Foursquare and the Fat Wallet

-

Vacation. There are very few better words in the english language. One of those words higher on the pantheon of awesome is "free." Who doesn't like vacations? Who doesn't like free things? Well how about -brace yourselves- free things on vacation. Oh man, talk about Christmas in May.

Well over Memorial day my wife and I were lucky enough to go on a TWO WEEK VACATION up and down the California coast. It was awesome. Saw some family, hit LA, Laguna Beach, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Berkeley, Wine Country, and many more. Now unless you're going to a trade show you probably wouldn't put tech and vacation in the same thought, and my vacation would have been no different except for a pleasant little surprise I stumbled upon in the Russian River Valley portion of Wine Country; Foursquare Specials.


Incase you aren't familiar with the platform, Foursquare is a location based review and reward network that uses your phone application. Kind of like a mix of Facebook, the yellow pages, and Yelp. The great part is some local business add a "special" to their listing and that is where the fun comes in.

While booze cruising through Wine Country I checked in at Hop Kiln Winery and up popped a "Special" I unlocked; a complimentary wine tasting for myself a guest. That's huge. Tastings in Napa Valley range between 10 and 30 dollars a person. That is ridiculous, 4 years ago they were roughly 5 to 20 dollars a person. Foursquare completely changed our vacation plans. From that point on we only visited wineries with specials, and while we only had a couple days of vacation time left, we saved roughly $200. So awesome.

Twitter is still my favorite social network but Foursquare is amazing. Not only did it save me cash, but everywhere we went I got an awkward sensation out of telling everyone to try out Foursquare.

OH! And after we got home I posted on a Des Moines Register Facebook post asking how people saved $$ on vacation, they interviewed me for a story and took some pictures of me with my phone. So Thank you Foursquare, not only did you save me a good chunk of cash on vacation, but I owe my burgeoning model career to you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Producing "USS IOWA"

-
Image
It's taken a few months, but I think I've processed the production, release, and reception of the "USS IOWA," a documentary I worked on for four years. I hesitate to call it "my documentary" because I didn't originate the project, and sharing the story of military history and people's personal stories is a bit of sacred task. Discussing the project in reverse, when the documentary was entirely edited and ready for release I felt a shock of concern; would U.S. Navy veterans accept it? the people who run the USS IOWA museum in San Pedro, California? Survivors of the April 19 explosions? Navy historians? Thankfully the answer to all of that was yes.  A packed house at the second screening of USS IOWA, in Johnston at Camp Dodge. In Waterloo, the very first audience for USS IOWA. While the project hit the airwaves on March 1, 2023, the first screening was actually February 18 in Waterloo in front of live audience with hundreds of veterans in attendance an
Read more

I can't go back to being a weatherman

-
Image
There she be, "Wheel of Death" in all her incredible, gory, gnarly, fun, and funny glory. There is nothing like finishing a film and just knowing it is a success. Not perfect, maybe it had perfection programmed into its GPS and along the route saw a tourist trap that was too good to pass by and soon decided that in its heart it needed to stay there for the night. That is what I'm talking about. Wheel of Death is a wonderfully wild tourist trap of horror comedy that actually delivers the good.  There are so many points I want to hit but I'll start with the thing everyone needs to know: Craig Bahnsen's performance as Doug the Demon is so impossibly good. I love so many things in this film and hit so many of my goals in it, but the top of the praise heap is definitely Craig. I didn't know in 2019 when we asked him to slap on some JNCOs that he had this in him, but I am so happy he hung around and delivered a performance that makes this film the most rewatchable
Read more

Filmmaking beats film viewing

-
Image
Making "Elf Off the Shelf," photo by Erin Hogan. I love the experience of watching something great. It could be film, TV, a stage play, live music, and many other arts, that feeling of you and a piece of art meeting for the first time is exquisite. There's only a couple things that top it, one is actually creating that art. When I discovered the real power of movies around 13 or 14, I think I watched my favorites on a loop. I would toss in new discoveries here and there, and it quickly grew into an obsession. But then a funny thing happened, I borrowed a camera from my media production classes in high school and one Sunday afternoon my friends and I made a mockumentary mixing skate culture and free-style walking called " Midwest Money Money. " This rush was similar to watching movies but the intensity was jacked to the nines and I carried that feeling for weeks. I showed our film to everyone and anyone who would sit in front of a screen with me. The filmmaking &
Read more