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January 9, 2013

Skipping the shipping Four shrewd ways to get free shipping

816-271-8500 shipping — then cancel the membership after a short period of time, recommends consumer savings expert Andrea Woroch, a consumer and money-saving expert who has been featured in “Good Morning America,” NBC’s “Today” and The New York Times .

Andrew Schrage, founder of the personal finance site MoneyCrashers.com, recommends shoppers do something similar with Amazon: Sign up for a month-long free trial for an Amazon Prime account, which will give you 30 days of free shipping, then cancel it at the month’s end.

He says you also can find many free shipping deals on cash-back sites like DealNews.com and FatWallet.com.

Pick your store wisely

Todd Weddle | St. Joseph News- Press photo illustration

By SHEA CONNER St. Joseph News-Press

Experts say that paying for shipping is an online shopper’s biggest pet peeve. In fact, 79 percent of shoppers say that finding free ship-

ping is the most important online deal they seek when shopping online, according to a study by Discover.

With this in mind, we’ve talked to a few online shopping and saving specialists to

find out how they’ve cut those hefty shipping fees out of their lives.

Work the Web

The first place to look for free shipping is on FreeShipping.org, which lists free shipping

offers from thousands of online retailers. Next, consider signing up for a 30-day trial membership with ShopRunner.com — a shopping website that partners with hundreds of retailers to offer free two-day

Speaking of DealNews.com, website founder Dan de Grandpre says many stores offer free or minimal shipping year-round.

Walmart is probably the most popular, he points out.

“Walmart has become a new leader in the online shipping game,” he says. “Most items on Walmart.com get free shipping with orders of $45 or more, and many of its apparel items, even clearance items under $10, qualify for 97-cent shipping.”

Other online stores that frequently offer free shipping (often with a no-minimum or a low-minimum purchase) include shoe stores like Zappos. com, Shoes.com, ShoeMall.com and Piperlime as well as luxury department stores like NeimanMarcus.com, Saks.com and Nordstrom.com, he adds.

Just remember that and offer of “free shipping” doesn’t always save you money. For example, jewelry stores often promote free shipping near Christmas, Mr. de Grandpre says, but jewelry prices are often at their highest during the holidays.

Walmart has become a new leader in the online shipping game.

— DAN DE GRAND, founder of DealNews.com

Purchase more at one store

Most stores will offer you free shipping if you spend a certain amount of money with them.

For example, Barnes & Noble offers free shipping within the U.S. if you spend $25 or more for a single order.

“Though it isn’t always smart to spend an extra $25 to save $10, it does make sense, however, to buy multiple gifts from the same retailer so you don’t have to pay for shipping on those various items,” Ms. Woroch says.

Be cautious, however.

A study by Forrester Research indicates that more than one in four people who shop with a retailer offering one of these kinds of free shipping deals ends up adding unplanned items to their carts to meet this threshold. So, before you start adding so-so items to your cart, see if you can find a free shipping offer on another site that doesn’t require a minimum purchase amount or one in which the minimum purchase amount is very low.

Simply ask for free shipping

Sometimes, you can get free shipping by simply calling customer service and asking for it, Ms. Woroch says. She says that you should point out to the customer service representative that other stores are offering free shipping, and if the store doesn’t want to lose your business, it should be doing the same for you.

Shea Conner can be reached at shea. conner@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @stjoelivedotcom.

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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

ARIES - Mar 21/Apr 20 Aries, you may have to work a little harder to get what you want, but the results will be worth it. Focus your attention on making a name for yourself in the business sector.

TAURUS - Apr 21/May 21 There is no stopping you when you have a goal in mind, Taurus. Although you may be ambitious, just be mindful of other people in your path as you go.

