Twanis

Dog skull

2012-01-24T22:20:00.001-08:00

Its hard living with a Vet student, when she leaves her bones and pieces of specimens around. The pets around the house don’t seem to mind it at all.

Internet is full of cats, here is my contribution

2011-07-17T22:18:00.001-07:00

It seems like no matter where you look online, you will find cats everywhere, people like to look at cute pictures of cats and so cats have become super popular online, not sure what is so special about cats in particular, but I got a few cat pictures here because apparently you can never have too many cat pictures online, enjoy:

This guys is looking a little bit freaky, and a little fat, someone gave too much food to this cat, he should hit the gym or join weight watches.

Well I guess he didn’t appreciate my weight watchers comment.

Are you talking to me?

Franklin Chang-Diaz at NASA 360

2010-11-29T21:55:00.001-08:00

This NASA 360 video shows, starting at minute 14:30, an interview with Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz. I recommend watching the entire video, but if you just want to know more about Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ad Astra Rocket, and VASIMR, you should definitely watch this last section of the video.

Flying Snakes

2010-11-23T19:37:00.001-08:00

Here is a new and interesting aerodynamic concept given to us by our mother nature. Maybe one day we will use this concept to create new technologies of flight

FYI: I don’t want for Christmas (NSFW)

2009-12-10T23:01:00.001-08:00

If you don’t now what to get someone for Christmas make sure you don’t get them this thing from sony.

What beer to drink this winter

2009-12-10T22:20:00.001-08:00

Should be a no brainer and it also should be in your Santa's list

Surfing Secret Beach

2009-09-30T20:48:00.001-07:00

We got a crew together to go surfing a secret beach, very fun trip and the waves are nice too mostly left waves but still fun, any waves is better than no wave at all :).

We started early morning on Saturday late September, and we got very lucky with the weather and swell,

check out the video and let me know if you like it.

Auto Insurance

2009-09-13T23:35:00.001-07:00

If you own and drive a car, auto insurance is something you have to deal with. I have been paying for car insurance for about 4 consecutive years now and it has always been with GEICO. However, in the last year, with all the advertisement on TV, I started getting worry about whether or not I was getting a good deal with GEICO. When it came time for me to renew my policy, I decided to get quotes from the major auto insurance companies to see which one can provide me with the lowers possible rate and best customer service. I decided to call PROGRESSIVE, ALLSTATE, and GEICO on a Friday night staring at 10 pm standard pacific time.

The first company I called was PROGRESSIVE. I had a friendly representative helping me on the phone in less than 5 minutes. After providing my personal information and the vehicle information, I was given a quote of $443 for a six month coverage. Even though the service and attention on the phone was great, the rate was a little high.

The second company I called was ALLSTATE. I had to wait on the phone for about 10 or 15 minutes. Finally when I got someone on the line, I was told that the sales department was close and I was advice to call back the following day during business hours. Not wanting to give up, I try to get a quote on the website. After providing all the required information, I was given a quote of $347 for a six month coverage. Even though the customer service was not great, the quote was almost $100 cheaper than PROGRESSIVE.

Finally, I called my current insurance company, GEICO. Within 5 minutes I had a friendly representative helping me on the phone. The dollar amount due to renew my current policy was $324. I told the representative that I wanted to make sure I had the lowest rate they can provide me with because I was looking into other insurance companies. After she updated my information to make sure my policy was already the lowest and that I had all the discounts that apply to me, I found out that because I was a member of one of the organizations listed here, I had an extra 8 % discount that I was not taking to my advantage yet. With this additional discount, my six month coverage with GEICO ended up being about $299.

The numbers speak by themselves. I decided to renew my policy with GEICO. I understand that policies vary widely for different individuals and different situations. However, I urge you to call companies, get quotes, and talk to your current auto insurance provider to see how you can lower your current rate. You might be surprise about what you find out and you will save some money at the end.

Surfing In Newport Oregon

2009-09-09T22:44:00.001-07:00

We went on a little surfing trip down to Newport Oregon and surf the jetty at Sunset Beach State Park, pretty nice day to be surfing but after 3 hours of surfing on my 4/3 wetsuit my foot went numb and it was time for me to get out, lucky for my brothers who rented some very thick 5/4 wetsuits at Ocean Pulse Surfshopt in Newport Oregon.

We Loaded the my bro’s little car and headed down to the beach, the weather was very nice but water temp was about 47 F.

We dint's get good pictures of the surf but we manage to catch a few fun waves, even some wall rides, oh and the boat in the background is jut fine.

These guys where cheering for us :)

The next day lots of people where surfing the other spot just north of Newport

Some people got some decent waves.

Deep Fry That!

2009-09-07T21:00:00.001-07:00

In mathematics, negative times a negative is a positive. Too bad the same is not true for food. Here is an example of a negative type of cooking style times a negative food choice which results in an even more negative type of snack. The taste of it might be ok, but it is certainly not good for your heath.

