I swear, whoever created spam should be shot. No wait, they should be forced to go through and personally be responsible for DELETING the spam that exists in my inbox....mutha effa.
So I have a bunch of random email accounts: yahoo, gmail, canada.com, hotmail, whatever...i have two yahoo accounts, one of them I used to use on occasion 10 years ago but now the only reason I even have it is 'cause it's my login for Amazon (that's where I was registered when I got married, and i've been too lazy to sync up that accuont with my regular yahoo email).
ANYWAY it's pretty much all spam, which on occasion I try to wipe out. Well I decided it's time to bring back that email account, and I'm going through all 3000 spam messages...problem is, I needed to filter out the ones from Amazon (that leaves Amazon.com, "auto-confirm@amazon.com", and the sneak peek emails i get from Cirque du Soleil)...
you'd think I'd be able to just select ALL and click SPAM, right? Sadly, no...yahoo email has some bug where it'll ask "are you sure you want to set all the mail to spam", if you select YES then nothing happens. So i'm trying to go through and highlight them all (using the new Yahoo Email format, where it looks like Outlook), but i'm on a crazy slow computer and the past HOUR has been spent trying to highlight a bunch, then click SPAM...
The slow computer is part of the massive computer problems we had way back when (see entry here)...it's actually gotten worse. Since I last posted, the "good" desktop PC's hard drive completely stopped spinning. So now i'm back on the crappy slow desktop PC, until I can either get an external hard drive or external CD burner to back up the personal info...after all the hard drive issues, i really want to get an external burner but those suckers aren't cheap (and i really don't feel like installing an internal burner onto this crappy PC only to later have to remove it and install it on the good PC).
Computer DRAAA-MAAAA...
Speaking of drama, some people make fun of me 'cause i'm in a book club. Y'all can suck my balls, at least I'm reading for God's sakes. Thank the lord for Meetup. Anyway, a whole bunch of stuff went DOWN...oh yes, people in the book club were ready to rumble. In the grand scheme it was all just chick drama, but it proves a few things:
1. Women are naturally drawn to drama. There's no effing WAY a guy's book club would ever have had this much drama. (Then again, no dude would join a male-only book club).
2. Women will bitch about ANYTHING.
3. Large gatherings of women creates nothing more than a clusterf*ck (i hate that word, but i can't think of a better way to describe it).
I wouldn't change items 1 through 3 for anything...
Monday, March 03, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
It's been awhile
I vowed to write more often and I haven't written in awhile. Funny how your brain goes into crazy overdrive after you give your 2 weeks notice. Friday was my last day, it was pretty emotional and the happy hour after was fantastic (okay, i'm biased since i was drunk as hell).
I sorta feel like I just got out of a relationship. One of those "oh, it's me not you" types. I love the people, but...it just wasn't for me. Not anymore. I'm not the same person as I was at the start of that relationship, and I've felt for awhile like we've grown apart. Still, I feel a little cranky like one feels after a breakup, like "oh, what could have been"...sigh.
In other news, I'm watching the red carpet...PLEASE Jon Stewart, be better than the red carpet crap...although dumbass actors didn't find Jon funny last time...I swear, Hollywood is the LEAST hip place on the planet. It's like you have to be a certified tool in order to make it as an A-lister. That excludes Steve Carrell and George Clooney, who seem pretty straight up.
Wow, Miley Cyrus needs someone to razor down her effing teeth, she looks like she's going to eat Ryan Seacrest.
Jennifer Garner irritates me to no end, but DAYAM she looks great.
It makes me feel good that Jessica Alba looks forgettable. Granted she looks better than anyone ever will pregnant, but still.
Heidi Klum looks so hot, I'd bone her.
I want Xenu to come down and stomp on John Travolta. Him and Kelly Preston irritate the crap out of me, she was digging for compliments when Ryan Seacrest said her dress was "road signal yellow" (or something like that) and she asked "Does that mean I can stop traffic?"...yeah honey that would work if you're 20, not when you're...well at least as old as Xenu.
Ohhhhh Faye Dunaway, she looks like a knockout for an older broad. See Kelly Preston, you need to see how Faye does it...Faye looks like she's ready for a romp in the back of a limo.
I sorta feel like I just got out of a relationship. One of those "oh, it's me not you" types. I love the people, but...it just wasn't for me. Not anymore. I'm not the same person as I was at the start of that relationship, and I've felt for awhile like we've grown apart. Still, I feel a little cranky like one feels after a breakup, like "oh, what could have been"...sigh.
In other news, I'm watching the red carpet...PLEASE Jon Stewart, be better than the red carpet crap...although dumbass actors didn't find Jon funny last time...I swear, Hollywood is the LEAST hip place on the planet. It's like you have to be a certified tool in order to make it as an A-lister. That excludes Steve Carrell and George Clooney, who seem pretty straight up.
Wow, Miley Cyrus needs someone to razor down her effing teeth, she looks like she's going to eat Ryan Seacrest.
Jennifer Garner irritates me to no end, but DAYAM she looks great.
It makes me feel good that Jessica Alba looks forgettable. Granted she looks better than anyone ever will pregnant, but still.
Heidi Klum looks so hot, I'd bone her.
I want Xenu to come down and stomp on John Travolta. Him and Kelly Preston irritate the crap out of me, she was digging for compliments when Ryan Seacrest said her dress was "road signal yellow" (or something like that) and she asked "Does that mean I can stop traffic?"...yeah honey that would work if you're 20, not when you're...well at least as old as Xenu.
Ohhhhh Faye Dunaway, she looks like a knockout for an older broad. See Kelly Preston, you need to see how Faye does it...Faye looks like she's ready for a romp in the back of a limo.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Letter to the Editor
How much damage could $22 do to your credit rating?
I had a score of like 760, and it brought me down to like 500-something.
It makes a HUGE difference, my score is more sensitive than others because i'm already being dinged for only having a few years of credit history. Fortunately my score went back up with teh other credit bureaus after a few years, except for Experian.
It made enough of a difference that I couldn't get on the home loan when we refinanced...hence why i had to get it back in shape for the Big Refinance 2009.
Bryan: i owe you an email still, i know!
I had a score of like 760, and it brought me down to like 500-something.
It makes a HUGE difference, my score is more sensitive than others because i'm already being dinged for only having a few years of credit history. Fortunately my score went back up with teh other credit bureaus after a few years, except for Experian.
It made enough of a difference that I couldn't get on the home loan when we refinanced...hence why i had to get it back in shape for the Big Refinance 2009.
Bryan: i owe you an email still, i know!
I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dogsled....
I was surfing the web and was reminded of an old Molson's commercial:
Their marketing is sheer genius, I don't think they ever made a bad commercial. They made me want to drink beer and I don't even LIKE beer. You can't get a better tagline (for canadians) than "I AM CANADIAN"...and they've single-handedly managed to corner the beer market for Canada Day (the number on thing Americans do on July 4th is BBQ and watch fireworks. Canadians...drink and watch fireworks. No time to eat. No one said we were a civilized society.)
I really should have bought that lottery ticket yesterday. Around 1am I couldn't stand Kraig's snoring so I went down to the couch to sleep there, only to realize I was pretty awake because I had crashed at 6pm for a super long nap. Lo and behold, after watching some random stuff (and the rest of Cashmere Mafia which I should be shot in the head for enjoying), I discover that Ryan Reynolds is on Conan.
Sadly, he wasn't THAT funny like he usually is in stuff...but funny enough. And i was so tired i didn't care what he had to say.
Dammit really should have bought a lottery ticket.
Their marketing is sheer genius, I don't think they ever made a bad commercial. They made me want to drink beer and I don't even LIKE beer. You can't get a better tagline (for canadians) than "I AM CANADIAN"...and they've single-handedly managed to corner the beer market for Canada Day (the number on thing Americans do on July 4th is BBQ and watch fireworks. Canadians...drink and watch fireworks. No time to eat. No one said we were a civilized society.)
I really should have bought that lottery ticket yesterday. Around 1am I couldn't stand Kraig's snoring so I went down to the couch to sleep there, only to realize I was pretty awake because I had crashed at 6pm for a super long nap. Lo and behold, after watching some random stuff (and the rest of Cashmere Mafia which I should be shot in the head for enjoying), I discover that Ryan Reynolds is on Conan.
Sadly, he wasn't THAT funny like he usually is in stuff...but funny enough. And i was so tired i didn't care what he had to say.
Dammit really should have bought a lottery ticket.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Deux Semaines et autres histoires fabuleux
I don't like posting job stuff up on my blog but since this is pretty major I might as well alert the masses...I gave my 2 weeks notice on Monday. I won't list the new job details here, but it's in Irvine and i'm gonna be a project manager...for a totally different industry. I'm pretty freaked, tech writing I could go anywhere and figure the stuff out pretty quickly, but this is a brand new world for me. Eep.
Anyway, that was one of my "goals" for January/February, which thus also means that I've sort of put my other monthly goals on the side 'cause seriously, interviewing wipes you out. All that smiling and being peppy and acting like you're the most fabulous person on earth...it's like your own Miss America pageant. You dont' think of the TRUE answer to give, you think of the RIGHT answer to give, what they want to hear, all while looking flawless and flashing yer teeth.
Interviewing results in a very cranky Sabina. I feel like I need to get extra bitchyness out of my system to even things out.
In other news, check out the very bottom of the page...yes, the year's goal of 15K paid down on the home equity loan is almost down by half...and it's only February. The only reason I was able to pull that off was 'cause a CRAPPY CD i got a few years ago (seriously, the rate was only like 3%) expired, and i hauled ass yesterday to the bank to make sure they didn't roll it over into another crappy CD. Feelin' good.
To top it all off, I've been griping for years now about one dumbass sorta-error on my credit report...a stupid $22 water bill...recap: I paid my utilities with my rent...and they claim they didn't get the payment, i tried to get a hold of my old apartment complex to get them to have my back. Turns out, it got bought out and underwent a condo conversion, no one anywhere had any record I existed or lived there. So, even though i eventually paid it as soon as I found out about it (although i'm sure i already DID pay it, damn apartment people), it's been a huge ding on my credit score ever since. Other than that, my score is flawless...the only thing stopping it from being 850 is that I don't have a huge credit history in the US.
ANYWAY...i've tried disputing it and it's gotten me nowhere...well 2 months ago I did my usual "hmmm wonder what's up in my credit score report these days" and bought my reports again...and only one of the three bureaus still shows that damn alleged delinquent bill. I decided to attempt to put the smackdown again and filed a dispute. Those mother effers don't make it easy, they only give you like EIGHTY characters to state your claim. That gave me one whole sentence to pretty much say "The original bill was paid through my rent cant get a hold of them for proof" or something retarded like that.
Well, long story short: I won! Finally! Experian saw in my favor. Oh happy day! That's been a pain in my ass for years.
Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket.
Anyway, that was one of my "goals" for January/February, which thus also means that I've sort of put my other monthly goals on the side 'cause seriously, interviewing wipes you out. All that smiling and being peppy and acting like you're the most fabulous person on earth...it's like your own Miss America pageant. You dont' think of the TRUE answer to give, you think of the RIGHT answer to give, what they want to hear, all while looking flawless and flashing yer teeth.
Interviewing results in a very cranky Sabina. I feel like I need to get extra bitchyness out of my system to even things out.
In other news, check out the very bottom of the page...yes, the year's goal of 15K paid down on the home equity loan is almost down by half...and it's only February. The only reason I was able to pull that off was 'cause a CRAPPY CD i got a few years ago (seriously, the rate was only like 3%) expired, and i hauled ass yesterday to the bank to make sure they didn't roll it over into another crappy CD. Feelin' good.
To top it all off, I've been griping for years now about one dumbass sorta-error on my credit report...a stupid $22 water bill...recap: I paid my utilities with my rent...and they claim they didn't get the payment, i tried to get a hold of my old apartment complex to get them to have my back. Turns out, it got bought out and underwent a condo conversion, no one anywhere had any record I existed or lived there. So, even though i eventually paid it as soon as I found out about it (although i'm sure i already DID pay it, damn apartment people), it's been a huge ding on my credit score ever since. Other than that, my score is flawless...the only thing stopping it from being 850 is that I don't have a huge credit history in the US.
ANYWAY...i've tried disputing it and it's gotten me nowhere...well 2 months ago I did my usual "hmmm wonder what's up in my credit score report these days" and bought my reports again...and only one of the three bureaus still shows that damn alleged delinquent bill. I decided to attempt to put the smackdown again and filed a dispute. Those mother effers don't make it easy, they only give you like EIGHTY characters to state your claim. That gave me one whole sentence to pretty much say "The original bill was paid through my rent cant get a hold of them for proof" or something retarded like that.
Well, long story short: I won! Finally! Experian saw in my favor. Oh happy day! That's been a pain in my ass for years.
Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Another letter to the editor
Refinance Your Loan with the damn bank or lender...or whoever the f it is.
I think you have the (excuse me) balls to do this. And it works.
But WTH you can't lose.
Banks right now, and lenders, DO NOT want any more property. They can't handle it.
You walk in, get past the desk people and say you need to talk to someone with authority. Cry and tell them you are about to let the bank have your f-n house if they don't sit down and do some dickerin with you.
Take a picture of your home, tell them your ready to leave it with them and start all over.
Tell them you want some relief from this f-n mistake, that your upside down 70k or whatever and have to have some interest relief. Tell them your husband is against it, but you will leave him too. (This is a lie)
Walk in with a foreclosure sign, leave the picture with your phone number on the desk of the person you are talking to, and tell them you did not come to debate, you came to share your desperation and get some relief one way or another.
I gurantee you he will call you on your cell phone before you get home and say..let's talk. We don''t want your house.
(The further under water you are, the better it is for your bargaining power.)
Ummm yeah the flaw in your logic is that to do something crazy drastic i'd have to miss at least a single home payment...which I will never do.
And it's not like Countrywide doesn't have my income statements...we CAN afford our payments.
I also dont' want to get stuck in another crappy loan situation, which is exactly what people with bad credit (i.e. missed home payments) and foreclosures are getting in order to keep their homes and loans.
I have good credit.
I can afford my home...now...
My adjustable rate expires beginning 2010.
If i didn't have an interest-only loan i'd still be stuck paying principal, so that's what i'm doing now.
I'm not going to see if they'll call my bluff if I start missing payments (which would be necessary in your scenario for them to believe i'm in dire straits), scream i'm going to foreclose, then force them to give me another bizarro loan created only because of this crazy market.
People just need to hurry up and foreclose, so that other people can buy crazy cheap, and then things will even out. It's this slow awful death that's ruining things.
I'm not upside down in anything yet...i'm not selling, i'm just hoping to make it easier to refinance.
I would sooner beg my aging parents for money AND my mother in law before I ever miss a home payment.
I posted this here instead of in the comments section 'cause I started to write so much I figured it deserved a blog entry :)
I think you have the (excuse me) balls to do this. And it works.
But WTH you can't lose.
Banks right now, and lenders, DO NOT want any more property. They can't handle it.
You walk in, get past the desk people and say you need to talk to someone with authority. Cry and tell them you are about to let the bank have your f-n house if they don't sit down and do some dickerin with you.
Take a picture of your home, tell them your ready to leave it with them and start all over.
Tell them you want some relief from this f-n mistake, that your upside down 70k or whatever and have to have some interest relief. Tell them your husband is against it, but you will leave him too. (This is a lie)
Walk in with a foreclosure sign, leave the picture with your phone number on the desk of the person you are talking to, and tell them you did not come to debate, you came to share your desperation and get some relief one way or another.
I gurantee you he will call you on your cell phone before you get home and say..let's talk. We don''t want your house.
(The further under water you are, the better it is for your bargaining power.)
Ummm yeah the flaw in your logic is that to do something crazy drastic i'd have to miss at least a single home payment...which I will never do.
And it's not like Countrywide doesn't have my income statements...we CAN afford our payments.
I also dont' want to get stuck in another crappy loan situation, which is exactly what people with bad credit (i.e. missed home payments) and foreclosures are getting in order to keep their homes and loans.
I have good credit.
I can afford my home...now...
My adjustable rate expires beginning 2010.
If i didn't have an interest-only loan i'd still be stuck paying principal, so that's what i'm doing now.
I'm not going to see if they'll call my bluff if I start missing payments (which would be necessary in your scenario for them to believe i'm in dire straits), scream i'm going to foreclose, then force them to give me another bizarro loan created only because of this crazy market.
People just need to hurry up and foreclose, so that other people can buy crazy cheap, and then things will even out. It's this slow awful death that's ruining things.
I'm not upside down in anything yet...i'm not selling, i'm just hoping to make it easier to refinance.
I would sooner beg my aging parents for money AND my mother in law before I ever miss a home payment.
I posted this here instead of in the comments section 'cause I started to write so much I figured it deserved a blog entry :)
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Letter to the Editor
So with all the rate cuts there is no way you & Kraig could refinance into a better loan situation?
Nope, that's why I have to pay down my HELOC loan asap...our loan-to-home value is crappy (at least before it had gone up a little bit, the last home that sold with roughly the same floor layout was $70K less than what we paid). So...no refinancing and locking in a rate until I pay down the home loan. I wish I could refinance! I wouldn't have that damn ticker at the bottom of the page.
So the goal isn't to get into a "better" loan situation...i just want ANY loan situation that would be a fixed rate, which isn't going to happen at all with the current snapshot of our mortgage.
They're alot more strict about giving out refinanced loans...Carrie i'm sure can attest to that (she still had to jump through hoops and her home didn't go down at all and she's got perfect credit).
I just need to win the effing lottery.
Nope, that's why I have to pay down my HELOC loan asap...our loan-to-home value is crappy (at least before it had gone up a little bit, the last home that sold with roughly the same floor layout was $70K less than what we paid). So...no refinancing and locking in a rate until I pay down the home loan. I wish I could refinance! I wouldn't have that damn ticker at the bottom of the page.
