A sample of some photos I took at the Georgia vs. South Carolina game on the 12th of September, 2009. It was a nailbiter of a game, but I’m glad Dawgs won! Cheers

Random Posts

• August 10, 2007 -- Rolling in… (0)
• August 6, 2007 -- waiting to exhale (1)
• September 3, 2009 -- Overcoming the odds and achieving success (0)
• June 30, 2008 -- Movie madness and the job hunt files (1)
• July 13, 2009 -- Who’s bad? :) (0)
• June 23, 2008 -- Listless at home (1)

At least, I know what to do and what NOT to do this time around. For instance, I was a little shy to begin with so I was hesitant when the stadium wasn’t too crowded. That was a mistake I won’t be repeating because it becomes even harder once the stadium fills up with people! To make matters trickier for me, I was assigned to a section that had fans of the opposing team. lol. Talk about feeling like I was in the lion’s den or in enemy territory. Thankfully, I batted my baby brown eyes and sweetly asked for permission which, for the most part, was granted. Here are some videos I shot using my Nokia E71x phone about my experience! Cheers!

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Related Posts:

• November 10, 2007 -- Weird marital issues (2)

In other news, I’ve been a little blah on the photography front. However, this week, I applied for a gig as a fan photographer. I was invited to a group interview and I regret that I didn’t toot my horn more. However, I sent the lady in charge a follow-up email which she receives favourably (I hope). Basically, on game day, I’ll get to take pictures of Georgia fans and give them instructions on how to access those pictures in print for a fee. I hope I get picked because that’s right up my alley! I mean, if I were attending any of the games, I’d still take pictures. At least, if I take pictures for an organization, this way I get to be ‘legit’ and not have my subjects look at me cross-eyed whenever I say I’m a ‘freelance’ photographer. lol. In yet other news, I might be assisting a photographer friend of mine in shooting a wedding amongst other things!! Yes, you heard right. A. Wedding. I am floored that he is taking a chance on me and I hope I bring my A game to that wedding. I’m so excited about the possibilities and just grateful to God for opening my heart & eyes to different options and paths that I could take. As always, man proposes, but God disposes.

In yet yet other news (lol), Matt’s getting a root canal done! His tooth got infected and it finally started hurting. After much nagging prodding from yours truly, he went to the dentist to hear the bad news he already suspected. It’s an allegedly painful procedure that he’s scheduled for next week and he’ll pretty much be ingesting liquids for a time after he’s had the procedure. On my first EVER visit to the dentist, I got some tartar removed and got told that I had ‘nice teeth’. That was nice. So, wish him luck! He’s got his plate full between being at school full time, working over the weekends and car trouble, he is reaching his capacity for busy-ness. lol. Thankfully, he’s hanging tight and using the tricks he learned from his programming course in the summer. I’m so proud of my man!

That’s all for now. Stay blessed! I hope to write more stuff in this personal journal. In the meantime, stay safe and stay informed over at my technology blog, Jane Talks Tech! Cheers

Related Posts:

• July 2, 2010 -- A “review” of Always Infinity sanitary pads (0)
• January 30, 2010 -- 2010 and more (0)
• December 12, 2008 -- Wow. The end. (0)
• October 2, 2008 -- An Update on my HP dv9700t. (1)
• July 13, 2008 -- It’s Twitter time! (0)
• June 19, 2008 -- Software rant (1)

In retirement account news, I’ve have nothing to say other than constantly checking my portfolio is a bad thing. Thankfully, retirement is a long way off so I’m not too bothered. Matt’s accounts have also taken a hit, but not as bad as mine (his rate of return is in the negative single digits while mine are in the negative double digits. Ouch!). Our emergency fund is slowly, but steadily creeping upwards. As you know, a good emergency fund should be good for, at least, 3 months of all living expenses. We’re making some progress, but car troubles have put a dent in the growth. It’s somewhat depressing to keep troubleshooting problems that never seem to be solved. We recently purchased a used car from a friend of ours. We knew the car had had some serious trouble i.e. the owner even got the transmission replaced at one point, but because it was a solid car (Chevrolet Impala 2000), we went ahead and paid the asking price of $1,200. To date (and to my knowledge), we have put over $500 into that car and that amount looks to be growing. I know nothing about cars so I’ll defer to Matt’s knowledge & trust when he says it is a solid investment. It should be obvious that I hate spending money on anything except electronics. LOL.

That’s it for now. Have a great week!

Related Posts:

• March 12, 2009 -- When the going gets tough, the tough gets going… :) (0)
• December 19, 2008 -- Heating bills and financial lessons (0)
• July 28, 2008 -- I’ve got a special job :) (0)
• January 27, 2008 -- Life’s lessons (1)
• January 20, 2008 -- Savings, Retirement and Wordpress woes (0)
• September 28, 2008 -- Financial recap and other musings (1)

