Advanta Platinum BusinessCard

So my dad emails me today telling me about this new credit card that gives 5% off computers and electronics and tons of other stuff that my current credit cards don’t give any discount on. I had him email me the details and I did some research online.

Indeed it was true and it seems that Advanta had upgraded its rewards program sometime last summer. The last time I remember looking at this card, it was a tiered rewards program starting at 0.5% cash back and only up to 2% cash back. So the updated rewards programs is as follows: Automatically earn 5% Cash Back on gasoline, office supplies, utilities, computer equipment, cell phones and Internet services, and 1% on all other purchases. For people like me that spend most of my money on computers and electronics (besides rent), I’d use my other credit cards to pay for gasoline, since that’s the only overlapping area. Other interesting aspects include no annual fee (although I don’t think I’d ever sign up for one with an annual fee) and 0% APR for 15 months, but I won’t be using that either.

Here are the full details of their cash back rewards program:

CASH BACK REWARDS PROGRAM RULES

  1. Cash Back rewards earned for the current month are shown on account billing statements.
  2. Cash Back rewards are earned on Net Purchases only, which means purchases of goods and services made for business purposes with the Advanta BusinessCard while the account is in good standing by the Signing Individual or any authorized user of the account, net of any returns and credits. Net Purchases does not include, and rewards are not earned on, cash advances, balance transfers, convenience checks, fees, finance charges, adjustments, or any other transactions or charges.
  3. Cash Back rewards are paid by check (to the order of the Signing Individual) and are generated and mailed following any billing cycle in which unpaid earned rewards reach $50. Rewards are not available in the form of reductions in the amount of any account payments due.
  4. Cash Back rewards of 5% are earned on all qualifying purchases of “gasoline and diesel fuel”, “computers, computer supplies, electronics and office supplies” and “utilities and telecommunications” items.

  5. Qualifying purchases are Net Purchases that 1) are made at retail establishments which for “gasoline and diesel fuel” are classified as gas stations that process the transactions as fuel purchases; for “computers, computer supplies, electronics and office supplies” are classified as computer, computer peripheral equipment and software distributors, electronics stores, computer software stores, or office supply stores; for “utilities and telecommunications” are classified as utility or computer network service providers; and 2) are communicated by merchants to Advanta using appropriate merchant category and transaction codes. Important Note: Mail, telephone, catalog, and some Internet purchases, and purchases made indirectly through intermediaries, may not qualify; merchants may classify these transactions differently. — Cash Back rewards of 1% are earned on all other Net Purchases. — A maximum of $300 in Cash Back rewards may be earned on this account in any enrollment year, with a maximum of $25 in Cash Back rewards earned in any billing cycle.
  6. To earn and receive Cash Back rewards, an account must be open and in good standing. No rewards are earned on transactions made during any billing cycle for which the monthly payment is not paid as agreed or in which the account is over its credit limit. If the account is voluntarily or involuntarily closed, no disbursement is made of any earned rewards. If the account status is never returned to good standing, any earned rewards are forfeited.
  7. Advanta assumes no tax liability for Cash Back rewards earned or paid on any account; consult your tax advisor.
  8. Cash Back rewards earned on additional/supplemental card transactions are credited to the Signing Individual’s account and paid to the Signing Individual.
  9. These Advanta Cash Back program rules and features are not provisions of any Advanta BusinessCard Account Agreement, and Advanta reserves the right to change or discontinue this Advanta Cash Back program or any of its features, or to change any of these Cash Back program rules, at any time without notice. The Advanta Cash Back program is void where prohibited by law.

There is one caveat. This credit card is intended for Businesses only and you have to provide a “Company Name” and “Annual Sales” to it in order to qualify. My application was approved within a minute, so hopefully I’ll be getting the card soon. So my arsenal now contains:

  • Citi Dividends – 5% on gasoline, groceries, and drugstores; 1% everything else
  • Chase Rewards – 5% on gasoline, groceries, and drugstores; 1% everything else
  • Advanta Platinum – 5% on gasoline, electronics, office supplies, and utilities; 1% everything else
  • Amex Costco – 3% on restaurants; 2% on travel; 1% everything else

You may want to see my previous post on Credit Cards.

Click here for more information or to apply.

Several Updated Posts

I uploaded a short clip of the baby Saber Marionettes J to X and added a link from my latest Saber Marionette J to X post. Just scroll to the bottom to see the link of the video.

I found someone with a better quality of the Expression Crew – Marionette Show clip and had him upload to rapidshare. I posted the link in the original Expression Crew post. I’ve also listed which soundtrack they used for their music.

Enjoy!

The World’s Fastest Indian

Watched this movie a week ago. Another one of those feel good movies, where you know the ending only a few minutes after you start watching. Though what makes this type of movie good is not how the story ends, but how it progresses. In one sentence, the movie is about an old man journeying to the other end of the world trying see how fast his motorcycle named Indian can go. I was curious why they chose Anthony Hopkins to play an Indian. Haha.