So the goal isn't to get into a "better" loan situation...i just want ANY loan situation that would be a fixed rate, which isn't going to happen at all with the current snapshot of our mortgage.
They're alot more strict about giving out refinanced loans...Carrie i'm sure can attest to that (she still had to jump through hoops and her home didn't go down at all and she's got perfect credit).
I just need to win the effing lottery.
Monday, February 04, 2008
HELOC paydown status
Yee haw! Check out the very bottom of this blog...over 1/3rd of teh paydown goal completed! Plus I realized that I also need to start saving up well in advance for our property taxes (trying to scramble and pay off a $6000 property tax bill last minute is no easy task!) so there's 1/6th of that is put aside now as well.
Damn you crappy housing market...I will not go down without a fight.
Damn you crappy housing market...I will not go down without a fight.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Movie Review: Cloverfield
Today I saw Cloverfield. You know, the movie that had a big buzz because no one knew anything about it.
This should be easy. I couldn't stand it.
NOT because it wasn't entertaining...it was very entertaining, very different, great script.
I couldn't stand it because it was filmed in handy-cam format, a la Blair Witch. I avoided Blair Witch for this very reason...I get motion sickness pretty easily, and this movie was pretty brutal for it. The ENTIRE movie is filmed this way. The videographer is either drunk at a party or running for his life, both of which make for seriously shaky visuals.
If you have a strong stomach, then it was very good...there's not really an ending (Kraig and I differ on that. He thinks there is because there's a resolution between the love interest storyline...uh to me I need to know wtf happens with the bizarro monster plotline.)
Fortunately the theater was empty so I was able to push some of the armrests up and lay on my side while we watched it, otherwise there would have been a nasty mess on AMC's floor.
This should be easy. I couldn't stand it.
NOT because it wasn't entertaining...it was very entertaining, very different, great script.
I couldn't stand it because it was filmed in handy-cam format, a la Blair Witch. I avoided Blair Witch for this very reason...I get motion sickness pretty easily, and this movie was pretty brutal for it. The ENTIRE movie is filmed this way. The videographer is either drunk at a party or running for his life, both of which make for seriously shaky visuals.
If you have a strong stomach, then it was very good...there's not really an ending (Kraig and I differ on that. He thinks there is because there's a resolution between the love interest storyline...uh to me I need to know wtf happens with the bizarro monster plotline.)
Fortunately the theater was empty so I was able to push some of the armrests up and lay on my side while we watched it, otherwise there would have been a nasty mess on AMC's floor.
Friday, February 01, 2008
I love you YouTube
I hate 99.999999999999999999999999999999999% of what's out there on YouTube, but praise the person who posted this of Sarah Silverman singing...well you decide. Every time I see it I start busting up.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Damn damn damn DAYAM
This guy could make a movie about putting forks in one's eye and I'd still watch it.
Hmmm actually then again that sounds like a funny movie concept.
Hmmm actually then again that sounds like a funny movie concept.
Heath...
So Marlene asked me why id idn't blog about Heath Ledger...two reasons:
1. I already got all my emailing and freaking out done that day, i didn't really have anything to comment on.
2. I don't like the crap about "oh there were pills by his bed" (well no kidding, Kraig takes medication for his cholesterol before bed isn't that front page news?!) and "he was probably heartbroken over his separation from Michelle Williams" (really? He was dating Gemma Ward...i think a 28 year old hollywood actor can get over an ex girlfriend pretty easily)...
So Anderson Cooper summarized pretty much what I was thinking:
“For the last two nights we have reported on actor Heath Ledger. His shocking death is clearly a story a lot of people are interested in, but tonight we will not be reporting more on it. The truth is there is not really anything new to report.
The full results of the various tests done on Mr. Ledger will not be ready for perhaps a few weeks and there is very little new information. I have no doubt other networks will spend a lot of time tonight discussing his death and the various rumors about what might have caused it, but I am not a fan of speculation, so unless there is something really new to discuss we probably won’t be covering it anymore anytime soon.”
1. I already got all my emailing and freaking out done that day, i didn't really have anything to comment on.
2. I don't like the crap about "oh there were pills by his bed" (well no kidding, Kraig takes medication for his cholesterol before bed isn't that front page news?!) and "he was probably heartbroken over his separation from Michelle Williams" (really? He was dating Gemma Ward...i think a 28 year old hollywood actor can get over an ex girlfriend pretty easily)...
So Anderson Cooper summarized pretty much what I was thinking:
“For the last two nights we have reported on actor Heath Ledger. His shocking death is clearly a story a lot of people are interested in, but tonight we will not be reporting more on it. The truth is there is not really anything new to report.
The full results of the various tests done on Mr. Ledger will not be ready for perhaps a few weeks and there is very little new information. I have no doubt other networks will spend a lot of time tonight discussing his death and the various rumors about what might have caused it, but I am not a fan of speculation, so unless there is something really new to discuss we probably won’t be covering it anymore anytime soon.”
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Letter to the editor
Happy New Year, Sabina
I check your post now and then to catch up on life on the West Coast.
I had a pretty sorry post the last time I wrote WTF I felt bad and took it out on you. Sorry.
I hope you vote for Obama and not Hillary, or Romney and not McCain.
I wonder if you have ever heard of a pretty famous church near you...called Saddleback. I think they did something recently for all the folks during the fire...and I think Hillary spoke there, too. Do you know anything about Saddleback?
First off, this makes me an a-hole for ranting back. Please folks, don't apologize for the stuff you write to me...it's a free country. Hmmm, but it IS my blog. Ahhh well, don't apologize. If I don't like you, I'll just create a website dedicated to what a douche you are. So far that hasn't happened yet, so it's all good.
Yes, Saddleback is nearby...don't know much about it though...
I check your post now and then to catch up on life on the West Coast.
I had a pretty sorry post the last time I wrote WTF I felt bad and took it out on you. Sorry.
I hope you vote for Obama and not Hillary, or Romney and not McCain.
I wonder if you have ever heard of a pretty famous church near you...called Saddleback. I think they did something recently for all the folks during the fire...and I think Hillary spoke there, too. Do you know anything about Saddleback?
First off, this makes me an a-hole for ranting back. Please folks, don't apologize for the stuff you write to me...it's a free country. Hmmm, but it IS my blog. Ahhh well, don't apologize. If I don't like you, I'll just create a website dedicated to what a douche you are. So far that hasn't happened yet, so it's all good.
Yes, Saddleback is nearby...don't know much about it though...
Dirty Nasty
Well since everyone is all depressed over Heath, i figure this should cheer people up.
I remember scoping out Simon Rex back when he was a model...i dig superhot people who can make fun of themselves.
And Nick Swardson may very well be one of the funniest people alive.
I remember scoping out Simon Rex back when he was a model...i dig superhot people who can make fun of themselves.
And Nick Swardson may very well be one of the funniest people alive.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
A+ service: View Cleaners
So everyone on the planet knows my fiasco with the AWFUL dry cleaners that ruined my White House Black Market dress...in case you don't, just know that you should boycott with every bone on your body:
Dry Clean Express
23842 El Toro Road, Unit C, Lake Forest CA 92630
949-457-1800
I mean, come ON...one employee flat out said to me "what do I know about fabrics? I'm a guy!"...to which my reply was: "You're a DRY CLEANER...you're supposed to know fabrics!" and he had no reply.
Anyway, I should have taken it to my USUAL spot...View Cleaners in Ladera...I meant to take my other dress there but it's not like i drive to ladera all the time and on Saturdays I always forget, then Sundays they're closed...
I dropped off my NEW White House Black Market dress (courtesy of my wonderful girlfriends who were sick of listening to me bitch about the old dress that got ruined lol) and the lady was SO nice, and was like "of course we inspect the dress when it comes in...if it were damaged we wouldn't even bother"...EXACTLY! And then I just called to confirm it was ready and with a pleasant voice she was like "yep, it's ready one item for pickup!"...
At the other place, their idiot employee Fidel would have been like "i don't know...maybe...i dont' know...i'll call you back"...incompetence is not acceptable.
Anyway, I just wanted to give props where props is due!
(knowing my luck i'll pick it up and it'll get damaged...dammit.)
Dry Clean Express
23842 El Toro Road, Unit C, Lake Forest CA 92630
949-457-1800
I mean, come ON...one employee flat out said to me "what do I know about fabrics? I'm a guy!"...to which my reply was: "You're a DRY CLEANER...you're supposed to know fabrics!" and he had no reply.
Anyway, I should have taken it to my USUAL spot...View Cleaners in Ladera...I meant to take my other dress there but it's not like i drive to ladera all the time and on Saturdays I always forget, then Sundays they're closed...
I dropped off my NEW White House Black Market dress (courtesy of my wonderful girlfriends who were sick of listening to me bitch about the old dress that got ruined lol) and the lady was SO nice, and was like "of course we inspect the dress when it comes in...if it were damaged we wouldn't even bother"...EXACTLY! And then I just called to confirm it was ready and with a pleasant voice she was like "yep, it's ready one item for pickup!"...
At the other place, their idiot employee Fidel would have been like "i don't know...maybe...i dont' know...i'll call you back"...incompetence is not acceptable.
Anyway, I just wanted to give props where props is due!
(knowing my luck i'll pick it up and it'll get damaged...dammit.)
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Letter to the Editor
I'm not sure I agree with that, the term customers isn't mutually exclusive to either Sellers or Buyers, they are both customers of eBay.
I disagree. A customer is someone who's dishing out the dough...you, as a buyer, don't spend a dime to ebay. Now I do think Ebay has a responsibility to ensure that their sellers are legit, and that the items are legit, but the "true" customer is not the bidder but the seller.
When you purchase something on ebay, ebay is not responsible for the item itself, for shipping it, for making sure you're happy. That's the seller. The bidder can be considered Paypal's customer, sure, but basically Ebay's interest in keeping bidders happy is because they need to keep things legal and kosher in order to make their marketplace not look like some underground crack den.
I used to adore ebay, but because of all the bad seeds out there the whole thing is just jacked. I used to use Yahoo Auctions back in the day, but that caved when Ebay became uber powerful. I will probalby always use Ebay until there's another alternative...but I don't have the same "fun" as I used to.
Ebay enjoys taking money from the sellers and then stepping back and only involving itself when necessary (that excludes Paypal, which I actually have had very good experiences when it comes to getting effed over with my money...but i attribute it to their legal team and that paypal wasn't owned by Ebay initially). One prime example is how it's being sued by Tiffanys...
Ebay takes a stance that its not responsible for fake items on ebay...well Tiffanys disagreed and discovered that 75% of the items on ebay listed as Tiffanys jewelry is fake. Ebay claims it's just a forum...but it's NOT just a forum. They make money off the fake stuff too...the more fake stuff, the more ebay makes.
I think I lost alot of respect for them when they purchased Skype...NOT because they needed it, but because Google wanted it and if Google wants it, then Ebay HAS to have it (so an insider told me at the time). I just really question the people running the show.
/soapbox rant.
I disagree. A customer is someone who's dishing out the dough...you, as a buyer, don't spend a dime to ebay. Now I do think Ebay has a responsibility to ensure that their sellers are legit, and that the items are legit, but the "true" customer is not the bidder but the seller.
When you purchase something on ebay, ebay is not responsible for the item itself, for shipping it, for making sure you're happy. That's the seller. The bidder can be considered Paypal's customer, sure, but basically Ebay's interest in keeping bidders happy is because they need to keep things legal and kosher in order to make their marketplace not look like some underground crack den.
I used to adore ebay, but because of all the bad seeds out there the whole thing is just jacked. I used to use Yahoo Auctions back in the day, but that caved when Ebay became uber powerful. I will probalby always use Ebay until there's another alternative...but I don't have the same "fun" as I used to.
Ebay enjoys taking money from the sellers and then stepping back and only involving itself when necessary (that excludes Paypal, which I actually have had very good experiences when it comes to getting effed over with my money...but i attribute it to their legal team and that paypal wasn't owned by Ebay initially). One prime example is how it's being sued by Tiffanys...
Ebay takes a stance that its not responsible for fake items on ebay...well Tiffanys disagreed and discovered that 75% of the items on ebay listed as Tiffanys jewelry is fake. Ebay claims it's just a forum...but it's NOT just a forum. They make money off the fake stuff too...the more fake stuff, the more ebay makes.
I think I lost alot of respect for them when they purchased Skype...NOT because they needed it, but because Google wanted it and if Google wants it, then Ebay HAS to have it (so an insider told me at the time). I just really question the people running the show.
/soapbox rant.
Movie Review: Strangers with Candy
Before I begin the review, I must note that I've never seen the original tv show nor did I even know there WAS a tv show.
Strangers With Candy...how can I describe this bizarro movie? Well let me start by saying it's got Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert, the two people everyone should have in your life.
The gist is a super odd nutty ex-convict returns home only to find her mom died, her dad remarried, he's in a coma, her stepmother has the family butcher over for dinner all the time. Her dad's doctor suggests that if Jerry (Amy Sedaris) can un-do her years of crime/suffering then her dad will awake from his coma.
She goes back to high school and decides that if she can win the science fair, she can get her dad out of his coma.
I can't begin to explain how hard I laughed during this movie. I mean, I actually FRIGHTENED myself with how much I laughed. Then again, that was the first half...the second half, Kraig and Chris came home and that sorta ruined my comedy mojo.
There's alot of little hidden jokes in this movie...during one scene with kids in a science class, I realize in the way back corner of the wall the teacher (religious nut Chuck Noblet played by Stephen Colbert) is the periodic table of the elements re-arranged to form a cross. LOVE IT!
Plus this line alone had tears pouring down my face:
Geoffrey Jellineck: You pushed me away!
Chuck Noblet: I wasn't pushing you away, I was pulling me toward myself.
If you have an effed up sense of humor, you will absolutely adore this movie. Then again, since I didn't know anything about it my standards were pretty low, but for a clearly low-budget movie, it was brilliant.
The cast is pretty tightly linked...Amy Sedaris was on Sex and the City, as was obviously Sarah Jessica Parker, who's married to Matthew Broderick...Kristin Johnston also played a small role on Sex and the City...
The true gem of the movie is Principal Blackman. I have no idea who the actor is, but he does a phenomenal job.
Principal Blackman: Why would I doctor the books to improve the overall test scores of the student body just so I could collect bonus funds from the state which I willfully misappropriated in order to pay off large gambling debts? It just doesn't add up!
Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!
Strangers With Candy...how can I describe this bizarro movie? Well let me start by saying it's got Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert, the two people everyone should have in your life.
The gist is a super odd nutty ex-convict returns home only to find her mom died, her dad remarried, he's in a coma, her stepmother has the family butcher over for dinner all the time. Her dad's doctor suggests that if Jerry (Amy Sedaris) can un-do her years of crime/suffering then her dad will awake from his coma.
She goes back to high school and decides that if she can win the science fair, she can get her dad out of his coma.
I can't begin to explain how hard I laughed during this movie. I mean, I actually FRIGHTENED myself with how much I laughed. Then again, that was the first half...the second half, Kraig and Chris came home and that sorta ruined my comedy mojo.
There's alot of little hidden jokes in this movie...during one scene with kids in a science class, I realize in the way back corner of the wall the teacher (religious nut Chuck Noblet played by Stephen Colbert) is the periodic table of the elements re-arranged to form a cross. LOVE IT!
Plus this line alone had tears pouring down my face:
Geoffrey Jellineck: You pushed me away!
Chuck Noblet: I wasn't pushing you away, I was pulling me toward myself.
If you have an effed up sense of humor, you will absolutely adore this movie. Then again, since I didn't know anything about it my standards were pretty low, but for a clearly low-budget movie, it was brilliant.
The cast is pretty tightly linked...Amy Sedaris was on Sex and the City, as was obviously Sarah Jessica Parker, who's married to Matthew Broderick...Kristin Johnston also played a small role on Sex and the City...
The true gem of the movie is Principal Blackman. I have no idea who the actor is, but he does a phenomenal job.
Principal Blackman: Why would I doctor the books to improve the overall test scores of the student body just so I could collect bonus funds from the state which I willfully misappropriated in order to pay off large gambling debts? It just doesn't add up!
Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Ebay Discussion
Just perusing the ebay seller board (I figure, I've sold enough stuff and i sell more than I buy, i deserve to provide my input...i've been on ebay since 1999), someone posted this:
Well, Ebay has forgotten who its customers are. We, the sellers, are Ebay's customers. But they protect buyers (who are our customers, not theirs) over sellers (their customers) almost every time. Their business model depends on extracting fees from sellers -- even from a buyer's scam -- and they really seem to have no interest in protecting this community or the sellers who make it up.
Which is absolutely true.
Well, Ebay has forgotten who its customers are. We, the sellers, are Ebay's customers. But they protect buyers (who are our customers, not theirs) over sellers (their customers) almost every time. Their business model depends on extracting fees from sellers -- even from a buyer's scam -- and they really seem to have no interest in protecting this community or the sellers who make it up.
Which is absolutely true.
Countrywide gets boned by BoA!
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
This news totally shocked me.
Most of my banking is done through Bank of America...and my home loan is through Countrywide. So you'd think I'd be cool with this, but I'm not...I like BoA because they're everywhere (to canadian folks: if you remember in our OAC economics class they taught us that anyone can open a bank in the US, it's not like in Canada where there's just like 5 banks and thats it other than credit unions...so you could have a bank with only like 2 locations) and because their online bill paying is absolutely fantastic.
That being said, i also can't stand BoA for the same reason I can't stand 24 Hour Fitness: they're the McDonald's of Banks. I would never want my home loan through them.
Well, I guess COuntrywide had to bend over and take one for the team. The article says:
Bank of America said it initially plans to operate Countrywide separately under the Countrywide brand, with integration occurring no sooner than 2009.
I just need them to not f*ck around with Countrywide too much till the end of 2009 when I have to refinance. That's all I ask. I love my loan dude (Gina's ex husband), I really like the communication, etc...please please PLEASE don't eff me over....
