One place I have always wanted to visit was France. I had an opportunity once to go to France and Spain for a summer, but I couldn’t gather tha $1200 in time. After that Jay and I decided we would go on our own, but I can guess it will be considerably more expensive when not part of a tour. I really envy those who get to backpack through Europe for a year or so.

I don’t know anything about getting a hotel in France, but I imagine it’s much like getting one in America. There are websites where you can book online, and that’s how I prefer to do it anyway. I’m a little scared about all the price differences and such, it seems like there’s a real learning curve your first time out of the states. The only time I have ever gone to another country is Canada.

I think if I were to go to France I would have to get my hotel in Paris. Although, the Nice hotels do seem to be a bit cheaper. I took French for 5 years in school but I’d be lucky to remember anything about the country itself. That kind of bothers me, too, because all through school I was learning how to speak this language and learning nothing about the country, its culture, or its people.

Have you ever been to France? Was it amazing?

I like to play in the online casino to get my mind off things. Sometimes I’ll have a lot of things to do and a little distraction can help me put them into order. I like to play online casino games that offer a bonus to start with and then I’ll usually stop playing when the funds are gone.

OnlineCasinoBluebook.com is a great site to help you find the top casino websites. They list their top 10, including information on payout % and the bonus that they offer. The top website they show offers a $888 bonus! Wow. Usually, though, the top casino sites will offer around $100. That’s a lot to help you get going.

The thing I like about Online Casino Bluebook is their lists. They don’t just show the top rated and their reviews, but they also have links for different types of casinos. They have a link right at the top for No Deposit Casino, which I prefer. I don’t like playing on websites where you have to put the money in first to play.

Before you play, check out the Online Casino Bluebook for ratings and reviews.

One thing I love about the internet is that you can find anything. Just go to Google and type in what you need. Unfortunately, because some companies have more money than others, you may need to get to page 5 or higher to find the information you need. However, this post isn’t about Google, it’s about Tobi.

You all know about the new online boutique, Tobi. Quite a few blogs have articles about the company and their wonderful velvet apparel, their stylish site, and their live customer chat. But you know me, dare to be different. I spent about a half hour searching this site and Google for an affiliate program. I can tell this company is going to be big and I wanted to get in on it. I didn’t find anything, but what I did find was a discount page that does include some of  their velvet clothes.

If you’re not into velvet clothing, they do have a great selection of other clothes. It seems like all you ever see around is people talking about the velvet, like it’s going out of style. Was it ever in style? Tobi is bringing back the 80’s and some of the clothes are just ‘wow’. Some make me want to throw eggs at the person wearing them.

Shop at Tobi, but choose wisely.

Can you personalize news? Can you have a news site that can guess what your readers want to see and deliver it? Some would say so. Thoof is attempting to do just that. Thoof lists news from various blog sites (like yours?). Upon entering the front page you see a list of the most recent blog posts from random writers. I’ll admit, they are interesting and well written, which is nice to see. Such a nice change..

Thoof offers no explanation of their personalized news service, leaving you to assume or to join and try and figure it out on your own. But through the wonderment of ‘cookies’, signing up may not even be necessary. The sign up is a simple text form asking for your email address, to which I assume you’ll have to confirm. Then what? I don’t know, I don’t like handing out my email address willy-nilly. I want more. I want to know what I’m getting myself into before the barrage of spam comes.

Handy is their FAQ, however, not as friendly as an ‘About Us’ page. The FAQ explains what they do and why, if you’re interested in reading about a site through a bulleted system. Not I.

To me, this site is like a bit of a mix between Digg and Stumble. Very clever. To make it in today’s blog world you need to be inventive. Or if all else fails, innovative.

Today I was in the store and I saw a new game that struck my interest. It was a game created by my favorite company as a spin-off to one of my favorite games. I really wanted to get the game until I glanced at the price. $60?! For a game? What if the game is terrible? That’s about the point where you sit in the store for 20 minutes trying to figure out if it’s worth it. I decided to come home and look up a review on the game first, get an idea what others thought of it.

I came across a review for the game on Critics Rant, a website that lets you review movies, dvd’s, and games. I learned from others who had played the came (and it’s predecessor) that it didn’t meet expectations and probably was better off as a rental. For the same purpose I decided to look up a movie I wanted to see, because they have movie reviews as well. The movie got a great review but I learned a bit more than I wanted to prior to seeing the movie.

They review and update you on TV shows as well. So if you’ve missed an episode of your favorite show you can find out about it on Critics Rant. I don’t watch TV much, but for those of you who live your lives around them should find this handy.

A new online trend is paid-to-post blogging. Some people out there take advantage of the system and create blogs for just this reason (and waste your money) but if you can find a decent blogger it can actually be very helpful to your website.

Blog advertising is not new, but it has become very big lately. What you do is sign up with a service that connects advertisers and bloggers. Set up your site and give some basic info for your review, then you’re on your way. Most blogs don’t ask for much in return for their praise and you gain more than just word of mouth. A wonderful side-effect is gaining page rank by having more sites link to you.

On the other hand, if you’re a blogger, you can earn money on your website by reviewing companies, websites, or products. It’s actually a great way to gain content for your blog if you choose offers that are relative to your topic.

Hey, maybe you can afford a slightly more expensive  and reliable host *wink* for your blog.