Matt Reid | St. Joseph News- Press

Larry Christy uses a router on a wood piece for a customer on a recent afternoon in St. Joseph. Below, he talks to a friend while working

Restoring history, remembering past

By ALONZO WESTON

before plastering over a wall. Sometimes he even places one of his short stoThe mansions are ries or a poem behind a named Geiger and Schus- wall before drywalling it. ter because those are the “Maybe some of that names of the folks who stuff will never be seen,� paid to have them built. he said. But the hope is But L. Christy also wants that someday someone to remember the forgotten like him will want to know men whose craftsmanship who Larry Christy was made those places grand. just like he wonders about “I think oftentime what Harold Ulmer. happens is you forget the Knowing Larry Christy people with the skill that today might not be any easmade it possible,� he said. ier than it will be 100 years Mr. Christy said he, too, from now. The 43-year-old sometimes signs his work St. Joseph man is one with St. Joseph News-Press

many gifts and passions.

Some days he’s a musician. You’ll find him playing out the songs in his head on the guitar or the old piano in his living room or at Cafe Acoustic.

As a gifted poet and a storyteller, he creates detailed stories from his tales from his childhood and life observations.

His soft baritone delivers these tales with the ebband-flow cadence of a rolling river.

Please see RESTORING/Page 3

GEMINI - May 22/Jun 21 Be honest with your feelings this week, Gemini. Someone close to you is interested in learning more about the way you operate. This could strengthen a friendship.

CANCER - Jun 22/Jul 22 Don’t bite off more than you can chew, Cancer. Otherwise you could be left with a long to-do list and not enough energy to get the job done.

Consider paring down tasks.

LEO - Jul 23/Aug 23 Leo, although you may have rest and recreation on the brain, celestial forces are pushing you in the opposite direction. Busy days are ahead, so rest later.

CROSSWORD

VIRGO - Aug 24/Sept 22 You have put too much effort into something to abandon your plans now, Virgo.

Rethink quitting early on.

Maybe a friend can carry you over the finish line.

LIBRA - Sept 23/Oct 23 Surround yourself with lots of friends when you cannot have family near, Libra.

This will help keep feelings of loneliness from creeping in during quiet moments.

SCORPIO - Oct 24/Nov 22 Scorpio, you may need to concede to a difference of opinion this week when you simply cannot resolve something amicably. Redirect attention on a craft or pastime.

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CLUES ACROSS 1. Winter capital of Kashmir 6. So. African Music Awards 11. The Bay State 14. A disorderly crowd 15. Actress Greta 16. Expression of surprise 18. Storybook elephant 21. John Jacob __, capitalist 23. Mulled wine 25. Membrane around the lungs 26. Shows how something works 28. Canonized 29. Layers bonded together 31. A vessel or duct 34. The fire had been ___ 35. Female sibling 36. Israeli capital 39. Blocked in fencing 40. 98942 WA 44. Gasoline hydrocarbon rating 45. Light snacks with drinks 47. Supplementing with difficulty 48. Am. composer & diarist Ned 50. A waterproof raincoat 51. Accumulate a large quantity 56. Am. Newspaper Assoc.

57. Butterfly collector 62. __ and Venzetti 63. Female servants CLUES DOWN 1. Poked at 2. Equally 3. Manuscript (abbr.)

4. Periodical (slang) 5. Fiddler crabs 6. Hero sandwich 7. Volcanic mountain in Japan 8. Of I 9. Indicates position

10. Legislative acts 11. Low sustained cry 12. Human resources (abbr.)

13. Supported by a prop 14. Megabyte 17. 9/11 Memorial designer Michael 19. The years someone has existed 20. Distilled from fermented molasses 21. a.k.a.

22. Estonian kroon = 100 24. The sun 25. Wide metal cooking vessel 27. Caesar or cobb 28. Building lots 30. 1/1000 inch 31. Apexes 32. Firth of Clyde’s largest island 33. Bringing suit 36. Forsyth novel “The Day of The ___�

37. Perceive with the eyes 38. Was introduced to 39. Lines of verse 41. Household god (Roman) 42. Military mailbox 43. Challenge aggressively 46. Posted 49. One thousandth of an ampere 51. General’s assistant (abbr.)

