The idea of having a Superbowl Party goes through many minds at some point in late January but implementing a successful gathering requires a good bit of planning. A successful party is a fantastic way to bring your friends together and have a ton of fun but if some key steps are missed, watching the big game together can become extremely frustrating for everyone involved.

I’ve thrown a lot of Superbowl parties in my time and I’ve learned a lot as I’ve gone. There are just certain things that you need to be aware of and prepared for to ensure your guests have a great time–and you do too. In the spirit of Superbowl Sunday, here’s a quick list of the items I think about before my guests arrive. If you have suggestions that work for you each year, please post them in the comments section below.

I paid my bills this weekend and was again stricken with my monthly sickness when I saw my Comcast bill. My bill this month was $144 for HDTV, digital cable and cable modem service. I didn’t order any pay-per-view movies nor did I have any premium channels such as HBO or Showtime. I do have the DVR from Comcast but this $144 per month seemed very excessive. I gave Comcast a phone call to find out what could be done. I was prepared to cancel the television portion of my service to save a good bit of money. Long story short, I didn’t have to cancel a thing.

All it took was a five minute phone call and I was put on a new rate plan. When it is that easy, it is definitely worth your time to do the same! Read on to see how I did it!

Going green is the talk of the town right now and articles are popping up everywhere with tips on how we can change our lives to save the planet. The problem I have with so many of these articles is that most of the suggestions are simply impractical for the majority of readers. I can’t ride my bike to work because I simply live too far away.

It is far too easy to make excuses why I can’t go green. I am admittedly not someone that focuses a lot of attention on my own habits regarding my effects on the planet–it is time to change that. I recently took a step back and thought about some of my own patterns of consumption and came up with my own ways to go green. Read about how I’ve changed my own life in very easy ways to help our planet and please share with me some additional things I can do in the future.

Today is the big day for Apple fans. Steve Jobs will deliver his much anticipated keynote at Macworld 2008 and hopefully deliver some news about great new Apple products. The Macworld conference almost always delivers some upgrade to existing Mac computers and often some new models are released which brings a surge to sales. With so many people buying their first Mac computer these days, I put together a list that I hope will help get new users up and running in a hurry. This is by no means an exhaustive list but rather a list that works well for me. If you’re an Apple user, please share with everyone anything I’ve missed in the comment section below so we can help get our new friends comfortable with their new systems.

Have you ever thought about buying a new and expensive item so much that the urge becomes irresistible? In most of these cases, the money burning a hole in your pocket is just too strong and keeps you from thinking rationally. You look at the price tag and do some quick math to convince yourself that you can afford the item. You know that the money would be better spent elsewhere but inevitably a trip to the store and a ride home with that great new item follows. How can we stop these urges?

This impulse recently hit me hard when I thought about getting a new Playstation 3. I love playing football online against other people and was able to justify the purchase in my head by telling myself that I’m getting both a video game system and a Blu-Ray player all in one. How could I not turn that down? The answer is… I did turn it down and I’m glad I did. Here’s some techniques I use to resist the urge to spend my hard-earned money.

Now that the winter break is over and you’ve headed back to college to start a fresh semester, it’s time to start thinking about your keys to success. The semesters just seemed to come and go during my first two years of college but once junior year hit, I got it. The workload and subjects were tougher but my GPA increased. I didn’t suddenly have this wave of knowledge come over me–instead, I started working smarter instead of harder. I put together a list of things I did that really helped me to succeed. You probably do some of these already but implement anything you find that is new on the list below and make this your best semester yet!

There are countless reasons why we procrastinate but one of them stands out for me personally and is relatively easy to overcome. Are you ever in the middle of doing something when suddenly you get a great idea and switch your focus over to the new and exciting project? This happens on a small scale at home for me quite often. I’m cleaning the garage when I find a tool and think, “I could use this to fix that faulty light switch.” Without any further thinking, I’m standing in front of a light switch with my garage still a mess. The issue is a form of procrastination that is terribly counterproductive and happens throughout our lives but affects web designers more than anyone else.

Almost every web designer has one characteristic in common–they are all great at thinking up new ideas for websites. This skill is one of their best and worst at the same time! A new idea for a website can be exciting and motivating but it can also be the downfall of all of the other great ideas in the past.

Read on after the jump to hear how I handle my new ideas. I keep churning them out but it takes some dedication to actually get things done!

Over the holiday weekend, I met someone that “purchased” a number of Christmas gifts at a big box retailer since the store has easily exploited rules for returns. This form of stealing needs to be carefully examined by stores because it is far too easy for people to exploit. We all know of ways of getting promo codes by searching sites like Fatwallet but those are legitimate ways to save some cash. The method I saw used this past weekend is simply stealing but the companies completely condone it through their exchange methods.

Over the weekend, a large retailer had a sale on 2GB Sandisk flash cards for use in digital cameras. The cards normally sell for $49 but were on sale for a mere $19! The $30 savings was phenomenal and helped a number of people get some great gifts. However, through the company’s return policy, people can easily exploit the store for their own gain. Here’s what happens: