"Cake wreck spotting" has become a popular sport, as evidenced by this photo from Flickr. Can't guess what this cake is supposed to be? It's a turtle.

It’s fun to watch the way the print world and the Internet feed into each other. Most of the time, I read stories about how newspapers are shutting down and books will someday be obsolete because of the Internet. However, Cake Wrecks is an example of a book that was spawned from a blog.

This book would have never existed if it weren’t for the fact that the Cake Wrecks blog got so hugely popular. After the Cake Wrecks blog spawned the Cake Wrecks book, a little print publication called The New York Times wrote about the book and the blog, adding the fuel that now has word of the Cake Wrecks spreading like wildfire. Cake Wrecks started as a blog that featured photos of professionally made cakes gone wrong, now it’s it’s a book available in book stores and on Amazon for less than $10.

Why Cake Wrecks works

You may be wondering how someone could make money on a book that costs less than the fees on faxless payday loans, but I think the Cake Wrecks book will be a huge hit. Photos of cakes gone wrong make for a perfect coffee table book. I can definitely picture groups of people who read the New York Times socializing on a cushy sofa and laughing at a photo of a cake that says “Happy Birthday Chris in Orange.”

I am a sucker for the Cake Wrecks that involve wording issues like Chris’s cake, which had only blue decorative icing. However, a lot of the cakes gone wrong are just concoctions that blog/book author Jen Yates finds “unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate — you name it.” I have seen the first section of the Cake Wrecks book, though, and I couldn’t help laughing out loud when I saw the photo of the cake that said the words “I want sprinkles” on it in purple icing.

The circle of cakes

So a blog spawned a book, a book spawned an article, and the article has inspired many to check out the blog and buy the book. I guess books and newspapers aren’t obsolete yet.

Check out photos of cakes gone wrong, including a sweet little number that says “Well come home” and an anniversary cake wishing the couple “the fist of many to come,” at Cake Wrecks. I recommend starting with “Literal LOLs,” and be forewarned that some of the cakes in the “Do you see what I see?” category are a tad alarming, in a bad-frat-party joke sort of way.

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

Everybody’s blogging. But does anyone remember where the word came from? A few short years ago, we called it ‘web logging.’ That seemed to last about a month before we shortened it to ‘blogging.’ ‘Blog’ and other blended words like ‘smog’ (‘smoke’ and ‘fog’) and ‘bash’ (‘bang’ and ‘smash’) are called portmanteaus, and we can thank Lewis Carroll and Jabberwocky, his poem of nonsense verse, for that.

From Jabberwocky

‘Portmanteau’ in the sense of a blended word was first used by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass (1871) when Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of the unusual words in Carroll’s poem Jabberwocky: “‘Slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy’. . . You see it’s like a portmanteau — there are two meanings packed up into one word.”  “‘Mimsy,’” he continues, “is ‘flimsy and miserable’ (there’s another portmanteau … for you).” The word ‘portmanteau,’ which originally meant a suitcase containing two separate hinged compartments, is itself a portmanteau, originating from the French portmanteau, meaning ‘coat carrier’ formed from porter (to carry) and manteau (cloak).

And from ‘no teletrack payday loans’

The portmanteau is an example of how language changes and evolves to describe new discoveries and innovations.  We see new portmanteaus every day. Take for example, the word ‘teletrack.’ ‘Teletrack’ is the name of a credit reporting service on its way to becoming a proprietary eponym like ‘kleenex,’ ‘coke,’ and ‘xerox.’ We see it used indiscriminately as a noun, adjective, and verb on websites and in emails promising ’same day payday loans’ without a credit check.  But ‘teletrack’ also refers to the telecast of horse-racing events and it appears to be a portmanteau of ‘telecast’ and ‘racetrack.’

Where do new words go?

Portmanteaus find their way into the vernacular long before they appear in mainstream dictionaries.  While a few do make it into dictionaries, many more go the way of obscurity.  Humpty Dumpty’s metaphorical explanation of two distinct words being packed into one bag also applies to Carroll’s coinage in Jabberwocky of ‘fumious’ (‘fuming’ and ‘furious’), ‘frabjous’ (probably ‘fair,’ ‘fabulous,’ and ‘joyous’) and ‘chortle’ (‘chuckle’ and ‘snort’). Of these enchanting portmanteaus, ‘chortle’ alone has an entry in mainstream dictionaries.  Other portmanteaus that have achieved this venerable status include:

• avionics (aviation + electronics)
• Beatles (beat + beetles)
• because (by + cause)
• bionic (biology + electronic)
• bit (binary + digit)
• blotch (blot + botch)
• breathalyzer (breath + analyzer)
• brunch (breakfast + lunch)
• camcorder (camera + recorder)
• chump (chunk + lump)
• dumbfound (dumb + confound)
• email (electronic + mail)
• glob (gob + blob)
• good-bye (God + be(with) + ye)
• hassle (haggle + tussle)
• humongous (huge + monstrous)
• internet (international + network)
• modem (modulator + demodulator)
• motel (motor + hotel)
• multiplex (multiple + complex)
• muppet (marionette + puppet)
• nucleonic (nuclear + electronic)
• paratroop (parachute + troop)
• pixel (picture + elements)
• prissy (prim + sissy)
• quasar (quasi-stellar + radio)
• sitcom (situation + comedy)
• skyjack (sky +  hijack)
• smash (smack + mash)
• squiggle (squirm + wiggle)

What happens on Facebook, Stays on Facebook?

Think again.

A new phenomenon is sweeping the world and once again it’s thanks to the internet. According to a leading global headhunter, online social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, to name just two – and known as a person’s “network reputation” or “net-rep” – are becoming almost as important as one’s Curriculum Vitae and employment references.

Don’t end up naked in front of the whole world

Debbie, the managing director of and executive headhunting outfit, says a person’s online profile, possibly featuring risqué happy snaps and other professionally inappropriate bits of information, has the potential to extinguish that big corporate job you may be rooting for.

Even outside the headhunting profession, ‘googling a person’ can bring surprising results especially through his or her entries in Facebook and MySpace.

Fix your profile

“Cyber-vetting” is an easy way to find out more about potential employees and/or the girl you met at a party. I have edited the profiles I hung up in those sites more than once when I wanted a particular person or company to see more or less of me. And I am very careful about putting up any photographs. Pictures show how old you are! But, as many hopefuls have found out on dating sites, the photo doesn’t always belong to the candidate. Anyone can look like George Clooney!

There’s more…

Recruiters have learned to cyber-vet potential candidates either to find confirmation that the job seeker is in fact the expert in the field they claim to be, or to access other general details. A rather frightening truth about the Internet is that whatever is posted generally stays there. How does one remove an old posting from the web?

An angry ex-girlfriend’s blog outburst or an innocently posted revealing photograph that may have found its way onto Flickr or Facebook is potentially trouble. Once it’s out there, it’s there to stay and it will be accessible indefinitely. All of this may appear next to professional endorsements and expert commentary that the job seeker has been cited for, providing a view of a candidate that is much more ‘revealing’ than one might desire in the professional context.

It may also show the candidate to be the expert he claims to be or an absolute fake. It’s easy to flip through a person’s personal pages and put together a perception of the candidate which may not be entirely accurate, depending on what’s accessible.

It’s not harmless fun

People regard networking sites as harmless fun, but you should be very aware of what you and your friends post onto public spaces on the Internet. Anyone and everyone can see them and there are criminals out there who use computers.

From a corporate perspective, the information can be quite detrimental as clients or employers could become privy to images of alcohol abuse, a lack of respect for one’s job or colleagues, or other evidence of inappropriate activities that don’t fit the ethics of the company.

Is your boss a computer freak?

If he is, remember that there is nothing to stop your current employer from conducting a little ‘cyber investigation’ of their own. Take control over what you put out there.

Welcome back to the payday loans money blog at personalmoneystore.com.

Continuing on yesterday’s topic in the article, “Increasing Income , Decreasing Debt | Payday Loans Blog Resolutions for 2009,” today we will continue the topic by exposing habits we possess that keep us tied to or continuing the cycle of financial debt.

Where Does The Money Go?

Having trouble seeing where your money is going? Follow this excerice to save money and eliminate debt!

Living In A Financial Fog?

Apart from the larger monthly expenses such as your house and car payments, you may be a little foggy as to what consumes the rest of your income. “Where does the money go?” is a question that is usually indicative of poor budgeting and or spending habits.

Know Where Your Money Is Being Spent

If you don’t know where your moneys is being spent, it is difficult to see the areas where you can save.

For one month, devote yourself to recording each and every one of your daily purchases and expenses. At the end of the month, categorize each into their own respective categories such as food, entertainment, home and utilities, etc. By taking a careful inventory of these monthly expenses, you will begin to see some interesting patterns emerge. These patterns will fall into two separate categories that we will call excessive spending and habitual spending.

Meet Daryl, Your Average American Consumer

For this example we are going to use Daryl, a debt burdened consumer, who has completed the above exercise, so that we can illustrate the patterns that you might expect to see when doing this exercise for yourself.

Daryl is an average American consumer with just more than $9,000 in consumer credit card debt. He has found himself paying only his minimum monthly payments at the end of the month due to a shortage of funds and occasionally he has to borrow payday loans to avoid late payment penalties in on his mortgage payment.

Before the above exercise, Daryl said that he occasionally goes out with his friends but does not buy a lot of consumer goods like his friends do. He considers himself a fairly conservative spender. He just can’t seem to make any headway on his debt. He blames his job, saying that he just doesn’t make enough to live on. So we asked Daryl to do the above exercise to see just how conservative he really is.

Daryl’s Spending Habits

Below are some of the habitual spending habits that Daryl found after completing the above exercise.

• Morning double shot espresso purchases two to three times a week before work at a cost of $4.25 each.
• Lunch twice a week at fast food establishments at a cost of $6.50 each.
• Movie once a week with refreshments costing an average of $16 each.

After doing the math, Daryl found that each month he was spending $51 on “wake up” coffee. $52 on lunch outings and $64 on movies and refreshments, for a grand total of $167.

Daryl did a little better in the excessive spending category finding only the following after completing the above exercise. But it was a big one.

• Groceries bill meeting and exceeding $150 dollars a week

This may not seem to be that much of a grocery bill, but considering that Daryl is “Batching it,” or in other words living solo, a grocery bill of $600 per month for one person is extremely excessive.

So between Daryl’s grocery bill and his habitual spending expenses, Daryl was spending $767 dollars each month.

What Could Daryl Do Better?

The advice given to Daryl after he completed the exercise saved him greatly in his monthly expenses. Here is what was suggested to improve his financial out look.

Cutting Out The Coffee

Instead of getting that morning cup of espresso at the drive-through three times a week, cut back to just one espresso a week. Better yet, eliminating these expensive cups of mud altogether by making his own coffee at home.

If coffee is not an acceptable substitute, purchasing an espresso maker would pay for itself rather quickly with the extra cash saved each week and could be considered a viable option as well.

Pack Out, Don’t Take Out!

Instead of indulging in fast food lunches twice a week, making a lunch and bringing it to work with him would save Daryl the extra money and his cardiac health too.

Spendy...and not good for you.

Subtituting the weekly movie and refreshments, with a RedBox or Netflix movie and some cheaper finger food with the friends, would eliminate his monthly dependence on payday loans.

Buy The Groceries, Not The Store

As far as groceries are concerned, Daryl could substantially lower his costs by going to the store with a planned list of needed food items, thus eliminating a lot of the more expensive junk foods he was getting before. This would lower his monthly grocery bill to the more typical average food bill for one person which should be in the neighborhood of $250 to $300 dollars.

The Conclusion

By subscribing to Netflix ($15), purchasing only one espresso each week ($17) and lowering his food bill to the higher end of the average food bill for one person ($300 dollars), Daryl will have room for beer and refreshments for movie night once a week and save $435 dollars each month.

If Daryl Can Do It, You Can Do

Looking at Daryl’s circumstances and the potential outcome,  a very small sacrifice is made for some extraordinary savings.

This shows the importance of implementing a budget or system to track your expenses each month so you can isolate areas where you can save money and regain financial territory lost to consumer credit debt.

Posted courtesy of Personal Money Store, your payday loans source.

We started with our payday loans Money Blog, which we feel needed a different touch.

The redesign of the Personal Money Store Money Blog

After a long process, we made the blog easier to navigate, so that the great new content that we are bringing you about payday loans and the cash advance industry can be easier to digest and understand.

We’re also soon to be completed with our new payday loans site design, so stay tuned for that!