In other news: TGIF!
Wow.
Wow.
This news totally shocked me.
Most of my banking is done through Bank of America...and my home loan is through Countrywide. So you'd think I'd be cool with this, but I'm not...I like BoA because they're everywhere (to canadian folks: if you remember in our OAC economics class they taught us that anyone can open a bank in the US, it's not like in Canada where there's just like 5 banks and thats it other than credit unions...so you could have a bank with only like 2 locations) and because their online bill paying is absolutely fantastic.
That being said, i also can't stand BoA for the same reason I can't stand 24 Hour Fitness: they're the McDonald's of Banks. I would never want my home loan through them.
Well, I guess COuntrywide had to bend over and take one for the team. The article says:
Bank of America said it initially plans to operate Countrywide separately under the Countrywide brand, with integration occurring no sooner than 2009.
I just need them to not f*ck around with Countrywide too much till the end of 2009 when I have to refinance. That's all I ask. I love my loan dude (Gina's ex husband), I really like the communication, etc...please please PLEASE don't eff me over....
In other news: TGIF!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Idiot ebayer, part II
So the moron from yesterday sent this to me today:
I think it's time to consider refunding my money. The dvd's have not been delivered. I don't believe they even exist. Today makes 12 days from the time I paid for them. There is no reason why they shouldn't have arrived yet. I'll expect a call from you by 4:30pm eastern time to work out the details of the refund. If I don't hear from you, be rest assured, I will file reports of items not received with EBAY, Paypal and file a formal report with local law enforcement. This is not something I want to do but I refuse to be ripped off. I can be reached at 917.709.0457.
I asked for help on the ebay seller board, the only problem is that he has a non-confirmed address, which effs me over even IF the tracking eventually shows he got it.
What kills me is that...it's not 12 days from the time he paid, it's based on BUSINESS days...and it hasn't been 9 days yet. To top it off, 4:30 eastern time = 1:30 my time, and I got this at like noon. WTF, how unreasonable can you get?! Fortunately on the ebay board everyone was like "yeah, this guy is insane. it's not worth dealing with him".
My concern isn't if in the end paypal were to refund him or something (see my note** below), i just don't want bad feedback. I can lose the $20 or whatever, my feedback is what's important.
** so check it...apparently the reason you want to ship ONLY to confirmed addresses is that there's alot of address fraud...so by confirming the address (I believe with a credit card), if the delivery confirmation shows it's shipped then ebay will find fault on the bidder if they bitch. But if they bitch and you shipped it to a non-confirmed address, well paypal figures it's your own fault for shipping it to an unverifiable address. I didn't know that. So i figured out how to set my paypal settings to ONLY accept payments from a confirmed address.
Anyway...on the advice of someone from the forum I replied to him short and simple that parcel post is give or take 9 business days and when a reasonable amount of time has passed i'll file a claim with the post office. That's it. (You can't file a claim until after 14 business days).
Once the transaction is totally complete (i.e he gets his item and either gives me bad feedback or...its' been awhile) i'll post his ID so the world can block him from bidding on his bids.
I think it's time to consider refunding my money. The dvd's have not been delivered. I don't believe they even exist. Today makes 12 days from the time I paid for them. There is no reason why they shouldn't have arrived yet. I'll expect a call from you by 4:30pm eastern time to work out the details of the refund. If I don't hear from you, be rest assured, I will file reports of items not received with EBAY, Paypal and file a formal report with local law enforcement. This is not something I want to do but I refuse to be ripped off. I can be reached at 917.709.0457.
I asked for help on the ebay seller board, the only problem is that he has a non-confirmed address, which effs me over even IF the tracking eventually shows he got it.
What kills me is that...it's not 12 days from the time he paid, it's based on BUSINESS days...and it hasn't been 9 days yet. To top it off, 4:30 eastern time = 1:30 my time, and I got this at like noon. WTF, how unreasonable can you get?! Fortunately on the ebay board everyone was like "yeah, this guy is insane. it's not worth dealing with him".
My concern isn't if in the end paypal were to refund him or something (see my note** below), i just don't want bad feedback. I can lose the $20 or whatever, my feedback is what's important.
** so check it...apparently the reason you want to ship ONLY to confirmed addresses is that there's alot of address fraud...so by confirming the address (I believe with a credit card), if the delivery confirmation shows it's shipped then ebay will find fault on the bidder if they bitch. But if they bitch and you shipped it to a non-confirmed address, well paypal figures it's your own fault for shipping it to an unverifiable address. I didn't know that. So i figured out how to set my paypal settings to ONLY accept payments from a confirmed address.
Anyway...on the advice of someone from the forum I replied to him short and simple that parcel post is give or take 9 business days and when a reasonable amount of time has passed i'll file a claim with the post office. That's it. (You can't file a claim until after 14 business days).
Once the transaction is totally complete (i.e he gets his item and either gives me bad feedback or...its' been awhile) i'll post his ID so the world can block him from bidding on his bids.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Ebay f*cker!
From an email I sent to someone:
Okay I"m SO p1ssed. I got this email from a bidder:
This item was paid for on 12/30/07. It's now 01/09/08 and I still haven't received it. What is going on? I called the post office and gave them the tracking number you supplied. They said they have no record of the item or the item number. With all due respect, I'm not in the habit of paying good money for nothing. I need you to contact me asap at 917.709.0457 with an explanation and the whereabouts of my dvd's. If not, I'll be forced to file a report to EBAY & Paypal claiming non-receipt and possible fraud. I'll be expecting your call by 5pm Eastern Standard Time (2pm Pacific time).
So not only did I send him an email saying if he actually looked at the tracking numbero nline, it shows it was processed, but also that it was shipped parcel post which takes up to 9 business days (which hasn't' been 9 yet).
Then i call him and the guy is a COMPLETE idiot, giving me until 5pm tomorrow to have the item to him. I'm like "well you can't escalate it to ebay, it shows the shipping label was printed and the item was indeed shipped but okay go for it", and he starts tellling me how the post office is MY responsibility. I"m like "uh you didn't get insurance, so no i'm not".
he also proceeds to tell me that he doesn't use the online tracking tool, he goes straight to the "horse's mouth". Uh the government employees at the podunk post office? WTF!
So then *I* called the 1-800 number and the lady was able to tell me that it was shipped on the 31st, left california on the 4th, and that she didn't have more info but the 9th day is technically Friday so worry about it on Friday.
I call the guy back and he FLIPS OUT on me...why? Because i didn't ship it priority mail because he spent all of $5.10 on shipping. I'm like "well that's what was listed on the auction, if you wanted it shipped another way you should have said that BEFORE it was shipped!"...so then he yells that he's going to escalate this to ebay and hangs up on me!
What kills me is that i'm going to get bad feedback from this moron even though it's 100% his stupidity (I even checked his ebay ratings, someone else gave him a bad score for the exact same thing)...
So now I'm praying he'll get the item today or tomorrow. OH to top it off, i said i would call him when i spoke to the post office (even though i'm not going to ask the local post office, wtf there's not much they can do when it's in transit) and he said "well this is my work number and it gets turned off at 5". then i said "well...it will be after 8pm your time before I will talk to them" and he insisted that I call him before 5pm...HIS TIME. I'm trying to be all nice and polite but i'm like "WTF i can't leave work before 5pm and there's a time difference, you f*cker" (i didn't say that but damn i wanted to).
WHY WHY WHY are the majority of people total morons?!
Going to post this on my blog. Even with his frickin' phone number.
Okay I"m SO p1ssed. I got this email from a bidder:
This item was paid for on 12/30/07. It's now 01/09/08 and I still haven't received it. What is going on? I called the post office and gave them the tracking number you supplied. They said they have no record of the item or the item number. With all due respect, I'm not in the habit of paying good money for nothing. I need you to contact me asap at 917.709.0457 with an explanation and the whereabouts of my dvd's. If not, I'll be forced to file a report to EBAY & Paypal claiming non-receipt and possible fraud. I'll be expecting your call by 5pm Eastern Standard Time (2pm Pacific time).
So not only did I send him an email saying if he actually looked at the tracking numbero nline, it shows it was processed, but also that it was shipped parcel post which takes up to 9 business days (which hasn't' been 9 yet).
Then i call him and the guy is a COMPLETE idiot, giving me until 5pm tomorrow to have the item to him. I'm like "well you can't escalate it to ebay, it shows the shipping label was printed and the item was indeed shipped but okay go for it", and he starts tellling me how the post office is MY responsibility. I"m like "uh you didn't get insurance, so no i'm not".
he also proceeds to tell me that he doesn't use the online tracking tool, he goes straight to the "horse's mouth". Uh the government employees at the podunk post office? WTF!
So then *I* called the 1-800 number and the lady was able to tell me that it was shipped on the 31st, left california on the 4th, and that she didn't have more info but the 9th day is technically Friday so worry about it on Friday.
I call the guy back and he FLIPS OUT on me...why? Because i didn't ship it priority mail because he spent all of $5.10 on shipping. I'm like "well that's what was listed on the auction, if you wanted it shipped another way you should have said that BEFORE it was shipped!"...so then he yells that he's going to escalate this to ebay and hangs up on me!
What kills me is that i'm going to get bad feedback from this moron even though it's 100% his stupidity (I even checked his ebay ratings, someone else gave him a bad score for the exact same thing)...
So now I'm praying he'll get the item today or tomorrow. OH to top it off, i said i would call him when i spoke to the post office (even though i'm not going to ask the local post office, wtf there's not much they can do when it's in transit) and he said "well this is my work number and it gets turned off at 5". then i said "well...it will be after 8pm your time before I will talk to them" and he insisted that I call him before 5pm...HIS TIME. I'm trying to be all nice and polite but i'm like "WTF i can't leave work before 5pm and there's a time difference, you f*cker" (i didn't say that but damn i wanted to).
WHY WHY WHY are the majority of people total morons?!
Going to post this on my blog. Even with his frickin' phone number.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Money, costco, jobs, and bling
So did some web surfing crap and came across this:
Job-related stress is extremely common. According to the Jobs Rated Almanac, the five most stressful jobs are:
1. President of the United States
2. Firefighter
3. Senior corporate executive
4. Race car driver
5. Taxi driver
The five least stressful jobs, according to the Jobs Rated Almanac, are:
1. Medical records technician
2. Janitor
3. Forklift operator
4. Musical instrument repairer
5. Florist
I think it bothers me a bit that a medical records technician's job isn't stressful...you SHOULD be stressed. Keeps you on your a-game. That being said, I once was item #5 (although being 14 years old nothing is stressful...oh wait, this is me we'er talking about. The only job that I felt wasn't stressful was Le Chateau, because I was there for so long and I was the quickest person on the cash register...so when the store got crazy busy, i was automatically put on the cash register which is easy monkey work).
Naturally being a florist isn't stressful...although I sucked at floral arrangements and the only thing I could do properly was a simple bouquet of a dozen roses (with or without baby's breath, although I preferred to make it without). Other than not being able to arrange anything in a vase, the only other thing that bugged me was that my hands were marred from the roses' thorns...it'd say I had a ratio of 60:40 skin to holes on my palms. Which even then wouldn't be so bad if part of the job didn't involve packaging our own floral preservative, which was like pouring battery acid on all those wounds.
In other news, my Costco membership is expiring and I really don't feel like doling out another $50 for a membership (seriously, I hate costco. Almost as much as I hate 24HF. You have to save $50 just to break even. And their prices are NOT that great...i've compared them elsewhere. I just go for the stuff that's costco-specific) until BBQ season. So last night I went on a huge grocery store spree and ended up talking to the cashier about how much people spend at costco.
She said that people easily blow $10-$15K, mostly because they're buying TVs and stuff. But then we started talking about the jewelry section...when i never really noticed because it's not like I'm going to buy anything and my goal with Costco is to get in and out asap (the longer you're there, the more you spend). She said that one time someone bought a $100K ring. It was 22 carats. They had to get the police to escort them out. Nuts!
And seems like bigwig executives buy jewelry there all the time. So I went again today at lunch and checked out the jewelry section...nothing was $100K, but there WAS a pair of diamond earrings...for $56K. FIFTY SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS...at Costco. I think they were a little over 2 carats. Most of the diamond stuff they had averaged between $2K to $15K. I just can't get over that you can buy a bulk box of detergent...and a pair of earrings that cost more than my car (and heck, i bought my car brand new!).
On to money matters...
So in February I have a CD that's finally expiring. Effing Bank of America...the rate was so crummy. I believe I put in around $3000 and earned $483 in interest. Gasp. Such a huge amount (grumble. I think the crummy rate was 3%, which hardly keeps up with inflation). Anyway, so my debate when it expires has been:
1. Put the $3K towards the HELOC loan, put the rest in the botox fund (it's been awhile since i had it done).
2. Put the $3K towards the HELOC loan, get laser teeth whitening. I am obsessed with teeth, especially my own (naturally), and the past 2 years of drinking diet pepsi has stained them IMO.
3. Put a little under $3K towards teh HELOC loan, get a decent frickin' laptop.
Let's break this down. I went to the dentist today (my dentist kicks ASS. She works at another office and on Wednesday she's going to be working on Brad, Angelina, and all fifty of their kids) and she was like "you're nuts, you're teeth are white, you're fine. Just use the bleaching trays you already have" (another reason why i love my dentist: 'cause they don't sell me crap to make a buck). And the hygienist agreed. But...i personally LIKE teeth that are milk- or paper-white. I've invested alot into my teeth (as have my parents) and if they have to glow to get attention, so be it. There's very few things I like about myself...my teeth deserve center stage.
But...well if she thinks it's not worth it, then fine.
I was going to forego the botox, but this morning I looked in the mirror and I think i wrinkled my forehead IN MY SLEEP. And it's making my whole face look haggard. The only problem with botox is that you do have to maintain it...granted, the mroe you do it the less you have to get it done (i.e. down to 1x/year), but until then it's kinda pricey.
So that leaves the laptop. Which is the smart choice, assuming that I verifythe bootlegged s/w I have (Office 2003, Dreamweaver, etc) works on Vista since that's all you can pretty much get (and i'll i'd want...i wouldn't want to get a laptop with XP only to later upgrade it to Vista since hardware with Vista pre-installed was designed specifically for it. I'm not f*king around with microsoft).
THEN...i was scoping out HP laptops (my favs are HP or Sony Vaio laptops...HP because that printer of mine was kickass and it sens a message ot me about the reliability, Vaio because i had one once for work and loved it), their mousepad track thingy is awful. So...we'll see.
Job-related stress is extremely common. According to the Jobs Rated Almanac, the five most stressful jobs are:
1. President of the United States
2. Firefighter
3. Senior corporate executive
4. Race car driver
5. Taxi driver
The five least stressful jobs, according to the Jobs Rated Almanac, are:
1. Medical records technician
2. Janitor
3. Forklift operator
4. Musical instrument repairer
5. Florist
I think it bothers me a bit that a medical records technician's job isn't stressful...you SHOULD be stressed. Keeps you on your a-game. That being said, I once was item #5 (although being 14 years old nothing is stressful...oh wait, this is me we'er talking about. The only job that I felt wasn't stressful was Le Chateau, because I was there for so long and I was the quickest person on the cash register...so when the store got crazy busy, i was automatically put on the cash register which is easy monkey work).
Naturally being a florist isn't stressful...although I sucked at floral arrangements and the only thing I could do properly was a simple bouquet of a dozen roses (with or without baby's breath, although I preferred to make it without). Other than not being able to arrange anything in a vase, the only other thing that bugged me was that my hands were marred from the roses' thorns...it'd say I had a ratio of 60:40 skin to holes on my palms. Which even then wouldn't be so bad if part of the job didn't involve packaging our own floral preservative, which was like pouring battery acid on all those wounds.
In other news, my Costco membership is expiring and I really don't feel like doling out another $50 for a membership (seriously, I hate costco. Almost as much as I hate 24HF. You have to save $50 just to break even. And their prices are NOT that great...i've compared them elsewhere. I just go for the stuff that's costco-specific) until BBQ season. So last night I went on a huge grocery store spree and ended up talking to the cashier about how much people spend at costco.
She said that people easily blow $10-$15K, mostly because they're buying TVs and stuff. But then we started talking about the jewelry section...when i never really noticed because it's not like I'm going to buy anything and my goal with Costco is to get in and out asap (the longer you're there, the more you spend). She said that one time someone bought a $100K ring. It was 22 carats. They had to get the police to escort them out. Nuts!
And seems like bigwig executives buy jewelry there all the time. So I went again today at lunch and checked out the jewelry section...nothing was $100K, but there WAS a pair of diamond earrings...for $56K. FIFTY SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS...at Costco. I think they were a little over 2 carats. Most of the diamond stuff they had averaged between $2K to $15K. I just can't get over that you can buy a bulk box of detergent...and a pair of earrings that cost more than my car (and heck, i bought my car brand new!).
On to money matters...
So in February I have a CD that's finally expiring. Effing Bank of America...the rate was so crummy. I believe I put in around $3000 and earned $483 in interest. Gasp. Such a huge amount (grumble. I think the crummy rate was 3%, which hardly keeps up with inflation). Anyway, so my debate when it expires has been:
1. Put the $3K towards the HELOC loan, put the rest in the botox fund (it's been awhile since i had it done).
2. Put the $3K towards the HELOC loan, get laser teeth whitening. I am obsessed with teeth, especially my own (naturally), and the past 2 years of drinking diet pepsi has stained them IMO.
3. Put a little under $3K towards teh HELOC loan, get a decent frickin' laptop.
Let's break this down. I went to the dentist today (my dentist kicks ASS. She works at another office and on Wednesday she's going to be working on Brad, Angelina, and all fifty of their kids) and she was like "you're nuts, you're teeth are white, you're fine. Just use the bleaching trays you already have" (another reason why i love my dentist: 'cause they don't sell me crap to make a buck). And the hygienist agreed. But...i personally LIKE teeth that are milk- or paper-white. I've invested alot into my teeth (as have my parents) and if they have to glow to get attention, so be it. There's very few things I like about myself...my teeth deserve center stage.
