The Frustrated Bunny

Technology. Science. Politics. Geek. Etc.

Tagged: consumer

Personal / Random

How to make actual money without leaving the house

There are loads of articles floating around the internet about how to earn money online, make money from home, etc. And most of them are, as you would expect, written for consideration, advertising scams, and maybe at best only have a couple of good suggestions while the rest are a complete waste of time. So I’d totally understand if you saw the headline of this post and thought, “Well, crap, she’s gone commercial. First ads, now this.” Though honestly, the ads are just one of the few ways that I’ve found to make use of my skills and resources to...

Personal / Technology

Freebooting needs to die: 7 online marketing trends that are ruining the internet

If you’ve spent any time on Facebook in the last couple of years, odds are you’ve come across and fallen victim to a lot of marketing and revenue-generating tactics that pollute your feed, steal from creators, and just generally frustrate you and waste your time. They’re the social equivalent of spam, and they’re ruining the internet. 1. Freebooting This term might be new to you, but the practice almost certainly isn’t. Freebooting is the practice of taking media, usually video, that you don’t own, then rehosting it or embedding it on your own page surrounded by ads that make you...

Politics / Random

FAQ: “WHY IS GAS SO $#@!ING EXPENSIVE??!!”

This question has turned up on my social networks a number of times in the last few weeks as gas prices have risen quite a bit over the past month or so. The short answer: it’s not. Ok, ok…that’s not what you wanted to hear. $3.89 a gallon is a lot when you’re used to gas in the low-to-mid $2 range. It’s about that much per liter in places that don’t give insane subsidies to oil companies, but let’s just tackle the question of why gas is so relatively expensive right now. Keep in mind the explanation below should be taken...

Personal / Politics

I am the 99%

When I was a child, my dad took out loans and worked full time to get a degree so he could make a better life for my family. By the time I graduated high school, he was able to do for me what his parents could not: pay for me to go to college without any debt. This wasn’t without other costs to me–my dad was gone a lot as he took on more responsibilities with his job and, following 9/11, served several tours of duty in the middle east. When the economy crashed as I was about to start my...

Food / Random

How to eat your veggies and cut your grocery bill

This week, the USDA released “MyPlate,” the improved successor to the ubiquitous but oft-criticized food pyramid, that visualizes thee proportions of each food group a person should consume at meals. Among the things that this new visualization reveals (but that actually hasn’t changed) is that half of the volume of each meal should be made up of fruits and vegetables. Even though this is not technically a new recommendation, MyPlate makes this more obvious, and some people are treating this information with a certain amount of surprise. In particular, the reactions I’ve seen to this have revolved mainly around “how...