Freebies and free stuff

This free Subway Teacher’s Kit is only available for subway riders…wait, that doesn’t sound right…

Ah, yes, teachers can sign up for the free kit which comes with “tools they need to bring fitness and nutrition education into the classroom.” I haven’t been able to find out what exactly is in the kit, but then again I’m not a teacher. The state still won’t certify my license even though I teacher people how to get freebies every day!

I initially wrote about ExpoTV a little over two years ago when I first discovered it. I was using the site to make some extra cash just for making videos reviewing household objects. I eventually ran out of things to review, but that was a while ago and I decided to have another look at the site. Turns out they recently shifted to a new points format, but the premise is still the same: you set up a camcorder, webcam, or even the video mode of a digital camera and then review any product in your house. In exchange, you earn points that can be redeemed for prizes, giftcards and cash. Kind of like Swagbucks but for video reviews instead of searching. As an example, a $15 Amazon gift certificate costs only 1800 points but you receive 2000 points for uploading your first video!

In addition, they’ve got a new section called Tryology. Basically what this amounts to are free full-sized samples of new products in exchange for promising to make a short video review. Current and recent Tryology product offers include Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs, Honey Bunches of Oats, Herbal Essences, Pantene, Mister Salty Chocolate Pretzels, and more. To find out if you qualify, simply register, fill out your profile, and they will then e-mail you if you qualify.

You won’t make millions with ExpoTV, but it is a fun way to make a little extra cash as well as try out new products for free!

Disney announced on Good Morning America yesterday that if you spend a day volunteering with a participating organization, then starting on January 1, 2010 you can get a free one-day admission to Disney World or Disneyland. They haven’t released a list of the participating groups yet, but if you think you might want to take part in the offer, they suggest signing up for e-mail alerts which will let you know when pre-registration starts since ticket quantities are limited.

A maximum of 8 family member can participate and children must be at least 6 years old to qualify. So you could theoretically get a free day of admission for the entire family during your next vacation. Not too shabby! Although I’m not too sure I ever want to ride It’s A Small World again. It creeped me out when I was 4, it somehow got even creepier when I was 10, and I don’t want to risk seeing what’s it’s become now!

EDIT: As these coupons run out of prints, I’ll start removing the links to them. Anything with a link should still be available.

I stumbled across a ton of printable Neutrogena coupons this morning. They include:

• $5.00 off any Neutrogena Acne Therapy purchase. Doesn’t expire until 12/31/09.
• $2.00 off any Neutrogena Therapeutic Haircare product.
• $2.00 off any Wave refill purchase.
• $3.00 off any Wave Power Cleanser purchase.
• $1.00 off any Acne or Cleansing product

You have to register with their site, but after doing so you’ll receive access to all of the coupons. You may already have an account with them though – I tried to register and apparently I did so over a year ago. If it wasn’t for Firefox saving all of my passwords, I’d think half of these sites were lying to me!

How come my hair never looks as good as the guy in this free Nautica Oceans Cologne ad? Every photo I have of me recently emerging from the water looks like I have an octopus stuck on my head. And what’s with the open dress shirt? I get winded simply wading through the waves; how is this guy zipping around with that much drag?!

I blame the new Starbucks offer on why I cut myself shaving this morning. Sure, I sliced myself a good 3 minutes after the Starbucks commercial came on, but I hypothesize that’s because I’m a bit slow in the morning. Case in point: I was shaving with toothpaste.

Anyway, in case you haven’t seen the commercials, if you stop in at Starbucks between October 2 and 5 and take part in their VIA Taste Challenge, you’ll get a coupon for a free Starbucks Tall brewed coffee on your next visit. Of course, for me, “next visit” means walking outside, spinning in a circle, then venturing back in. I call it the Reverse Grandpa Simpson.

This is kind of important, so thanks for reading it.

The allusion to site updates wasn’t a farce, but I figured this piece of news deserved it’s own post to start with. Long story short, I broke the site last Friday and didn’t find out about it until yesterday. Apparently a ton of Hiffers haven’t been seeing any new posts since September 24. My bad!

To make matters worse, those of us who saw the new updates were still experiencing discrepancies across the site (comment counts were inaccurate, new posts would show up and then vanish, and I think my room’s haunted with a ghost…well, that last one really only applies to me).

I’ve fixed the code on my end, but it could take up to 72 hours to filter down to everyone. However, there are some quick and easy steps you can take to make sure you get the correct fix much sooner:

1. Clear your browser’s cache. It takes 15 seconds and instructions for most browsers can be found at that link.
2. Close your browser.
3. Finally, reopen your browser, go to HIF, and press CTRL+R (for Windows) or CMND+R (for Mac).

Those steps should take care of the problem. Again, apologizes for the trouble! I’m heading to bed, but feel free to leave any comments or questions and I’ll get to them in the morning.

EDIT: Just to be clear, this wasn’t a virus or anything malicious. I simply inadvertently put in code that told people’s browsers not to check for a new version of HIF until April 2010. For better or worse, I intend to make new posts between now and then, so I deleted that code!

I’m busy working on the site (more on that soon), but here’s a free Always Infinity offer from Walmart.

If you join Walgreens’ Facebook group, then you’ll be offered an opportunity to get a free photo book this Friday, October 2. The catch is that you’ll have to pay a, quote, “small shipping fee” which hasn’t been revealed yet. Still, it might be worth looking into as it could make a nice (and cheap!) Christmas present.

I love sushi. I really truly do. There’s so much complexity to it that the fact that I’m going to get some reusable (read: plastic) chopsticks and some brochures about using ocean caught seafood over farmed seafood in this free sushi advocacy kit? Sounds good.

What amuses me, though, is the brochures are to have a conversation with my local sushi chef. Last time I tried to speak to him, he just brandished his knife my way and that was the end of that!