But...well if she thinks it's not worth it, then fine.
I was going to forego the botox, but this morning I looked in the mirror and I think i wrinkled my forehead IN MY SLEEP. And it's making my whole face look haggard. The only problem with botox is that you do have to maintain it...granted, the mroe you do it the less you have to get it done (i.e. down to 1x/year), but until then it's kinda pricey.
So that leaves the laptop. Which is the smart choice, assuming that I verifythe bootlegged s/w I have (Office 2003, Dreamweaver, etc) works on Vista since that's all you can pretty much get (and i'll i'd want...i wouldn't want to get a laptop with XP only to later upgrade it to Vista since hardware with Vista pre-installed was designed specifically for it. I'm not f*king around with microsoft).
THEN...i was scoping out HP laptops (my favs are HP or Sony Vaio laptops...HP because that printer of mine was kickass and it sens a message ot me about the reliability, Vaio because i had one once for work and loved it), their mousepad track thingy is awful. So...we'll see.
Quick like a mongoose!
So my new show of the moment is easily American Gladiators. Not because I miss the original...i never actually saw the original (did that even air in Canada? The years it was on were the years my parents decided the family didn't need a tv so they literally put it in a garbage bag and threw it out)...
What cracks me up is the big blond guy, Titan (who actually has been on over 400 magazine covers and was in the original Gladiators as a backup) reminds me of the blond skier from the South Park "Asspen" episode (the guy who calls Stan "Stan Darsh" and challenges him to a ski match)
The guy in the middle:
One of my all-time favorite movies is Running Man (and a very good book too), this is sort of the non-futuristic version of it. While it's overtly cheesy (the contestants were clearly prepped to say catchy one-liners, and I'm positive the audience members were handed those "homemade" signs saying "I crush on Crush! JUSTICE for All!"), it's still great to see regular joe-shmoes compete against people who spend their lives doing nothing but work out.
I felt especially bad for the first chick to compete...she sells toilet paper for a living. TOILET PAPER. How the eff do you put that on your resume? "Account Executive for specialize paper products"?! And within a minute she jacked up her leg and had to back out.
I'm not a big fan of Hulk Hogan, maybe because of his divorce situation. Although I get the feeling that he doesnt' want the divorce, Linda does. But still, I saw Hogan Knows Best...what do you expect when you put your family on a reality show? (Then again, how else was Brooke going to get that record contract?). More importantly, I"m just annoyed with his bizarro posture, his tight black jeans, and the yellow straw he calls hair.
Ahh, whatever. I'll cut Terry "hulk" Hogan some slack.
The only downfall to all of this is that it makes me feel like SUCH a tub of lard. How do people with regular jobs and kids find time to bulk up? How many egg yolks do you have to consume to get that big? And wtf how quick IS a mongoose?
What cracks me up is the big blond guy, Titan (who actually has been on over 400 magazine covers and was in the original Gladiators as a backup) reminds me of the blond skier from the South Park "Asspen" episode (the guy who calls Stan "Stan Darsh" and challenges him to a ski match)
The guy in the middle:
One of my all-time favorite movies is Running Man (and a very good book too), this is sort of the non-futuristic version of it. While it's overtly cheesy (the contestants were clearly prepped to say catchy one-liners, and I'm positive the audience members were handed those "homemade" signs saying "I crush on Crush! JUSTICE for All!"), it's still great to see regular joe-shmoes compete against people who spend their lives doing nothing but work out.
I felt especially bad for the first chick to compete...she sells toilet paper for a living. TOILET PAPER. How the eff do you put that on your resume? "Account Executive for specialize paper products"?! And within a minute she jacked up her leg and had to back out.
I'm not a big fan of Hulk Hogan, maybe because of his divorce situation. Although I get the feeling that he doesnt' want the divorce, Linda does. But still, I saw Hogan Knows Best...what do you expect when you put your family on a reality show? (Then again, how else was Brooke going to get that record contract?). More importantly, I"m just annoyed with his bizarro posture, his tight black jeans, and the yellow straw he calls hair.
Ahh, whatever. I'll cut Terry "hulk" Hogan some slack.
The only downfall to all of this is that it makes me feel like SUCH a tub of lard. How do people with regular jobs and kids find time to bulk up? How many egg yolks do you have to consume to get that big? And wtf how quick IS a mongoose?
Monday, January 07, 2008
TV Review: Cashmere Mafia
Last night I didn't watch the latest Desperate Housewives or American Gladiators...but I did watch the premiere of Cashmere Mafia.
Sigh. Let's go through each of the ladies before I even give my opinion of the show.
Frances O'Connor (the only i've seen her in was Bedazzled) plays Zoe, one of those workaholic moms married to a workaholic husband who put their little precious children in ballet, soccer, whatever. I think she's supposed to be the most relatable character but I don't think any female on the planet would agree. First off, if you're THAT busy...why the hell do you have your kids in so many things? Maybe I"m just weird because the only thing my mom signed me up for was skating lessons, which I promptly quit after awhile (there's only so much ass pounding a little kid can get...ice hurts. Let that be a lesson into adulthood too).
Probably the worst scene was where her nanny called with some retarded crisis and miss BigWig Zoe took the call during the meeting. I absolutely can't STAND when people take personal calls during meetings, and at the very least you'd set it on vibrate and see if they call back if it's THAT important. Then, to top it off, she continued her meeting from her office, where her little precious ones decided to have some sort of WWE smackdown in there. My mom would have beat me with her name plaque and told me to stay quiet or she'd "beat the bloody life out of" me if she had a work thing. And damn straight that's what she should have done instead of offering ice cream to whoever stayed quiet.
Totally not relatable at all.
Next we have Lucy Liu playing the ever adorable Mia. I actually liked her character the most of out all the girls, but I still have the character she played on Ally McBeal in my mind so I kept expecting her to break out a whip or something.
The problem with her character is definitely no fault of the actress' but you'd think girl would have spoken up and pointed out the retardedness of it all. For example, she's engaged to another coworker...if you're a big wig at a company (and even if you're not), you are NOT going to walk down the hall HOLDING HANDS. Even worse, HOLDING HANDS while your boss is explaining how one person will get a promotion and the other will get fired. And you're not going to constantly kiss in the office either. Unless you want HR on your ass.
The other problem is the crap this girl wears. Carrie Bradshaw could wear funky outfits because she was a work-at-home freelancer. You can't wear low-cut bright dresses in an OFFICE. I don't care if it's New York or Timbuktu, no one's gonna wear that sheeot to the office.
Next up is Bonnie Summerville. Let me say, I keep getting her confused with Monica Potter:
But Bonnie Summerville was on Grosse Pointe, which was one of the best shows that never made it past 1 season. That was the show that was a spoof of Beverly Hills 90210. Sigh.
Anyway, her character is pretty refreshing, not because of the usual "oh i'm hip, I work for some makeup company, blah blah"...but because right off the bat her character isn't sure she's gay. LOVE IT. Now that is relatable, not because I have identity issues but it's nice to see characters that as adults still don't now who they are or what they're going to do with their lives.
Finally we have Miranda Otto who plays some ice queen Juliet. She's also a CFO (CIO, whatever) so we're supposed to think she's a tough modern chick who can make it in a man's world.
Girl looks like her face is botoxed beyond belief. I'm okay with Botox for the rest of us, but my job doesn't require me to show expression.
In her first scene, a buncho f guys in a meeting push their coffee cups towards her like she's some exec assistant, at which point she gives some snotty comment about how important she is. NO ONE in a company would ever push their mug towards a CFO, regardless if they're a chauvinist pig or not (unless the dude was the president or some title above hers). You will never, EVER, find a peon pulling a move like that. Which right away just annoyed me, because I get upset when TV/Movie people don't get the concept of office environments (Office Space: they nailed it. Cashmere Mafia: not so much).
Then in a scene where I think we're supposed to be cheering her on (I couldn't tell, her frozen botox face made it difficult for me to understand whatever feeling she was trying to convey) she tells her unfaithful husband that she's going to take on a lover from any man in the room. The husband then looks scared and naturally takes a chug from his champagne. Really? REALLY? 'Cause if I were him I would have been like "great, now i can keep boning my hot chicks without feeling guilty. And i can leave you because we're equal".
Overall, the show misses the mark. It's supposed to be about 4 hip working friends in NY. It's supposed to be a SATC knock off (it's produced by Darren Star after all). Ohhh how wrong they are. For example, working mom Zoe hides in a closet to make a work phone call because her kids are screaming. That is so effed up, either you yell at your kids to shut the hell up mommy iso n the phone, or you go into a bedroom and close the door. You don't' hide in a CLOSET. To top it off, she used a non-wireless hands-free thing...You have a high paying job, a fancy blackberry phone, and you're telling me your company won't spring $30 for a bluetooth earpiece? If you're that rich, that successful, and that desperate in need for tools to help your life, you'll get yourself a wireless ear doodad. Geezus.
Then there's a scene were Mia emails everyone to meet her for lunch. She emails each and every one SEPARATELY with the same message. How the eff you're going to get a promotion at that inefficient pace is beyond me. Obviously the goal was to see her type in her friend's name, and then the scene where that friend receives the email so we can associate the two. At that point I just get super annoyed because I don't need the producers to dumb it down for me like that, i'll eventually catch onto who's who. Geezus. Or maybe they really don't know you can send one email to multiple recipients.
Bonnie Sumerville's character gets her email while she's having breakfast with a boyfriend who's dumping her. The email says "we need to do lunch". So somehow she goes from having breakfast with the ex to walking over and having lunch...which maybe these people who dont' work in offices understand that breakfast = around 8am or before...lunch = 11:30pm onwards for us office folks. You h ave to be at work somewhere in between.
Overall, the show is just plain awful and will probably get axed once the regular shows come back on the air. Sadly, until then, I will continue to watch because I'm so desperate for a SATC replacement (please Lipstick Jungle be better!) and for something that's not a reality show.
(please excuse any weird words in here, i tried BLogger's spellcheck and it's not so great).
Sigh. Let's go through each of the ladies before I even give my opinion of the show.
Frances O'Connor (the only i've seen her in was Bedazzled) plays Zoe, one of those workaholic moms married to a workaholic husband who put their little precious children in ballet, soccer, whatever. I think she's supposed to be the most relatable character but I don't think any female on the planet would agree. First off, if you're THAT busy...why the hell do you have your kids in so many things? Maybe I"m just weird because the only thing my mom signed me up for was skating lessons, which I promptly quit after awhile (there's only so much ass pounding a little kid can get...ice hurts. Let that be a lesson into adulthood too).
Probably the worst scene was where her nanny called with some retarded crisis and miss BigWig Zoe took the call during the meeting. I absolutely can't STAND when people take personal calls during meetings, and at the very least you'd set it on vibrate and see if they call back if it's THAT important. Then, to top it off, she continued her meeting from her office, where her little precious ones decided to have some sort of WWE smackdown in there. My mom would have beat me with her name plaque and told me to stay quiet or she'd "beat the bloody life out of" me if she had a work thing. And damn straight that's what she should have done instead of offering ice cream to whoever stayed quiet.
Totally not relatable at all.
Next we have Lucy Liu playing the ever adorable Mia. I actually liked her character the most of out all the girls, but I still have the character she played on Ally McBeal in my mind so I kept expecting her to break out a whip or something.
The problem with her character is definitely no fault of the actress' but you'd think girl would have spoken up and pointed out the retardedness of it all. For example, she's engaged to another coworker...if you're a big wig at a company (and even if you're not), you are NOT going to walk down the hall HOLDING HANDS. Even worse, HOLDING HANDS while your boss is explaining how one person will get a promotion and the other will get fired. And you're not going to constantly kiss in the office either. Unless you want HR on your ass.
The other problem is the crap this girl wears. Carrie Bradshaw could wear funky outfits because she was a work-at-home freelancer. You can't wear low-cut bright dresses in an OFFICE. I don't care if it's New York or Timbuktu, no one's gonna wear that sheeot to the office.
Next up is Bonnie Summerville. Let me say, I keep getting her confused with Monica Potter:
But Bonnie Summerville was on Grosse Pointe, which was one of the best shows that never made it past 1 season. That was the show that was a spoof of Beverly Hills 90210. Sigh.
Anyway, her character is pretty refreshing, not because of the usual "oh i'm hip, I work for some makeup company, blah blah"...but because right off the bat her character isn't sure she's gay. LOVE IT. Now that is relatable, not because I have identity issues but it's nice to see characters that as adults still don't now who they are or what they're going to do with their lives.
Finally we have Miranda Otto who plays some ice queen Juliet. She's also a CFO (CIO, whatever) so we're supposed to think she's a tough modern chick who can make it in a man's world.
Girl looks like her face is botoxed beyond belief. I'm okay with Botox for the rest of us, but my job doesn't require me to show expression.
In her first scene, a buncho f guys in a meeting push their coffee cups towards her like she's some exec assistant, at which point she gives some snotty comment about how important she is. NO ONE in a company would ever push their mug towards a CFO, regardless if they're a chauvinist pig or not (unless the dude was the president or some title above hers). You will never, EVER, find a peon pulling a move like that. Which right away just annoyed me, because I get upset when TV/Movie people don't get the concept of office environments (Office Space: they nailed it. Cashmere Mafia: not so much).
Then in a scene where I think we're supposed to be cheering her on (I couldn't tell, her frozen botox face made it difficult for me to understand whatever feeling she was trying to convey) she tells her unfaithful husband that she's going to take on a lover from any man in the room. The husband then looks scared and naturally takes a chug from his champagne. Really? REALLY? 'Cause if I were him I would have been like "great, now i can keep boning my hot chicks without feeling guilty. And i can leave you because we're equal".
Overall, the show misses the mark. It's supposed to be about 4 hip working friends in NY. It's supposed to be a SATC knock off (it's produced by Darren Star after all). Ohhh how wrong they are. For example, working mom Zoe hides in a closet to make a work phone call because her kids are screaming. That is so effed up, either you yell at your kids to shut the hell up mommy iso n the phone, or you go into a bedroom and close the door. You don't' hide in a CLOSET. To top it off, she used a non-wireless hands-free thing...You have a high paying job, a fancy blackberry phone, and you're telling me your company won't spring $30 for a bluetooth earpiece? If you're that rich, that successful, and that desperate in need for tools to help your life, you'll get yourself a wireless ear doodad. Geezus.
Then there's a scene were Mia emails everyone to meet her for lunch. She emails each and every one SEPARATELY with the same message. How the eff you're going to get a promotion at that inefficient pace is beyond me. Obviously the goal was to see her type in her friend's name, and then the scene where that friend receives the email so we can associate the two. At that point I just get super annoyed because I don't need the producers to dumb it down for me like that, i'll eventually catch onto who's who. Geezus. Or maybe they really don't know you can send one email to multiple recipients.
Bonnie Sumerville's character gets her email while she's having breakfast with a boyfriend who's dumping her. The email says "we need to do lunch". So somehow she goes from having breakfast with the ex to walking over and having lunch...which maybe these people who dont' work in offices understand that breakfast = around 8am or before...lunch = 11:30pm onwards for us office folks. You h ave to be at work somewhere in between.
Overall, the show is just plain awful and will probably get axed once the regular shows come back on the air. Sadly, until then, I will continue to watch because I'm so desperate for a SATC replacement (please Lipstick Jungle be better!) and for something that's not a reality show.
(please excuse any weird words in here, i tried BLogger's spellcheck and it's not so great).
Bill Gates' Last Day at Microsoft
Bill Gates is the least funniest person on the planet, but it's still interesting how he got so many people (Even Bono, gasp!) to play into this video. I dig Jay Z.
And let it be stated...Obama's section was WAY funnier than Hillary. Girl almost makes Bill Gates look funny.
And let it be stated...Obama's section was WAY funnier than Hillary. Girl almost makes Bill Gates look funny.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Barack, Bush, and Babylonia
I was at the gym last night (thanks Marlene :P) and I ended up watching three shows:
TMZ (not much to report, it was pre-Britney's latest meltdown)
Celebrity Apprentice (I love you Carol Alt. When i grow up, I want to be just like you. Sadly, that will never happen, but a girl can dream).
CNN
CNN aired Barack Obama's victory speech, and it reminded me of something from the John and Ken show earlier that day: in the grand scheme, the most LIKEABLE (not the most competent) person generally wins. Which is good, 'cause I kinda dig Barack and I think he's very likeable.
THEN i thought...pretty much allt he reasons I prefer Barack Obama isn't his position vs. the other candidates...it's Barack vs. Bush.
Here's the list of reasons why Barack Obama kicks ass, all compared to our current president.
Disclaimer: normally I wouldn't care at all about this, but now that I can vote (if i actually registered to vote), I feel like I probably should take note of this crap.
1. Barack isn't a country bumkin. Apparentlymost of America likes a hillbilly for their president (as evidenced by him winning a 2nd time), but Barack has zero southern drawl. He went to school in Hawaii. I dig that...I don't want someone who grew up on chicken fried gravy to run the country. I do have to admit however that at one point during his victory speech he started to pull the Martin Luther King accent, but i'll let it fly because he was discussing freedom.
2. He wasn't born into politics and had to follow his dad's dream. Call it the Gossip Girl syndrome: boy wants to follow dream X, but affluent and reputation-seeking father wants dream Y. So boy follows daddy's dream ("No, i don't WANNA go to Yale!" "But son, I went there, your father went there, and your grandfather went there. We funded their library. Now hush on these dreams of backpackingi n europe. Here's ten thousand dollars, go buy yourself something nice.") I feel like Barack (or Barry as he was apparently called in high school) truly wanted this for him, for his dreams, not because he was raised into it.
