wetsuit.

I’m also a big fan of sailing but haven’t had a chance to do to much of it lately. There is a Zuma sailboat that has yet to see water since it was acquired from a guy on Ebay and an old Snark sailboat also from Ebay that has been out a few times. The Snark is a blast and easy to sail. It looks like the same would be true for the Zuma and hopefully there will be an opportunity to find out this summer. It is however, much, MUCH easier to handle a small sailboat like those than windsurfing, at least after the first few windsurfing experiences.

All in all it was a great day to break out the board for the first time. Glenn definitely provided a windsuring setup with room to grow. The Mistral Prodigy with a 5.5 or 6.0 sail was definitely an easier board to learn on that felt a lot more stable. As the summer goes on, there should be a lot more windsurfing days ahead. If it goes really well, it may be time to invest in a wetsuit and continue the adventure into the fall when the weather starts to cool off.

If the weather holds out tomorrow, the wind is supposed to be a little bit stronger and another trip to Marsh Creek lake may be in order. If you’re into windsurfing or small boat sailing and live around here and go to Marsh Creek or are interested, leave a comment or send a note to adam at this domain name. Time to go check on the sail and see if it is dry and can be rolled up and put back in the sail bag.

With gas prices skyrocketing, it was only a matter of time till gas rage started to pop up along with road rage. Seems like the two could have a synergistic effect and things could get pretty ugly if the prices at the pump keep going up.

Just the other day, I witnessed the first incident of gas rage. I pulled up to the pump, cringed at the $3.70 or so per gallon I’d have to fork over and then heard somoene screaming in a rage. A gas rager! Boy was this guy pissed. Fuck the US government was the only thing I could make out but there were explitives directed at the politicians, the oil companies, the middle east and whoever else he could think of to lash out at. He’ll probably still vote for McCain.

Funny thing is that is was just spontaneous and there didn’t seem to be anyone he was venting at, just the gas pump. Of course he was driving a pickup truck so the thing probably cost a hundred bucks to fill up. We all knew the free ride wouldn’t last forever but most people didn’t bother to think ahead or prepare for the day when gas prices shot up. At least now there will be incntive for people to think about conserving things instead of continuing the gluttonous ways of the past.

On a trip to Argentina to ski Las Lenas in the Andes a few years ago, I had the opportunity to spend a week in Buenos Aires. Argentina has amazing leather products, beef, chocolate and culture. While waiting for a table at a restaurant along the great big river between Argentina and Uraguay, I was in a gift shop. They had the coolest leather hat and being the spendthrift I tend to be on vacations to places that might be a challenge to get back to, I got one. A nice brown leather Australian type cowboy hat. It was made by Lagomarsino Hats in Argentina. It was one of these - the Lagomarsino Sobrero Australiano

It got lots of great comments, was made very well and took a lot of abuse. After about 4 years of extensive use and sweat bands, it started to show a little more wear than was desirable and I started looking for a new one. The folks in Argentina at the factory didn’t seem to be interested in shipping to the US since they never answered numerous emails. I searched and searched and searched and finally came across Bencraft hats at www.bencraft.com. It said it was made in Argentina and looked like the leather hat I purchased in Argentina. I inquired if they had it in leather. They said yes. I talked to three diffeent people there and told them all I was looking for the brown leather hat from Lagomarsino. It took well over a week to ship from NY to Philadelphia and to get the suede hats shown on the Bencraft hats website. All this and they ship the wrong hats.

As soon as I got back from the PSIA National Academy, I emailed the guy who responded to the initial email inquiring about the leather version of the hat, oh yes, I think we have that one. I asked for a return shipping label and never heard from the guy again. Bencraft has nice hats and they were the real deal from Argentina but the service form that place sucks. Guess I’ll just give them away as presents or maybe wear one once in a while.

Fortunately, a couple weeks later the exact Lagomarsino leather hat I was looking for turned up on Ebay from N-FASHION-STYLES. While it hasn’t come yet, let’s hope they come through on the auction.

While they can be a real pain to track down, Lagomarsino Hats from Argentina makes extremely high quality hats, that look great and are very durable. They can add a unique stylish touch to any outfit and one of the various styles they offer is sure to go with most any outfit. Bencraft hats in New York is one of the few places I’ve found that carries Lagomarsino hats and while they do have good quality hats, I woudn’t buy anything from them without going up there to pick it up in person to make sure you are getting what they tell you you are getting.

