What to do at Night in Phoenix

UPDATE 12/21/12 - http://phoenixshorttermhousing.com/

Phoenix is a growing city that works hard and needs plenty to do to unwind. Some days are simply too damn hot to go outside, so this is a city that has a lot going on once the sun goes down.

Whether you’re visiting or staying in Phoenix, you’ll find plenty going on after dark. Whatever your taste, whatever your style, we have something for you.

Old Town Whiskey

If you like your whiskey, or want to get to know the drink a little better, there is no other place to visit than Old Town Whiskey. The collection of over 100 different types of the fiery brown liquid is more than enough to keep even the most ardent whiskey fan happy for days.

Sun Devil Cellar and Pub

If you prefer wine to whiskey, the Sun Devil Cellar and Pub has the best cellar in town. This is a stylish, intimate space, full of soft furnishings and piano music. A great place to enjoy a mature wine or a cheeky chardonnay.

Four Peaks Hop Knot

The Hop Knot in Four Peaks is a winner of a number of beer-making awards, which means this venue is a must-visit for any red-blooded male. The local beers have to be tasted to be believed and there are enough national and international drinks to keep even the most traveled beer connoisseur happy.

Stand Up Live

Stand Up Live is perfect for if you need a little laughter in your life. A stand-up venue in more ways than one, this is the perfect place to see local comedians and national names at their best in a relaxed environment.

Time Out Lounge

If you prefer a beer and the game, the Time Out Lounge is the place to be. It has a good atmosphere, a great jukebox and plenty of viewing screens to watch the game. There is no attitude, no pretense and no problems at the Time Out, making it the perfect venue for indulging passions, football and beer!

Shin Bay

The ShinBay Japanese restaurant is a new kid in town but has already made a name for itself thanks to great food and a real buzz. If you prefer cuisine to bars, this place is a must visit. The food is almost too beautiful to eat.

Distrito

Distrito is where people who know and love food come to eat. Housed inside the Saguaro Hotel, the cuisine in Mexican-inspired with a modern twist and is amazing to see, smell and taste.

Lux Central

If you prefer more relaxed dining, then Lux Central is perfect. It’s a “scene” venue with a nice atmosphere and none of the pretensions of fine dining. The food is good, the venue cool and the cocktails are amazing.

Those are just a few venues that are worth a try when the sun goes down. Each was won acclaim both locally and often nationally for the quality of their produce and the service. You’re just as likely to find locals here are tourists, which is as good a recommendation as there could be.

new vid

CSS, Tips & Tricks

Check your blog’s rank at Popuri (Hattip: Daniel Blake Saltman)


popuri logo In the past couple of weeks I’ve been telling you what it takes to get your blog ranked and how the big 3 ranking sights work. There are a couple more but they are not really as important as the big 3. Today I’m gonna tell you a little about where to go to check your ranking.

Popuri is my favorite one because you can check all of the different ranks in one place. They also make it extremely simple to put a widget on your blog listing your ranking. I’ve put the one for this site at the bottom of this post. You just go to the website, put in your blogs URL, and voila. Your ranks appear. You can see the ranks for this site below. This site is so new that our ranking is pretty low but I’m sure it will grow with time. Right on the main page you will see your Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, Compete Rank, Quantcast Rank, Google BackLinks, Yahoo BackLinks, Live Search BackLinks, Technorati Links, del.icio.us Bookmarks, and Bloglines subscribers. As a matter of fact I just discovered Compete and Quantcast ranking. Not real sure what they are but I will research them between now and next week for you.

My Popularity (by popuri.us)

popuri, Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, Compete Rank, Quantcast Rank, Google BackLinks, Yahoo BackLinks, Live Search BackLinks, Technorati Links, del.icio.us Bookmarks, Bloglines
Blogging Tools 3 Comments »



The stats for the stataholics are PR4, Alexa rank of 4,278,362 and a Technorati Authority 135.
Great Blogs 2 Comments »
Paid Blogging: A List of Companies


 Today’s post on paid blogging is a list of companies that offer paid blogging options. Each has its own unique way of doing things, and some may work better for you than others. I’ve found that by trying them, I favor some over others. Everybody has a different feel or experience with a company, so poke around the sites, read the terms of service and learn more about them. I have not worked with every company listed, but I have worked with most of them (11 out of 14). You may find you like one company better than others, and you may end up working with many of them, or choose that they aren’t working for you. Some offer more work than others, and some are more selective in assigning work. With multiple companies comes multiple opportunities, so be sure to explore all your options.