3. He's got the color thing down pat. He's not white. He's not black. Being mixed, he can hang out with all folks. Except maybe skinheads, since his hybrid blood goes against their aerian plan. Georgey-boy is as white at they get. You know how white he is? I imagine the first time he tried Indian food (made mild) he was probably all "ooohhh weeee! Now thayt is sum spah-cey food rih' there!". He's so white it's impossible for him to become any more diverse. If he knew how to use email (and AOL doesn't count), he's the guy who's off forwarding the crap about how people should boycott The Golden Compass because in the books, the kid (allegedly) kills God. Then i bet his autosignature is some religious passage. Basically he's so white that in his super hillbilly white behavior, he actually manages to offend others (like ME).
4. Barry's got a sense of style. It reminds me of a Nip/Tuck episode...Dr. Shawn McNamara gets chided by a homeless guy for wearing Armani and he offers him his old Brooks Brothers suits. Barry's wearing Armani. Georgey is wearing...is it even Brooks Brothers? I feel like whatever he's wearing, it's like an old man who puts on a sport coat over a plaid shirt with beige pants. If i have to see your face interrupting my tv show whenever there's a crisis, damn right your clothes better be aesthetically pleasing.
5. Does Georgey boy even have a sense of humor? If so, does he get that he's the joke itself? I was actually impressed with Barry went on Ellen...not because he made the appearance, but because the guy can clearly roll with the punches. First he danced with her...and for a politician, Barry's got moves. Then they sort of prank called a viewer, which I could not IMAGINE Georgey Boy ever doing. LOVED IT. During the interview the topic of gay marriage came up, and Barry gave the perfect answer. I dont' remember it perfectly, but he managed to give an answer that "protects" regular marriage while still allowing gay folks a marriage thing as well.
6. Barack's catchphrase is "Change". Keep in mind, the entire time i've been in teh US it's been ALL Bush (minus 1 month of Clinton). I'm desperate for that "change", to see what this country is like when there's not some hillbilly running it.
Although to Bush's defense, i was here for less than a year when 9/11 happened, and naturally that's created a profound impact on this country. So i really don't have much opinion on what the US was like before that...all I know is what it's like since, and what I want changed.
**Disclaimer2: i'm not saying i'm pro-Barack vs. the other candidates...i'm simply saying why I like him if i think about him relative to the current president and how he'd do in that role.
TMZ (not much to report, it was pre-Britney's latest meltdown)
Celebrity Apprentice (I love you Carol Alt. When i grow up, I want to be just like you. Sadly, that will never happen, but a girl can dream).
CNN
CNN aired Barack Obama's victory speech, and it reminded me of something from the John and Ken show earlier that day: in the grand scheme, the most LIKEABLE (not the most competent) person generally wins. Which is good, 'cause I kinda dig Barack and I think he's very likeable.
THEN i thought...pretty much allt he reasons I prefer Barack Obama isn't his position vs. the other candidates...it's Barack vs. Bush.
Here's the list of reasons why Barack Obama kicks ass, all compared to our current president.
Disclaimer: normally I wouldn't care at all about this, but now that I can vote (if i actually registered to vote), I feel like I probably should take note of this crap.
1. Barack isn't a country bumkin. Apparentlymost of America likes a hillbilly for their president (as evidenced by him winning a 2nd time), but Barack has zero southern drawl. He went to school in Hawaii. I dig that...I don't want someone who grew up on chicken fried gravy to run the country. I do have to admit however that at one point during his victory speech he started to pull the Martin Luther King accent, but i'll let it fly because he was discussing freedom.
2. He wasn't born into politics and had to follow his dad's dream. Call it the Gossip Girl syndrome: boy wants to follow dream X, but affluent and reputation-seeking father wants dream Y. So boy follows daddy's dream ("No, i don't WANNA go to Yale!" "But son, I went there, your father went there, and your grandfather went there. We funded their library. Now hush on these dreams of backpackingi n europe. Here's ten thousand dollars, go buy yourself something nice.") I feel like Barack (or Barry as he was apparently called in high school) truly wanted this for him, for his dreams, not because he was raised into it.
3. He's got the color thing down pat. He's not white. He's not black. Being mixed, he can hang out with all folks. Except maybe skinheads, since his hybrid blood goes against their aerian plan. Georgey-boy is as white at they get. You know how white he is? I imagine the first time he tried Indian food (made mild) he was probably all "ooohhh weeee! Now thayt is sum spah-cey food rih' there!". He's so white it's impossible for him to become any more diverse. If he knew how to use email (and AOL doesn't count), he's the guy who's off forwarding the crap about how people should boycott The Golden Compass because in the books, the kid (allegedly) kills God. Then i bet his autosignature is some religious passage. Basically he's so white that in his super hillbilly white behavior, he actually manages to offend others (like ME).
4. Barry's got a sense of style. It reminds me of a Nip/Tuck episode...Dr. Shawn McNamara gets chided by a homeless guy for wearing Armani and he offers him his old Brooks Brothers suits. Barry's wearing Armani. Georgey is wearing...is it even Brooks Brothers? I feel like whatever he's wearing, it's like an old man who puts on a sport coat over a plaid shirt with beige pants. If i have to see your face interrupting my tv show whenever there's a crisis, damn right your clothes better be aesthetically pleasing.
5. Does Georgey boy even have a sense of humor? If so, does he get that he's the joke itself? I was actually impressed with Barry went on Ellen...not because he made the appearance, but because the guy can clearly roll with the punches. First he danced with her...and for a politician, Barry's got moves. Then they sort of prank called a viewer, which I could not IMAGINE Georgey Boy ever doing. LOVED IT. During the interview the topic of gay marriage came up, and Barry gave the perfect answer. I dont' remember it perfectly, but he managed to give an answer that "protects" regular marriage while still allowing gay folks a marriage thing as well.
6. Barack's catchphrase is "Change". Keep in mind, the entire time i've been in teh US it's been ALL Bush (minus 1 month of Clinton). I'm desperate for that "change", to see what this country is like when there's not some hillbilly running it.
Although to Bush's defense, i was here for less than a year when 9/11 happened, and naturally that's created a profound impact on this country. So i really don't have much opinion on what the US was like before that...all I know is what it's like since, and what I want changed.
**Disclaimer2: i'm not saying i'm pro-Barack vs. the other candidates...i'm simply saying why I like him if i think about him relative to the current president and how he'd do in that role.
Monday, December 31, 2007
When it rains, it pours!
You know how some people have one car problem after another? Well it seems we have computer problem after another.
A year ago we swapped out the old "main" family computer for Kraig's somewhat old Dell computer (it was better...it just wasn't being used because Kraig had a laptop from work he was using). STored the Old Main in the closet.
Computer Status at this time: the Dell, his work laptop, and this ghetto old laptop i've got.
Earlier this year kraig got a new job, so he got one of those Western Digital "MyBook" things (over $200) to put the stuff from his work computer, his work laptop on...well after the IT guy at his old company erased those systems, the MyBook crapped out.
Kraig called WD but basically they said they could give him a new one (it was brand new), but that wasnt the point...the information ON it is what's important.
I took it into my IT guy at work and he said that the disk inside won't spin, he popped off the case and tried to attach it to a regular computer...basically, it was dead. Kraig then looked into a storage recovery thing but those are CRAZY expensive 'cause they have to wear bunny suits and look all fancy to protect the disk when they try to recover the info.
Computer status at this time: The Dell, the ghetto laptop, and an unusable WD storage device.
Then the ghetto laptop got f*cked up REALLY badly. It kept crashing, then restarting, and the only way to get it to stop this cycle was for it to repeat it and let the battery die out. I had to re-install windows from scratch (have you ever tried doing that? It took HOURS. And wiped out everything I had). It still doesn't work great, I get a blue screen about once an hour, so it's good for random web surfing and that's it. Remember the blue screen of death days? It's even WORSE when you get it without having Windows 95.
THEN the Dell crapped out...it gets stuck at the main Windows bootup logo thing...so this morning Kraig and I had to put the Old Main one back in ('cause i've got stuff I need to do that requires a steady system, knock on wood).
Computer status at this time: a Dell that won't work, a ghetto laptop that barely works, an unusable WD storage device, and an Old Main computer that seriously it like working on my old skool Pentium 75.
THEN...THEN...just NOW...i was printing shipping labels for my ebay stuff when my printer crapped out. By "crapped out" i mean, it shorted out. I can unplug it and replug it in and get a flicker of light for a second and that's it.
I LOVE THAT PRINTER. It's an HP LaserJet 4, one of the best printers ever made. That thing is at least 15 years old and has held up SO well. If you go online it still gets the best reviews for printers, and that sucker is still used in businesses. LOVE LOVE LOVE this printer.
So what do I have now?
A super crazy old slow Old Main family computer and the use of my HP inkjet. The inkjet is fine but it's not ideal, for the cost of replacing ink in that sucker I might as well buy a brand new laser printer. Plus i'm a Printer Snob: inkjets, deskjets, whatever, they're unacceptable. It's laser or nothing.
Do i pay to fix the HP? Do I get a new laser? Either way, it'll cost $$...which is ironic since it shorted out while i was trying to print out shipping labels for stuff on ebay IN ORDER TO MAKE MONEY...argh. One step forward, eight steps back.
A year ago we swapped out the old "main" family computer for Kraig's somewhat old Dell computer (it was better...it just wasn't being used because Kraig had a laptop from work he was using). STored the Old Main in the closet.
Computer Status at this time: the Dell, his work laptop, and this ghetto old laptop i've got.
Earlier this year kraig got a new job, so he got one of those Western Digital "MyBook" things (over $200) to put the stuff from his work computer, his work laptop on...well after the IT guy at his old company erased those systems, the MyBook crapped out.
Kraig called WD but basically they said they could give him a new one (it was brand new), but that wasnt the point...the information ON it is what's important.
I took it into my IT guy at work and he said that the disk inside won't spin, he popped off the case and tried to attach it to a regular computer...basically, it was dead. Kraig then looked into a storage recovery thing but those are CRAZY expensive 'cause they have to wear bunny suits and look all fancy to protect the disk when they try to recover the info.
Computer status at this time: The Dell, the ghetto laptop, and an unusable WD storage device.
Then the ghetto laptop got f*cked up REALLY badly. It kept crashing, then restarting, and the only way to get it to stop this cycle was for it to repeat it and let the battery die out. I had to re-install windows from scratch (have you ever tried doing that? It took HOURS. And wiped out everything I had). It still doesn't work great, I get a blue screen about once an hour, so it's good for random web surfing and that's it. Remember the blue screen of death days? It's even WORSE when you get it without having Windows 95.
THEN the Dell crapped out...it gets stuck at the main Windows bootup logo thing...so this morning Kraig and I had to put the Old Main one back in ('cause i've got stuff I need to do that requires a steady system, knock on wood).
Computer status at this time: a Dell that won't work, a ghetto laptop that barely works, an unusable WD storage device, and an Old Main computer that seriously it like working on my old skool Pentium 75.
THEN...THEN...just NOW...i was printing shipping labels for my ebay stuff when my printer crapped out. By "crapped out" i mean, it shorted out. I can unplug it and replug it in and get a flicker of light for a second and that's it.
I LOVE THAT PRINTER. It's an HP LaserJet 4, one of the best printers ever made. That thing is at least 15 years old and has held up SO well. If you go online it still gets the best reviews for printers, and that sucker is still used in businesses. LOVE LOVE LOVE this printer.
So what do I have now?
A super crazy old slow Old Main family computer and the use of my HP inkjet. The inkjet is fine but it's not ideal, for the cost of replacing ink in that sucker I might as well buy a brand new laser printer. Plus i'm a Printer Snob: inkjets, deskjets, whatever, they're unacceptable. It's laser or nothing.
Do i pay to fix the HP? Do I get a new laser? Either way, it'll cost $$...which is ironic since it shorted out while i was trying to print out shipping labels for stuff on ebay IN ORDER TO MAKE MONEY...argh. One step forward, eight steps back.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Cooking with that ghetto free Costco cookbook
Over the holidays Costco gave away this cookbook using, naturally, costco-specific products (which isn't too hard to substitute). Cookbooks are like serious food porn...i could pour over the pages, salivating, oggling, for hours...and repeat it frequently.
I decided today to give two recipes a whirl: the meatloaf and the apple-cheese soup.
The soup (link to cookbook, go to page 77): it's actually pretty tasty, except I added extra mustard powder and tabasco, since I generally think recipes are very bland in flavor (I feel pretty confident in my spice-skills, since a coworker pointed out that whatever I bring in always has the right amount of spices...which I tend to triple in a given recipe). Oh and I used that fat-free oil (Enova) instead of butter, since the whole planet knows I've got an aversion to butter. Only problem is that I was cooking while reading and missed hte part that said to peel the apples before putting them in...ahh well, it still tastes pretty spiffy.
You wouldn't think a cheese-apple soup would be good, but you gotta use granny smith apples which makes it very tangy.
Healthy Mini Meatloaves: (link to cookbook, go to page 147) this is my first ever meatloaf, to be honest I've never really had meatloaf before (unless a bite off someone's plate once counts). It's good, VERY easy to make, except this is what I would change:
- don't bother with the muffin concept...i dunno, maybe i'm weird, but i think a traditional old skool meatloaf format would be better.
- I added like 5 times the thyme and i would definitely not hesitate to be liberal with that. Plus I would add even MORE pepper than the boatloads that i added. Turkey's not exactly the most flavorful meat.
- I would really, REALLY chop finely the mushrooms and onions...even maybe puree them (if i had a mini food processor...not worth whipping out the big one...heh heh that sounded perverted), i don't like big chunks of stuff in my food.
Overall, considering it's Costco, it's a very good cookbook. Instructions are clear, recipes may look like they take alot of ingredients but they're all basic stuff nothing crazy (One thing I hate about Rachel Rey's stuff is that they usually need some white whine...wtf i don't keep white wine laying around, let alone waste the rest of the bottle...not a white wine fan)....
Time to get my Girls Next Door and Snoop Dogg's Fatherhood on...
I decided today to give two recipes a whirl: the meatloaf and the apple-cheese soup.
The soup (link to cookbook, go to page 77): it's actually pretty tasty, except I added extra mustard powder and tabasco, since I generally think recipes are very bland in flavor (I feel pretty confident in my spice-skills, since a coworker pointed out that whatever I bring in always has the right amount of spices...which I tend to triple in a given recipe). Oh and I used that fat-free oil (Enova) instead of butter, since the whole planet knows I've got an aversion to butter. Only problem is that I was cooking while reading and missed hte part that said to peel the apples before putting them in...ahh well, it still tastes pretty spiffy.
You wouldn't think a cheese-apple soup would be good, but you gotta use granny smith apples which makes it very tangy.
Healthy Mini Meatloaves: (link to cookbook, go to page 147) this is my first ever meatloaf, to be honest I've never really had meatloaf before (unless a bite off someone's plate once counts). It's good, VERY easy to make, except this is what I would change:
- don't bother with the muffin concept...i dunno, maybe i'm weird, but i think a traditional old skool meatloaf format would be better.
- I added like 5 times the thyme and i would definitely not hesitate to be liberal with that. Plus I would add even MORE pepper than the boatloads that i added. Turkey's not exactly the most flavorful meat.
- I would really, REALLY chop finely the mushrooms and onions...even maybe puree them (if i had a mini food processor...not worth whipping out the big one...heh heh that sounded perverted), i don't like big chunks of stuff in my food.
Overall, considering it's Costco, it's a very good cookbook. Instructions are clear, recipes may look like they take alot of ingredients but they're all basic stuff nothing crazy (One thing I hate about Rachel Rey's stuff is that they usually need some white whine...wtf i don't keep white wine laying around, let alone waste the rest of the bottle...not a white wine fan)....
Time to get my Girls Next Door and Snoop Dogg's Fatherhood on...
Movie Review: Au Revoir Les Enfants
I have no idea why I added this movie to our Netflix queue, I think I read somewhere that it was really, REALLY good.
Ummm...riigghtt.
Maybe part of the problem is that I turned the subtitles off, and the last time I saw a movie in French without subtitles was in high school. I speak (or at least, have the caveman vocab skills) Quebec French, not France French, which makes it harder in general to understand the movie. Also doesn't help that I moved from an English/French country 7 years ago to an English/Spanish country...lord help me if I had to speak French under duress, i'd be hosed.
So the movie is about a kid (Julien) who has to go to some private catholic boys' school during WWII. While there he befriends a Jewish kid (Jean Bennet). Then the germans come and take the kid away. That's it. Seriously. THAT'S IT.
Oh did I ruin it for you?! I don't see how this movie won all sorts of awards. The scenes were too long and there was ALOT of scenes that were pointless. Julien gets lost in a forest...i swear that was half the movie. How many scenes of a frightened kid with a camera circling him do you need to make to convey the point that he's lost?!
At any given moment I was waiting for the Germans to come in and do some brutal shooting (doesn't help that i saw Smoking Aces the night before, so my brain was in full-on Gratuitous Violence mode) but it didn't happen. I thought maybe one of the Catholic priests was gonna have his way with the boys, but that didn't happen either. There wasn't even any Boy On Boy action (at best, two boys were scoping out some porn before taking a shower).
If you're in the mood for a slow-paced foreign movie with little point, then I guess I recommend it.
Note: This movie is based on the director's personal experience. Personal experiences don't always make for good movies. You know what I did today? I woke up, had a cookie for breakfast, checked out my email, took a shower, went grocery shopping, prepped dinner, then watched the movie. You don't see me making a frickin' movie! HA or maybe I should...i'm sure i'd win some foreign movie for what is otherwise known as My Random Sunday.
Yeah! New template layout!
Well you probably don't notice anything, but I was using an older template and now I finally got Blogger to update it so I can start adding "modules"...note the new module on the right, where you can view by topic. That being said, clearly that would have required me to add a label topic for each and every blog entry I've ever done, and there's 559 of 'em.