Get a great hat - buy a Lagomarsino hat from Argentina!

Ever thought of taking a trip to Snowbird Utah to take advantage of the best powder skiing in the world? One option for lodging on your trip to Snowbird is the Cliff lodge at Snowbird. They claim renovations in the millions recently. How does it stack up? Keep reading to see some of my thoughts on the Cliff Lodge at Snowrbird Ski Resort in Utah.

I had the opportunity to stay at the Cliff lodge at Snowbird ski resort for the PSIA National Academy. I’ve skied all over the west coast and usually stayed in condos with a bunch of people packed in them. We often stay off the mountain and drive to a bunch of different resorts so this was a nice opportunity to stay on mountain, experience what was essentially ski in - ski out convenience and have a blast for a whole week at Snowbird!

Check in at the Cliff lodge was a breeze. They had my reservation, I picked up a couple keys and went up to a nice clean room. They don’t permit skis up in the room so I just left those at the bellstand and went to the room with all my other gear and feel asleep.

The bed was one of the most comfortable of any hotel bed I’ve ever experienced. It wasn’t quite like home with a pillow top mattress with a fether bed on top, 1200tc sheets and a body pillow but it was very nice!

As I guess is standard now, there was a nice flat screen TV in the room with cable. As with most TVs they make them kinda broken. You can’t often pug in a DVD player or video game console so that maybe you’ll get the pay per view or play per view in the case of games that the cable system offers. I think that is bullshit but it is a small gripe and not unusual. On the other handthey did offer FREE wireless Internet access that was really easy to get configured and working. Lots of places have it but many times it is a pain to get it to work and once you finally do get it to work they stick you for $10 - $15 a day. At the Cliff Lodge it was free and it worked!

In the room there were two beds, 2 desks, a couch, a mini fridge, a coffee maker, an iron and ironing board and the usual assortment of soap and shampoo. It would have been nice to have a microwave but that would have been an extra.

The bathroom was clean and had plenty of room. There was a big window into the shower from the sleeping area which seems more like something for a honeymoon sweet but I guess if you want to be able to watch your partner or roomate shower you have the option without having to get all steamed up (or if you do get steamed up it won’t be from the hot water in the shower).

The location of the Cliff lodge is excellent! When you check in you have a locker downstairs for your ski stuff. You keep your skis down there, set the combo to your locker and then pick up and leave your skis in the locker nd the begining and end of each day. It’s handy, it’s convenient and included with your room rate!

There are a number of restaurants in the Cliff. The Aerie at Snowbird is probably the best and most well known. They’ve got breakfast, lunch and dinner. The breakfat buffet is awesome and the sushi is some of the best I’ve ever had. There is a Mexican restaurant, El Chanate Cantina with happy hour taco specials and a nice selction of tequila for those who might want to forget a bad skiing day. There is also the Steak Pit down in the Tram building which is not that good and overpriced. The Wildflower in the Iron Blosam lodge which has great happy hours wing sometimes, a nice selction of drinks and some pool tables and live music. There are numerous other food and beverage establishments scattered around the various lodges to choose from as well.

After a long day on the slopes, a massage can be a great thing. If that sounds good, then head up the the Cliff Spa at Snowbird for a variety of spa and massage services. You can also get a spa membership for a day or longer. The multi-day passes are a pretty good deal. If you don’t opt for the spa, you can still enjoy outdoor hot tubs and a heated pool.

There are shops in the Cliff lodge and the Tram building. You’ll find a pharmacy, a grocery store, some souvenier shops, ski shops and a demo shop. Lift tickets can be purchased down by the locker room in the Cliff lodge or at the Tram building. Prices aren’t cheap but they are reasonable for a resort like Snowbird.

If you’re anticipating a long stay or are looking to kep the weight down for the airlines so you don’t get killed on bag/weight charges there are laundry facilities in the Cliff. There is a free washer and dryer on each floor; you just have to spend a buck or two on the detergent. If you go during peak season or the lodge is full, one washer/dryer would never be enough to have any hope of actually getting to use one so you could do some laundry in the sink in your room or pay the outrageous fees to have someone at Snowbird do some laundry for you.

The housekeeping service was friendly, efficient and didn’t come pounding on the door in the wee hours of the morning. They provided great service and never disturbed us during ther entire stay.

Overall if you are looking for a great place to stay at Snowbird, definitely check out the Cliff lodge. 4 out of 5 stars.