Jason Miller @ jamz.net

I'm going to keep this simple but I can't resist from complaining about HughesNet to start. But if you are like me, maybe you found yourself with a satellite internet connection that isn't working. In my case, it was a cut wire. Seems easy enough to fix, but it turned into a lengthy process. Before I describe everything you'll need to know to fix a cut wire, let me tell HughesNet how terrible your customer service center is. Your outsourced call center to India is the absolute worse. You cannot understand them, at all. When you ask a simple question, every single rep wanted to explain to me, "It's like a car, a car without wheels, without wheels it won't move" for EVERY single question I asked. Is that all they know to say?

The remodel Amber and I are doing at ProjectHillside.com is certainly a HUGE task! Not only is it a lot of work, it's a big money pit! Anything can be done but with it comes a price! I haven't been lucky enough to find any gracious individuals that want to sponsor the project, although it certainly isn't lack of trying ;) The kitchen is 80% complete with the cabinets installed now! Be sure to swing over to our website and check out the new photos in the gallery and the updates! Visit www.ProjectHillside.com

View the gallery, click here.

Two weeks ago I installed 4 new Hankoook Dynapro ATM tires on the Suburban. Up to this point, I stuck with Bridgestone Revo's on the Silverado and wanted to try something new on the Suburban. It's a 96' 4x4 that up to this point had had junk tires on it. After driving about 100 miles on them in snow, rain, ice, dry weather, and light mud, I must say, I'm impressed. The side tread is great in snow. They provide a very smooth ride and quiet in the inside cab. They look very nice and are guaranteed to 50,000 miles. I would put these equal to the Bridgestone Revo's, price and quality. I am curious to see how they wear, considering I would easily get 60,000 on the Revos. Here are a few pics:

Since I started WeekendOasis.net I've sent quarterly e-mail's out to potential guests that inquired, but never booked. I started with ConstantContact.com. Great program, but my list is large and it was pricey. I only sent 4 e-mails per year. That started making the cost per individual e-mail quite high.

Next, I went to GoDaddy. A little cheaper but the UI was horrible. I feel like GoDaddy simply brought in a vendor and could care less about the UI.

Now, I'm using MailChimp. It truly is brilliant! Since I don't send e-mails frequently I'm on the pay as you go plan. I spend a few bucks, get the credits, and send the e-mail. They have an amazing UI, great templates and features, and I love the built in QA feature to ensure your e-mail will load in multiple e-mail apps.

Keep up the good work www.MailChimp.com

It's the 3 month anniversary of Project Hillside and the kitchen was far enough along to host Thanksgiving Dinner! Check-out the website at http://www.ProjectHillside.com to read about all the updates and see the pics.

If you work for or work with ERA One Source Realty, pass this rant along to them. It will improve business for them and make them more money. For the past 2 weeks I've tried to have a contract sent to me so I could make an offer on a house in Shavertown, PA (foreclosure). I've spoke to 3 different people at the office (570-587-9999), whom of which I will not name for privacy reasons, and all of them promised to fax me a contract and nothing ever comes. This is a bank owned property. How will you sale it if you don't send contracts that can be submitted to the bank? Part of me feels like it's a good ol' boys network and since I'm new to PA, I'm not in the "loop". I want to say they never send contracts out to anyone, only people they know. My theory is they only submit the handful of contacts from people "in the loop", all priced MUCH lower than what the bank wants. When the bank reviews they will potentially think the price needs to be dropped and take a much lower offer.

It's been a few months since I had any major updates to the site. It seemed as though the typical homepage mistake that I consult clients NOT TO DO happened to me. I created module after module of content, taking away from the primary focus of this site: get users to my contact information and my core websites. As you can see, the content is much more streamlined now. The left navigation are the primary areas I hope you find, the middle is my content I create, and the right column are various widgets I'll post. I am going to update this much more frequently, specially to announce updates to the various other websites and hopefully more website optimization content. Keep an eye out!