Best Leisure Time Blog

posted by Adam Johns on May 22

Most of us like to play games. Some people are keen on shooting games others can’t stand strategic or simulation games. Playing your favorite games online brings even more satisfaction and enjoyment, because nothing can compare with life online opponents. But not everyone has enough time to play big “full-sized” games. There are a lot of small easy-to-play games that help to while away the time during a coffee break at work or just to get yourself entertained without waiting for hours of loading and development of a character, for example.

Now it is possible to play online games absolutely for free right in your browser. I’ve found several wonderful resources that offer free puzzle games, fun and action games absolutely for free. Loading was really fast too, so I had some really excellent time while playing. As far as I understand it, all games are sponsored by some advertising companies and advertisement isn’t annoying at all. Besides it is possible to compete with your co workers or family. Some card games are almost as interesting as live card playing. Personally I play casino and shooting games each minute I am not busy, even at work. Some of them are really hard to tear away from, so be careful.

posted by Adam Johns on Feb 10

Star rapper is working on a book titled, ‘The Way I Am,’ due out this fall.

Eminem is working on a book that’s “every bit as raw and uncensored as the man himself,” according to his publisher.

Dutton Books, an imprint of The Penguin Group, announced Wednesday that it would be publishing the best-selling rapper’s “The Way I Am” this fall.

“It will be illustrated with never-before-seen photographs of Eminem’s home and life along with original drawings,” Dutton said in a statement.

The rapper’s spokesman, Dennis Dennehy, said the memoir “is still in the process of being written and edited.”

The book was described as an intimate look inside the life of Eminem, who has sold tens of millions of records since he made his provocative debut in 1999.

“Offering a window on the star’s private thoughts on everything from his music and the trials of fame to his love for his daughter, Hailie, this title is every bit as raw and uncensored as the man himself,” Dutton said.

The Grammy and Academy Award-winning rapper has published one other book, “Angry Blonde.” The 2002 work detailed his lyrics.

Eminem has not released a new album since 2004’s “Encore,” and his representative said there’s no CD scheduled to be released from the rapper at this time.

Source: The Associated Press

posted by Adam Johns on Jan 19

The dollar used to be the universal tourist currency, accepted almost anywhere, from the streets of Hanoi to the plains of Africa. But the continued slide of the dollar against other currencies has led the greenback to be shunned in unexpected places, creating new problems for American travelers and pushing prices higher.

The Taj Mahal has stopped accepting dollars for the entrance fee, under a new edict from the Indian Ministry of Culture that also affects other national tourist sites like the 13th-century minaret known as the Qutb Minar and Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi. As a result, for entrance to the Taj Mahal, Americans must now pay 750 rupees, about $19, at the rate of 29.74 rupees to the dollar, compared with $15 previously.

Some tour operators say they have encountered newfound resistance to dollars in parts of Vietnam and Peru, especially in villages that are off the beaten path.

”It used to be a $100 bill was universal everywhere, from Moscow to Mozambique,” said Peter Rudy, the North America director for KE Adventure Travel, a Denver-based outfit that books adventure trips throughout the world. ”It’s not now.”

Even in New York, some shops are encouraging payment in foreign currency. A recent article in The Villager, a Manhattan neighborhood newspaper, noted that East Village Wines, a liquor store at 138 First Avenue, accepts payments in euros as well as dollars.

Over the last year through mid-January, the dollar has depreciated about 9 percent against the euro, 10 percent against the rupee and 12 percent against the Chilean peso, said Jay Bryson, global economist at Wachovia.

In the past, savvy travelers could hedge against the weakened dollar by buying a prepackaged tour. Tour operators set prices as much as 18 months in advance, so they can be printed in brochures and other marketing materials. Those travelers were essentially getting a built-in discount during the last couple of years as the dollar fell against other currencies. But not this year.

Some American tour operators are now tacking on so-called currency surcharges, in much the same way that airlines have bumped up fuel surcharges in the face of rising oil costs. Others are raising package prices to help make up the difference.

Last month, Group Voyagers, the parent company of Globus, Cosmos, Monograms and Avalon Waterways, added a currency surcharge of about 5 percent to many of its European tours. For example, Globus’s $1,699 Taste of Italy package starting on May 3 now includes a surcharge of $110 a person. Over all, travelers can expect to pay $20 to $190 extra a person for the European tours.

Nearly 60 percent of members of the United States Tour Operators Association serving Europe and Britain said their prices would increase up to 15 percent because of the weak dollar, a December survey showed.