52. Bovine sound 53. Associated press 54. Opposite of LTM 55. A very large body of water 58. Ma’s partner 59. Integrated circuit 60. Rhode Island 61. Potato state

SAGITTARIUS - Nov 23/Dec 21 Sagittarius, sometimes you tend to be brutally honest with others. While honesty is an admirable trait, this week you may need to censor what you say to avoid hurt feelings.

CAPRICORN - Dec 22/Jan 20 Taking a circuitous route will land you at the finish a little behind others, Capricorn. But you will get to the end nevertheless. Trust your instincts with this one.

AQUARIUS - Jan 21/Feb 18 Aquarius, you probably won’t be able to rest your mind until you square away all of your finances and make a budget for the new year.

Take on the job this week.

PISCES - Feb 19/Mar 20 Introspection leads you on a mini-quest to find a creative outlet, Pisces. Play to your strengths and some ideas will surface.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS JANUARY 6 Bonnie Franklin, Actress (69) JANUARY 7 Kenny Loggins, Singer (65) JANUARY 8 Carolina Herrera, Fashion Designer (73) JANUARY 9 Joey Adams, Actress (45) JANUARY 10 Adam Kennedy, Athlete (37) JANUARY 11 Mary J. Blige, Singer (42) JANUARY 12 Kirstie Alley, Actress (62)

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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Restoring history CONTINUED FROM Page 2

Submitted

You can take home a recording of your music from The Science of Rock ‘n’ Roll exhibit at Science City.

Backstage pass The Science of Rock ‘n’ Roll exhibit at Kansas City’s Union Station shows the art and science of music

By KRISTEN HARE St. Joseph News-Press

At Union Station, The Science of Rock ‘n’ Roll isn’t a “go see” exhibit.

“This is really a ‘come do’ exhibit,” says Joy Torchia, Union Station marketing and public relations.

The exhibit, which is new and the first time it’s been shown, takes visitors through time, into the sound booth and backstage, all with one ticket.

The exhibit begins with decade pods, Ms. Torchia says, starting with music in the ‘50s and leading up to present day. Visitors can learn about the music and the musicians that set the sound and style of the time, as well as learn how technology continues to change how we record and listen to music.

“It’s just kind of fascinating as you travel through each of the decade pods,” Ms. Torchia says.

After the decade pods, you can get your hand on instruments yourself, playing rhythm at a cube with drums, for instance, or keyboard or guitar, and then listen how different the sound is with distortion.

Everything you experience and create as part of the exhibit can come home with you, too, thanks to a QR code on the backstage pass you receive when you begin the exhibit.

Whatever you record, you then have the ability to email home to yourself.

Next, you’ll head to a mixing station to hear how songs are really mixed in the studio, breaking down the steps taken to result in what we hear today.

You also can sing in the

Submitted

The Science of Rock ‘n’ Roll at Science City is a hands-on exhibit. recording booth. (Don’t the exhibit’s website, sci- Fridays and Saturdays, worry, people can listen enceofrock.com, such as and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. along only if they put the the history of the compact Sunday. Tickets cost headphones on.) disk and the rise of the $8 for members, $15 for Next, you can step back- music video. adults, $13 for seniors, stage to see what goes into The Science of Rock military and students creating a show, from ‘n’ Roll runs through 15 years and older, and sound, lighting and set the end of April, pos- $12.50 for children 3 to design to the work of styl- sibly into early May, 14. Group discounts are ists in creating the show’s Ms. Torchia says. The available. For more, go look. exhibit is open from to scienceofrock.com.

The exhibit ends, fit- 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. TuesThen, get yourself to tingly, with a concert ex- days through Thurs- Union Station and rock perience. days, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on.

The Science of Rock ‘n’ Roll pulls back the curIndoor tain, you could say, showing people that music might not be magic, but Starting the week of rather a process involvJanuary 13th! ing a lot of people that creates something that • Junior • Beginner sounds magical.

