Indianapolis is My Home

09
Jan

College Students Can Get Office 2007 Ultimate for $59.95!!!

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Colleges, Shopping, Students

Just a quick post to highlight a great deal I just stumbled across and wrote about on my Microsoft Weblog website.

If you’re a college student or know one that needs Microsoft Office 2007, then check out this post on how to get the $700 Office Ultimate edition for less than $60.

College Students Can Get Office 2007 Ultimate for $59.95!!!

13
Dec

Gasoline Per Gallon Price Tag of Pain

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Areas, Business, Education, Government, Politics, Shopping

At one point the image above seemed funny. Now I’d just about give my arm and a leg for a gallon of regular gas to only be $1.72.

I had an interesting discussion with my boss over lunch the other day. It centered around the following question:

“How much would gas have to cost for purchasing it to be painful enough to change your behavior?”

Right now gas is averaging about $3/gallon in Indianapolis.

• Have you changed your driving behavior?
• Has it even crossed your mind?

What if gas were $5/gallon?

• Would you start driving less?
• Would you stay home more?
• Would you put a for sale sign on your SUV and start looking at alternative fuel vehicles?
• Would you start asking friends about car-pooling?
• Would you start demanding public transportation options to be made available to you?

My boss suggested that we immediately at a tax to every gallon of gas that would bring the price to a painful threshold for the average person. The money collected from the additional tax would be used to start funding the building of mass public transportation and to research and further develop alternative fuel vehicles.

He said it’s got to be an immediate change-over and not a gradual increase so that we immediately feel the pain and start looking for solutions. Think about lifestyle. If you’re currently spending $150 a month on gas for your car, would spending $300 force you to do something different? Would the change you make just involve cutting out other expenses so you really wouldn’t have to change your driving habits?

What if this change encouraged the widespread change in our community that would push the development of commercially connected neighborhoods again? If you could actual walk to your grocery store, bank, drug store and hardware store. Would you stop driving? I would.

What if we built smaller schools and they were more widespread so that 70% of the students were walking to school and reduced the fleet of gas guzzling buses to just a few.

What would it take for you to change?

30
Nov

CNBC Interview

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Business, News, Shopping

It was a pretty interesting day for me today. Actually yesterday was more interesting, but the world got to hear about it today.

I also write for Microsoft Weblog on the b5media network. I had written a post recently about my experience with my Xbox 360 getting the red-light-ring-of-death and was contacted by a producer for CNBC to be interviewed.

They filmed the interview yesterday and various segments aired today about the widespread ring-of-death problem among Xbox 360 consoles.

If you’ve got an Xbox 360, you might be interested in visiting the Microsoft Weblog and reading some of my other posts about the problem, as well as seeing clips from the CNBC report about the problems.

Pretty cool experience.

22
Nov

Stay Away from Best Buy Tonight

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Business, Shopping

I’m not one for shopping. My idea of shopping is looking online and getting all the information I need for a product. Many times now I’ll purchase online as well unless I can’t get free shipping or can’t wait for the item to get to me. The only thing worse than shopping is shopping during the Christmas season. The only thing worse than Christmas shopping is shopping on the day after Thanksgiving.

This evening I’ll be going into uncharted territory. Best Buy has a “doorbuster” special tomorrow for a Toshiba laptop and Canon printer for $229. My wife has been asking for a new laptop for months and this is probably going to be about the best opportunity for me to get one at a price that’s I can almost afford. There’s only one challenge.

I’ve come to the conclusion by what store associates and others have said that I need to plan on being there this evening by 1:00am at the latest to get my spot in line. At 3am, an associate will come out and start handing out tickets for the “doorbuster” items. Limit 1 ticket per customer per item.

Last night my in-laws exchanged names among our family members. I told the person who drew my name (my brother-in-law) that all he had to do for me for Christmas was to go stand in line for me. Lucky for him and not for me, he’s driving to West Virginia this evening instead.

Wish me luck, or let me know if you’d be interested in standing in line for me instead.

21
Nov

Holiday Traffic Warning

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Greenwood, News, Shopping

One of my least favorite times of the year is now close. No, it’s not Thanksgiving or Christmas, it’s the shopping season mayhem. Here’s a little bit of a warning to those that will be shopping around the south side over the coming weeks.

Red Light-Runners Beware: Indy Cops Watching: Enforcement Zones Target High-Risk Intersections

Eyes will be fixed on drivers who run red lights at some of the busiest intersections in Marion County, just as the busy holiday season gets into gear.

Police in Marion County are launching a new partnership which will put officers on the street in special enforcement zones to crack down on people who run red lights and commit other traffic offenses, 6News’ Julie Pursley reported.

Stop 11 Road at U.S. 31 South, just north of Greenwood Park Mall, is one of the target enforcement zones because it is designated as one of the most dangerous intersections in the county.

I can attest to this as I ran an “orange” light in this intersection a number of months back as I was trying to make it to the Kerasotes 16 theater to see the movie “300″ with a friend. $180 bucks, and I still missed the movie because Fandango screwed up my reservation as well and Kerasotes didn’t have it in their system. Most expensive movie I’ve ever NOT seen in my life!

Motorists who get pulled over in the high crash zones should expect to get a ticket.

“Officers are on zero tolerance. They are being paid overtime,” said Don Bickel, of the Marion County Traffic Safety Partnership.

Police agencies are teaming up to try to cut down on the number of accidents and fatalities at intersections.

People who work near 31 and Stop 11 said the area is notorious for accidents because drivers are in a hurry.

“That light gets ran all of the time,” said Craig Niehaus, manager of a nearby Jiffy Lube. “I’ve been here going on three years there have been four (crashes) since I’ve been here.”

Five other areas, considered high-crash intersections, will also be targeted. Those intersections are:

86th Street at Keystone Avenue Washington Street at Mitthoeffer Road Lafayette Road at Georgetown Road High School Road at Crawfordsville Road 79th Street at Michigan Road

Enforcement zones will be set up in those areas, and police will also be on the lookout for other violations.

On Tuesday morning, a man was ticketed for driving on a suspended license when he was stopped for a seat belt violation.

AAA Hoosier Motor Club is joining the partnership to get the word out that the crackdown is not about officers writing tickets, but is about saving lives.

“We’re all working together to try to emphasize that people need to pay attention,” said Greg Seiter, of AAA. “They need to adhere. They need to slow down and take their time.”

Several enforcement zones are near major malls. Police will patrol them heavily during the busy shopping period, but enforcement is expected to continue into next year.

Save yourself some money and some mayhem and do your shopping online this year.

Source: Red Light-Runners Beware: Indy Cops Watching on WTHR