I talked (till I was blue in the face) about financial independence and the importance of having savings. Well, good progress was being made on that up until we made several big *and* needed purchases. Thankfully, no significant debt was incurred, but it goes to show you that Rome was not built in a day. We purchased a new mountain bike for Matt (a Cannondale bike) and paid for that baby with cash. Granted this purchase happened around tax refund time so we didn’t really save for it. Then, I purchased a new laptop for me (which I didn’t pay cash for). Rather, I signed up for a charge card at HP which gave me 3 months to pay off the laptop without incurring interest. As it turns out, getting that HP credit card (backed by HSBC) was one of the smarter moves I’ve made because I have since made more strategic purchases via HP’s website and having their credit card gives me that 3-month windows to pay off whatever I’ve bought. The third large purchase we made was a car!! *gasp* Well, I’m not really in the loop on how that is going. All I know from Matt is that cash has exchanged hands. We got a Chevrolet Impala 2000 from Matt’s friend, John who had been having trouble with this same car. Matt has known John for decades so we’re confident that nothing is terminally wrong with his car that he just sold to us. By the way, we got this car for a steal i.e. he could have sold it to someone else for considerably more than what we paid for it. Some of the problems he’s had with the Impala are jerking and he even had the transmission replaced at one point. In any case, we actually paid half for the car and we had Matt’s dad put up the rest for us. I was against the idea of draining our savings even more and I figured that having his dad loan us half of the car’s cost, we could repay in back in record time. Again, part of not being constantly broke is knowing how to divvy up your money. Obviously, the best way to not be broke is to make more money. However, we’re living in the real world and learning how to manage the money you do have is a life essential skill. So, by not paying the entire amount up front, we were able to spread the impact over a couple of weeks. To summarize this paragraph, we are back on track and kicking our saving habit into overdrive. My hope is to save (save meaning simply tranferring cash into my ING Savings account) at least 30% of my monthly income. The only downside to 2008 was not making much progress on the SunTrust credit card. Right, we have a pretty low debt-to-credit ratio and I can see the usefulness of having this kind of cash available i.e. plane tickets if you don’t want to empty out your coffers. However, I don’t want to rely on a credit card. Hence, I’ve been driving it into my head that if I want something, I’ve got to save for it. The credit card line of credit may be cut anytime soon due to the skittish lending industry so I’m preparing myself to think of the credit card as a last resort with purchases.

In retirement savings news, last year, I lost my job and got a new one within 2 weeks of losing my old job. It was a welcome change and with that switch to a new job, I had the opportunity to switch retirement providers. If you recall, I’d kvetched about the previous retirement company and I had wished for the option to change. With the original retirement account providers, I didn’t get vested (i.e. I couldn’t keep the company’s matches) until I’d worked for 10 years. Clearly, after losing the matches for the 9 months I’d worked at my old job, I got my chance and switched to the other retirement solution (Fidelity Investments) where I was immediately vested. I still have my original contributions from the old retirement account and it’s because of the painful process of transferring said funds that I’ve been procrastinating about getting those retirement funds into either a Rollover IRA or my current 401(a) retirement account. Choices!!!

Given the market volatility and need on my part, I’m considering getting a minor or BA in computer science at the local school. I can see myself getting better at my job and my setup is actually perfect for going to school *and* working. Right now, I have just corresponding via email with the go-to person and hopefully, we will meet in person to discuss the feasibility of such a thing. I’m interested in computers and I would like to scratch this itch before I’m called to meet my Maker. Life’s too short to not experiment. It’s incredibly liberating and I look forward to seeing where this will take me.

In yet other news, I launched another website (Jane Talks Tech!) which will contain all my rants about technology and software. It’s been a slow start, but I’ve already seen some positive results from the website. One of the cases that will stick with me is when I wrote a little stinker about the shoddy customer service I received from a software company. They read my blog (my statistics do not lie!) and then, were able to get in touch with me via my contact form (actually, they called me using my Grand Central number which was posted on my contact form). So, I encourage all of you (my readers i.e. my family) to start your own blogs.

Related Posts:

• May 4, 2010 -- More shenanigans. :P (0)
• July 20, 2009 -- Getting to back to basics (1)
• March 12, 2009 -- When the going gets tough, the tough gets going… :) (0)
• February 14, 2009 -- Dreamhost and hosting issues (1)
• February 8, 2009 -- Oh la la (0)
• December 19, 2008 -- Heating bills and financial lessons (0)

First of all, I just want to congratulate Matt on getting an A one of his first courses towards getting a certificate in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). He put so much time & effort into it and it paid off handsomely. Cheers, babe!

Second, I’m contemplating the idea of pursuing a minor in Computer Science. Hear me out folks! lol. I think know life is too short and I’m all about focusing on what makes me feel fulfilled & happy. At this stage in my life, I think a change of pace/scene will do me some good and perhaps light the fire under me once again. The exact details of what I hope to study are sort of, unclear, but in time, once I figure out payments et. al, I’ll keep y’all updated. Basically, it’s been well documented that I have an interest in computers and I’d like to explore that part of me. Who knows where it’ll take me? In any case, keep me in your prayers!

Third, I finally got some video of my darling niece (Maxine). She’s just too cute for words and I cannot wait to hold her in my arms. ‘Well, that’s all for now. It’s getting late here. Cheers! Lest I forget, that’s a map of Lagos, Nigeria. For any newcomers, that’s my city, right there.

Jane

Related Posts:

• July 2, 2010 -- A “review” of Always Infinity sanitary pads (0)
• July 20, 2009 -- Getting to back to basics (1)
• November 2, 2008 -- Feeling pretty cool (1)
• July 22, 2008 -- Evidence (0)
• June 13, 2008 -- Oh mercy mercy me! (0)
• December 27, 2007 -- A lengthy (or not) recap of events. :) (3)

“[...] You understand and agree that State and Federal Universal Service fees and other governmentally imposed fees, whether or not assessed directly upon you, may be increased based upon the government’s or our calculations. If we increase the price of any of the services to which you subscribe, beyond the limits set forth in your rate plan brochure, or if we materially decrease the geographical area in which your airtime rate applies (other than a temporary decrease for repairs or maintenance), we will disclose the change at least one billing cycle in advance (either through a notice with your bill, a text message to your device, or otherwise), and you may terminate this agreement without paying an early termination fee or returning or paying for any promotional items, provided your notice of termination is delivered to us within thirty (30) days after the first bill reflecting the change. [...].”

It’s a bit confusing, but from what I understand from the entire contract, the following conditions have to be met in order to cancel your contract without paying an early termination fee or ETF:

1. If you signed up today, you have a 30-day grace period in which to cancel your service. Obviously, the majority of people are past that 30-day window.
2. If there is a price change in services you subscribe to. However, they put a caveat there which is “beyond the limits set forth in your rate plan“. Now, I have the lowest rate plan ($39.99 a month) and I have no idea what the limits to which they can raise the prices to. I intend on calling a customer service representative to get this cleared. Anyway, I currently use the pay-per-use text messaging service and have the internet/MMS on my phone turned off. My current text messaging fees are 20 cents for each incoming and outgoing text message. The way I’m reading this contract, my plan says the fee per text message (incoming and outgoing) is $0.20. If they raise that fee, I have legal standing to demand to be released from my contract. The other caveat to demanding your release is that you have a limited window of opportunity in which you can do this.
3. According to the contract, you have 30 days from the first bill that reflects this price increase so you have to diligently check your bill in order not to miss this window. From reading tips online about how to cancel your cell phone service, the key things to remember are: staying calm, having the relevant sections highlighted, having your paperwork i.e. bills in front of you and remembering to escalate your call if the CSR is being a twerp.
4. Nevertheless, there are extenuating circumstances that the determined individual could press in order to get released e.g. moving (if you can prove that your coverage will suffer) and see this CNN blog about other viable excuses e.g. active military duty and such.
5. Another confusing part about this whole business is the part about “returning or paying for any promotional items“. Does this mean I would have to return my Treo which I got at a discount because I signed up for the 2-year plan? I suspect so. Nevertheless, if you get to that point in your negotiations, my advice to you would be to simply save your contacts to your computer if you have a cool phone like mine (lol) and agree to return your discounted phone. Since you will be potentially signing up with a different phone company, you will be getting a discount on your new phone so don’t be too worried. If you have installed a lot of paid applications on your phone like I have, make sure you have your installation files saved somewhere. If you are lucky, you will get your exact same phone with your new carrier. If not, your files will be useless.
6. Finally, part of this depends on the customer service representative’s disposition. You see, some people have had their cancellations take place in less than 10 minutes. Some like Ely Rosenstock had it extended over days. Some get stymied and some end up getting discounts or refunds in order to stay with the plan which is not a bad idea anyway. What am I saying? Be nice and hope the CSR is nice too. lol. I mean, I can definitely testify to the power of being nice to reps. If you have less than 6 months left or if you could live with their service for awhile, stick with them and when your time is up, your service agreement will “automatically renew on a month-to-month basis” until you leave or AT&T kicks you out.

Speaking of being nice to customer service representatives, I learned the hard way how not to be behave. I screwed up on an order and I called the hotline. My first mistake was being a bit combative and trying to “bully” the representative into giving me a discount by concocting a story about how it was the company’s fault. Well, she clearly pointed out to me that the fault was mine and she remained steadfast in her refusal to grant me any discount. Well, I ended the call and had a cooling-down session with myself. I slept on the issue and the next day, early in the morning, I called the hotline again. I got a different CSR and I was genuinely apologetic about my mistake. We talked about options and I suggested the option which was most pleasing to me and she agreed with me. She agreed to give me the discount and I was amazed at the difference in response. For the record, this happened with my laptop order. I forgot to add the TV tuner option and now I will be getting it at a discount. I will have to return the laptop back to them so they can put it in, but I won’t be paying the full price for it. So it does pay to be a nice person. I get ashamed of myself sometimes because I read articles on the web that talk about how the customer is always right. Well, some customers are idiots/bullies/inane/smart and I happened to fall into one of those categories (hint: not smart) when I first called the hotline. So, with that expose on cell phone contracts and calling representatives, I’ll be signing out!

Related Posts:

• October 13, 2008 -- What’s up? :) (0)
• August 12, 2008 -- Windows Vista Ultimate on my dv9700t = Sweetness. :P (7)
• August 3, 2008 -- Giving things a fair shake (0)
• November 19, 2007 -- I see turkey… (1)

Today’s been a bit slow, but I’ve got an entire day of cleaning up planned. I’ll be rearranging the freezer where we keep our animal parts so that will be fun. Which reminds me: I need to contact our maintenance point man so he will be able to assist me in this task. M’s having his final exams today so please put him in your prayers! I knew he had an incredible work ethic, but I was really impressed just watching him study and work his way through problems. I’m so proud of my husband and I’m sure he’s tired of me saying that. lol. Which brings me to another issue which blew my mind yesterday. Ever heard of Nuwaubianism? Well, Matt had actually told me about this group, but I didn’t take it seriously. In fact, part of me thought he was making it up! Well, I encountered a Nuwaubian yesterday. Just google “Nuwaubian” and you will understand my shock. The Southern Poverty Law Center has classified the Nuwaubians as a black supremacist hate group. Yes, I definitely believe that is in line with their beliefs. My conversation with the Nuwaubian started out nicely, but when I told him about my white husband, his first statement to me was that he wished he could perform a divorce for us (E no go betta for am). My jaw dropped to the floor. He then proceeded to tell me about the supposed “recessive” gene that Caucasians who originated from Caucasus mountains have and that we (blacks) were not supposed to mix our superior genes with whites’. He gave me a mixture of things that would have impressed a non-critical thinker/scientist and I didn’t say much to refute his ill-informed assertions. In this case, I merely bobbed my head as I was running late to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I’m too tired to even expound on this topic. Just do the googling and you’ll see for yourself. It was a bit sad.

Speaking of Narnia, I honestly was a little underwhelmed. To tell you how underwhelmed, I would have willingly sat down to watch the first version of Narnia. Narnia: Prince Caspian was a little too obvious in telling the audience that it was about Christianity. Here’s what I got from the movie: there is only one right way i.e. the way of Christ. That I agree with, but I just wish they had packaged it (for lack of a better word) nicely (or better than they did in the movie). It was so obvious that they were trying to send that moral lesson that Christ was the right way. For instance, they couldn’t defeat the enemy by their might. Neither could they defeat the enemy by enlisting Satan a.k.a. the white witch. It was only when they brought Christ (Aslan) into their ‘lives’ that they were able to be victorious. It wasn’t all that bad. It’s just that as a wannabe Christian, I know the “drill” and I just hated to see it repeated verbatim. There weren’t any new or eye-popping figures. I guess I should say they simply re-used the old animals which is fine, but I wanted something more I could gasp or coo over. lol. Call me silly.