• Adult • Intermediate And throughout the • Advanced journey, you’ll get to see a little of what the real No Membership Required pros can do. For instance, Close proximity off Belt Hwy! lighting for the exhibit 3107 N. Belt, St. Joseph, MO • 816-233-0261 was designed by the person who designs lighting for Bruce Springsteen, Ms. Torchia says.

To deepen the experience, check out resources The Sign of experience to read ahead of time on

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And Mr. Christy knows rivers. He’s shared his thoughts with the Missouri and Snake rivers that he’s traveled by canoe many times.

Helping restore older homes is how Mr. Christy makes his money. But it’s not how he makes his living.

He lives by experiencing and celebrating the subtleties of life around him.

It never has taken much for him to live, he said. He can get by without a lot of things, but not his freedom to create.

“I’m following what I want to do instead of trying to make a bunch of cash,” he said.

Mr. Christy said part of his introspective nature comes from the fact that his young mother left him with her parents when he was 5 years old. He never knew his father.

“By the age of 4 or 5, you’ve already bonded pretty seriously with your biological mom,” he said. “When she’s out out of the picture, you suffer this great loss as a young person. You got this sense that things are pretty screwed up in the world, you’re feeling this pain and you become real observational as far as how the world works. You become really introspective just trying to understand.”

But he wasn’t without love.

His grandparents, especially his grandmother, also provided him with a cando-anything sense of confidence.

“She was really very confident. She was always saying stuff like ‘I can do anything, I can do anything’ and she would,” Mr. Christy said.

“We got photos of her inside the engine compartment of her car taking the carburetor out or being out there with power saws, whatever, building things.”

This spirit fueled Mr. Chirsty’s nature to try different things.

He once sold his house so he and a friend could open up a bookstore. He was fine living in a tent out on a farm near the edge of town.

“We didn’t really make any money at that bookshop.

We just broke even every month,” he said. “It was like a glorified clubhouse and

we just kept the door open to give poets in town some place to go read their work.

That was it.”

After the bookstore closed, Mr. Christy spent a few seasons working with the forest service and guiding raft trips down the Snake River in Wyoming. In the winters, he came home to St. Joseph.

That’s when he became acquainted with the house restoration community and began doing work returning old architectural structures to their original splendor.

“I looked at it as survival work until I could go back out West and do some work out there,” Mr. Christy said. “You do anything long enough and repetitively enough, you start getting good at it.”

He got good enough to be in demand. The restoration community began requesting his services.

Mr. Christy does lot of work for Olin Cox, who owns the Whiskey Mansion and a few other similar restoration projects in the city.

Mr. Cox said he appreciates Mr. Christy’s skills.

Skills and craftsmanship he can appreciate without having to look for a name behind a wall.

“He’s very talented,” Mr. Cox said. “He’s a gem.”

Mr. Christy has plans to launch a business on the river next summer. Missouri River Rafting Outfitting and Canoe Rental will offer people here the chance to take advantage of the beauty of the Missouri River. He plans to offer raft tours, canoe rental and shuttle services.

“This is another project — kind of like the bookshop — so who knows if it’s going to make any money or not,” he said. “It will be interesting in the very least.”

From there, who knows where Mr. Christy’s passion will take him. His passion for freedom and exploring has not been easy on some of the relationships in his life.

This lifestyle is not for everyone, he said.

“Do not try this at home,” he said with a laugh. “It’s caused a great many women in my life a lot of grief, and I feel bad about that.”

Alonzo Weston can be reached at alonzon.weston@newspressnow.com.

Follow him on Twitter @SJNPWeston.

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If you are a current or former employee of Sara Lee who was not paid for pre-shift and/or post-shift time spent putting on and taking off sanitary gear and related walking and waiting, you may be entitled to compensation for such time.

