This is for all you workoholics who’ve never been to Europe and can’t seem to find the time off. Here’s a quick 8 day trip to London and Paris for only $599. That’s right $599 for flight, hotel, and breakfast. 3 days in London and 3 in Paris. Hope you find this link useful, I know you’ll find it tempting.

http://www.travel-ticker.com/details.jsp?encId=1l90sx6hcb5uhf5n3u7g

I’m trying to get a group together to climb Kilimanjaro. The bigger the group, the cheaper the trip. Of the guide groups I’m looking at, they’re all certified and have a good track record. They also cover a night’s stay in a hotel before and after the trip if necessary.
I want to summit on the full moon of Jan 19th if possible but as of yet, cannot find a group already going at that time. So I turn to you faithful travelers. Will you answer the call?

Check out more info about my trip on GlobeTrooper.  You can join the trip from there as well.

Hey all.  My friend Haddie suggested I enter the American Airlines Road Warrior contest the other day.  I had meant to enter it when I saw it on a plane, but forgotten.  So thanks, Hads for reminding me.

It got me thinkin.  I’ve always wanted to enter contests like writing contests, apply for the Amazing Race or Price is Right or what not.  So I’m going to do one contest submission a month for the rest of the year.  I know, that’s not much, but I’ve got to be realistic.  If it’s too easy, I’ll step it up.  Now I could pick my own contests OR I could have you, the reader, suggest some.  I swear I will enter any contest which is commented directly on this post on my site www.zachstravels.com.  It can be any game show, writing contest, video challenge, sweepstakes, whatever you have to enter to win, I will do it.  So comment away and may the games begin!

Can you guess which finger I was using to point this out?

If you’re a big blogger like myself or just do a lot of typing and have one of these messed up netbooks or laptops that got totally overlooked by the ergonomics committee, this app is for you!

First of all, let me say that a touch pad should be lined up with the LEFT side of the spacebar.  That is where the hands will naturally NOT be while typing.  Instead, many of them have the touch pad centered to the laptop, which makes no sense, cause the optical illusion created by the keyboard makes it look off center anyway!

The problem I run into is I’m typing a long paragraph which is typical cause I’m a talker and suddenly I’ll notice I’m typing on the paragraph before cause the freakin mouse pointer was up there and the touch pad got clicked.  I did a simple search to find this application, but it’s been such a lifesaver and head ache preventer.  Basically, as soon as you hit a keystroke, it disables the touch pad and then turns it back on shortly after you’re done.  It works marvelously.  The crazy thing is my computer is supposed to have one of these ALREADY built in, but it seems to almost completely do nothing.  This program on the other hand, called Touch Freeze works beautifully.  I totally recommend.  Now go DL, my droogs!

Download Touch Freeze here: http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/auto-disable-mouse-touchpad-when-typing/

I just got a comment from Regal Literary about a book giveaway they are doing. Among the books, are some copies of Shantaram which I’ve hailed as one of the most emotive books I’ve read. It is truly a fantastic book and gives you a look inside a world you could never know yourself. Below are some highlights of the give away. I strongly encourage you to get your hands on this book. It’s really an amazing story.

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Free books!

Regal Literary is moving and we are sharing some extra books through our Regal Literary Book Giveaway. This week we’re giving away two copies of Gregory David Roberts’ international bestseller SHANTARAM.

SHANTARAM, which the Sydney Morning Herald described as “dazzling” and “gloriously audacious,” follows Lin, an escaped convict who arrives in Bombay with a fake name, little means, and no plans for the future. Lin’s journey through illegal slums, dangerous escapades, and love, are made only the more compelling by the fact that the author, Gregory David Roberts, like Lin, was sentenced to nineteen years in prison only to escape in broad daylight.

Enter at http://www.regal-literary.com/summergiveaway/shantaram/

We’re also giving away:
• Signed copies of The RZA’s The Tao of Wu
• Very rare signed copies of John Twelve Hawks’ Fourth Realm Trilogy (The Traveler, The Dark River, and The Golden City)
• Carl Hoffman’s The Lunatic Express
• Dallas Hudgens’ Season of Gene
Register at http://www.regal-literary.com/summergiveaway/

Okay, maybe ‘killing’ was simply a strong word to be provocative, but Facebook is reducing the amount of event posts I put on my blog. For instance, I wanted to write a whole blog post about my trip to LA and visiting friends and the Big Beach BBQ Bash but then realized that all the pics had already been posted on facebook so what was the point? Now we’ve just gone to Vegas and the same thing is occurring! These are awesome trips dammit! worthy of being published on the blog. I suppose I’ll have to build up and force myself to blog about them anyway. Otherwise I could forget! and no one wants that!

