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With exception of just a very few things, you can find a buyer for nearly anything on eBay. I am constantly amazed. In fact, tonight I ran across an auction for an ice cube. Seriously, the auction appears to simply be for an ice cube, unless there is some sort of underground meaning that is going right over my head. You do have to remember that this once very street-smart girl is getting old.

The bidding is up to $27.94 (shipping is free) and the auction has nearly two days left. The same seller old a box of Lucky Charms for $36 and a wad of crumpled newspaper for $26.09, so I am assuming I really am missing something. Either way, it seems like anything goes on eBay and you can always find a buyer.

My problem is more with finding the time to ready the items and prepare the auctions. I have bins and bins of Gymboree clothes I meant to sell on eBay and finally ended up giving away before my last move. I love I missed out on a LOT of money and I wish now I had just walked the bins into the iSold It store up in Palm Harbor. They do the whole thing for you for a fee. You just drop off the items along with some info about your expectation for the auction content and you are good to go. They will let you know when you have a check ready to claim. If you have items that will turn a tidy profit and no time to deal with getting them online, this is the handiest solution.

It’s coming up on nine months since Nick Bollea, son of wrestler Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea) was a Toyota Supra on Court Street in Clearwater, Florida and lost control. He crashed into a palm tree in the median and his passenger, John Graziano, was grievously injured. He has been unresponsive and in the hospital since. He may never be able to care for himself again.

Multiple witnesses have come forward to say that Bollea was racing with Danny Jacobs. Both Bollea and Jacobs were charged.

Initially, Bollea pleaded not guilty to his charges of reckless driving with serious bodily injury. However, in a risky move, he is expected to make an open plea in court tomorrow during a 1: 30 p.m. pre-trial hearing Friday. Circuit Judge Philip Federico will then conduct a sentencing hearing.

Speculation is all over the map as to what sort of sentence Bollea will receive. He could get merely probation or as much as five years in prison.

Identity theft is on the rise. Year after the year, the numbers rise dramatically. If you think you won’t find your own identity stolen one day, you really need to have a reality check. It happened to me about 4 years ago and it was more than likely an inside job that originated at my multi-state bank.

Anyway, my point is that with identity theft becoming more and more prevalent, the industry around it is also growing and what that means is more new jobs. Lifelock is advertising position is all kinds of fields, including marketing, accounting, public relations, compliance, human resources, and information technology.

Lifelock is becoming a popular service. Auto clubs, banks, and other industries are recommending the service to their members. In fact, NextAdvisor just gave Lifelock their highest rating for identity theft protection, which is only serving to heighten the confidence consumers and other businesses have in the company.

So, check out their job listings. I think it is encouraging to see a company expanding in these tough financial times.

If you live in the Tampa Bay area, you can see “American Idol” finalist Syesha Mercado perform at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Ca d’Zan Mansion at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. She will also be doing a meet and greet.

In between the frenetic pace of the “American Idol” competition, Mercado is finding the time to come home to Sarasota on Friday. She will give a free concert, visit local radio and TV stations, and to sing the national anthem at a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game.

Of course, the visit is not without its publicity merit. A production crew from the reality show will follow her in order to air the footage next week.

Mercado will appear on the MJ Kelli morning radio show on WFLZ, 93.3 FM, just after 7 a.m. Friday. She will also be on with Nancy Alexander on WMTX, 100.7 FM. Also, she will perform live between 9 to 9 a.m. Friday “Good Day Tampa Bay” on Channel 13.

Then she is off to Bradenton for a celebration downtown at 10:30 a.m., followed by a visit her alma mater, Sarasota’s Booker High School, where a parade at 12:30 p.m. will precede a private concert for teachers and students. That performance will be streamed on MyFoxTampaBay.com.

Mercado will top off her day in St. Petersburg, where will sing the national anthem at a Tampa Bay Rays game against the Los Angeles Angels at 7 p.m.

Personally, I stopped watching “American Idol” years ago. I find the competition repetitive and mind-numbingly boring. But, this is big news around here and Mercado is now considered a local celebrity. Of course, she should not be confused with the other Sarasota-native reality TV celebrity James Zinkland, he of the gay porn career.

