I love finding new toys to put on my blogs  This widget is something I am hoping to incorporate over at my travel blog shortly.  However, I wanted to make sure that anyone who was interested in travel checked out this widget first!

This is Flash travel map that is very easy to embed into your site.  You can display flight route information and is free to to download too.  You can fully configure it so that you can show your readers a fixed departure point, fixed destination point, fixed departure and destination, or an ‘anywhere to anywhere’ open search.  There are 20 languages to pick from, and it can also be added to added to iGoogle Netvibes, and your desktop.

Even though Skyscanner the most powerful and flexible flight search engine in Europe (which provides instant online price comparisons on over 300,000 flights and over 600 airlines), this maps tool widget works for the United States also.  I used it to map all of the trips I took this year without any problems.  When I typed Chicago into the Maps Code Wizard, I was able to pull up all three airports here (Midway, Ohare, and Rockford).  This is a great way to show your readers where you are going when leaving for vacation.  If you do live in Europe or have a big European readership, this is a great way for them to check prices for trips. (see Cheap Flights Map Widget)

Head over to Skyscanner and check out their maps tool widget!

Image via Wikipedia

This was my favorite newspaper.  I think we have been subscribing to it since we have moved here.  However, about a week ago, they changed their format.  Now, I have went through several format changes with them already.  However, this one, I cannot stand.  I cannot stand it to the point that I will be leaving them and getting a subscription to another area newspaper.  (The advantage of living in Chicago is that we have quite a few to pick from).

This  makes me sad.  However, the changes that have been made this time around I just cannot stand.  The majority of their articles completely blend with the ads for things like fat burners and real estate.  As a blogger, we got a lot of slack for not disclosing what is paid and what isn’t.  However, it doesn’t look the print media has to have the same standard.  The majority of the articles have huge pictures and less content.  I know it is not just my eyes playing tricks on me either.  It actually takes me quite a bit less time to read the paper everyday.  A lot of the articles also look like blog posts with the amount of stuff on the page.  If I wanted to look at something that looked like a blog, I would read my news online.  I personally love having a print paper in my hand.  I like the style and how informative a paper is.  If I want a synopsis, I go to the internet.  If I want to read full articles, I look for my local paper.

As soon as I find my credit card, I will be canceling my Chicago Tribune subscription and signing up for the Chicago Sun Times.  Hopefully, their paper will be less tabloidy and more news.

Summer heat in Chicago has been so hot lately (yes, I am complaining about those 90 degree days with 90% humidity).  With our newly remodeled basement and the Wii we just bought, we are definitely have some fun down there.  Since we have no games for our newly acquired Wii, we headed over to the nearest game store.  I luck out that we live less than five minutes from mall.  I also luck out that we have two Gamestops in our mall (one on each end).  We checked them both out.  One did seem to have more kid games; the other more adult games.  We are not sure if this was on purpose or just happened to be that way when we were there.  I liked that we got to check out the Wii there before buying it.  Madison immediately picked up a controller and started playing a Sonic game, so we knew she would adapt quickly.  The other thing I really liked about Gamestop was that you can buy used games.  You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg on games then.  We don’t care how old the games are as long as they are fun.  I was afraid that they wouldn’t work, but we were assured that they were guaranteed to play.  We were also told that we could bring in some of our old games and get credit to buy some new ones (and we have a stack of games nobody ever plays!).  I found that the workers behind the counter at both stores were extrememly helpful, and they didn’t mind too much that my four year was picking out ten games she wanted us to buy (we settled on Wall-E).  I would highly recommend Gamestop as your one stop game shop (they also have gaming systems and accessories, so you can get those there too!).