*hugs* :) I had my appointment last week, and though it's a pain - literally- I sympathize. I was seeing a new doctor as well, so was just a teeny bit nervous. Hope the movie night is fun! I wish my mom and I had done something like that.

I miss the journals. I just don't feel the same writing this way. I miss everyone else's journal, as well.

I miss the fact that (this may sound egotistical) I could see how many other people liked my journal, too. It could have just been that I had a lot of entries, but I had a lot of views and comments.

Someone call me when they come back.

I miss your journal too - I'm a fan...

I miss the comments too... Really miss them...

Glad to see ya back on the boards, Rubyee :) Maybe we should all get together and serenade under Halx's window until he can't bear it any more and finds some way to get our journals back :D

To journal or not to journal. That remains the question. Whether it is better to keep my life to myself until the journals come back, or to journal in this collective thread has yet to be determined. Perhaps I should just keep my life to myself and not share it with the world of the internet, but rather reserve it for those immediately around me and those friends who chat with me on aim, irc, etc.
"I'm still crazy after all these years." -Paul Simon

Changing my major
 

In looking over transcripts and paperwork from my university, I have come to the conclusion that I should change my major.

Right now, I am in Interdisiplinary studies. Which basically means that I'm combining two minors to equal one major. So I am working towards a minor in German and a minor in International Business. But over the past year I have become so involved in the German department that I have begun to think, "What if I majored in German?"

So I pulled off transcripts and degree requirements and began comparing staying on the path I'm on now with going to a German major. After thoroughly looking through everything I have come to the conclusion that by increasing my class load by one class per semester, I can go to a German major with a minor in International Business and still graduate on my target date of December 2005.

So now I'm going to be talking with a few people in the German Department and it looks like by the end of the semester I will switch to a German Major.

This thread is only a temporary solution. Or at least I hope it is.

I really hope the journals get put back up before I start devoloping withdrawl symptoms.

Sounds awesome! Hope you get through all the red tape with no problem. :)

I'm in a Great Mood -- What a surprise...
 

I'm not sure if it was the total quiet, the relaxing dinner, the late night swim, but I actually slept well last night, snoozed the alarm three or five times this morning, and made it in to work, and a supremely good mood. I really gotta wonder if I am Senorita Cranky Pants all the time because the boys are having a tough time dealing with me in a good mood, I've gotten a few questioning glances asking if I'm OK... Yah, darlin' I'm on that bipolar upswing right now - it'll be fine.

The sun is shining, the sky is blue, it's 60 something degrees, it's a wonderful day, I'm enjoying it. Aside from the 6 emails that have raised my blood pressure this morning, I'm keeping my good mood, because, well, there's an expression I love... Fake it til you make it... So I can fake a good mood for the rest of the day if I need to... (Not that I've EVER faked anything before, nope not me)...

It's kinda fun though, screwing with these people... Makes 'em wonder what I'm up to -- or how I'm medicating...

I wish I didn't have to work- ever. Why couldn't I have been born into billions?

Amen sister, AMEN!

Killing the Printer
 

I know school has officially started when all I can hear all morning is the hum of the printer as I start printing off class notes. So far, I've got the nice grand total of 72 pages of notes for today and tomorrow alone. Yucky. Haven't been able to find my own printer cables in all the moving this summer, so I'm leeching off the family printer's ink..... just hope it doesn't run out!

And it was sooooo hot yesterday.... I got sunburns on my shoulders from walking to and from the parking lot to my classes, and the humidity just made everything that much worse. Maybe I can get someone with a helicopter to just "drop" me in the middle of campus, and save me the walk. Hmm....

I hear that. I hate my job. I really really do.

I suppose this is where I'd put a new journal entry - but I'm probably wrong about that. So I won't.

So first, I can't get on. Then I find that the TFP has undergone an upgrade (Cool!!), but journals are offline. So I decided I'd wait a while to see if Halx could bring them back quickly. I guess not!

Now, that isn't a complaint. I'm sure that Halx has tons to do just keeping this place running. As a person who writes in a journal, it's just my observation of the current state of things.

So, here goes my first entry since the upgrade.

Actually, I like the new look around here. :thumbsup: I haven't had anything earthshattering to share, so I've just been lurking around. I'm glad to see that a few of my friends from the journals are still posting something.

My life has just been rolling along. I only have 22 working days before I retire. I have been cleaning up my office and getting ready to train my replacement. Actually, it looks like the transition may work really well.

I may post more here now that I've started. I hope you are all doing well.