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A4

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

No more Instagram? No problem Those frustrated with Instagram’s terms of service should check out these alternatives

By SHEA CONNER St. Joseph News-Press

According to numbers from AppData, Instagram may have lost about 25 percent of its daily active users since people started revolting over a questionable terms of service change last month.

On Dec. 17, Instagram changed its terms of service to make way for advertising, but it wrote them in a way that users interpreted as a plan to sell their photos. Naturally, users were upset, and thousands threatened to quit using the photo service. Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom quickly retracted the changes, saying, “It is not our intention to sell your photos.”

Still, the Facebookowned photo-sharing service, which is one of the most popular apps across mobile devices, dropped from 16.4 million daily users to 12.4 million users the week after the announcement, according to AppData’s metrics.

If you’re one of the folks who have decided to ditch Instagram, have no fear! There are lots of free alternatives out there. And, believe it or not, some of them edit and filter images far better than Instagram while

offering more options.

Here’s a look at Instagram’s competition.

Pixlr-o-Matic pixlr.com/o-matic Of the Instagram rivals mentioned in this article, Pixlr-o-Matic lets users do the most despite its lack of social networking capabilities. Seriously, this photo program boasts a ton of features that you can play around with.

You can apply one of 100 filters, 342 film effects and choose from 210 border styles.

Simply upload an image from your computer or even take an image with your webcam (no sign-up is required, as it is with Snapseed and PicYou) and experiment with the many effects the site has to offer. Once you have the image looking just the way you want it, you can save it to your computer or save it online to the integrated storage service, imm.io. An additional bonus: No matter how much you toy with a photo in Pixlr-o-Matic, the program never reduces the file size. So, you still have high-resolution photos no matter how different the end result looks compared to the original image.

In December 2012, Pixlr-o-Matic apps were released for the iPhone and for Android devices.

Snapseed snapseed.com

This free photo editing app owned by Google offers a great deal more flexibility in editing images than most free filter programs. It not only has a range of filters but also has control that lets you customize each effect.

Although it has one button for sharing to Google’s social site Google+, you need a workaround to share to Facebook and Twitter. All you have to do is save your completed photo, then you can go find it in your gallery.

Share it from there as you would any photo. It is available for Android devices and iPhones.

Hipster hipster.com

Similar to Instagram, AOL-owned Hipster features dozens of filters and borders for your photos.

You can take a photo within the app or edit a photo you’ve already taken with your phone’s camera.

The unique thing about Hipster is that it turns your photos into virtual postcards, allowing you to use geo-location to mark where you took the photo on your postcard.

You also can add whatever text you want to the image and then share it on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare and

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Flickr. Users can connect to friends within the app and see what photos their friends are taking (and where).

PicYou picyou.com

With PicYou — the most recently launched of these sites — you can sign up using your Twitter or Facebook account to apply filters to your images.

PicYou offers a choice of nine cool vintage, sepia and grungy filters with names like “Hipster,” “Infatuation” and “Cuttlefish.”

PicYou also lets you apply the filter to the image with the dimensions as is, or you can add a Polaroid-like frame to the image, just as Instagram does.

If you do choose to use a frame, PicYou also gives

you complete control over which part of the image is cropped. After selecting your filter, you can add a title, tags and auto-share the image with your connected accounts.

PicYou itself also is a social network where you can follow other users, add images to your favorites and leave comments. The site also makes it incredibly easy to share images posted on PicYou pretty much anywhere on the Web.

then easily share the image on Facebook or save the image to your computer to share wherever you like.

Instant Retro instantretro.com

Like Pixlr-o-Matic, you don’t have to sign up to use Instant Retro.

You can simply upload your images and get to work. However, the photo editing process on this site is different than the other options listed here. Rather Rollip than providing specific filters to apply to your rollip.com Rollip is another site you images, Instant Retro allows you to tweak and can use without having to adjust certain settings sign up at all. But Rollip to give your images does things a bit backa vintage look. Once wards. First, you choose one of 40 filters, after which you’re done, you can you can upload your image save the image on the to see how it looks. You can site.

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