Swapping from WPRemote to InfiniteWP

Products •

For the last couple of years, I have been using WPRemote to manage the plethora of WordPress installs I have for my own personal projects and for clients. It’s gotten to the point where it just wasn’t sufficient enough to keep using WPRemote. But I also didn’t want to have to fork over another monthly fee for a service I don’t need to utilize on a daily basis. Years ago someone had been developing a self-hosted option but that fell through and since then there’s been ManageWP (free up-to 5 sites), WPBerry (in beta for over a year…), and WPEngine Portal (forced 3rd party social net auth.) Nothing really stuck with me aside from WP Remote primarily because it was free and I liked the simplistic backend.

Well, finally the other day I decided to venture out to see what was available now. Stumbled across InfiniteWP and was immediately intrigued because it was a self-hosted application with paid add-ons. So I downloaded it and set it up last night.

Read More

Frankfort Township Votes .com

Personal •

Today’s mail contained an envelope that was stamped with a red “AUDIT” on it, so of course I had to open this up right away to see what it was. Was it from the IRS? Nope. Did it have anything to do with being audited? No.

The letter is from a supposed group called “Citizens for Effective Local Government” that, simply put, is threatening me to vote in this upcoming election or they’re going to announce it to the world via their website that I did not vote. I don’t really see how a threat to publicly “humiliate” me is enough to get my ass to a voting booth because guess what, I don’t really care. I was just really surprised that someone went through this effort (time AND money) to send out these letters.

Decided to look around a bit on this and according to Will County’s site List of Registered Voters/Voting History restrictions prohibits the user of voter information for commercial solicitation or other business purposes. The violation comes with a hefty Class 4 Felony which in Illinois. Have fun with that!

Illinois State Statute (10 ILCS 5/4-8, 5-7, and 6-35) prohibits the use of voter information for commercial solicitation or other business purposes. Violation of these restrictions is a Class 4 Felony.

Voter registration records are considered public information under the Freedom of Information Act. However, under the advisement of the Will County State’s Attorney, the County Clerk will only confirm if a person is registered to vote and what their voting history is. All other personal information is withheld pursuant to 5 ILCS 140/7(1)(b) as information that, if disclosed, would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

The parties who sent out these letters definitely spent a pretty decent amount of money on the stamps. A 100 roll of the Forever Stamps costs $46. The list of “neighbors” that I had with my letter was 65 people. I don’t even want to know how many people received these. Then add in the time needed to fold each letter, stuff em in the envelopes.

All of that effort just tossed down the drain. Instead you could have put your money towards creating a positive campaign to motivate people to vote for tomorrow’s Election. According to a Southtown Star article, it looks like Will County Clerk Nancy Schultz Vootz has asked the Will County State’s Attorney to investigate into this.

Read More

My latest ELF haul

Personal •

It’s been a little over a year since I had last ordered from e.l.f. and the reasoning is because I’ve been mainly picking up a few of my usual items from Target. Earlier last week, I had realized I was in dire need to replace a couple of my eyeshadow brushes, and I’ve actually been a fan of e.l.f’s Studio brushes so of course I ended up actually buying everything but the makeup brushes!

I had seen a few reviews over the last few days for ELF’s baked eyeshadow and I was kind of curious to try them out. Then of course I realized that if I’m going to get eyeshadow, I might as well pick up new blush, maybe some matte lipstick and anything else I could get for under $25. I initially was going to hold off because I have always saved my big “sprees” (because let’s be honest, $20 isn’t all that much) for e.l.f.’s 50% off everything but I have no patience.

Read More

My $50 Ulta Haul

Reviews •

One of the gifts I received for Christmas was a $50 gift card to ULTA. I had been in dire need for new skincare products (as well as a few other supplies) so I figured what better gift to ask for than that. I had initially thought about Sephora but let’s be honest here: You’ll hardly get your bang for the buck with Sephora. I’d have been lucky to get 3 non-travel/sample-size items for $50.

Last week I finally decided it was time to use my gift card because they had some really good deals like: Buy 1 Get 1 Free for ULTA hair products; Buy 1 Get 1 50% off Mayebelline; and Buy 1 Get 1 50% off L’Oreal. Of course the biggest deal was also free shipping and a $10 off code if you spend $60. Before I even added anything to my cart, I had been spending a lot of time on /r/SkincareAddiction in an attempt to see what people are recommending for individuals that have oily/dry skin and also helping to reduce clogged pores (sebaceous filaments and not blackheads like most people assume) on my nose. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just wasting money on name brand products!

Cleanser

First on my list was to find a cleanser that wouldn’t dry out my face and make it overproduce oil. So when looking through the cleaners, I had to make sure it was was free of salicylic acid and was listed as being non-comedogenic. Purpose Gentle Cleansing Wash is the item I decided on after reading reviews on the item’s page as well as various other forums. Paired with my Clarisonic Plus, it’s been really great. It’s lightly scented and scrubs away all my makeup (foundation, concealer, eyeshadow and mascara.)

Read More

Taking advantage of freebies and deals

Discovering •

This year I decided to budget my money a little tighter than I’m used to. There really was no motivation for this other than wanting to challenge myself to see how much I could buy with as little money as possible.

A few years back, there was a YMMV deal I found on Slick Deals for Office Max that had a Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB external HD on clearance for $13.50. I checked stock for two stores that were in a 20 mile radius and they both had two in stock. I lucked out at the store closest to me and was able to pick one up. I was pretty excited to have been able to pick up this deal and I still use that HD to this day.

Lately though I’ve been really into freebies. I stalk Slick Deals’ Freebies, /r/Freebies, GoFreebies.com and AbsurdlyCool.com to receive free samples and coupons to receive free items. There are some that have fine print that you have to watch out for but for the most part, the community does a great job with feedback on the validity of the product being offered up.

My other challenge is to try to go as crazy with coupons as I possibly can. I haven’t really tried yet but I’ve been bookmarking a bunch of sites that I can reference and utilize to get it started. I’ve been putting it off because my printer has been out if ink for awhile and I don’t have any binder to organize everything–those coupons would end up getting lost in the first few hours :P.