The stock market used to be one of the biggest mysteries of the universe to me. It took me years to ferret out the information that would be most useful to me to get a solid handle on the world of trading. My ex-husband tried to help, but he was as much of a layman as me. I sought out articles in major magazines, websites, friends who were either in the business or had been successful in the stock market, and also did a lot of trial and error trading.

I feel a lot more confident now, but if I could go back in time and have a social community like JUSTtrade available to me, I can only imagine how much easier that learning curve would have been. JUSTtrade is an interactive community where people discuss stocks. The twist, though, is the ability to quantify the value of each post. That leads to a level of integrity foreign to many communities online.

Some members come to the site with questions. Others come with answers. In the end, everyone ends up more enriched. The exchange of information is beneficial to everyone, and the rating system keeps things honest.

It’s free to use JUSTtrade and while they will eventually implement some fees for premium services, they promise that posting on the site will always be free.

I have to say that I am satisfied with the odd little assortment of celebrities that live in the Tampa Bay area. The Hogan Family is good for endless entertainment value around here. The Scientologists attract quite a few more. We are home to washed-up wrestlers (actually, not Hulk Hogan, but many others), a number of troubled reality TV celebs, and more very cool tennis pros than you can shake a stick at, if you were so inclined to shake a stick. Plus, you have to remember we have a LOT of pro sports teams here as well as several baseball teams that call us home during Spring Training ( I can hear the post-game fireworks from my bedroom after the Phillies play).

Anyway, all of this is to say that the Tampa Bay area does just fine without the flashier tabloid celebrities. So, it’s not with open arms, but rather some ill-concealed snickering, that locals noticed Paris Hilton slinking in behind her boyfriend Benji Madden as he stopped by Push Ultra Lounge in St. Pete Saturday to man the turntables. Thankfully, it looks like they were in and out, moving onto Disney (where they had dinner at Epcot’s Bistro De Paris – is that cliché enough for you?) by Sunday. First, though, they stopped at the Cracker Barrel off 1-4 in Brandon Sunday morning to gross out fellow diners with some public groping and pawing.

First of all, just try and tell me that the video I imbedded isn’t making you laugh so hard that if you were drinking milk it might indeed shoot out of your nose. (The technical term for that, by the way, is to splurf.) Just try. I get SUCH a kick out of listening to people wearing headphones sing along to the music the rest us cannot hear.

Anyway, I did not log on tonight to talk about milk shooting out of your nose. I promise. I wanted to tell you about the Pop Star Challenge. Singer Alisa Apps is asking you, my readers, to watch two videos and comment on both of them. One is Alisa’s video “Confusion” and the other will be another famous pop star. Take the challenge and tell everyone who you think is better. Or, just tell people what you think in general.

I love the Pop Star Challenge, because it is using viral video at its absolute best. You can’t lose when you combine great music, YouTube, and some wacky humor. Plus, this is a ballsey move and I like that. I already took the challenge. Now it’s your turn.

I read something on a forum tonight that made me think of the Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian. That, in turn, reminded me of my favorite Marvin the Martian quote, which reminded me of why I love that zany character so much.

“Oh drat these computers, they’re so naughty and so complex. I could pinch them!”

I used to have this quote in a sound clip that my old Mac would play every time I made an error. That was back in maybe 1995. That quote, alone, is enough to make my love for the little guy burn strong even all these years later. Were truer words ever proclaimed?

I went on a little tangent looking for some Marvin related sites and found an entire fan site dedicated to Marvin. It is certainly worth a click. It’s where I realized Marvin will be 60-years-old on July 24.

Holy cow! Happy Birthday, you old fart.

I was always taken by the character of Don Juan’s mother in Lord Byron’s epic version Don Juan. She was portrayed as a woman who knew just enough about everything to be charming and interesting at parties, yet there were no topics at all where she had deep knowledge.

Use Your Knowledge
I’m sure you could have done without the literary reference, but what I’m saying is that it’s great to be an expert about something. When you have a lot of useful knowledge about any given topic, people will generally look to you as an authority in that area. Why should you let that be something that only happens when your friends and family come to you for advice? You may as well capitalize on it.

“Bee” an Expert
The internet gives you the entire world as your audience. Take your expertise and write articles that will educate and assist others. eBuzz is an appealing little website (with the fun motto “Bee an Expert”) that gives people everywhere a platform for their expert status. It doubles as a social networking site, allowing writers to connect with one another, find peers in your interest area, send and receive private messages, ask other users questions, and much more.