I attempted to go through and update them until I realized (probably around 9 entries in) that that's ALOT of work. Even if you do a search by topic. So...suck it. It'll take awhile. And i highly doubt anyone's going to be reading by topic anyway.
Dammit, now I gotta create a label for THIS entry.
I attempted to go through and update them until I realized (probably around 9 entries in) that that's ALOT of work. Even if you do a search by topic. So...suck it. It'll take awhile. And i highly doubt anyone's going to be reading by topic anyway.
Dammit, now I gotta create a label for THIS entry.
Letter to the Editor
How come you never told me that Ryan Reynolds and Alanis broke up. I thought for sure being that you love him and hate them being together would have blogged about that! I had to find out on yahoo in the best 10 best breakups of 2007!
LOL. They broke up in February, but that was their "No, for realz this time, we're broken up" which never counts. So they broke up long before that in mid-2006, which I'm pretty sure I blogged about 'cause it was about effing time.
Oh speaking of Alanis...
My hatred of Alanis runs deep. She's from Ottawa, I'm from Ottawa, and most people in Ottawa (at least, before I moved) can't stand her either. She developed a pretty bad reputation from the get go as a teen diva. Since she was our only celebrity rumors run rampant. She also went to the same high school as a then-friend of mine and I found it absolutely insane that Alanis taught my friend's Sex Ed class (Alanis was in OAC/Grade 13 at the time, my friend was in 9th).
The second-final straw that made me dislike her was purely my own fault: at 14, I went to the mall with Stacey, Erin, and Mandi...and bought Alanis' tape. TAPE. WTF. You know how much it cost me? $18.99 at Music World. The minute I made that purchase I regretted it. Why did I buy it you ask? Because *gasp* Alanis was at the mall signing autographs! How on earth could I pass up THAT opportunity of a lifetime?!
I always vowed to one day sell the damn thing and finally last week I did. After the purchase and some skimming off the top from s&h fees, I'd say I made around $8 from it. That's $8 US...oh wait, the US dollar means nothing relative to the Canadian dollar, plus factor in the cost of just having invested that $18.99 (that doesn't even include crazy canadian taxes)...yeah I took a pretty big loss on that purchase.
Then...the FINAL straw...when she started boning Ryan Reynolds.
Damn you Alanis! Damn you all to hell!
LOL. They broke up in February, but that was their "No, for realz this time, we're broken up" which never counts. So they broke up long before that in mid-2006, which I'm pretty sure I blogged about 'cause it was about effing time.
Oh speaking of Alanis...
My hatred of Alanis runs deep. She's from Ottawa, I'm from Ottawa, and most people in Ottawa (at least, before I moved) can't stand her either. She developed a pretty bad reputation from the get go as a teen diva. Since she was our only celebrity rumors run rampant. She also went to the same high school as a then-friend of mine and I found it absolutely insane that Alanis taught my friend's Sex Ed class (Alanis was in OAC/Grade 13 at the time, my friend was in 9th).
The second-final straw that made me dislike her was purely my own fault: at 14, I went to the mall with Stacey, Erin, and Mandi...and bought Alanis' tape. TAPE. WTF. You know how much it cost me? $18.99 at Music World. The minute I made that purchase I regretted it. Why did I buy it you ask? Because *gasp* Alanis was at the mall signing autographs! How on earth could I pass up THAT opportunity of a lifetime?!
I always vowed to one day sell the damn thing and finally last week I did. After the purchase and some skimming off the top from s&h fees, I'd say I made around $8 from it. That's $8 US...oh wait, the US dollar means nothing relative to the Canadian dollar, plus factor in the cost of just having invested that $18.99 (that doesn't even include crazy canadian taxes)...yeah I took a pretty big loss on that purchase.
Then...the FINAL straw...when she started boning Ryan Reynolds.
Damn you Alanis! Damn you all to hell!
The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches
It seems that there's a "community" if you will of compiled personal finance blogs (do a search for "pf blogs" and it'll come up. Anyway, I came across one websites review of The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches by Jeff Yeager.
Apparently the author has 6 rules for "ruling your gold":
1. Live within your means at thirty, and stay there.
Well I'm 30 and I think I'm living within my means. But I have massive debt (the house, the cars) but then again, other things get paid in full (credit card bill, property taxes, etc). The blog that I found this from mentioned living the way you did at 25...well at 25 my rent was $1710/month for a 700sq.ft. apartment...no wait that was when I was 23. At 25 my rent was $1400 for a two bedroom two bathroom apartment (hmmm but split with two people, that's only $700 each). If you split what Kraig and I pay, it's around $1400 each...but that's for interest-only which I guess is the same as renting...anyway, forget how you lived at 25. At 25 I didn't have life insurance, disability insurance, homeowner's insurance (renter's insurance is wayyy cheaper)...but true, there's no reason to exceed the lifestyle we have now.
2. Never underestimate the power of not spending.
Oh trust me, I don't underestimate that at all...there's times I'll be at target with a full basket of crap only to later walk out with just a bottle of conditioner. I can talk myself out of any purchase, and I actually get a sense of pride when I do that.
3. Discretion is the better part of shopping.
Once again, this isn't that hard to do. It's pretty easy to look at an item and assess if you NEED it vs. if you WANT it, and where you can find it cheaper. Heck, I have never bought Holiday cards full price, I buy all my holiday crap on December 26th. So doing good so far.
4. Do for yourself what you could have others do for you.
This is a huge deal for me, because I know so many people who hire people to do stuff. I can't justify hiring a maid as much as I'd love to...because we don't even have kids and we're not here during the day to mess up the house, I can't justify paying someone for a skill (cleaning) that I already own. Which is also why I tried my hand at plumbing, and why I still have outdoor motion-detector lights sitting in my office (I know Kraig and I could install them ourselves but since it's electrical, I figure it would help to read ALOT on it first). Every time I've caved and hired someone it's been a huge feeling of defeat, but then again it's also been a necessity (and every single time, at least we tried!)
5. Anyone can negotiate anything.
Now this is where I have problems. If it's something that I used to do (say, banking or retail), then negotiating is not a problem. Other than that however, I'm pretty useless. I tend to take a "oh well, I tried" attitude the minute I get shot down. I remember going garage-saling in the bay area and I had to get Marlene to negotiate a price for me, 'cause I was just too chicken to do it. WTF, too chicken to offend a garage sale woman over something for a buck?!! Definitely need to improve on this tactic.
6. Pinch the dollars, and the pennies will pinch themselves. This is the message that Elizabeth Warren preaches: limit your spending on the big things (like your mortgage), and you won’t have to worry so much about saving money on groceries.
Hmmm well this isn't so easy. The mortgage and cars have already been purchased, and there really was no way we could get around the house situation (we were being pushed out and naturally we didn't know we would single handedly stop the housing market). Plus with my car, I knew that I would have it for at least 15 years so certain factors were important (getting the limited edition so that we could get the dual temperatures...VERY important on long drives to the bay area!). I guess other than having to buy those items (2 cars, 1 house) we've done okay. Heck, I don't even visit my own family because of the cost of airfare. We recently stayed at a super ultra posh Hyatt Regency for only $60 because of Priceline (that would have cost us alot more if I had done something like hotels.com or even gone straight to Hyatt's website). So...I think in the grand scheme it's not too hard to watch yer dough with the big purchases, and if you make them odds are it's out of necessity.
Or maybe just 'cause I'm a chick...i can't imagine buying a house or a car on a whim.
There’s a lot more to The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches. Yeager covers topics like:
* Eating well for cheap. (Yeager tries to buy food that costs less than a dollar per pound.)
* Buying a sensible home and then repaying the mortgage as soon as possible.
* Commuting without a car.
* Cheap entertainment. Yeager encourages readers to make the most of their hobbies.
Ultimately, the message of this book is that stuff will not make you happy. Happiness comes from knowing when you have enough. In his final chapter, Yeager stresses the importance of amassing a quality of life over a quantity of stuff. “Many choices you must make [involve] the trade-off between money and time,” he writes. “By being cheap…you’re valuing time and the things you can do with it more than money and the things you can buy with it.”
Well I'd say I eat cheap, considering my lunch is usually just canned soup and I try to make Kraig a lunch as often as possible...and if we eat out it's courtesy of the Entertainment Book. As for buying a sensible home...yeah well this is southern california. Paying it off will never happen in anyone's lifetime. Commuting without a car is also impossible in southern california, unless I want to take the bus at 5am for a 12 mile commute and most likely get assaulted along the way. Cheap entertainment...lots of tv and Netflix, yeah!
Apparently the author has 6 rules for "ruling your gold":
1. Live within your means at thirty, and stay there.
Well I'm 30 and I think I'm living within my means. But I have massive debt (the house, the cars) but then again, other things get paid in full (credit card bill, property taxes, etc). The blog that I found this from mentioned living the way you did at 25...well at 25 my rent was $1710/month for a 700sq.ft. apartment...no wait that was when I was 23. At 25 my rent was $1400 for a two bedroom two bathroom apartment (hmmm but split with two people, that's only $700 each). If you split what Kraig and I pay, it's around $1400 each...but that's for interest-only which I guess is the same as renting...anyway, forget how you lived at 25. At 25 I didn't have life insurance, disability insurance, homeowner's insurance (renter's insurance is wayyy cheaper)...but true, there's no reason to exceed the lifestyle we have now.
2. Never underestimate the power of not spending.
Oh trust me, I don't underestimate that at all...there's times I'll be at target with a full basket of crap only to later walk out with just a bottle of conditioner. I can talk myself out of any purchase, and I actually get a sense of pride when I do that.
3. Discretion is the better part of shopping.
Once again, this isn't that hard to do. It's pretty easy to look at an item and assess if you NEED it vs. if you WANT it, and where you can find it cheaper. Heck, I have never bought Holiday cards full price, I buy all my holiday crap on December 26th. So doing good so far.
4. Do for yourself what you could have others do for you.
This is a huge deal for me, because I know so many people who hire people to do stuff. I can't justify hiring a maid as much as I'd love to...because we don't even have kids and we're not here during the day to mess up the house, I can't justify paying someone for a skill (cleaning) that I already own. Which is also why I tried my hand at plumbing, and why I still have outdoor motion-detector lights sitting in my office (I know Kraig and I could install them ourselves but since it's electrical, I figure it would help to read ALOT on it first). Every time I've caved and hired someone it's been a huge feeling of defeat, but then again it's also been a necessity (and every single time, at least we tried!)
5. Anyone can negotiate anything.
Now this is where I have problems. If it's something that I used to do (say, banking or retail), then negotiating is not a problem. Other than that however, I'm pretty useless. I tend to take a "oh well, I tried" attitude the minute I get shot down. I remember going garage-saling in the bay area and I had to get Marlene to negotiate a price for me, 'cause I was just too chicken to do it. WTF, too chicken to offend a garage sale woman over something for a buck?!! Definitely need to improve on this tactic.
6. Pinch the dollars, and the pennies will pinch themselves. This is the message that Elizabeth Warren preaches: limit your spending on the big things (like your mortgage), and you won’t have to worry so much about saving money on groceries.
Hmmm well this isn't so easy. The mortgage and cars have already been purchased, and there really was no way we could get around the house situation (we were being pushed out and naturally we didn't know we would single handedly stop the housing market). Plus with my car, I knew that I would have it for at least 15 years so certain factors were important (getting the limited edition so that we could get the dual temperatures...VERY important on long drives to the bay area!). I guess other than having to buy those items (2 cars, 1 house) we've done okay. Heck, I don't even visit my own family because of the cost of airfare. We recently stayed at a super ultra posh Hyatt Regency for only $60 because of Priceline (that would have cost us alot more if I had done something like hotels.com or even gone straight to Hyatt's website). So...I think in the grand scheme it's not too hard to watch yer dough with the big purchases, and if you make them odds are it's out of necessity.
Or maybe just 'cause I'm a chick...i can't imagine buying a house or a car on a whim.
There’s a lot more to The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches. Yeager covers topics like:
* Eating well for cheap. (Yeager tries to buy food that costs less than a dollar per pound.)
* Buying a sensible home and then repaying the mortgage as soon as possible.
* Commuting without a car.
* Cheap entertainment. Yeager encourages readers to make the most of their hobbies.
Ultimately, the message of this book is that stuff will not make you happy. Happiness comes from knowing when you have enough. In his final chapter, Yeager stresses the importance of amassing a quality of life over a quantity of stuff. “Many choices you must make [involve] the trade-off between money and time,” he writes. “By being cheap…you’re valuing time and the things you can do with it more than money and the things you can buy with it.”
Well I'd say I eat cheap, considering my lunch is usually just canned soup and I try to make Kraig a lunch as often as possible...and if we eat out it's courtesy of the Entertainment Book. As for buying a sensible home...yeah well this is southern california. Paying it off will never happen in anyone's lifetime. Commuting without a car is also impossible in southern california, unless I want to take the bus at 5am for a 12 mile commute and most likely get assaulted along the way. Cheap entertainment...lots of tv and Netflix, yeah!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
No...it can't be...over...
It's one hour till Sunday, which means there's only a few days in my Xmas vacay left...
Oh the humanity, no! My anxiety is already creeping up. Which maybe contributes to why I screamed at my husband like a madman (madwoman) this morning for using the stupid built-in cutting board instead of a regular dishwasher-friendly cutting board.
Anxiety = bad.
Watched a few DVDs over this holiday...
Movie Review: 28 Weeks Later
I really enjoyed 28 Days Later, mostly because it's concept of a "rage virus" was a fresh take on the usual zombie movies. It doesnt' make sense that dead people attack live people and can move like an athlete on steroids; it does make sense that there's a virus that makes you do crazy sheeot.
Let's just say the original movie is like an Academy Award winning movie compared to the sequel.
The is that 28 weeks later the world decides that you can go back to England because the last of the infected have died of starvation. First off, no one in their right mind would think less than a year later is okay to go back. Secondly, you wouldn't bring back civilians....oh but then you wouldn' thave a movie if you didn't have some retarded civilians effing everything up...
Anyway, I won't even bother with the rest of the review except to say that it's the usual monster comes after the good guys, good guys keep running, monsters keep chasing them, repeat repeat.
Movie Review: Smoking Aces
I was really excited to see this movie, for two reasons:
1. A crapload of people told me it was incredible. I forgot that a crapload of people = masses, and masses of people are generally morons.
2. Ryan Reynolds is ridiculously hot.
The gist of the movie is that there's one dude that has a hit out on him, and the pricetag to whoever can kill him and get his heart is a million bucks. So we follow various groups of hitmen (plus two hit women) plus the FBI agents who are also out to find him before he runs.
Jeremy Piven, who's normally a total blowhard, is VERY good as an egotistical magician who's going nuts in his hotel room knowing that people are out to get him.
And the tales of all the quirky-yet-lovable-or-uber-cool hitmen were very entertaining.
My main beef was the very end...totally predictable AND boring...like they couldn't come up with something else. Except the DVD shows they DID have an alternate ending, which was equally bad.
So...if you don't care about the very end, then I guess it's pretty entertaining. Would have been nicer to have some great fight scenes, instead of just straight-up fight scenes. And you can't go wrong with Ryan Reynolds, beard or no beard. And the DVD outtakes were pretty good.
And because I can, a gratuitous picture of Ryan Reynolds:
I've got out on Netflix "Strangers with Candy" and "Au Revoir Les Enfants", so hopefully those will live up to the hype.
Oh the humanity, no! My anxiety is already creeping up. Which maybe contributes to why I screamed at my husband like a madman (madwoman) this morning for using the stupid built-in cutting board instead of a regular dishwasher-friendly cutting board.
Anxiety = bad.
Watched a few DVDs over this holiday...
Movie Review: 28 Weeks Later
I really enjoyed 28 Days Later, mostly because it's concept of a "rage virus" was a fresh take on the usual zombie movies. It doesnt' make sense that dead people attack live people and can move like an athlete on steroids; it does make sense that there's a virus that makes you do crazy sheeot.
Let's just say the original movie is like an Academy Award winning movie compared to the sequel.
The is that 28 weeks later the world decides that you can go back to England because the last of the infected have died of starvation. First off, no one in their right mind would think less than a year later is okay to go back. Secondly, you wouldn't bring back civilians....oh but then you wouldn' thave a movie if you didn't have some retarded civilians effing everything up...
Anyway, I won't even bother with the rest of the review except to say that it's the usual monster comes after the good guys, good guys keep running, monsters keep chasing them, repeat repeat.
Movie Review: Smoking Aces
I was really excited to see this movie, for two reasons:
1. A crapload of people told me it was incredible. I forgot that a crapload of people = masses, and masses of people are generally morons.
2. Ryan Reynolds is ridiculously hot.
The gist of the movie is that there's one dude that has a hit out on him, and the pricetag to whoever can kill him and get his heart is a million bucks. So we follow various groups of hitmen (plus two hit women) plus the FBI agents who are also out to find him before he runs.
Jeremy Piven, who's normally a total blowhard, is VERY good as an egotistical magician who's going nuts in his hotel room knowing that people are out to get him.
And the tales of all the quirky-yet-lovable-or-uber-cool hitmen were very entertaining.
My main beef was the very end...totally predictable AND boring...like they couldn't come up with something else. Except the DVD shows they DID have an alternate ending, which was equally bad.
So...if you don't care about the very end, then I guess it's pretty entertaining. Would have been nicer to have some great fight scenes, instead of just straight-up fight scenes. And you can't go wrong with Ryan Reynolds, beard or no beard. And the DVD outtakes were pretty good.
And because I can, a gratuitous picture of Ryan Reynolds:
I've got out on Netflix "Strangers with Candy" and "Au Revoir Les Enfants", so hopefully those will live up to the hype.
New Year's Goals
Now that I'm on this hardcore thing to reduce the home equity loan, I've found some fantastic websites on cash, frugality, and other random stuff about the almighty dollar. One of these days i'll get around to posting them.
