Little Black Guidebook

Books of a Wannabe Mad Scientist, originally uploaded by xtacocorex is watching curling.

This post: “Selling Back Really Old Textbooks Online” is a good description of a way to make money selling old books online for money. I’m all about that right now, given that every spare penny goes in the travel fund and that I am very anti-clutter at the moment. But this method is way too labor intensive for me. I’ve been to the post office dozens of times because of “ship by” dates when selling things on Amazon and eBay and its no fun, not to mention a waste of gas.

A slightly less profitable, but far less labor intensive method would be to setup an Amazon seller account. Ship Amazon all your books and let them ship them to each buyer and deposit the profits into your account directly. Ship once and forget. You set the price you’re willing to accept. This also lets people get Super Saver Shipping on your items. Sure you’re stuck with Amazon and might not get highest price, but you’re also not stuck running to the post office.

Add $409 over the last 2 months to the travel fund.

Flickr Photo by striped-socks on 6 Mar 09.

Rolf Potts posed a dilemma today. What do you do when a place really captures your heart and you want to go back? Do you keep going back or keep seeing the world? My initial reaction was, come on people stop going to the same place, see the world. It annoys me when people who go to Florida on vacation every year and love it, but then they hear I’m going to Europe and say nostalgically to me, “I wish I could go to Europe, but I don’t have the time/money/courage.” Maybe take a year off from Florida, save your money and go?

Then I think of Paris. I love Paris and could go back over and over again. Paris is my Disneyland. But even though I am flying into Paris on my next trip I am really only transiting there. No right answer of course, but I’m thinking that you shouldn’t feel guilty about going anywhere you love because its all about the experiences you are adding to your life not some arbitrary definition of what travel should be.

You could tick every country in the world off your list and not have half as good a time as going somewhere you truly love. I’ll try not to judge those people who love Florida so much, except when they tell me they can’t go to Europe because they can’t afford it, but they can afford a week at Disney. That’s just crazy talk.

I ran into Pauline Frommer’s blog “Traveling Light” on WeightWatchers.com of all places. Its all about how travel took its toll on her waistline (something I can empathize with). I didn’t know who she ways and then it hit me, duh, Frommers, like the guidebook. A quick google later and I stumbled upon this free book, “Spend Less, See More.” Its a 15 page pdf. I especially liked the tips dealing with contract of carriage as its a problem I’ve run into and not known how to deal with when I’m delayed and frustrated.

Wow, the vitriol of some of the commenters on this CNN article is amazing. I probably earn and spend 150k miles a year myself, partly do to flying, partly credit cards and partly gaming the promotions system. I just booked 2 tickets to New York to my brothers graduation and 2 tickets to Europe for next fall as the net result of 1 years mileage earnings. I had to plan almost a year ahead to be assured mileage availability to Europe, so even if you want to spend  the miles and have them its not always easy. Oh well, it is probably frivolous to jet off to Spain for dinner, but do you know how many hours that guy spent in coach earning that ticket, ugh, I wouldn’t give him too much of a hard time.

I recently lost my iPod Video on a flight back from Mexico. After being mad at myself for a couple days for my carelessness I began to get excited because this would be my excuse to finally get an iPod Touch. I love my Nokia N95 phone, but I feel a little pang sometimes when I see an iPhone. Of course their battery life and general international pain-in-the-***ness keeps me from getting one, but I’ve been wanting to get an iPod touch and start using some of the nice apps and touch-screen goodness for awhile. Of course Alaska Airlines had to go and crush my dream by finding my iPod in my seat pocket and next day airing it to me. I didn’t even report it missing! That darn airline, they are too nice to their customers. Oh well. I’ll just have to wait. And I was so happy to read this post on iPhone/iPod Touch travel apps. *sigh* The list should also include the Tripit app, which as an avid Tripit user I’m dying to use.

I felt slightly guilty for going to Chicago and not posting anything about here. Since it is my third trip there I didn’t feel the need to take another day off of work to see the city so I just bugged in and out over a three day weekend. However, I don’t want to leave you empty handed. Here is a Matador network post on Chicago on a Budget and I will add the following. Staying downtown can be pricey. If you’re going for a short trip you’ll be going to and from downtown in a cab or on the “L” at least once to stay downtown. Instead I would suggest staying at the airport, taking the “L” downtown and seeing your sights and then taking the “L” back. If you’re only going to do this once roundtrip then you’ll save time as you already would have had one roundtrip just getting to your downtown hotel. Even if your event is downtown you can take the train downtown, go to your meeting or whatever, do your sight-seeing and return. Sleeping by the airport is also pretty convenient for early flights as you can’t depend on Chicago traffic if you’re in a cab and the “L” can be a pain the morning, especially with baggage. Waking up, checking out and walking straight to your gate after getting your boarding pass in the lobby couldn’t be easier. It really makes Chicago so much less of a hassle.

Any locals have some tips? I have always found Chicago to be difficult to budget travel.

Yesterday’s post on traveling to the Bush reminded me of this website on travel etiquette. Some people have really negative experiences when they travel because they have expectations that aren’t met and because they don’t make the effort to understand the culture they are going to before they travel. Check it out here.