Official Site
IMDb: 8.1/10 (1,491 votes)
Yahoo! Movies: The Critics: B- / Yahoo! Users: B-
Rotten Tomatoes: RATING: FRESH / READING: 79%
Apple Trailer
Amazon.com DVD
Amazon.com Soundtrack

the world's fastest indian posterthe world's fastest indian posterthe world's fastest indian poster

Spoilers: (Show)

One thing that struck me as strange was the fact that the movie would use the term MPH (miles per hour) instead of km/h (kilometers per hour), because Burt’s from New Zealand and even in New Zealand, he was talking about how fast his motorcycle could go in MPH units. I’ve confirmed with Tera (a friend living in Australia) and the Speed Limits New Zealand, that they do in fact use km/h and not MPH. Just found that interesting. Maybe all racers like to talk in MPH instead of km/h, though wouldn’t saying speeds in km/h make you sound faster? I’m driving at 100km/h instead vs I’m driving at 60mi/h.

Comments without Registration

Anyone is now allowed to leave comments without registering to my site. However, ads will still only be removed for those who register. Had gotten some feedback from Tekman and said how he was discouraged from leaving comments because I forced registration and email validation. You’re still required to put in a name and email address, which of course you can fake. However, unregistered comments will still be put into the moderation queue. Another benefit of registering is the fact that after I validate your 1st comment, you’ll be able to post comments without waiting in the moderation queue. I’ve gotten way too many spam comments in the past and I need some way block that. Everyday when I check my access logs, I still see about 10 sites trying to post messages to my old guestbook location.

Derailed

Watched Derailed today. Movie was okay. There was a twist, but I guessed it halfway through the movie. Even so, the movie was still enjoyable. Something I’d recommend you watch when you’re bored.

Official Website
IMDb: 6.0/10 (4,445 votes)
Rotten Tomatoes: RATING: ROTTEN / READING: 22%
Yahoo! Movies: Critics: C- / Users: B-
Apple Trailer
Amazon.com DVD
Amazon.com Soundtrack

derailed poster

Spoilers: (Show)

Saber Marionette J to X Episodes 9 – 26

So I finally took the time to finish this series this weekend, which actually involved not going to sleep till 11am yesterday. The series finally exited out of random mode and into story mode somewhere around episode 15 and I just watched it non-stop from there. Like I said, my expectations for the series was low when it first started out, but the story was a lot more touching and emotional than I had expected. The series was good, but not as great as the original in my opinion.

9 – 26 is a lot of episodes, so what I ended up doing was just taking the screenshots of the baby Saber Marionettes instead. I’m hiding the images this time around because this IS the ending, so be warned. When you click the “show” link below, it’ll be display over 130 images.

It appears you can preorder this entire DVD collection from Amazon.com. They also carry the Saber Marionette J – Anime Legends Complete Collection.

Baby Saber Marionettes Screenshots/Images: (Show)

Spoilers: (Show)

View the short clip of the Saber Marionette J to X – Babies.

Ninjai

Been awhile since I visited the Ninjai: The Little Ninja homepage, since they stopped producing more chapters, but apparently 2 new chapters have been released (since my last visit). I’ve always wanted to see his face. It gets close, but you something is always covering it.

Looking on Wikipedia, apparently these 2 episodes were released in Januaray and March of 2005 respectively. Can’t believe it’s been that long since I visited the site. I was browsing through the forums, trying to see when the next chapter would be release, but no one seems to know.

For those who haven’t seen Ninjai, you can watch the tralier here, though it doesn’t really do it justice on how much nicer the graphics and animation has gotten in chapters 11 and 12.

Haircut Experiences

I went to get my haircut today, which has been overdue for several weeks already. When my hair starts to cover my ears, it’s the indication that I need a haircut.

So let me tell you about my haircut experiences here in Seattle. I’ve gotten a total of 4 haircuts here. Twice at SuperCuts and twice at a place known as The Barber Shop.

First time, I didn’t know which places were decent, so I went to the closest SuperCuts and got my hair cut there. First of all, the wait time was ~2hrs, and they recommend that you just make an appointment next time, which I took note of. The next thing was the haircut they gave me was pretty awful. All the time, it felt like she (the barber) wanted to just finish up and move on to the next customer. I mean it was a haircut, but there were so many places that weren’t even, that I didn’t bother trying to get the her to fix it. It really felt like I getting a haircut from a barber training school. The haircut itself was $13.95 + tip (maybe + tax too, I don’t remember), but that was expected. There won’t be any Monterey Park $6 haircut prices up here in Seattle.

