Traveling cheaply and intelligently April 6, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Links, Personal , 1 comment so far
Did you know that different credit card companies charge different fees for transactions abroad? I use credit cards as much as possible when I travel abroad. They’re more convenient, have historically had a good exchange rate, and are much safer than using a debit card or cash. (If you debit card number gets stolen, your bank has no obligation to refund you for your loss. Your credit card company, however, does.)
However, since 1999, banks have begun instituting foreign exchange fees on transactions abroad, ranging from 3% for Citibank cards down to 0% for Capital One (who absorbs the cost of the currency conversion). You could call each of your credit card companies to figure out their conversion fees, or you could check out the great site I just found, Flyerguide.
Flyerguide has info on all the rates charged by most credit cards and debit cards, as well as advice on Frequent Flyer programs, travel routes, hotels, and more. Turns out the 5% I get back on restaurants is enough to overcome Citibank’s additional fees, but the 2% I get back on groceries isn’t and I should keep using my credit union card at the grocery stores. A frugal frequent flyer - that’s me!
Your thoughts?Make your own dinner date April 3, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Life, the universe, and everything, Links, Personal , 2 comments
While in Phoenix I happened to stumble across The Meal Factory. I walked in the front door and assumed I was in a restaurant supply house, but it turns out that it’s actually a place where you can come with a date and prepare your own gourmet meal. All the ingredients are prepared ahead of time, and the staff takes care of the cleanup.
You and your date stand next to each other at a little countertop, get cozy and make your meal together, and then eat it together while someone else cleans up the mess you made. Such a better date idea than dinner and a movie.
What makes it amusing is that you can also choose to have the staff prepare the entire meal for you at no extra charge. Great deal, right? Design a restaurant where people cook their own food and people are thrilled to have the option to have someone cook for them. I want to see a restaurant where you go in, sit down, order your food, and the waiter asks, “Hey, how’d you like to come back and cook it yourself?”
Your thoughts?Flirting for math geeks March 20, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Links , 26 comments
Ah, I remember spending years as a dateless engineer. Sometimes the only way to keep from crying was being able to laugh about it.
Featured in my high school newspaper February 27, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Beauty and the Geek, Links , 3 comments
I was featured in my high school’s student newspaper, Silver Chips.
Your thoughts?During his four years in the Magnet, he was a Presidential Scholar nominee and a National Advanced Placement Scholar who earned perfect SAT scores. “My time in the Blair Magnet taught me to push my own limits,” he said. “It also made me a big geek.”
It’s not your height, or your hair, or your glasses… February 19, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Links, Other , 8 comments
My friend Eric at ApproachAnxiety.com had a recent post about physical limitations in dating and pickup. He included a moving passage from Short Person Support:
All men, at some point in life, get hurt. The majority of men get rejected. Most men get turned down by women, or left by women. Most men get rejected by a potential employer. All men struggle, at some point in life, in some way, irrespective of their height. Life is a struggle. Chances are however, if you are a short man, your shortness will be the reason you attribute to every attempt that you fail, and every hurt that you feel. The reason for this is simple. At some point in your history, your height was the reason that something went wrong. And after that, it was the easiest thing to blame. It may have stopped you asking the real questions that you should have been asking yourself. You were blinded by your height. But you were crippled, helpless, because your height was the one thing you couldn’t change.
People who feel helpless cannot help themselves, because, well, they are helpless. They are isolated, alone. And the short man, faced with this predicament, in a world in which he cannot speak about his problem, can become his own worst enemy. Introversion and self doubt set in. The short man can find himself locked in a prison, largely of his own making, though not through his own fault. The short man can only start the process of self fulfillment, and of liberation, when he can face the fact that other factors may have been involved. Bizarrely enough, he may have to start questioning himself on many other, more legitimate levels.
It’s so easy to blame your shortcomings on things you have no control over. “It’s worthless to try to improve myself because I’m too short to get the women I want.” “Men will never appreciate me because I’m so tall.” We come up with all kinds of creative excuses to avoid doing that which we fear - taking a good look at our own shortcomings and actively working to improve them.
I’ve worked with a student whose face, despite several surgeries, remained “unusual”-looking. And he had more heart and more balls than anyone else I’ve ever worked with. He approached girls in situations that would have intimidated instructors and ended up in great conversations. He’s my hero, and if I hear anyone blaming their relationship problems on being too short or too bald, I’m going to punch them in the face.
Your thoughts?