Related Posts:

• June 15, 2008 -- Preparations, preparations (0)
• January 5, 2008 -- A brief update (1)

1. Racking up the mileage on a car we are trying to preserve (it’s at 158,000 miles right now). I’m talking a little under 1,300 miles total.
2. Prohibitive gas prices may take the ‘cheapness’ out of this option. Right now, I think M gets over 22 miles per gallon. This means we will run through around 59 gallons of gas. At $5 per gallon (I suspect it might even climb higher depending on how soon we make the trip happen), the cost of fueling up the car will be the price of one person’s round-trip flight to my aunt’s state of domicile. So, our fuel budget for the entire trip will be ~ $300.
3. The car might not like being stressed out so much (wear and tear). It’s got some issues, but M’s been working to straighten out the kinks. These adjustments would have happened with or without the road trip.

Nevertheless, the benefits of taking our personal ride include:

1. Freedom to move around. We can rest as we please or even quit the journey without fear of losing our money.
2. We will be able to explore the areas along the trip. Ideally, this will happen on our way back when we can be more relaxed.
3. Our car now has a bike rack which M procured from a friend of his (Addictive Cycles). It’s a used Thule bike rack to be mounted on the roof of the car and it came with the trays to hold the bikes for a very good sum of $200. We totally got a great deal on it. I mean, if we had purchased it new, we would be talking about dropping over $500 for all the parts we got with the roof rack. Check the website out! The point of this: we sure as hell are carrying our mountain bikes for some kick ass biking while we are away from home!

As you can see, the pros outweigh the cons and as my people say, the majority carries the vote! Well, not so fast. How about renting a car? Well, for starters, no roof rack on rental cars. That’s a biggie. Additionally, check out the prices for the privilege of renting their cars:

So, the only ‘advantage’ to taking a rental car is that it will save our car from the wear and tear. However, I’ve heard horror stories about people getting charged for dents and things they are pretty sure didn’t happen on their watch. I don’t want to deal with the hassle of making sure I document every ding and stain on the car before taking it out. The point: we are willing to take the risk on our old car.

Enough about the road trip. M’s dad also got me a bike pedometer to track my speeds and mileage on the bicycle. It’s rather nifty and it’ll be good to help me accurately tell how much exercise I’m getting. For instance, my altered route yesterday was over 9 miles. I got my heart rate up a couple of times, but I was already tuckered out from some earlier expense of energy. M & I missed out on the group ride I had previously talked about and I felt pretty lousy about it. Still, M cheered me up and we made lemonade out of lemons. And it didn’t turn sour on us. We ended up at a bike shop (The Hub Bicycles) and got me a nice Camelbak Rogue pack (for storing water and liquids on long rides). Surprisingly, the store price of ~ $50 is actually the average price I’ve seeing online and that’s a refreshing change. M ended up getting a pair of bike shorts because he finally got tired of his threadbare shorts. Alrighty, that’s enough fodder for one day. Have a great Sunday all!

Related Posts:

• April 29, 2009 -- Dreaming of my vay-cay-tion. :) (1)
• July 18, 2008 -- Deals and more deals (0)
• July 17, 2008 -- Highly honored (1)
• July 7, 2008 -- The little things in life (2)
• July 5, 2008 -- An exhilarating ride and Independence Day (0)
• July 3, 2008 -- A ray of hope and more (0)

In tech news, I updated my WordPress version to 2.6 and I’m loving my Plugins management section. I mean, not having to manually activate my plugins? Genius! Upgrading was easy except for the part where my “Add Media” section of my TinyMCE editor disappeared! I mean, everything else seemed to work fine and the only thing I did different from all my other upgrades was use the gzipped version on the WordPress download site. Some plugins like Podpress and WP Polls caused my “Write Page” or “Write Post” screen to go nuts and these problems didn’t get resolved until I backed up my MySQL database and re-uploaded all the WordPress 2.6 files again. So, I’ve got all my plugins up and running & my “Add Media” screen is back. I’m also particularly excited that WordPress will support Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) because I’ve recently gotten the privacy-paranoia bee in my bonnet. Using an SSL means you cannot get snooped on by bad people. I’ve currently got The Onion Router (TOR) up and running on my PC and I use it for sensitve issues. WordPress is definitely the easiest content management system I have used and I have not had any major issues with it.

Little B is doing really well and he is going to be one tall young man. He’s got an excellent gene pool so no worries. Mrs. JW and her hubby are also doing a fantastic job of teaming up and being the best parents they can be to the little smacker. That’s my pet name for B because he smacks when he eats. I just got done riding for about 15 miles and I had M take a short video of me. I’ll upload the video and update this post. He also prepared an absolutely delicious meal of spaghetti with sauteed salmon. Can you say yummy-licious? He is quite the cook, I tell you what!

Update: I’ve finally uploaded the video (thanks Google Video!) and here it is in all its glory:

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Related Posts:

• April 29, 2009 -- Dreaming of my vay-cay-tion. :) (1)
• July 20, 2008 -- Blogorrhea. :) (2)
• July 18, 2008 -- Deals and more deals (0)
• July 7, 2008 -- The little things in life (2)
• July 5, 2008 -- An exhilarating ride and Independence Day (0)
• July 3, 2008 -- A ray of hope and more (0)

A belated happy independence day to Americans far and wide. This year’s celebration was memorable in that there was B who experienced his first 4th of July celebration after being born last week. I do wish I got a bit closer to see the fireworks. J whipped out his grilling tools and cooked up a delicious storm. I stuffed myself and I’m aching from it this morning. J’s edema during her pregnancy was apparently a whole lot because in a space of 1 week, it’s fair to say she’s dropped over 60% of her pregnancy weight which was due to water! She looks pretty darn good for a new mom. I took some pictures of the little tyke which didn’t turn out too well, sadly. However, J has invested in a Canon camera which takes fantastic pictures. My trusty old Fujifilm’s not doing too shabbily anyway. As proof, here’s a picture I took yesterday using the macro setting on the camera:

I also have to commend the WordPress authors for the ease with which I was able to insert these photos. I think it’s fair to say this version of WordPress is the best I’ve used so far.
As far as my movie watching madness, I’ve chugged through: (i) Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer: I’m glad I didn’t pay $8 to see this in the theatre. As I’m renting more movies and discovering how awful some movies are, my tolerance level for movie fluff/fillers is dropping drastically. Remember how I had to fast forward through the painful love scenes in Mr & Mrs. Smith? Well, I found myself leaving the couch and going about my business while watching Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer and only coming back when it sounded like they were on the move.
(ii) Bourne Ultimatum: I loved this movie. I’m a big Robert Ludlum fan (God rest his soul) so I definitely went into this biased. I’m glad to say this movie didn’t disappoint. If you rent this movie, make sure you check out the bonus features and watch the footage of his choreographed fight scene with Desh (an assassin in the movie).

I’ll leave you with another gratuitous flower shot:

Related Posts:

• May 17, 2009 -- Having a blast (0)
• April 29, 2009 -- Dreaming of my vay-cay-tion. :) (1)
• November 7, 2008 -- Being bold and beautiful (0)
• October 30, 2008 -- Simply addicted (0)
• July 20, 2008 -- Blogorrhea. :) (2)
• July 18, 2008 -- Deals and more deals (0)

In other news, I’ve been hitting the trail pretty frequently for at least 45 minute rides. It’s fun and I am so glad I learned to ride. I am excited about learning to swim which will be painful, but worth it in the end. I have so much potential to do things with my life that are not just work & school. I am totally buying into the living a life that is personally fulfilling. I’ve got a rocking man by my side, the big Man upstairs and my family around me. I’m doing alright. My quadriceps are firmer than I’ve ever seen them. It’s unreal. I need to take pictures of myself on the bike or get M to make a short video. Of course, I’ll be sure to take a spill because knowing me, I’ll do something silly for the camera and crash. My handling skills are getting better although tight turns are still my bete noir. It’ll only be a matter of time before I take another head-over-heel tumble while trying to navigate one of those darned turns.

In other other news, I’ve fallen in love all over again with USA Network. Back when I had my “TV favorites” web pages, I wrote about loving the show, “Monk“. I still do and now, I can add “In Plain Sight” to the show. For starters, I love the leading lady. Why? Because she is a full-bodied woman and not a bean pole like Angelia Jolie. She has actual breasts, a butt and resembles an everyday woman. I cannot get enough of her and the show which cracks me up. Hey, I’ll be out of a job so I can only do the next best thing: watch TV. And of course, look for jobs.

Related Posts:

• July 3, 2008 -- A ray of hope and more (0)
• April 29, 2009 -- Dreaming of my vay-cay-tion. :) (1)
• July 20, 2008 -- Blogorrhea. :) (2)
• July 18, 2008 -- Deals and more deals (0)
• July 17, 2008 -- Highly honored (1)
• July 7, 2008 -- The little things in life (2)

I’m currently having a lazy day at home, doing what I’ve been doing for the past week or so: getting myself mentally ready for my next adventure. At times, I feel like pinching myself to make sure that I’m not dreaming. I’m talking about my husband. I swear that he has the biggest heart ever. My parents have commented that I’m taking this well and it’s largely thanks to M because he pulled my head out of the well of depression by telling me the facts i.e. losing a job is not the end of the world and that we would survive in the event I didn’t end up with anything for a few more months. After getting picked for an interview with the big fish, he was my biggest supporter and even experienced my anxiety. We’ve got that connection where we feed off our emotions. If I’m feeling down, M actually starts feeling physically ill and calls me to see if I’m okay. This has happened too many times to be accidental. Honest.

Anyhoo, because of the impending or possible loss of my steady paycheck for ~ a month (by God’s grace, I’ll have a smooth transition), I’ve gone into savings and debt reduction overdrive. Right now, I’m having M pay the rent money while my biweekly paycheck goes towards our joint ING Direct account (instead of having his separate ING Direct account, I decided to just add him on so what’s mine is his and vice versa), the SunTrust balance, my cell phone bill and our utility bills (internet and power). I think opening that savings account was the smartest account. If I keep up my savings pace, I will be on track to save close to $5,000 for our emergency fund. Again for a brief recap, the emergency fund is intended for emergencies and I hope we won’t have to tap into it just yet. Once the emergency fund is funded to whatever limits we have decided, then any specific needs or trips will need to be saved for, starting from scratch. In light of the increasing gas prices and general sticker shock, I’m mulling the idea of keeping a spreadsheet of my Walmart purchases and their prices at the time of purchase. After a predetermined amount of time, I’ll calculate the percentage by which the original price increased by. It should be interesting information to have.

Health-wise, my heartburn/acid reflux has flared up again so I’ve resumed taking my medication for it. It seems to do a good job as I’m already experiencing relief from it. It’s prescription only so it’s pretty powerful. That’s all for now.

