My fortune cookie from yesterday, so grateful!

It sure has been a very interesting ride, this blogging thing. It is taking a lot of my time for sure and I can manage…so far. Thank you for all the comments, encouragement, feedback, and rants directed at me (so honored!). I welcome and appreciate them all. I promised a mega rant but I just don’t have the time to sit down and get it out of my system at once. If you read the blog comments you can catch glimpses of where I am coming from. I need to finish each day’s post which does not leave much time for any extra rants:-) They will come of course, we specialize in them here at TBB. Having mini rants is just so much more conveeenient you know!

Sometimes my commentary may be taken the wrong way. I am sorry for that…well, no I am not! LEARN from it you bloggers!  Embrace the criticism; heck,…criticize ME! I found this and paste it here:

Be grateful for criticism.

At least someone cares enough to want you to improve: your product, your service, your work.

You only need to worry when no one cares enough to criticize you.

Criticism creates an opportunity. Embrace it.

I LOVE this hobby and the travel experiences that has afforded me and my family along with the friendships. The industry has grown enough and SHOULD attract some criticism! Even though my kind of criticism is mostly done to create some laughs along the way, sometimes I lose control and go on ranting about,well, you know, things that bother me. My therapist loves it and I must agree it feels so…therapeutic!  If you do not like it, do not read me or tell me you do not like it and do not read me or call me some names, I frankly don’t give  a damn! Or, PLEASE critique me with some logical arguments. As long as you do not take it personally, perhaps we could learn from each other and try to improve the community. Calling vulgar names & pure personal attacks is just not a nice thing to do, you do look like a jack ass when you do that and we are all sorry for you. Maybe it is YOU who needs the therapist;-) But, hey it is the internet, where everything goes and that’s the cold reality.

Bottom line is this: This is MY blog and I can write whatever the hell I want. Last time I checked we live in the USA and not North Korea (what an idiotic comparison!). I have said repeatedly that I should not be taken seriously. You blogger may not like what I write, it may hurt a little…but try to keep your ego down & be a good sport about it. I DO link now back to your site and DO drive traffic back to you so a simple thanks for a small % of your income coming from ads (cough) and credit card apps will be nice…Ok, that was a joke, COME down!

Okay, enough editorial crap, you are probably bored to death, let’s have some fun!

I received an email from the US Mint titled: “The U.S. Mint wants your opinion on new products” – Sadly it was all collectibles coin crap.

15 HotelsFor The Trip Of A Lifetime Some interesting hotels on this list.

MMS goes on Jetskis in Bora Bora
As I went to Moorea and Tahiti several years ago, the pics brought memories again. I also see continued progress, from 13 pics down to 5, yes! I still do not get why you need to be in almost every picture but hey, it’s your blog! I am just telling you how I feel about it. You can take it, you are a good sport. Beautiful place, expensive as hell, nice to visit once. Very nice waters but I tell ya, the water in the Greek Isles in the summer time is almost as good and much (especially now) cheaper! And no I did not get a paid gig from the Greek Tourism Ministry…they don’t have any money to pay anyway lol.

I enjoyed the “Tales from a Star Mega DO” by Mommy Points. Two things stand out that I noticed and remembered by my participation in SMD2. Doing the international portion AND the domestic portion is grueling, she perfectly captures this! Lots of them youngsters have no problem but I remember my body was not cooperating with the jet lag/sleep deprivation/beverages effect. I understand you Mommy! The other one was the focus group. I remember participating in a focus group at the Lufthansa headquarters. My suggestion to can Channel 9 was met with loud boos and threats for my physical safety. I quickly realized these aviation geeks are dead serious about their Channel 9 and I swore I will never ever make a joke about Channel 9 again in my life!

If there is an Australian flying God, it is Will. This kid is a flying maniac. Webster dictionary has his picture next to Flyaholic! Here he is with his hands full, we salute you, we are not worthy, we are not worthy!  Jamison ( @jamucsb on twitter) at the comments added cleverly: “Remember whatever you did at the MEGA-DO, stays at the MEGADO!!!”[ Good one!]

I wanted to give my friend Rick a free pass but I just can’t. The editorial board at TBB is brutal, its motto “We call it as we see it”. So my friend Rick helps a 23 year old college grad get a credit card. Noble, we have all done it, Rick has been doing this for many years even before the mega aff cc $$$ started rolling in. So far so good right? You are all with me. Good. Now here is where I personally have issues with such activity! Is this person “organized” enough to handle all the requirements of using a mileage earning cc? Come on, we all know people who get overwhelmed if they had a second card or kept credit cards longer than a year or simply have no idea how many credit cards they have and which drawer they are in! Has this peson demonstrated good spending habits? Does this person have other debt, good reliable income, an emergency fund because, you know, shit happens in life when you least expect it? As lots of money habits are formed in childhood, I will even bet that this person has a high probability of turning out like her parents carrying a $12,000 balance. I hope I am so wrong here! I am assuming it is a balance and not the monthly bill at application time that the parents pay off each month (yeah, right). So enabling this person with a credit card is like giving Ted Bundy a free pass in a sorority house (another idiotic comparison, it just came to me, my therapist says to write whatever comes in my mind!). Pretty soon she may be carrying thousands of dollars of debt (do you follow up to make sure “PAY YOUR BALANCE EVERY MONTH” is ingrained in her brain?…Let me tell you from experience, it will NOT work!). And this is how the Chases of the world make lots of their money folks and can afford to shower us with mega miles offers. This country has a debt/spending problem (small one, lol) and bombarding the masses with credit cards relentlessly is NOT helping the problem and we ALL pay for it (bailouts anyone?). For us who take advantage of this AND have demonstrated we can handle juggling/churning different cards AND of course pay the balance each month, we ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. It is better than crack! But, bigger picture, I always wonder how many people get into trouble and dig themselves a hole, the agony they go through trying to dig out, it is just sad. In my real job I have only converted a few clients into crack addicts. Of course carrying a balance is strictly forbidden (and grounds for immediate dismissal from my client roster!)…it’s just that most people will NOT do what we do and it is better to be left alone to find their own kind of crack.
Wow, that was quite a rant. I need to do other things today, so I let this baby go.

I want to finish with: LONG LIVE CRACK!!!!!!

And don’t do drugs!