If your articles become popular enough, you can even win prize money. How’s that for an incentive?

All Topics are Fair Game
eBuzz.com is easy to navigate. Topics and subtopics are clearly labeled and you can even browse articles according to their popularity and usefulness. The subject areas are boundless. I’ve read great articles like “What Vitamins Help in Acne Problems and Treatment,” “How to Find a Good Dog Trainer,” and “Choosing a Bicycle Rack for Your SUV Vacation.” Seriously, there is an expert out there for almost anything you can imagine.

Americans have become complacent. First, we started driving bigger and bigger automobiles, and then we stopped seeing car pooling as a viable option to daily commutes.

Well, with the price of gas at an all-time high (it was $3.65 for regular at the “cheap” station down the road today), car pools have become all the rage. Let’s just say that they are no longer just for soccer moms and people who want to use the HOV lane anymore.

Many people are simply placing ads on Craigslist. In fact, the use of the internet as a way to find partners for car pooling has spawned the term “cyber carpooling”.

If you want more security than can be provided by an essentially open environment like Craigslist, you might want to turn to one of the many Internet ride boards that require you to register and provide basic information that will help match you with other drivers, including route, schedule, and smoking preference.

Some of the ride boards are free to use (they sell ad space to make ends meet), while others charge a small fee once a match is made.

Sounds a little like a dating service, doesn’t it? Well, much like internet dating site, ride board operators encourage users to use basic safety rules: meet in public places, get to know each other first through e-mails and phone calls, use common sense.

Here is a list of some internet ride sites:
erideshare.com
ridester.com
ridesearch.com
tampa.craigslist.org/rid
tampabay.commuter.com

Social networking is decidedly hot right now. I won’t even try to debate that. What is not so hot these days are catch-all social networking sites, like MySpace. As social networking evolves and picks up more and more devotees, people have started looking for niche communities that cater to specific interests.

Find Your Niche
As a blogger, I have to admit that the new community SocialSpark is the social networking community where I have been spending most of my free internet time. And believe me; I don’t have all that much free time, so I have to be fairly judicious in my choices.

SocialSpark is without a doubt fine-tuned to meet the needs of bloggers and the people who love them. Bloggers can create a personal profile and separate profiles for each of their blogs. In fact, here’s the link to the profile page for Suncoast Scribe. You can give props (essentially like voting) to the blogs you love. You can keep a friends list to help you keep track of your favorite bloggers.

Advertisers Love Bloggers
The site also addresses the tried and true fact that advertisers love bloggers and the people who read blogs. Therefore, advertisers can create profiles, reach out to individual bloggers, and even create advertising campaigns. In this manner, the bloggers get a better feel for what the advertisers are all about and the advertisers are able to learn more about the bloggers who are out there willing to review products and services.

I love that SocialSpark gives me a transparent way to display my blogs’ daily statistics. I know that information about my traffic and the demographics about my readers are important to advertisers, and even to other bloggers and readers.

NoFollow is Hot
Best of all, SocialSpark offers a marketplace where advertisers can enlist bloggers to help promote their websites and products by creating genuine buzz. And, all paid blogging jobs use the “nofollow” tag, period. It’s a search engine friendly process of generating valid opinion articles. In fact, take a look at the links I have used in this article (for which I was compensated) and you will see that I have used the nofollow attribute.

It was like the Heavens had opened and rained down blessings when Wal-Mart announced their new $4 for some generic prescription drugs. That was back in 2006 and most major retailers followed Wal-Mart’s lead, creating an ever competitive market for prescription generics.

That kind of competition is always good for the consumer. Proof of that lies in Wal-Mart’s new plan to 90-day supplies for $10 of nearly 350 generic medications and to add discounts to several women’s medications. They also plan to lower prices on over 1,000 over-the-counter drugs to $4 or less.

The women’s medications that have been added to the discount program will be available for $9 (or 90-day prescriptions for $24) for a 30-day supply and include drugs for breast cancer and hormone deficiency.

Generally, I prefer to shop at Target over Wal-Mart. When the new prescription drug plan began at Wal-Mart in 2006, it was exciting and diverted a lot of my business back to Wal-Mart. As other stores began to offer generic prescriptions for prices close to Wal-Mart, I found myself shopping there less and less once more. With this new 90-day program, I can safely say I will be do more errands at Wal-Mart again. It’s worth it.