Related Posts:

• March 31, 2009 -- My birthday! :) (0)
• August 18, 2008 -- Settling in (0)
• May 31, 2008 -- My baking experiment (0)
• May 9, 2008 -- A little something something (0)
• January 20, 2008 -- Savings, Retirement and Wordpress woes (0)
• January 8, 2008 -- What’s cooking? (1)

I was too lazy to ride yesterday and when I mustered up enough strength, it started to shower. That effectively sealed the deal. I put my time at home to good use though. I watched Rambo IV and man, it made me long to watch the previous 3 movies back to back! It was short and to the point. Most importantly, they spared us the standard and gratuitous shot of the leading man’s rippling pectorals. I could definitely do without the overdeveloped view. Anyhoo, I loved the point the movie kept making about people who visit war-torn places to provide relief. I believe keeping the oppressed people healthy and well-fed is obviously a priority. Also a priority is defending themselves, but you can’t do that if you are ill. So, majority of them are needed and they do this out of the goodness of their hearts. However, a few of these providers wear rose-tinted glasses i.e. the head of the relief party in Rambo IV’s case. He was unbelievably naive and actually wanted to turn Rambo in for killing a pirate who would have done them all in! This is not the first movie I’ve seen where there’s a bleeding heart in there who chooses a really bad time to whip out his moral stick (Deliverance). When I got done watching Rambo IV, I popped in “Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead“. Now, I absolutely loved the plot twists in this movie and I think even M will like this movie. First of all, this movie has Phillip Seymour Hoffman who I am enthralled with since watching his performance in “Charlie Wilson’s war“. It’s got Ethan Hawke who was in “Training Day” and he pretty much plays a role where he’s someone without control of the situation. I’ll start from the top. (Spoiler alert, I pretty much talk about the entire movie. If you want to skip this  and read a real review, check this succinct and well put-together analysis of the movie.

Phillip (a real estate accountant) and Ethan (a deadbeat dad) are brothers and sons of Mom and Dad (owners of a jewelry store). Ethan’s constantly broke and Phillip is apparently into drugs, pricey vacations and cooking the books at the company he works for. His department (payroll) is first in line for an IRS audit and I suspect that puts the screws on him to come up with cash fast to replenish whatever coffers he had drained. So he figures on committing a “victimless” and perfect crime: steal insured jewelry from his parents’ jewelry store. He draws his brother in and since it’s a family operation, they know the inside-and-out of the place. And we all know what happens to the best laid plans, don’t we? I should know. LOL. Long story short, fumb duck (yes, that was deliberate. lol) Ethan actually draws another person into this drama because he can’t do it by himself. I think Phillip made a major miscalculation by bringing such a weak person in on the crime. So Ethan brings this other hoodlum who is the real deal with a real gun. Phillip is confident that it will go without a hitch because he thinks neither his mom or dad actually man the store. He’s wrong and this is where I have a bone to pick with the writers: It should have been simple to snoop or ask their parents what their plans were to find out if they would be there or not, but it seems neither of them (mom or dad) had worked in the store for a long while after hiring an employee.

Anyway, the plan is set in motion and Ethan’s 3rd wheel is the one to actually bust into the store. He encounters a female there (mom). He’s doing his intimidation bit and is grabbing nearly everything in sight. He’s hellbent on cracking presumably bullet-proof casing that some jewels were encased in when he gets plastered by one bullet. He lets loose on on the old lady in the process of falling and tries to crawl outside. Before he gets to freedom, she blows him away with his own gun. Ethan peels madly off in the rental car and lets Phillip know that Murphy’s law struck. Only, he’s not as sanguine about it as Phillip is. Ethan looses his shit and I lost all respect for him.

In the end, this movie became about the domino effect and how people respond to pressure, in my humble opinion. I was able to see how characters (Phillip, Ethan, dad, etc) changed into people who did things they didn’t know or realize they were capable of. The mom lies in critical condition and Phillip pressures his dad to pull the plug on her (I didn’t understand why he was insistent on this and I suspect he was under the impression that his brother had done the deed himself and would be identified by the mother). The dad becomes obsessed with finding out the other accomplice which was not a very believable plot twist in regard to how he was easily able to uncover that his son (Phillip) was involved. Things get rapidly worse for Phillip as his wife reveals a shocking secret (she’s been sleeping with Ethan, his brother) and Ethan starts getting blackmailed. As with a lot of movies, there has to be a resolution. Phillip gets shot by the blackmailer’s sister who happens to be the wife of the 3rd wheel in the botched jewel heist. Now the tables are turned and Phillip is in critical care at the hospital. The father ends Phillips life, Ethan is nowhere to be found and the movie ends. It was rather anticlimactic and I wish I could have known what happened to Ethan or how the father lived with himself afterward. As you can see, the movie was full of dramatic plot twists and turns. If you are still in the mood for this movie after I’ve just spilled all the beans on it, please go watch it!

Related Posts:

• July 3, 2008 -- A ray of hope and more (0)
• April 29, 2009 -- Dreaming of my vay-cay-tion. :) (1)
• July 29, 2008 -- Some site changes and racism (0)
• July 20, 2008 -- Blogorrhea. :) (2)
• July 18, 2008 -- Deals and more deals (0)
• July 17, 2008 -- Highly honored (1)

In other news, I really wish dog owners in my neck of the woods would be more considerate. Is it too much to carry a bag to keep your dog’s doodoo in? Hell, how about politely kicking the turd out of the path of unsuspecting pedestrians? I’ve nearly hurt myself seriously while trying to avoid a huge steaming pile of dog crap on the bike trail. I feel like spearheading a drive to give people free dog turd bags, you know? If it’ll get them to realize that it’s not fair to other walkers/bikers to have to accidentally step in shit while enjoying their time outside. Sheesh.

Nap time calls. G’night.

Random Posts

• October 18, 2008 -- John Grisham is full of surprises (0)
• February 14, 2008 -- When it rains… (0)
• October 29, 2007 -- Ripped off at Chick Fil-A!! (1)
• August 5, 2008 -- Accessories for my Preciousssss, err laptop and more about ETFs. :) (2)
• February 10, 2008 -- Tax time, people! (1)
• September 6, 2008 -- Sshhhhh! Surf using SSH Tunnels. :) (2)

Chei, dis old man get sense sef. Hin wuru wuru pass me. Hin no say if hin do the way hin dey do am before, he no go make money for our back. Na fine eye I go take look our final bill wen he go bring am because I no go gree oh. Una no say since we tell am say we dey carry go, he no dey turn heater on like say hin get millionaire renters. Menn, human beings sef. We sabi to dey take advantage of our fellow man oh. Na im be the only explanation I fit get from this whole experience. Agin, make we dey clear for one ting: Hin do well to take me plus M for him place. Hin no do well to dey fire heater like say tomorrow no dey. Everytime we hala for am say make hin turn am down, him reasoning be say na four people so we go fit bear the financial burden. Now say the cash cows don dey carry go, him brain come correct. Con dey talk story about how bills are getting lower my yansh. lol. I just pity am sometimes because na penny wise pound foolish be hin name. God go bless am, but sometimes hin too do.

update: E be like say I don talk pass mysef. Turns out the utilities aren’t staggered thus he was probably doing us a favor. Humble pie anyone?