If you would like to add one to the list that isn’t here, feel free to leave it in the comments. Next week, I’ll be doing another review on a specific paid blogging site. For now I’ll leave you with this list of companies. Happy exploring!

1.  PayPerPost
2.  Blogitive
3.  Blogsvertise
4.  Review Me
5.  Sponsored Reviews
6.  Loud Launch
7.  PayU2Blog
8.  Smorty
9.  Blogging Ads
10. CreamAid
11. BlogToProfit
12. V7N
13. Dewitts Media
14. Linky Love Army

Happy Blogging, Deb
Paid Blogging 6 Comments »
CSS Design part 3b: Images in DIVs

This is a pretty easy lesson in what to do with DIVs and images. It is all about how you want to place your elements within the page. DIVs are always broken up into layers. Each layer can be displayed in a certain order to make a page look the way you expect it to. Let’s say, for instance, that you have a picture that you want overlain by the text. You can do that with the z-index tag. This tag tells the internet how to display the layers of your page.

Let’s play around with this. I am going to take this picture:
 Which constitutes this code being placed between the body tags:

<div id=”image”>
<img src=”http://test.blogulalmighty.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/testtitle.gif”>
</div>

and create some text to go over it. In this case, I am going to use the words “Bloggers R Us”.

<div id=”pictext”>
<h3>Bloggers R Us</h3>
</div>

The code that goes between the style tags looks like this:

div#image {
position:absolute;
left:350px;
top:20px;
}

div#pictext{
position:absolute;
left:350px;
top:20px;
}

This renders a page that looks like:

test 3

Now we are going to take control over where the text shows up. The code between the style tags now changes to look like this:

div#image {
position:absolute;
left:350px;
top:20px;
z-index:2;
}

div#pictext{
position:absolute;
left:350px;
top:20px;
z-index:1;
}

You will notice that the text has disappeared now. It is actually BEHIND the picture. Switch the z-index numbers and see what happens now. The text shows up again. The z-index works up from the bottom. The first layer is the background and it builds up like a tower from there. The higher the number, the higher the precedence in order on the screen.

I was going to talk about the relative attribute, but I will save that for next week. Don’t forget to check out the code we have worked with on the test page. Ctrl-U to see the code.

Happy coding!

REMEMBERING THOMAS JEFFERSON ON NEW YEAR’S EVE

“I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”   -Thomas Jefferson

What would he say if he were here today?

A lot of numbers get tossed around when the conversation turns to the bailout and the ultimate tax payer bill for the excesses of the aggressively deregulated, greed-is-good, free-market ideology of the past 40 years.  None of them are as startling and disconcerting as that claimed recently in an article from Bloomberg:

“The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers after guaranteeing $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. debt yesterday. The pledges, amounting to half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up 15 months ago. The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $3.18 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The commitment dwarfs the plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis.”

Think about that.  Can you even wrap your brain around those figures?

And the banking industry recipients of TARP funds, loans, and loan guarantees have responded to recent requests for some accounting of their employment of these funds with comments ranging from “we don’t keep track of that,” to “we’re not going to tell you.” Nice.

Then there is Bernard Madoff, former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange and crown prince of greed, whose own sons apparently tipped off investigators and brought down a financial empire with tentacles reaching around the globe.

What have we learned from all this?  I’m not sure yet.  But if there is one lesson that I hope we can all take away from this–from homeowners who gambled on housing to the Bernard Madoffs of Wall Street–it is that greed is in all of us, and it is not good.

Here’s to 2009 and to hope for wisdom, humility, and hope.  I wish you a prosperous new year.