The next time, I’ve gotten several recommendations on the Microsoft newsgroups for new graduates. There were salons ranging from $15 to $40. The Barber Shop was close to where I live and it wasn’t that much more expensive: $19 for a haircut (so only $5 more). The service was great and he was quite attentive. He asked he how’d I like it done and I asked for his recommendation. He suggested me to try 5 and 3 and if I wanted it shorter, he can continue working on it. After he showed me what a 5 and 3 looked like, I wanted it a bit shorter because I tend to be too lazy to get haircuts and he said no problem and continue to cut my hair. I was really satisifed with this haircut. But that could also be due to external factors such as I actually had fun talking to this barber and it tickled when he cut my hair and it felt nice. Then of course, there’s the self-fulfilling prophecy where I had to pay more, so if I didn’t get a better haircut, I’d think myself as being stupid for paying more.

So in order to test that theory, plus the fact The Barber Shop wasn’t opened on Sunday, I gave SuperCuts another try. I made my appointment and went to Costco. Spent an hour or so there, and when I arrive at SuperCuts, it still wasn’t my turn. So I headed off next door to Starbucks and got myself a Mocha Frappuccino and waited for my turn. This time, completely new barber, so I thought hopefully my luck would change. It turned out to be a lot worse. So most barbers use these clips defined with numbers, which I can understand why and how that makes their life easier. I wasn’t too sure if The Barber Shop had used clips, but I was leaning toward now, because I don’t remember the clipper actually touching my scalp. But anyway, back to SuperCuts. I’m usually fine with clips, but this one did not have a FLAT surface. There was a bump in the middle of it and it kept scratching my head where ever she tried to cut my head. At first I tried to just endure the pain, but imagine taking a somewhat sharp plastic object and scraping your head back and forth. It got to the point I told her there was something wrong with the clip and it was scratching my head painfully. She took the clip, checked it, cleaned it, and tried again. It was better, but still scratched, but not as painfully anymore. I’m not even sure what the problem was. Was it because she was pressing too hard (I don’t think so). It really felt like there was an extra piece of plastic on the bottom of that clip. I didn’t bother telling her anymore since it doesn’t seem like it’ll get me anywhere, and I just wanted to get this over with. Once again, bad haircut. Choppy areas. The only thing accomplished was my hair was shorter and I can go around without another haircut for 2 months. I’m not sure if all SuperCuts are like this, but now I’m certain I won’t go to another SuperCuts for a VERY VERY long time.

Since The Barber Shop is closed on Sunday and closes at 2pm on Saturday, I had to get up early this morning to go get my haircut. The barber that cut my hair last time wasn’t there, but everyone here seemed cool. I think the barbers here use clips too, but they don’t press it against the scalp so it feels like it’s floating through your hair when they cut it. The barber would try to bring up topics I’m interested in, and make jokes which I actually smiled and chuckled at. I’m actually having fun getting my haircut. Once again, a very satisified haircut. I even asked him to trim my tail a bit, because it was getting a bit too long, so I think he took off an inch or two (or so he says). I even left him a big tip because I was so happy.

After just visiting SuperCuts website, it turns out you can get a $2 off coupon for your next visit. Just search for SuperCuts you want to go to with their Locator, and click “Sign up for haircut alert”. At $11.95, it’s not that bad anymore, but I probably won’t be going there for a really long time.

Friday Night

Happy Birthday StanMan!

Today was StanMan’s birthday, so a bunch of us (Joe, ChemChampion, Saran, and I) celebrated his bday dinner at Todai. The sushi there is usual Todai quality, but it was a buffet and my stomach hurt after I finished. Though I’ve finally had crème brûlée. Not sure if it’s authentic, but it was pretty good. I’ve heard so much of Cari’s crème brûlée, but don’t think I’ve ever got to try it.

We came back to my place to play Settlers. Game was close. I was actually leading, but not having a good source of wheat or ore really doesn’t help the end game. Perry and Joe came from behind and took the lead. Joe stole my longest road and I ended up 3rd or 4th place with 6pts.

We then spent some time watching random clips on my computer (the selected few I keep after I show it to you guys). It was a fun night.

April Fools!

This has to be the coolest April Fools joke yet:

grow your own 1up mushroom
Grow Your Own 1up Mushroom Kit (from /.) – Deep in the basement of an ancient house in Sonobe (tucked in the fields of Kyoto, Japan), an amazing discovery has been made: real 1up Mushrooms. We know this sounds unbelievable, and we laughed when we were contacted by an exporter about them two months ago. But then we were sent a sample, and that’s when our lives changed forever. At first I was skeptical, especially with the eyes. Then the description made it believable. I actually clicked on Add to Cart and BAM, it hit me, today (or tomorrow when I read it) was April Fools. But being able to grow 1up mushrooms from Super Mario Bros. would be so damn neat! The eyes should’ve really given it away. ThinkGeek has some more April Fools joke on their homepage.

Another good April Fools joke was posted on Ars Technica: Duke Nukem Forever. It claims the game has finally been released and everything was going fine, until it stated it was supported on every system using Ajax and you had to play the game through a browser.

If you think you’ve seen a cool April Fool’s joke/prank, please share it!