I think today's post will just be an amalgam of all the little tidbits of information I've collected throughout the last week that, by themselves, don't really constitute a whole post, but, together, make for one heckuvan entry.

Credit Card Application
Anyone ever heard of Upfront Rewards Visa card? Like I'm sure all of you do, Katie and I receive nearly a dozen credit card applications in a given week. It's pretty ridiculous to see how many trees are killed by these companies. Typically, I just open the envelope, shred the portion that has our name and address on it, and throw the rest in a recycle bin.

This one, however, caught my eye because it had a picture of a Dell Inspiron B120 laptop computer on it.

I was curious as it's not the typical travel clock or mug that most credit card companies offer.

The offer is this, you sign up with them and transfer a minimum balance of $5,000 to this card and you will get the computer. The catch, of course, is that they require you to maintain at least $3,500 of the balance for a minimum of 18 months. If you go under $3,500, you will be assessed a $600 fee. If you maintain the $3,500 for 18 months at their 9.99% APR, you wind up paying $2,269 and change in interest fees (is my math correct on that one?). We see where they get their money from.

I guess if you already maintain one heckuva revolving balance on your credit card and pay the interest as it is, you may as well get the free computer out of it. But don't expect to be getting out of debt anytime soon.

My Name Is Earl and The Daily Show
Did anyone watch last week's episode of My Name Is Earl? Was that Patrick Swayze in the role of the head bounty hunter at the office where Juliette Lewis' character is working? I can't find reference to any of the guest stars in that episode on IMDb, epguides.com, or even NBC.com. Was it him?

The Daily Show had a pretty funny special entitled "Race: The AfroSpanicIndioAsianization of America" on the other night. And, if you watched carefully during the scene with the racist correspondent, it shows that he got his start on the Channel 4 news in Detroit. Well, the news team photo that they Photoshoppped his head into was actually Chicago's very own NBC 5 late night news team. Yep, Warner Saunders, Allison Rosati, and, well, I don't remember the other guy.

Sorry, "other guy."

BlogShares
So I'm looking at my blogstats on Friday morning and I see an entry in to my site from a place called BlogShares, which, so far as I can tell, is like a virtual stock market that banks on the up-and-down value of blogs over time.

And kapgar.com was listed.

However, 80% of the shares of my site are owned by Gary at GarySaid.com.

Wait a minute!! Hold the phone!! Gary is the primary stakeholder in my site?!?! How's that fair? Do I have to call him "boss"? I'm not his blog bitch, am I?

And, apparently, I've made some pretty good money for him, too. As early back as I can view, which is only mid-December, a share of stock in kapgar.com was a mere $1,651.80. And, as of March 14 of this year, it was up to $2,836.29. God only knows how much lower it was when Gary purchased his 4,000 shares during their bargain-basement IPO back in August.

I get a cut, Gary. 'nuff said.

Carnival of the Mundane
Have any of you ever taken part in a blog carnival yet? Well, now's as good a time as any.

The upcoming Carnival of the Mundane VIII is coming to a blog near you. Well, more specifically, it's coming to Daisy Mae's blog on Friday, April 14.

C'mon! Jump on board! Be a carnie! You know you want to.

This will be my fourth foray into this most devilish display of our mundane existences. Now to pick a post, or two.

Cover Songs
How soon is too soon to cover a song?

I'm asking because I was listening to PodQuiz 59 this morning on the way to work and James' musical segment revolved around cover songs. He played the cover version and asked you to identify the song and the original artist.

One song was a cover of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from the movie Armageddon (actually it was apparently written by Diane Warren). This song came out with the movie back 1998 making it only eight years old. And it's already been covered by country artist Mark Chesnutt and the first version listed on AllMusicGuide came out back in 1999.

How is that right? I think a song needs to be at least 10 years old before it should be eligible for cover status. I would honestly prefer it even be longer. 15 or 20 years would be ideal.

And, while I'm on the topic, can musicians out there stop doing tribute albums to artists that are still relatively new? I thought it was bad enough, three or four years ago, when I saw a tribute to Sheryl Crow who, at the time, had been in the limelight for about seven years. But now I'm seeing tribute albums to the likes of Avril Lavigne and other artists who have no more than one or two albums to their name. Sick.

Lost Blogs
Just a final reminder that tomorrow marks the first day of the Lost Blogs Grassroots Blogger Book Marketing Campaign. So you will be seeing some interesting posts on this blog as well as all those linked up in the sidebar over there under the image of Abe Lincoln's head.

I will be breaking with my song lyric post title system and be titling all these entries with "Lost Blogs: Day 1" or whatnot. I may still be posting normal entries. But I will use my normal titling method for those. That will be one way that you will tell the difference.