So here's the unofficial 2008 New Year's Goals. The key here is that a given month's goals may be swapped for another month's goals. And any of these goals may get shifted based on a pending trip to Ottawa/Toronto.
Jan
- fill out that Insurance Inventory kit thing I got (doesn't serve much point to have replacement insurance if you can't prove you have the stuff in the first place)
- continue ebaying mags (50% of the remaining amount)
Feb
- ebay the remaining magazine lot
- fill out the Life Doc info
March
- paint kitchen cabinets
April
- paint kitchen cabinets (2 month project...because i know i'm lazy)
May
- paint kitchen walls
- sand, fill in holes, paint front door
June
- complete my other website about cube life(it's already up if you're bored but it's nowhere near complete, email me for the link 'cause i'm not posting it here)
July
- paint upstairs hallway
Aug
- read all the French books i've got (figure this is a good summer goal with beach reading and all that)
Sept
- paint the door trim and handrail
- Liz's wedding (not really a goal so much as a reminder to not do anything crazy this month)
Oct
- complete Kraigart.com for my sweetie
November and December
Free, or to use to complete any of the other stuff that didn't get wrapped up.
And of course, pay down that damn home equity loan.
So here's the unofficial 2008 New Year's Goals. The key here is that a given month's goals may be swapped for another month's goals. And any of these goals may get shifted based on a pending trip to Ottawa/Toronto.
Jan
- fill out that Insurance Inventory kit thing I got (doesn't serve much point to have replacement insurance if you can't prove you have the stuff in the first place)
- continue ebaying mags (50% of the remaining amount)
Feb
- ebay the remaining magazine lot
- fill out the Life Doc info
March
- paint kitchen cabinets
April
- paint kitchen cabinets (2 month project...because i know i'm lazy)
May
- paint kitchen walls
- sand, fill in holes, paint front door
June
- complete my other website about cube life(it's already up if you're bored but it's nowhere near complete, email me for the link 'cause i'm not posting it here)
July
- paint upstairs hallway
Aug
- read all the French books i've got (figure this is a good summer goal with beach reading and all that)
Sept
- paint the door trim and handrail
- Liz's wedding (not really a goal so much as a reminder to not do anything crazy this month)
Oct
- complete Kraigart.com for my sweetie
November and December
Free, or to use to complete any of the other stuff that didn't get wrapped up.
And of course, pay down that damn home equity loan.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Bhutto....
So yesterday I was in complete shock over her death...having family in Pakistan, I think i knew how Benazir Bhutto was before I knew who the prime minister of Canada or the US president was...
Since I don't have much to say since i'm so shocked, I figured people would get a kick out of my mom's comment on the situation:
as one political analyst said ... bhutto was not what the west made her out to be, she was corrupt just like the rest of them. blackmailed, imprisoned and tortured her opponents, had her brother killed who started his own political party, stole 2 billion $ from the pakistan treasury while in power. her husband looted pakistani museums selling artifacts on the black market amongst other things. both hardcore criminals and rotten to the core i would say.
I'm usually amazed how far out there my mom's opinions are, but I have to admit...I actually kind of dig that she has the complete opposite opinion of mainsteam north americans. Maybe that's why I like to play devil's advocate at times, because I grew up hearing both sides of a given situation. Obviously Bhutto is being hyped up, there's no denying it...but I'm not going to believe she outright had her brother killed.
Food for thought. Hmmm, maybe we should make that Exercise for Thought, 'cause seriously my brain does NOT need more food. It needs its cellulite-laden ass to get itself to the gym.
Since I don't have much to say since i'm so shocked, I figured people would get a kick out of my mom's comment on the situation:
as one political analyst said ... bhutto was not what the west made her out to be, she was corrupt just like the rest of them. blackmailed, imprisoned and tortured her opponents, had her brother killed who started his own political party, stole 2 billion $ from the pakistan treasury while in power. her husband looted pakistani museums selling artifacts on the black market amongst other things. both hardcore criminals and rotten to the core i would say.
I'm usually amazed how far out there my mom's opinions are, but I have to admit...I actually kind of dig that she has the complete opposite opinion of mainsteam north americans. Maybe that's why I like to play devil's advocate at times, because I grew up hearing both sides of a given situation. Obviously Bhutto is being hyped up, there's no denying it...but I'm not going to believe she outright had her brother killed.
Food for thought. Hmmm, maybe we should make that Exercise for Thought, 'cause seriously my brain does NOT need more food. It needs its cellulite-laden ass to get itself to the gym.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
The ghetto avenue boys
So I updated my blog template to display a tracker for the 2008 home loan paydown (which is kind of cheating because it includes stuff paid down from this year...but whatever). Scroll all the way down to the end if you're curious to know the status.
If you don't buy clothes or purses that would sure save you at least an extra $200-$300 a month...right?
Good Lord Marlene! :P I think I spent that much a YEAR! But I'm glad I've got support, 'cause I'm gonna need it this upcoming year that's for sure...
Can't believe 2007 is almost over...i can't believe it'll be THIRTY ONE next year...
Bryan: you still owe me pics of your place...
If you don't buy clothes or purses that would sure save you at least an extra $200-$300 a month...right?
Good Lord Marlene! :P I think I spent that much a YEAR! But I'm glad I've got support, 'cause I'm gonna need it this upcoming year that's for sure...
Can't believe 2007 is almost over...i can't believe it'll be THIRTY ONE next year...
Bryan: you still owe me pics of your place...
Friday, December 21, 2007
I resolve to create a resolution
The year is coming to an end...and its time to start thinking of NY's resolutions.
There was the year where I vowed to be more refined...didn't really succeed. Suck it.
Then I believe last year I decided to do "monthly goals" which I really liked, but then it got sidetrakced with the goal of getting my PMP certification (which I did get, so I achieved that yearly goal).
Now i'm sitting here wondering what to do for 2008. I'm inspired by AJ Jacobs who went a year trying to follow the bible as close as possible (A Year of Living Biblically...i've got his other book on how he read Encyclopdia Brittanica cover to cover, he's hilarious) so I wondered...what is something that i should do for one year...like my own social experiment?
The only thing I could think of would be: no clothes, shoes, or purses for all of 2008. That's doable, and it goes into the next part of the goal for 2008: I need to pay at least $15K extra towards my home equity loan or else we're in a world of hurt. Yay for the housing debacle. Anyway, back to the no clothes purchase for 2008. For any weddings I have to go to I've got plenty of things I can wear, and I guess if my black boots wear out then I can pay to repair them because I truly do love them.
But...then I remembered that I really wanted to take advantage of spring ski sales and I do need a ski jacket and ski pants...well by "need" i mean, "I have skis and i've only gone skiing ONCE in the past 7 years and to do that i had to borrow someone else's apparel which isn't gonna fly anymore".
So now i'm wondering...can I just say i'll go the entire year not buying shoes, purses, or clothes EXCEPT for one ski jacket and ski pants? That's not exactly an impulse or frivolous purchase, I've been meaning for years to do that.
However, if i truly want to be frugal I could wear the coat and snowpants (oh yes, they're "snowpants") that I had when I was like 14, which is this bright purple and blue coat with bright purple snowpants. They're not stylish, but they're what i wore skiing as a kid (then again, i also wasn't that warm in them...but i do have my old Columbia ski jacket but the zipper broke...but that's also an excuse, i've got workarounds tot he zipper situation you can still zip it up...just not easily...anyway).
So...that's one thought to consider.
The next part is what I already mentioned...$15K has to be paid down on the home equity (i.e. $30K over two years according to my COuntrywide guy)...which is no easy task when you need to spend your year saving $6K just for flippin' property taxes. And that's not really a "resolution" as much as a "fo' sho' you better pay down that loan or else you're homeless"...
OR...i could go back to the monthly goals. Like as a result of the PMP certification there's something that goes along with that (that i won't post) that i'd LIKE to get accomplished at the very latest by end of February, but that's not necessarily up to me...but like one month to paint the kitchen cabinets...another month to paint the upstairs hallway...another month to paint the kitchen itself...another month to do something once and for all with the garage (although i'd like to epoxy the floors, buying that stuff will take away from the $15K that needs to go to the equity), another month to read all the french books i keep meaning to read, another month to truly clear out the spare bedroom (i'm working on it, it involves ALOT of ebaying)...
I also found this website (Weekend Cookbook Challenge) that inspired me...basicallyt he gist is that you gotta open up a cookbook of yours and make one thing in a weekend. As someone who's got a desk job, that's not an easy task...heck, my biggest challenge is going grocery shopping because I can't stand doing it after work, and there's only so much you can buy in advance without it getting spoiled (and becuase it's just kraig and I, lots of times i waste stuff...like 1/4 of onions leave 3/4 to get wasted pretty easily). But i really do enjoy cooking, and I'd like to do more of it.
I could also take Nicole's advice and add to this NY's resolution list to "Join forces with your brother to better manage parental unit guilt trips." which is a fantastic idea...
Stay tuned. The key to a successful NY resolution is to not make it too big where it's easy to fail, but important enough to where you'll want to stick it it.
Kahhh Toe Mahhh Tayy!
There was the year where I vowed to be more refined...didn't really succeed. Suck it.
Then I believe last year I decided to do "monthly goals" which I really liked, but then it got sidetrakced with the goal of getting my PMP certification (which I did get, so I achieved that yearly goal).
Now i'm sitting here wondering what to do for 2008. I'm inspired by AJ Jacobs who went a year trying to follow the bible as close as possible (A Year of Living Biblically...i've got his other book on how he read Encyclopdia Brittanica cover to cover, he's hilarious) so I wondered...what is something that i should do for one year...like my own social experiment?
The only thing I could think of would be: no clothes, shoes, or purses for all of 2008. That's doable, and it goes into the next part of the goal for 2008: I need to pay at least $15K extra towards my home equity loan or else we're in a world of hurt. Yay for the housing debacle. Anyway, back to the no clothes purchase for 2008. For any weddings I have to go to I've got plenty of things I can wear, and I guess if my black boots wear out then I can pay to repair them because I truly do love them.
But...then I remembered that I really wanted to take advantage of spring ski sales and I do need a ski jacket and ski pants...well by "need" i mean, "I have skis and i've only gone skiing ONCE in the past 7 years and to do that i had to borrow someone else's apparel which isn't gonna fly anymore".
So now i'm wondering...can I just say i'll go the entire year not buying shoes, purses, or clothes EXCEPT for one ski jacket and ski pants? That's not exactly an impulse or frivolous purchase, I've been meaning for years to do that.
However, if i truly want to be frugal I could wear the coat and snowpants (oh yes, they're "snowpants") that I had when I was like 14, which is this bright purple and blue coat with bright purple snowpants. They're not stylish, but they're what i wore skiing as a kid (then again, i also wasn't that warm in them...but i do have my old Columbia ski jacket but the zipper broke...but that's also an excuse, i've got workarounds tot he zipper situation you can still zip it up...just not easily...anyway).
So...that's one thought to consider.
The next part is what I already mentioned...$15K has to be paid down on the home equity (i.e. $30K over two years according to my COuntrywide guy)...which is no easy task when you need to spend your year saving $6K just for flippin' property taxes. And that's not really a "resolution" as much as a "fo' sho' you better pay down that loan or else you're homeless"...
OR...i could go back to the monthly goals. Like as a result of the PMP certification there's something that goes along with that (that i won't post) that i'd LIKE to get accomplished at the very latest by end of February, but that's not necessarily up to me...but like one month to paint the kitchen cabinets...another month to paint the upstairs hallway...another month to paint the kitchen itself...another month to do something once and for all with the garage (although i'd like to epoxy the floors, buying that stuff will take away from the $15K that needs to go to the equity), another month to read all the french books i keep meaning to read, another month to truly clear out the spare bedroom (i'm working on it, it involves ALOT of ebaying)...
I also found this website (Weekend Cookbook Challenge) that inspired me...basicallyt he gist is that you gotta open up a cookbook of yours and make one thing in a weekend. As someone who's got a desk job, that's not an easy task...heck, my biggest challenge is going grocery shopping because I can't stand doing it after work, and there's only so much you can buy in advance without it getting spoiled (and becuase it's just kraig and I, lots of times i waste stuff...like 1/4 of onions leave 3/4 to get wasted pretty easily). But i really do enjoy cooking, and I'd like to do more of it.
I could also take Nicole's advice and add to this NY's resolution list to "Join forces with your brother to better manage parental unit guilt trips." which is a fantastic idea...
Stay tuned. The key to a successful NY resolution is to not make it too big where it's easy to fail, but important enough to where you'll want to stick it it.
Kahhh Toe Mahhh Tayy!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Get outta my head
I swear, sometimes I should be shot for my horrible taste in things.
I actually kinda dig this video (mostly because poor Ashley doesn't realize that most people don't know that this is based off a series of paintings from the Salvador Dali museum) and the song...it's awful actually, it really is,b ut it reminds me of some bad early 80s music and purely for nostalgic purposes...i kinda dig it.
Feel free to beat me with my own limbs next time you see me.
I actually kinda dig this video (mostly because poor Ashley doesn't realize that most people don't know that this is based off a series of paintings from the Salvador Dali museum) and the song...it's awful actually, it really is,b ut it reminds me of some bad early 80s music and purely for nostalgic purposes...i kinda dig it.
Feel free to beat me with my own limbs next time you see me.
Defensive Pessimism
In case it's not super obvious, I have mass amounts of anxiety and I worry like crazy. This used to bother me quite a bit...it's not normal to be in constant Chicken Little mode.
Eventually this year I finally realized that this kind of panicking and anxiety has served me VERY well over my life. Its lead me to be prepared for things that most other people aren't (emergency fund for layoffs, getting an advanced medical directive all set up so i'm not eating cream of mushroom soup if i'm in a coma, etc).
Yesterday I found this article about how bad that kind of attitude is, and that it's possible to still think ahead without the extreme anxiety.
There's a name for the kind of worry that contributes to a positive outcome: defensive pessimism.
DEFENSIVE
PESSIMISM
LOVE
IT!
It's not like it's easy to overcome this kind of thinking. All it takes is ONE incident to validate your feelings. I'm also mildly obsessive compulsive (i need need NEED need doors to be locked)...one time we stayed in a hotel in Florida, all of us with our passports in there, and i ran back down the hall to double-check the door...well turns out, the ghetto hotel's lock was busted and we ended up not only switching rooms, but switching hotels (they accused US of breaking the door...uh it's a key swipe system how do you break that?)...We all would have been effed (Christine and Noel in terms of traveling back to Canada, me with my TN visa in there) if something had happened as a result.
I say, EMBRACE your anxiety. Sure it'll eventually lead to heart disease and an ulcer, but you've already prepared for it so it's not that big of a deal.
When I planned for my wedding, I was one sack o' anxiety for 9 months straight. STRAIGHT. The day of however, even my makeup artist commented onhow i was the most relaxed bride she's ever seen. Both random and orderly panicking had served its purpose; it allowed me to feel like I had controlled everything that could be controlled and barring a tornado, nothing could throw me for a loop.
Part of being a good anxiety-driven patient is to find the most out there "what ifs" beyond what is right in front of your face. Even if I won the lottery and could afford laser eye surgery, the reason I don't is because knowing my luck, that's when there'll be a super bad earthquake. Power outages aren't a problem, but the earth shifting causing that laser to just go "eeeeeebzzzzz" off my eye onto my head is a serious concern.
(This is also a concern with permanent makeup, which I discussed with someone yesterday when I said why I wouldn't ever get tattooed eyeliner, no matter how affordable).
Plus there's also an extreme anal-retentive side to its success. The instant I have to call anyone for tech support, customer support, whatever, I immediately write down their name and the exact time of the call. Now you KNOW the odds are already stacked against you when you have to call customer support for something (especially if it's related to billing and/or fees), so it helps your cause to have the exact individual you can later blame.
Yes, 2008 will be the year where I think I shall EMBRACE my flaws...you say poe-taytoe, I say poh-tah-toem, you say flaw, I say defensive pessimism.
Eventually this year I finally realized that this kind of panicking and anxiety has served me VERY well over my life. Its lead me to be prepared for things that most other people aren't (emergency fund for layoffs, getting an advanced medical directive all set up so i'm not eating cream of mushroom soup if i'm in a coma, etc).
Yesterday I found this article about how bad that kind of attitude is, and that it's possible to still think ahead without the extreme anxiety.
There's a name for the kind of worry that contributes to a positive outcome: defensive pessimism.
DEFENSIVE
PESSIMISM
LOVE
IT!
It's not like it's easy to overcome this kind of thinking. All it takes is ONE incident to validate your feelings. I'm also mildly obsessive compulsive (i need need NEED need doors to be locked)...one time we stayed in a hotel in Florida, all of us with our passports in there, and i ran back down the hall to double-check the door...well turns out, the ghetto hotel's lock was busted and we ended up not only switching rooms, but switching hotels (they accused US of breaking the door...uh it's a key swipe system how do you break that?)...We all would have been effed (Christine and Noel in terms of traveling back to Canada, me with my TN visa in there) if something had happened as a result.
I say, EMBRACE your anxiety. Sure it'll eventually lead to heart disease and an ulcer, but you've already prepared for it so it's not that big of a deal.
When I planned for my wedding, I was one sack o' anxiety for 9 months straight. STRAIGHT. The day of however, even my makeup artist commented onhow i was the most relaxed bride she's ever seen. Both random and orderly panicking had served its purpose; it allowed me to feel like I had controlled everything that could be controlled and barring a tornado, nothing could throw me for a loop.
Part of being a good anxiety-driven patient is to find the most out there "what ifs" beyond what is right in front of your face. Even if I won the lottery and could afford laser eye surgery, the reason I don't is because knowing my luck, that's when there'll be a super bad earthquake. Power outages aren't a problem, but the earth shifting causing that laser to just go "eeeeeebzzzzz" off my eye onto my head is a serious concern.