Journal Thread --> Journals
 

While I want to make a big fuss over how much I miss the journals section, I do realize that Halx just left New York... like today. So I don't think he was worrying too much about the Journals during his vacation. In any case, I was just thinking about how this whole thread is sort of like a collective napkin for us all. You know, back in the day when I had to write in an actual book diary (with paper and everything!), I would jot ideas down on napkins so that I would remember to write about them when I got back home. I don't think I want to miss a chunk of stuff in my journal when the real journals come back, so I'll probably re-post these entries before I write anything new. That only leaves the question of what to do with the comments I received. Would it be weird to post them as part of the entry at the bottom?

The funny thing is that I'll re-post all of the entries except for this one. I guess the physical analogue for this post would be writing on my hand. "napkin --> diary" - a reminder to transfer the ideas from the napkins to the diary.

I don't even know why I'm thinking about this. My brain is so weird.

Yeah I was wondering if there would be some way to merge this thread into our journals. Our posts and the comments. Hrmmm.

Thanking god for small miracles today.
Woohoo!

Yes, this is where you would do that if you wanted to.

I wonder if the people in the crowd at the olympics, who give their flags to winning athletes, ever get them back?

Gone for a short while
 

Computer at home is disconnected. 10 minutes left here on my last day of work. May be as long as a week or two before I get back here again. I'll take pictures on the way out to AZ and see if any of them are worth putting in 'photography'. Bye.

Well, Now... THAT was fun...
 

OK, on the positive side, it's Friday night, it's 7:30, it's still light out, well sort of... and I'm not waiting out a flight delay, not stuck in some airport, wandering around looking for something to read that I haven't already read, I am indeed HOME... There's something to be said for not going to Chicago and getting stuck in home office meetings all week, it's only an hour flight home... YIPPEE for home... But alas, I have nothing to do... I really do need a life...

So, flight lands, get bags, get taxi, and it's traffic everywhere as far as the eye can see, normally the traffic on the most direct route home is horrendous at this hour, so he asked if I mined the Turnpike, I didn't. No biggie... So he heads over to the turnpike and the backups there -- were unbelievable... so after sitting in this traffic for about 10 minutes, the driver did what I've never quite seen a driver do before... He pulls into the breakdown lane, and backs up, about 3 miles to go towards the other highway and not go on the turnpike. BACKED UP on the NJ Turnpike access road... I swear I saw my life flash before my eyes...

But I'm home -- YAY!

well you could marry into it.

yeah.. cut and paste from here is easy... scan, OCR, correct mistakes, cut and paste, is just too much for napkins.

This weekend had great potential
 

But it turned out to be a dud.

Rewind back to thursday night, first meeting of the German club of the semester. It was a fun night as usual. Started off hanging out with (Br) and the cute TA from Germany, (A). Then later I talked with (R) and a new girl, (H). Had a fun conversation with (A) about her first week teachin a class, It's ironic how she's a native German speaker and they have her teaching 101, the beginning German class.

As the night wound down, (R) and I left together and I gave her a ride home. She invited me to go to a friend's BBQ with her on friday night and told me about a party saturday night.

Friday came around and I discovered a small plumbing issue that required replacing the spout in my bathtub. And I would be unable to take a shower until it was replaced. So before class I swung by Home Depot and picked up a new bathtub spout and was informed that the whole job should take about 30 minutes. After class, I got home and set to work on removing the old spout. Two hours later I finally got it removed due to the fact that it was so heavily corroded. Cleaned up the corrosion to find that the pipe itself had no corrosion and installing the new spout took no time at all. Then I got my shower at 4:00pm, you have no idea how good that felt.

Hadn't heard from (R) so I gave her a call around 5:00pm, about an hour later gat a call back from her that something came up and she had to run to the other side of the city to pick something up. So that scrapped friday's plans.

Then on Saturday, I called (R) to get information about the party tonight. She said that she hasn't heard from the person who was supposed to give her the information and also that she didn't really feel like going anyway. But she said that if she heard anything she'd give me a call. No call came.

So there was potential to have a great weekend, but turned out to be pretty dull.

Sorry that it didn't turn out as planned. There's plenty of time in the future to hang out with (R), but to take advantage of it, you shouldn't delay on asking her out...;)

Are you rich?

The closing date is getting closer to becoming a firm reality. The appraisal has been done. It came out as a 7 room, 2 bedroom home including having a den and office. Two of the rooms do not have closets with doors although one has closet rods and shelves. It appraised out at $57,000. Our selling price in reality is $45,500 with no money down.

I'm so hyped. Among things we've purchased for no more than $25/each, we've acquired a refridgerator, stove, dryer (we already have a washer), mower, snow shovels, water hoses, water hose dolly, and 4 book shelves. Some of the things were even given to us and only one item was $25, one was $20, two were $10 each. So what, we paid $65 for all those things?? It's impossible not to get excited. They are researching the title and if it will come out clean we'll be on the road to closing. We have insurance lined up as well and just need to get a binder on that too. I can't wait to get IN that house.