And it’s not just Europe. KE Adventure Travel raised prices for a handful of clients who booked winter tours to Patagonia, Bolivia and Nepal — partly because ground agents were demanding more money to make up for the decline of the dollar. Some agents are even requesting payment in euros instead of dollars.

”It’s a monstrous change in the business and it’s affecting every one of us,” Mr. Rudy said, adding that KE Adventures never before raised prices in midstream for its clients in its 25 years of operation.

Despite the currency surcharges, prepackaged tours can still offer some savings. The roughly 5 percent surcharge imposed by Globus is less than the 10 percent devaluation of the dollar against the euro since it priced its vacations in June. To help ease the blow, Globus is offering a limited-time $200 discount on air-inclusive Europe vacations booked by Feb. 29.

And other tour operators are simply absorbing the loss. After Globus announced its currency surcharge, a flurry of tour operators including Brendan Worldwide Vacations, Insight Vacations and Collette Vacations sent out news releases emphasizing that they did not plan to levy currency surcharges. These tour operators use a hedging strategy that mitigates the effects of currency exchange fluctuations.

Recognizing the challenge American tourists are up against, some hotels with a large American clientele have also begun to guarantee some rates in dollars. The high-end Hotel Carl Gustaf in St. Bart’s, for example, is guaranteeing winter rates for travel through April 19 in dollars. While the listed rates begin at 1,100 euros, or $1,672 at $1.52 to the euro, the hotel is offering rates beginning at $1,300 a room a night with a three-night minimum to travelers who ask for the United States-dollar rate. One place to find hotels that are offering similar deals, said Stacy Small, owner of Elite Travel International, is the Web site of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, www.slh.com. The collection of upscale hotels ”has a number of properties that consistently promote U.S. fixed-dollar rates,” she said.

For example, the Capital hotel in London is offering a three-night package in an Executive Double room with airport transfers and access to a health club for $1,399, not including tax. A three-night stay in that category of room would normally cost £855 or about $1,700, at $1.99 to the pound, without the transfers or club pass. The St. James Paris is offering a City Escapes package through April that includes breakfast for $470 a room, not including tax. Rates normally start at 380 euros, about $577.

To get the most bang for your buck, consider destinations where the dollar hasn’t declined. The dollar is flat against the Mexican peso compared with where it was a year ago, said Mr. Bryson of Wachovia, and is up about 2 percent compared with a year ago against the Argentine peso. And countries like Panama and Ecuador use American dollars as their official currency.

posted by Adam Johns on Jan 16

For her mother’s 89th birthday, Lynda Balkam of Coronado, Calif., came up with what seemed like the perfect unexpected gift: a three-day Mexican cruise in May, with her family on the ship. But when Ms. Balkam made the reservations, she was the one who got a surprise.

Because of stricter national security rules going into effect in January, all 17 of the relatives going on the cruise — even though they are American citizens — will have to produce passports, not just birth certificates and driver’s licenses, to get back into the United States on their return. Getting the passports for the eight adults and five children who don’t already have them will involve not only an unexpected chore, but unanticipated fees totaling $1,186.

“It’s just another expense we weren’t planning on at all,” said Ms. Balkam who, like many Americans, has become accustomed to crossing borders to nearby countries without a passport. The family is still going on the cruise, but she and her husband plan to help pay the extra costs.

For years, an American adult needed only a valid driver’s license and birth certificate to go back and forth between the States and Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Panama and most Caribbean islands. Children needed just birth certificates. But as of Jan. 8, passports will be required for almost everyone entering the United States through airports and seaports, no matter where they are coming from. The same requirement will go into effect for land crossings from Canada or Mexico on Jan. 1, 2008.

The change could catch a lot of vacationers off guard. The Department of Homeland Security says airplane and cruise passengers who do not have passports will have to go through a secondary screening to verify their citizenship, an extra step that will inevitably cause delays.

And there are some real concerns about how well equipped the government is to handle the likely crush of passport applications. “If there were to be a rush on passports for people taking a cruise trip in the first quarter of next year, we’re not sure they could keep up with demand,” said Rick Webster, vice president of government affairs at the Travel Industry Association, one of several trade associations pushing to delay the deadline.

The State Department estimates that 73 percent of Americans now lack passports. The fee to acquire one is $97 for adults and $82 for children under 16. Demand for passports could increase to 16 million in the 2007 fiscal year, beginning today, from about 12.3 million in the year that ended Sept. 30. To help handle the work, the government has hired about 250 new employees and added some new locations where people can file applications, bringing the total to more than 8,000. (Commonly, these passport acceptance locations are post offices, county clerk offices and libraries.) But the few federal centers where the applications go next — for the actual processing — have already been struggling just to keep up with a steady increase over the last few years.