(This is also a concern with permanent makeup, which I discussed with someone yesterday when I said why I wouldn't ever get tattooed eyeliner, no matter how affordable).
Plus there's also an extreme anal-retentive side to its success. The instant I have to call anyone for tech support, customer support, whatever, I immediately write down their name and the exact time of the call. Now you KNOW the odds are already stacked against you when you have to call customer support for something (especially if it's related to billing and/or fees), so it helps your cause to have the exact individual you can later blame.
Yes, 2008 will be the year where I think I shall EMBRACE my flaws...you say poe-taytoe, I say poh-tah-toem, you say flaw, I say defensive pessimism.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Letter to the editor...
Good Morning
I have book marked and rea your blog now and then. I alwayds find it interesting as a study in the pysche of a young californian feeling old; a feminine perspective on 2007 American culture; an insight into the power of the media to shape values; a psychological study of reflective/non-reflective thoght.
Your blog (and I say it with kindness) also reflects all the narcissism of our age; all the insecurities of woman; the selfish little world in which we can all incubate and from which we can view the world.
The broad range of your reading and the eclectic nature of it, suggests an amoeba, which is warm and still in a petri dish, and moves only when its' comfort is distorted or it experiences some temperature change. It is really all about you, isn't it?
The gossiping nature, critical eye, and empty interests suggest America is lost to your generation, if there are more of you then them.
Uhhh...I have no idea wtf the point of this is. But i will say..."my generation" is a generation of working people who have to deal with the knowledge that unlike our parents, we will have to fight our way through our career job after job after job with no pension plan...our generation is one that is cynical knowing that social security MIGHT be there NOT when we're 65, but 67.5...that we're effed up the A if we get sick because insurance is a complete joke...
Not sure what you mean by "lost"...lost HOW? That kind of philosophical BS is the very reason why many a Poly Sci graduate eventually realized they had to get a real job so they transferred into programs that would give them true skills. Is america really going to get lost? Will no one know what is it? Will it become, in a single generation, a useless third world country? Or is it (most likely) going to keep chugging along as it always has because this isn't f*cking Lord of the Flies?!
And may I remind you Moderator...I'm Canadian. Unless you have a fear of 30-something Canadians taking over the US, you can sleep well at night knowing your precious country is going to be the same in 5 years as it was 5 years ago.
I do have a critical eye...I don't think that's a sign of my generation, I think that's a sign of ME. I was born to criticize...if I could get paid to tell people they're doing stuff wrong then I'd be a millionaire. I have turned many a man from a self-confident warrior into a weeping pussycat.
As for "gossiping", that's purely a sign of anyone with a desk job. The day Anna Nicole Smith died, I got more emails than I did if the company CEO died. I don't think that's a bad thing...we're a generation stuck at our desks but have constant access to mass media, our own lives are boring as hell so we turn to the personal lives of entertainers to add some excitement to the part of our brains that are overworked and in dire need of fluff. Britney Spears' behavior to me is the same as Young & The Restless for the generation before us.
AND FINALLY...yeah of course it's "all about" me...that's why it's a f*cking blog. It's always all about the writer of the blog, that's why it's called Random Thoughts and Gripes (who's thoughts did you think they would be?!), if you want to read about other people go to...uh People.com. My blog is about MY thoughts.
That being said, much like Kathy Griffin, I absolutely adore feedback (both bad and good), I adore other people's viewpoints posted on my blog for a fresh perspective,so bring it on beotches! Especially now that I've got more time to post post post and make the world just a wee bit dumber as a result.
I have book marked and rea your blog now and then. I alwayds find it interesting as a study in the pysche of a young californian feeling old; a feminine perspective on 2007 American culture; an insight into the power of the media to shape values; a psychological study of reflective/non-reflective thoght.
Your blog (and I say it with kindness) also reflects all the narcissism of our age; all the insecurities of woman; the selfish little world in which we can all incubate and from which we can view the world.
The broad range of your reading and the eclectic nature of it, suggests an amoeba, which is warm and still in a petri dish, and moves only when its' comfort is distorted or it experiences some temperature change. It is really all about you, isn't it?
The gossiping nature, critical eye, and empty interests suggest America is lost to your generation, if there are more of you then them.
Uhhh...I have no idea wtf the point of this is. But i will say..."my generation" is a generation of working people who have to deal with the knowledge that unlike our parents, we will have to fight our way through our career job after job after job with no pension plan...our generation is one that is cynical knowing that social security MIGHT be there NOT when we're 65, but 67.5...that we're effed up the A if we get sick because insurance is a complete joke...
Not sure what you mean by "lost"...lost HOW? That kind of philosophical BS is the very reason why many a Poly Sci graduate eventually realized they had to get a real job so they transferred into programs that would give them true skills. Is america really going to get lost? Will no one know what is it? Will it become, in a single generation, a useless third world country? Or is it (most likely) going to keep chugging along as it always has because this isn't f*cking Lord of the Flies?!
And may I remind you Moderator...I'm Canadian. Unless you have a fear of 30-something Canadians taking over the US, you can sleep well at night knowing your precious country is going to be the same in 5 years as it was 5 years ago.
I do have a critical eye...I don't think that's a sign of my generation, I think that's a sign of ME. I was born to criticize...if I could get paid to tell people they're doing stuff wrong then I'd be a millionaire. I have turned many a man from a self-confident warrior into a weeping pussycat.
As for "gossiping", that's purely a sign of anyone with a desk job. The day Anna Nicole Smith died, I got more emails than I did if the company CEO died. I don't think that's a bad thing...we're a generation stuck at our desks but have constant access to mass media, our own lives are boring as hell so we turn to the personal lives of entertainers to add some excitement to the part of our brains that are overworked and in dire need of fluff. Britney Spears' behavior to me is the same as Young & The Restless for the generation before us.
AND FINALLY...yeah of course it's "all about" me...that's why it's a f*cking blog. It's always all about the writer of the blog, that's why it's called Random Thoughts and Gripes (who's thoughts did you think they would be?!), if you want to read about other people go to...uh People.com. My blog is about MY thoughts.
That being said, much like Kathy Griffin, I absolutely adore feedback (both bad and good), I adore other people's viewpoints posted on my blog for a fresh perspective,so bring it on beotches! Especially now that I've got more time to post post post and make the world just a wee bit dumber as a result.
My guilty pleasure
Okay. I admit it. I ADMIT IT. I've been watching NBC's Clash of the Choirs.
To my defense, I only recorded it last night because I wanted to see Nick Lachey. Turns out, I LOVE IT.
I LOVE IT and i'm not afraid to say it!
Basically the gist is that you've got 5 famous singers who get to hand pick their own choir from their hometown, compete, and the winner gets to put a boatload of dough towards some local charity.
I was positive Nick's team was gonna lose after their first performance last night...Kelly Rowland's choir did frickin' phenomenal singing George Michael's Freedom. Fer real, it gave me chills. Even doing a search for the video online today, it was clear that Kelly Rowland's choir kicked ass.
And now...here I am in front of the tv...and who got the least votes and won't be singing tonight? Team Rowland! In favor of frickin' Michael Bolton's stupid choir! (okay, they did pretty good with Living on a Prayer but still).
i'm playing the race card and saying it's because Kelly Rowland is BLACK. Do you hear me people?! America you're a bunch of racist mutha effas....how dare you not support AFRICAN AMERICAN KELLY ROWLAND!
Ummm okay well Patti LaBelle is also on the show...so maybe there's not much validity in my ranting.
**Edited to add: listening to Michael Bolton's choir right now...they sound like a bunch of cheesy karaoke singers. Grumble.
To my defense, I only recorded it last night because I wanted to see Nick Lachey. Turns out, I LOVE IT.
I LOVE IT and i'm not afraid to say it!
Basically the gist is that you've got 5 famous singers who get to hand pick their own choir from their hometown, compete, and the winner gets to put a boatload of dough towards some local charity.
I was positive Nick's team was gonna lose after their first performance last night...Kelly Rowland's choir did frickin' phenomenal singing George Michael's Freedom. Fer real, it gave me chills. Even doing a search for the video online today, it was clear that Kelly Rowland's choir kicked ass.
And now...here I am in front of the tv...and who got the least votes and won't be singing tonight? Team Rowland! In favor of frickin' Michael Bolton's stupid choir! (okay, they did pretty good with Living on a Prayer but still).
i'm playing the race card and saying it's because Kelly Rowland is BLACK. Do you hear me people?! America you're a bunch of racist mutha effas....how dare you not support AFRICAN AMERICAN KELLY ROWLAND!
Ummm okay well Patti LaBelle is also on the show...so maybe there's not much validity in my ranting.
**Edited to add: listening to Michael Bolton's choir right now...they sound like a bunch of cheesy karaoke singers. Grumble.
Who's yo baby daddy?
Well since it came out that Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant, I think it's time someone puts the smackdown on Hollywood's baby antics.
1. Stay together at least the length of the pregnancy.
Yeah Tom Brady, I'm looking at you. K-Fed, you're guilty too don't try to creep away in that Ferrari that you bastardized with new rims. Guys, I get it...one minute you're with the hottest piece of ass in LA, next minute you've got a bloated beluga with bad acne yelling at you for not knowing what a diaper genie is...But you gotta tough it out or else you'll become your own gamekiller.
Okay you probably won't be. But you might be.
2. Don't play mum.
It seems that hollywood starlets want to keep some things private. Are you effing kidding me? You get paid NOT for your wonderful acting ability (ever hear how Hillary Swank won an Oscar but couldn't afford her prescriptions?!), you get paid because of what we think of you. WE OWN YOU. And as your boss, I'm required to know if you've had sperm penetration sans birth control. Maybe that violates labor laws, but you should have thought of that before getting violated by Mr. A-Lister.
3. Stylists work for pregnant chicks too.
This is mainly for Britney...I don't think anyone else has broken this rule. Even Nicole Richie looks adorable with whatever her stylist put together for her. And how can anyone forget how Gwen Stefani looked? You may be young, but a fetus means you can't wear fishnets, stripper heels, and anything that looks like you should be a two cent whore.
Hell, even Old Navy's pregnancy clothing is more stylish than the crap that Britney used to wear.
4. Enough with the lavish baby showers!
You're having a baby, not curing f*cking cancer. WTF kind of lesson are you teaching your bastard baby by lavishing them with overpriced blankies and pacifiers covered in bling?! It's just GAUDY. Your baby is not your excuse to be all "oh you got the deluxe edition stroller? I got the uber platinum edition, they only made ten..."...
Christina, that means you. What the hell is this, the opening of a Macy's?!
5. Most important of all...DON'T YOU PEOPLE USE BIRTH CONTROL?!
There's many a college girl who's on the pill. There's many a college dude who carries a crapload of condoms. Why? Because they have too much to lose by having spawn. In an industry that isn't forgiving of sabbaticals, stretch marks, weight gain, and all around flaws, you'd think every chick would get her tubes tied.
Jessica Alba...you're gorgeous. You're flawless. Sadly, you also can't act your way out of a paper bag ("Honey" anyone?! And don't think you got Fantastic Four 'cause of your acting chops). Sure hope you banked your previous paychecks 'cause your career is OH VEE EE ARE...
1. Stay together at least the length of the pregnancy.
Yeah Tom Brady, I'm looking at you. K-Fed, you're guilty too don't try to creep away in that Ferrari that you bastardized with new rims. Guys, I get it...one minute you're with the hottest piece of ass in LA, next minute you've got a bloated beluga with bad acne yelling at you for not knowing what a diaper genie is...But you gotta tough it out or else you'll become your own gamekiller.
Okay you probably won't be. But you might be.
2. Don't play mum.
It seems that hollywood starlets want to keep some things private. Are you effing kidding me? You get paid NOT for your wonderful acting ability (ever hear how Hillary Swank won an Oscar but couldn't afford her prescriptions?!), you get paid because of what we think of you. WE OWN YOU. And as your boss, I'm required to know if you've had sperm penetration sans birth control. Maybe that violates labor laws, but you should have thought of that before getting violated by Mr. A-Lister.
3. Stylists work for pregnant chicks too.
This is mainly for Britney...I don't think anyone else has broken this rule. Even Nicole Richie looks adorable with whatever her stylist put together for her. And how can anyone forget how Gwen Stefani looked? You may be young, but a fetus means you can't wear fishnets, stripper heels, and anything that looks like you should be a two cent whore.
Hell, even Old Navy's pregnancy clothing is more stylish than the crap that Britney used to wear.
4. Enough with the lavish baby showers!
You're having a baby, not curing f*cking cancer. WTF kind of lesson are you teaching your bastard baby by lavishing them with overpriced blankies and pacifiers covered in bling?! It's just GAUDY. Your baby is not your excuse to be all "oh you got the deluxe edition stroller? I got the uber platinum edition, they only made ten..."...
Christina, that means you. What the hell is this, the opening of a Macy's?!
5. Most important of all...DON'T YOU PEOPLE USE BIRTH CONTROL?!
There's many a college girl who's on the pill. There's many a college dude who carries a crapload of condoms. Why? Because they have too much to lose by having spawn. In an industry that isn't forgiving of sabbaticals, stretch marks, weight gain, and all around flaws, you'd think every chick would get her tubes tied.
Jessica Alba...you're gorgeous. You're flawless. Sadly, you also can't act your way out of a paper bag ("Honey" anyone?! And don't think you got Fantastic Four 'cause of your acting chops). Sure hope you banked your previous paychecks 'cause your career is OH VEE EE ARE...
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Random thoughts for the day...
It's midnight on Saturday night...good times eating like a mofo at Carrie's dessert party.
Some very random thoughts that are going through my grey matter.
I noticed that Sandra Lee looks like an older version of Heidi Montag:
Or that Rachael Ray looks alot like an older version of Rachel Leigh Cook:
It's really quite odd to not have true seasons. Even living in Northern California, there's some distinction between say fall and winter. It's a very chick-thing, but I'm kinda depressed that I can't wear a good chunk of my sweaters. It just never gets cold enough here for the super warm and think sweaters.
Now if you're from California this probably seems retarded to you, but it's really REALLY odd to me that I have sweaters that I haven't worn since I moved here because it's just never cold enough. It's like...going through each year with something missing that you used to experience on a yearly basis...it's just ....bizarre. I don't know if I'll ever get used to it.
More bitching...
Can someone please tell Rachael Ray that her show's new backdrop is ridiculously hideous? The orange cupboards and green tiles are an insult to my optometric senses. Then there's the weird filter on the camera. It's like the frame rate is slightly slower so the picture is never in focus. The worst of it all (well actually I think the frame rate is probably the worst) is that the camera dude won't just sit the eff still and shoot her normally (uh take that as you will)...it's like he's perpetually jumping around...makes me nauseous.
Just for ol' time sake...anyone remember this FHM shoot?
Girl can't be sexy even when she tries...
Tomorrow I gotta buy $500 worth of toys for this toy drive i'm in charge of...for someone who's not a fan of the holidays, I sure get suckered into alot of festive crap. Santa can suck my balls.
Some very random thoughts that are going through my grey matter.
I noticed that Sandra Lee looks like an older version of Heidi Montag:
Or that Rachael Ray looks alot like an older version of Rachel Leigh Cook:
It's really quite odd to not have true seasons. Even living in Northern California, there's some distinction between say fall and winter. It's a very chick-thing, but I'm kinda depressed that I can't wear a good chunk of my sweaters. It just never gets cold enough here for the super warm and think sweaters.
Now if you're from California this probably seems retarded to you, but it's really REALLY odd to me that I have sweaters that I haven't worn since I moved here because it's just never cold enough. It's like...going through each year with something missing that you used to experience on a yearly basis...it's just ....bizarre. I don't know if I'll ever get used to it.
More bitching...
Can someone please tell Rachael Ray that her show's new backdrop is ridiculously hideous? The orange cupboards and green tiles are an insult to my optometric senses. Then there's the weird filter on the camera. It's like the frame rate is slightly slower so the picture is never in focus. The worst of it all (well actually I think the frame rate is probably the worst) is that the camera dude won't just sit the eff still and shoot her normally (uh take that as you will)...it's like he's perpetually jumping around...makes me nauseous.
Just for ol' time sake...anyone remember this FHM shoot?
Girl can't be sexy even when she tries...
Tomorrow I gotta buy $500 worth of toys for this toy drive i'm in charge of...for someone who's not a fan of the holidays, I sure get suckered into alot of festive crap. Santa can suck my balls.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
We didn't start the bubble
I absolutely love this video. Kinda makes me wish I was more creative.
In other news...I'm starting to think that my love for all things teenie-bopper-ish is kinda pathetic. Last night I was ecstatic to discover that the CW posts their full-length shows online for free, so I caught up on last week's Gossip Girl...then I saw the new episode...and honest to God, i think I squealed in delight at one point.
Just sad. Sad and pathetic. My clothing options are starting to become limited now too. Sarah and I chatted the other day how great it used to be to be able to wear super cute short skirts...ummm yeah first off cellulite won't let that happen anymore, secondly even if I could I'd look like a complete moron. I saw an adorable thermal top with little bunnies on it, but there comes a point where if you're a bit older, and you're wearing stuff with animals...well then you might as well break out the Bedazzler as well.
Sigh sigh.
In other news...I'm starting to think that my love for all things teenie-bopper-ish is kinda pathetic. Last night I was ecstatic to discover that the CW posts their full-length shows online for free, so I caught up on last week's Gossip Girl...then I saw the new episode...and honest to God, i think I squealed in delight at one point.
Just sad. Sad and pathetic. My clothing options are starting to become limited now too. Sarah and I chatted the other day how great it used to be to be able to wear super cute short skirts...ummm yeah first off cellulite won't let that happen anymore, secondly even if I could I'd look like a complete moron. I saw an adorable thermal top with little bunnies on it, but there comes a point where if you're a bit older, and you're wearing stuff with animals...well then you might as well break out the Bedazzler as well.
Sigh sigh.
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