Dakine Traction pads, quick video

2009-09-06T18:01:00.001-07:00

Here a quick video about Dakine traction pads for surfboards, very practical and useful pads for your surfboard, in this video I show you 2 very similar Dakine traction pads, but with a very small difference beside the color.

CNBC: How I Made My Millions

2009-02-18T22:51:00.001-08:00

Cool and inpiring video of how some people made their millions

Save Money by Using a Credit Card the Smart way

2009-02-01T16:34:00.001-08:00

I used to to think that credit cards were a bad a idea for anyone, at least anyone who doesn't needed the money. I never used a credit card for anything up until recently. And the reason I didn't use a credit card in the past was because of a simple reason, I never had the need to borrow money to buy my stuff. And credit cards would be the last place I would go to borrow money, just because all credit cards have very high interest rates. So I usually had enough money in my checking account that I never had to used credit, I used to pay everything with a debit card, which automatically deducts the money from my checking account so I never owed anything to anybody as long as I had enough money to pay for my purchases in my checking account.

A few months ago I found out that my debit card bank gives me 0.25 % back for every dollar I spend using the debit card, and in deed I had about $35 in rewards for all the money that I spent using the debit card. So I cashed in the rewards and started thinking, about all those credit cards that give that gives you back more percentage for the purchased you made on the credit cards.

After researching several credit car companies, I went online to www.chase.com and they have plenty of credit cards to choose from, I wanted to go with one that will give me the most cash back and that would be easy to pay online. After browsing a few I decided to go with Chase Freedom, this credit card gives me 3% cash back for every dollar spend on eligible grocery stores, gas stations and quick service restaurants (That is 11 times more of what my regular debit card was giving me) and any other purchases anywhere else would give me a 1% cash back.

After selecting the card and filling some information, I was surprise to find out I was approved right there on the spot and didn't need to send any mail to the credit card company, I just hit the submit button and got back an immediate response saying that my application was approved and my credit card will arrive in 2 weeks.

Sure enough 2 weeks later I got my Chase Freedom credit card, I called the number on the credit car and activated the credit car, then went online with the credit card number to open an online account where I could manage my credit card balances and payments etc. the process was super easy, and i am very satisfied.

2 Important things to Remember when getting The Chase Credit Card

The chase freedom credit card allows you to choose your rewards mechanism as cash back or points that you can redeem for gifts at any point in time. I choose cash back because I would rather have the cash than any other gift since cash is more convenient.
The chase freedom credit card came with this "Payment Protector plan" which is an optional amendment to the credit card agreement. Basically if your get into a situation that qualifies as financial hardship (such as involuntarily unemployed, hospitalized, or disable, Military reserve etc), then you will not be required to make the minimum monthly payment up to 2 years and it will not affect your credit rating. And this optional plan has a fee cost of 89 cents per $100 of your ending monthly statement balance which will be billed to you credit card, when there is no balance there is no charge. You have 30 days to cancel this optional amendment to get full refund of any fees paid, if you cancel this after 30 days, any fees that you paid for the plan will not be refunded.
Credit card companies are in the business to make money not to loose money, they use the concept of cash back, so that everytime you buy something with the credit card, you get to think of how much cash back you will get as opposed to how much you are spending, if you get into this habbit, you will overlook the value of the purchase and then you will get in to the Credit Card Trap.

I got the credit card just to get 1% and 3% cash back from my purchases, that otherwise I would buy using my debit car and would have gotten only 1/4% cash back. I fully intent to pay my credit card balance in full every month so i get charge effectively zero interest and get the cash back of my purchases.

With this credit card the worst I can do is 1% cash back which means that for every $100 Dollars I spend using the credit card, the credit card company will give me 1% of the $100 dollars back or $1 dollar. Now the way i am using the credit card is to get money back and nothing else, since I don't need to borrow the money because i have spending money in my checking account. So if you are using the credit card just for the same purpose, I recommend you to do what I did, after you receive your credit card in the mail call the phone number in the card immediately and make sure you cancel the payment protector plan. I know i am not going to need this protector plan and besides if you don't cancel this "protector plan", they will charge you 89 cents per every $100 dollars and thus reducing your cash back rate from $1 dollar to 11 cents per $100 of spending.

It hasn't been a month yet, and I've already spend over $600 using my new credit card, and I've only spend on things I need and use like gasoline, restaurants and groceries, nothing fancy here, and so far the I have accumulated $9.9 dollars from the cash back of my purchases. So lets say my usual spending per months is about the same every month and I get get $10 every month cash back, that's $120 per year, it might not seem much but its $120 dollars that I can use for something else and put them to work. The cool thing is that I would had not been able to save this money using a regular debit card.

According to Chase, once my dollars cash back gets to be $50 or greater i can request a Check for the dollar amount, and if the cash back gets to be $200 they will cut me a check for $250. I haven't receive any money yet but once i get my first check I'll let you guys know.