The more I hear about this Last AirBender movie, the more I hate M. Night Shyamalan. I’ve never really liked his movies to start. Sixth Sense was obviously a fluke in that it is good. Unbreakable was okay but every other movie he’s made has either been awful or clearly not what was intended, ie: the Village.  Every time I’ve seen him in interview, he has an air of smug arrogance I don’t like, especially if his movies suck.  If James Cameron were as smug, I would have no problem with it, but ShyMelon?  This only fuels my hatred.

Now, he’s done the ultimate sacrilege and destroyed an awesome animated story.  The show Avatar: the Last Airbender is amazingly awesome.  It’s only 3 seasons long, but in my experience, things which are built with an ending in mind are always MUCH better then ongoing programs.  So def watch the tv show.  DO NOT by any means see the Airbender movie!

I have seen the movie and it is quite possibly one of the worst movies ever.  There is literally ZERO character development.  Everything that happens in the story, you’re just told through voice over narration.  The acting is pretty horrible, but I really can’t blame them as the script is just impossible to connect with.  Plus, with a director like Shymelon, how do you contrive your motivation.  Other quality actors have been accused of bad acting in Shymelon movies in the past and the only link is the director himself.  In the end credits, he has the gall to have his name as one of the first names up credited as “written, directed, produced by…”  Seeing as he did i guess EVERYTHING on this film, it’s no wonder it sucks ass!

Now, there’s accusations that his casting was racist.  I don’t know if I believe that much, but I do agree that the casting was pretty awful.  The look just wasn’t right for the film.  He also changed the story line a great deal, for the worse of course.  Lastly, he changed the names of some of the characters for no reason.  It’s really annoying.  it’s like he didn’t even watch the cartoon.  sigh, okay i digress.

I love the cartoon Airbender, but I still hope they don’t make another one of these movies.  It is so bad, it’s difficult to even describe it to you.  The special effects don’t come close to making up for the rest of the film.  I’ll end with please, DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE!

I was recently made aware of a great project for kids called the Fresh Air Fund. It gets inner city kids out in the open country for some activities, fun and a little fresh air. They need families to open up their homes and hearts to host kids to see what the great outdoors are all about. Check out their site here: www.freshair.org.

They also need donations and sponsors.  I’m a firm believer that getting kids out of the hectic chaos of a city and away from their many mobile devices will help them stop, calm themselves, and really take a look around and inside to see what really matters to them.  It’s a very important program and I hope yall will help out. 

It’s “spring” time and as a result, the roommates decided to take it upon themselves to clean out the fridge and pantry.  Something that really needed to be done!  And I thank them immensely!  In the process, Spokes found a box of Betty Crocker Angel Food Cake Mix.  Granted, such mixes probably never die and we never did find an expiration date.  In fact, we could probably still cook with it, if any of us did any baking that is.  But we did find one item of alarm on the side of the box.  It was an offer for and Angel Food cake pan, what really struck us is when the offer expired.  Check it out:

That’s right!  This box had a coupon which expired in May of 1993!  This not only means that it’s old, but it means that SOMEONE who has been a renter of mine previously and no longer lives in the house, not only never used it but moved in with it, transferring it from who knows how many different old living locations over a period of more then 15 years!  To put it in perspective, I was in about the 6th grade when this cake mix was boxed.

Amazing what you can find in your own kitchen!

Many of you probably already know that I have written a book called Visions: Xandra’s Story.  Just want to update all of you that the manuscript has been delivered to an editor, who’ll be sending me edits by chapter over the next few weeks.  After that, it will be ready for publishing.  I’ve already finished the cover, but I’ll still call it a working cover until it’s on the book.  I’ll keep you updated.  I’m hesitant to get excited until I really get to the ending leg of this whole process, but oh what the hell, I’m excited!