Related Posts:

• March 8, 2008 -- A teeny tiny update and I start speaking pidgin English (1)
• January 30, 2008 -- Painfully slow (0)
• November 10, 2007 -- Weird marital issues (2)

In other news, thanks to our refund, we’ve been able to accomplish several things. Firstly, we took care of some pressing business. Next, M fixed up his car and his trunk now actually is secure! lol. He got his other car out of hibernation and with a new battery and a replaced fuse, it works like a charm!! He says he gets better mileage on this other car so sometime soon, we should be riding around in this other car and give "Old Faithful" a rest. Also, we gave our SunTrust credit card debt a hefty dose of relief. to the tune of almost $600. Let me take that back. We actually put $300 towards the credit card, but then when I logged into the website to see my balance, it was thisclose to a certain figure that I decided to go ahead and pay a certain figure to see it reach a certain balance. More for symbolic reasons. So that made it almost $600 put towards the credit card in just this month of February. I’ll be done paying for that sucker before summer rolls around and boy! will it feel good to not dedicate money towards credit card bills!

I am still socking money away in my ING savings account. I am still trying to convince M that saving is a good idea. Just  kidding. He obviously knows that already. He just really doesn’t like dealing with online banking. Additionally, I’m frustrated with ING’s slowness in taking funds from my checking account! I mean, how long does it really take? With my SunTrust credit card payments, I’ve been learning to fine-tune how I time my payments so that it gets withdrawn or posted to my account right away i.e. in a day or two. Thus far, I think if I make payments before the end of the month, it gets posted asap. Anyhoo, no sweat. I’m learning the fine art of juggling my payments and knowing when to hold off on any spending so that all pending charges are through and then, resuming the madness. J/k. I meant being the responsible saver that I am.  

Finally, I’ve got a fun weekend planned. Take a guess, people. Actually, don’t. I’ll be working. I don’t mind. It’s for a good cause. I got some bad news about a protein I’m working on which I "purified" and that we sent in for sequencing. For the lab’s sake and my sake/sanity, I hope to high heavens that the ball wasn’t dropped in my court. I am quite positive that I did things right, but like one of the bosses always says, it’s the simple things. My fingers and toes are crossed.

Related Posts:

• June 19, 2008 -- A Good Feeling (1)
• September 28, 2008 -- Financial recap and other musings (1)
• July 20, 2008 -- A financial update and some (1)
• March 31, 2009 -- My birthday! :) (0)
• December 19, 2008 -- Heating bills and financial lessons (0)
• August 7, 2008 -- Credit cards applications are teh suck. :( (0)

Oh and by the way, my love-hate affair with Bank of America is over. Fini. Kaput. Yessir, I called them today to get a rate reduction. I haven’t used the card since I got it and I just said "to hell with it" when the nice customer service representative told me I wasn’t eligible. So, I went ahead and closed out the account. I figure since I’ve increased my credit limit and getting closer to using under 50% of my limit, I’ll still be sitting pretty. So as soon as he let me know I wasn’t eligible, I went ahead and closed that sucker and chopped up my card in front of my lab mates. Hurrah!!

Related Posts:

• November 29, 2007 -- In other news….:) (1)
• November 19, 2007 -- I see turkey… (1)
• August 7, 2008 -- Credit cards applications are teh suck. :( (0)
• July 20, 2008 -- A financial update and some (1)
• June 19, 2008 -- A Good Feeling (1)
• February 29, 2008 -- Just some thoughts (0)

In other news, I was originally scheduled to do something this Saturday, but I was needed to come in to work. Being me, I acted like my schedule was wide open and I’m sure that my boss would not have minded that I may not have been able to come in, but I still feel that I have to "prove" myself for lack of a better word. I had a good conversation with my boss (man) and I came away feeling good. My previous post was about several things and he definitely addressed some of my issues although I haven’t complained or said anything. In fact, if anything, I’m usually angry at myself for leaving room to be scolded, etc you get the picture. Anyway, it was a good mini-meeting. He was wanting to know career plans etc but nothing is definite yet. If I need to do any sort of schooling, he’ s down with me for that so I’m happy although I don’t think I’m ready for any schooling. On one hand, I think my brain needs a jolt of activity and the only thing that does that is school. What thinkest thou? I think I need to shut my trap. lol. Anyway, life is chugging along well. I am constantly on the go and I’m going to have to put a stop to it. I can only do so much before I start to make mistakes. I’m hoping to be able to utilize a personal day soon to just chill. I need it.

My sister’s wedding plans are coming along well. Not that I know that much because I’ve been very bad about keeping in touch with my own family for crying out loud. I’d be lost without Donald who keeps me abreast. By the way, that was a huge rodent like Dayo said. He posed with a dead animal in a picture posted on Facebook. lmao. Feeling of nostalgia have been coming back. It’s a good thing and I need to act on those feelings. I also need to make a decision as to what I’m going to do about the matter of Christmas-time. To go? or to go? That is the question. Of course, I don’t want to to "not" go. It’s just — never mind, l’ll think of something, but I need to make a decision. That’s all folks!