I’m in the market for a new laptop.

I have my old Dell laptop, and although the thing works well for the most part, the connector in the back where you plug in the power cord has a short and I cannot get the computer to charge enough to even fully start it up anymore. It’s irritating, because if I can get past the startup process, the only way to keep the computer charged is to have my finger in the back, pushing up the power cord connect at just the right angle. Eventually, my finger cramps and starts to burn from the heat of the connection. It’s not a good situation.

My warranty is up and I’m unsure if I want to send it off to Dell and be at their mercy. I have taken to a couple of local places that purport to repair computers, but they have been staffed by lazy wanna-be geeks who don’t feel comfortable with the issue. They just want to upgrade my system software or help me look for viruses. I can do that myself, thank you very much.

So, I thought since the thing is about 5 years old anyway I might just buy a new notebook computer. I know you can get basic models for pretty cheap now and I really just need it for e-mail, the internet, and Microsoft Office programs. I do all of my design on my desktop computer and really just like having a laptop for travel or meetings.

What you think, readers? Should I try a couple more computer repair places first or just bite the proverbial bullet and start fresh?

Educate your children! Please, I’m begging you. In a society overly obsessed with Harry Potter and magic, can’t people find the time to help teach their children the difference between people who are illusionists and those who are working in witchcraft and “wizardry”?

Seriously. I am ranting about a completely serious topic.

In Pasco County, Florida, substitute teacher Jim Piculas received a letter from the Pasco County School District telling him they would “no longer be using your services.”

Several issues were outlined in the letter, most of which are understandable to a point. You have to understand that a substitute teacher, no matter how skilled, cannot pick up a lesson plan the same way the regular teacher can, but that is beside the point. The letter cited not following the lesson plans, allowing students on computers when another teacher said not to, and telling a fifth-period student peer that she was in charge.

But, let’s not dwell on those issues right now. I am sure they are typical complaints.

What I want to talk about is the parent who called the school saying his son was traumatized by an illusion Piculas briefly performed for the students in class. Piculas showed the kids a disappearing-toothpick trick using a toothpick and transparent tape. The trick uses sleight-of-hand to make the toothpick look like it disappears and reappears. In actuality, it is only hiding behind the performer’s thumb and held in place by the tape.

Piculas showed the students the trick, they liked it, and he went on to explain to them how they could perform it themselves.

According to Piculas, he was told by an administrator, “You’ve been accused of wizardry.”

Unfortunately, this could have a dire impact on Piculas’ career. He has worked as a substitute for about nine months, but has also been working toward his teacher certification.

I cannot help but roll my eyes. I can see the other infractions as possible valid to be addressed, but witchcraft, black magic, wizardry and the like? Seriously? Perhaps Florida needs to revamp the Sunshine State Standards to include a section on being able to discern reality from fantasy.

And in light of the fact that the districts all around the Bay Area have been inundated with teachers who are sexually abusing students, crying out for drug rehab, and generally making a mockery out of the profession – this just seems like such a ridiculous accusation.

I have always loathed the idea of pushing dirty water around on a floor with a grungy mop. I would really rather just get down on my hands and knees and use a clean rag that I can rinse out frequently. As much as I hate to admit it, though, the old I get – the more uncomfortable the whole hands and knees thing is.

I have been through more floor mops than I can list right now, all in the quest to find one I don’t think is disgusting. I know there are the contraptions that have disposable pads and little nozzles that spray out cleanser. And while those are well and good, I am actually more in the market for something much simpler. I just want a mop I can grab when I need it.

I did find one that has a flat pad that you cover with a washable terry cloth cover. In fact, it is what I am currently using in the kitchen. So far, it seems to work well. I can go over the floor quickly and then put the cloth cover in the wash with the other kitchen rags, with bleach and hot water. That way, all fabric parts are completely removable and there is nothing that can sit and mildew. To me, this seems like the best option.

I know, most of you are probably thinking I am just being ridiculous to not break down and buy one of those systems with the disposable pads, but for me it all comes down to the recurring cost of an appliance and it is not economical to have to re-buy pads indefinitely. Call me a penny pincher, thank you very much