Though the State Department says that applicants ordinarily receive passports within six weeks of applying, it can take longer. René Mack, 47, of Wyckoff, N.J., applied for a passport for his year-old son, Aidan, at a special open house at the Fairlawn, N.J., post office in June. Though he was told the passport would be processed in six to eight weeks, he didn’t receive it until 12 weeks later.

“I can only imagine what will happen to people waiting for passports over the holidays in December, when the mail is traditionally at its heaviest volume,” said Mr. Mack, who was aware of the coming changes in the rules because he handles public relations for travel and tourism clients in Canada and the Bahamas.

There are shortcuts — for a price. Someone in urgent need of a passport can pay an extra $60 for expedited service, which typically cuts wait time to two weeks. A traveler leaving in less than two weeks can make an appointment to go in person, with proof of travel plans in hand, to one of 14 passport agencies located in major cities, including New York, Boston and Los Angeles, by calling (877) 487-2778. There are also private rush services that specialize in speeding customers through the bureaucracy. For varying fees, these companies can often get passports approved in as little as 24 hours. (A list of expediting services is at www.napvs.org.) But in recent years, some passport agencies have been reducing the number of daily submissions such rush companies are allowed. The New York regional passport agency used to allow them to submit applications in unlimited numbers; in February it limited each company to 20 or fewer a day.

WHAT we have here is a situation of clearly increasing demand over the last couple of years,” said Rob Smith, director of the National Association of Passport and Visa Services, a trade group for the expediting companies. “That demand is likely to be heightened by the sea and air requirements coming up this January, followed by the land requirements a year later.”

The travel industry, fearing confusion and passport delays, has been pushing for an extension for the new rules. For now, cruise companies and travel agencies are urging travelers not to wait to get their passports. Ada Brown, owner of Seaside Travel in Long Beach, Calif., points out that even on cruises to Hawaii or Alaska passengers may need passports, because many of those ships make foreign stopovers. “The Alaska cruises from Seattle all touch base in Vancouver, and that’s a foreign port,” she said.

With tourism dollars at stake, some Caribbean resorts are offering to foot some of the bill for customers who need passports. Ladera Resort in St. Lucia is offering to reimburse any guest staying there next year for the $97 new-passport fee when the guest presents the new passport and a receipt. In Aruba, the Westin and Renaissance resorts are both offering food and beverage credits of $50 to $75 to guests whose first international destination in 2007 is Aruba. SuperClubs will apply the costs of new or renewed passports to a 2007 four-night stay at one of its 10 Caribbean resorts if booked by Nov. 20.

Travelers can avoid the need for a passport altogether, of course, by seeking out island getaways that don’t require them — in the United States Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico or Hawaii.

“For us, it has already been a reassuring selling point for destination wedding groups,” said Richard Doumeng, managing director at Bolongo Bay Beach Resort in St. Thomas. Brides, he said, “don’t have to worry if their sorority sisters can attend depending on whether or not they have a passport.”

Information is taken from: NY Times 

posted by Adam Johns on Oct 14

I’ve recently come across shocking news about people who were selling orbital medical examination. A couple pretended to be secret CIA agents and promised to heal any disease directly from the Earth’s orbit by means of secret CIA satellite.

So people paid huge sums of money for being healed and it’s obvious that nothing happened. Cheaters promised to make full medical examination and heal people when they were sleeping. Investigation proved that the couple “earned” more than 870 thousand dollars. Both swindlers were sentenced to 5 years prison and full reparation of damages.

So what interests me most of all about this story is how many people are still waiting to be cheated by dishonest fortune hunters? Are we so stupid that we believe different unreal stories about secret satellites, alien technologies and magical medications? Don’t give your money for mystic things so easily, that’s not a good idea, to my mind. Have you ever been cheated by someone? Tell the others to prevent them from your mistakes.

posted by Adam Johns on Oct 9

I’m glad to see you on our Best Leisure Time Blog. Soon there will be tons of interesting informative posts here. Everyone is invited to leave their posts and opinions. Remember that your opinion is very important to me and other blog visitors. You may ask any questions here and I’m sure you’ll find an answer soon. Forget all you problems and things to do and spend some pleasant time with us. Discuss you favourite band, singer, film or book and leave honest comments in order to find interesting people and hear reasonable answers. I’ll try to give you any interesting information I come across in my life (recent movies, new musical albums and everything connected with the sphere of entertainment). Stay with us to get more satisfaction from your leisure time.