Random Posts

• July 14, 2007 -- Family cookout (0)
• September 13, 2009 -- Gameday in Athens, GA (0)
• May 31, 2008 -- My baking experiment (0)
• March 6, 2008 -- Look who’s crabby! (1)
• January 18, 2008 -- Feeling more positive (0)
• October 2, 2008 -- An Update on my HP dv9700t. (1)

Random Posts

• September 21, 2008 -- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2008-09-21 (0)
• August 30, 2007 -- Things fell into place (1)
• March 31, 2008 -- In Matt’s words… (1)
• November 29, 2007 -- In other news….:) (1)
• August 27, 2007 -- A little rant (0)
• August 6, 2008 -- Medical wonders and unethical behavior (1)

I’m getting antsy about my site again. I love WordPress because it’s simple, but I’m bored. I tried my hand at Drupal, but quickly got tired of needing a damned module for almost everything even though the modules that could be found were super-cool. If there is a way to port (smoothly) from WordPress to Drupal, I’ll do it as a test and if I like it enough, I’ll switch back to drupal.

Related Posts:

• August 9, 2008 -- Newfound respect for mothers and wayward parishioners (0)
• August 12, 2007 -- Getting hits (0)
• August 1, 2007 -- Comparison of Wordpress and Drupal (0)
• December 19, 2008 -- Heating bills and financial lessons (0)
• March 9, 2008 -- New hits (0)
• January 20, 2008 -- Savings, Retirement and Wordpress woes (0)

The bad: certain actions were set in motion. Obviously, I can’t say too much because this is a very public place despite the fact that I call it my personal blog to spew all sorts of crap onto. Nevertheless, I vented to M and he acted as my counselor. There was an overwhelming sense of negativity from a certain person (edit: not M. He read it and told me it sounded like this was about him.) and it was just depressing being in the presence of said person. I understand that I need to clean up my act. Demeaning comments are not really necessary be those comments about me or others. I don’t do well with water cooler talk. Nevertheless, I fell asleep with the word "Patience" on my lips. Now more than ever, I see that it was extremely portentous i.e. my making the word "Patience" my motto and guideline for the year. Now, more than ever, it would be wise to exercise caution and patience in all things that I do. Okay, it wasn’t as melodramatic as it sounds, but I was really upset. I’m excited with the moves we’re making. As far as savings go, a minor setback occurred, but I’m determined to chip in for my sister’s wedding. The traditional wedding is tomorrow and the ‘church’ wedding in sometime in April. I will have to confirm the actual dates. I really hope I can witness the event in, at least, pictures.

In other news, I got serious about setting up my Roth IRA, but the events yesterday prevented me from doing that. However, the person who I was meeting with was super nice about me pulling out of our appointment. That was very reassuring and I intend to make good on, at least, seeing this person. M & I have also received our W-2s (finally, damn!) and we’re pondering whether or not to go the H & R Block route or do the free federal e-file thing which we both qualify for. I’m super leery of putting the wrong things in and ending up owing the IRS money. That’s one of my nightmares. Anyhow, I’ll update y’all on what we decide.

Related Posts:

• December 19, 2008 -- Heating bills and financial lessons (0)
• August 27, 2008 -- Running with the big dogs. (0)
• February 3, 2010 -- Being a sole proprietor in the state of Georgia (0)
• January 30, 2010 -- 2010 and more (0)
• March 31, 2009 -- My birthday! :) (0)
• March 12, 2009 -- When the going gets tough, the tough gets going… :) (0)

Life at Hotel California (inside joke) is going on as well as can be. The heating/cooling games are still going on, but I’ll keep doing what I’m doing: trying to save us all some money by keeping the thermostat well below 65 degrees Fahrenheit. I woke up this morning to a reading of 71 degrees Fahrenheit. I don’t know what PC is trying to do, but I think it’s not too far-fetched to assume that he’s not feeling the pinch because the love is being shared between 3 other people. Grrrh. I don’t like that assumption. Nevertheless, he bumps it up and it’s my unofficial job to bump it back down. We had come to some sort of agreement to keep the temperature at 68, but on days that are just fine, I don’t really see the need to keep it at 68. I’m sure we’ll be having a meeting about this. It’s not a biggie because the past 2 mths, our utility bills have been the lowest in a while for 2 people. Imagine if we weren’t on the internet (of which the phone comes whether or not we want it). Overall, I think our weird system works out.

I finally signed up at the Gym close to my place of work. I’m excited at jump-starting my fitness again. I’ve grown tired of treadmilling so I anticipate that I will do a lot of anaerobic exercise, leg lunges, weight lifting, that sort of thing. It’s funny how I used to do nothing but the treadmill for hours, years past. Now, the stuff I’ve read has convinced me that it’s strength and conditioning exercises that cause you to lose body fat. It is very possible for someone to be skinny, but still "fat" because their body fat percentage is still high! I am thinking to splurging to get some sort of body fat analysis done. Anyhow, on my lunch break, I shall check the place out. I brought my gym clothes (a.k.a. regular clothes that I’ve worn before) and I’m ready to rock and roll!! I can’t wait to sign M up so we can do some exercises together.

Related Posts:

• March 11, 2008 -- A follow-up (1)
• June 28, 2008 -- I’m a auntie (3)
• March 31, 2008 -- In Matt’s words… (1)

In other news, M & I went to a Lutheran church today. It was a small church not far from our residential area and it has its roots in the Catholic church. Now, I haven’t committed or anything. I’m honestly not tied to one church or the other. Like the priest/pastor said today, "she was tired and hurting and just needed a place to be where people cared for her". He was telling a story. That’s all I care for. I’m tired of the denominational bickering and I just want my Christianity simplified. I’m rambling and will sign off at this point.

Related Posts:

• March 31, 2009 -- My birthday! :) (0)
• March 12, 2009 -- When the going gets tough, the tough gets going… :) (0)
• July 30, 2008 -- Money and the DMV (1)
• July 28, 2008 -- I’ve got a special job :) (0)
• December 19, 2008 -- Heating bills and financial lessons (0)
• September 28, 2008 -- Financial recap and other musings (1)