A wonderful surprise.
 

I recieved a letter today from my University and when I opened it up and read it I was completly floored by it.

Basically, to sum it up, it says that due to my academic performance since the start of the spring semester '04, I have been placed on the Dean's List. This is truely amazing, especially due to the fact that a year and a half ago I came within a hair's width of walking away from it all.

This letter has just made my whole week.

I'm already married...and not rich enough to support a mistress just yet :rolleyes:

congrats!!!!! that's awesome! as I was reading I was praying that it wasn't some twisted, "Please send $1,000 or you won't be able to attend this semester" letter.

Adorable AND Smart? Very cool - congratulations!

Much congrats!!! You really deserve it!

Congrats on making the Dean's list.
----
Went to Bone and Joint Doc today. Going for MRI next Wed. Filling out the form it sure sounds like a big production. 45 min? No jewelry, watches, pins, etc. even. Sounds wild. I've not had an MRI before. At least I have no tattoos or body jewelry since apparently those can interfere with it.
Had to take my daughter with to the Dr. It was just a quick apt. She was really creeped out by the model skeleton in his office. I touched it and showed her it wouldn't hurt me. Told her it was plastic and all but she would NOT come near it, even to sit on my lap. She thought it might bite me for some reason. I told her what it was and that she had those same bones in her body but she apparently does NOT. Her body only has "ONE NICE bone. Not lots of scary bones." It was humerous and the Dr seemed to get a chuckle that she was scared of 'Freddy'. We were nice though and didn't tease her. Cute.

Not to make you nervous, but if it's not an open air MRI, it can be somewhat unsettling...

The open air ones are great- the ones where you get shoved into a tube, are somewhat claustrophobic - between the noise, and the closeness of it - -it's a bizarre feeling.

I know of some doctors who will give people a valium before going into them - because it's common for people to freak out in them...

Music is good - -and practice deep breathing...
Good luck...

I've heard the term smart tossed around, adorable is a first.
Thanks :icare:

VERY nice! :) Big Congrats! If I take german next semester, you'll know :)

Awesome! Congrats Buddy! I always knew you were smart enough for that!

It's not an open air one but since it's only my knee they said they'll only stick me in up to my ribs. My arms and head should be free so I doubt I'll have any trouble. I've never been claustrophobic at all either. Thanks though.

Strange Coincidence
 

I've noticed an odd thing happening.

The last time I flew was three weeks ago, I flew on Southwest Airlines. There was also a category 4 hurricane bearing down on Florida.

Tomorrow I am flying to St. Louis, and I am flying on Southwest Airlines. And there is a category 4 hurricane bearing down on Florida.

Therefore, for the sake of the State of Florida, after this weekend, I will stop flying Southwest airlines during hurricane season.

If I ever find the punk that slashed Ryan's tire, and my roomates tire, I am going to rip out his throat and hang him with it.

If I ever find the punk, and if he has slashed one of MY tires, I am going to rip out his throat, slash some holes in HIS testicles, and hang him from those with his throat. And then I am going to throw rocks at him.

I hate people. I am going to move to an island and my only contact with the outside world other than Ryan will be through the internet, as it should be. You all can drop me some food or something when you fly over.

The Boathouse
 

Got to work early despite all the pre game traffic around campus, so that was good. Then work was so extremely slow they sent me home a half hour early.... I'm not complaining too much since I'm working 8 and a half hour days from Friday to Monday, plus my normal hours next Tuesday because of the Labor Day holiday. Called a friend to see if they were still at McDuffy's for the Bush campaign party and coverage of the RNC. They were already done but she was meeting two of the Republican candidates for the Senate election at a place called The Boathouse, so met her and went over.


The Boat house has been closed for the last 4 months while they were doing renovations, and it is AWESOME! It's on the side of a residential lake, and it's all outdoors. I was a little worried it was going to be hot, but they have misters going full blast, and fans around the perimeter, as well as the lake to cool things off. There are strings of lights all across the patio, and vines hanging on lattices all over. The bar was a stone circle in the center, and they had just had their grand reopening last night. One of the guys running for the senate office was good friends with the owner, so he sat and chatted with us, and ended up comping our entire bill at the end of the night. There were 6 of us, and we were there from 9 till just before midnight just relaxing, having a drink or two, and enjoying the atmosphere. A couple college aged persons trickled in around a quarter to 11, and I have decided this place is going to be my hang out. The chef is a grad of the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, and we were given pieces of both their key lime and raspberry cheesecake..... OMG!!! All you could hear was MMMmmmm.....MMMMMMM.... Here! Try this!!! then another MMMmmmm. The sangria I had was yummy. The place was quiet enough that I could hear everyone without any problem, and the rest of the food was good as well, even though we only ordered a few appetizers and shared. Best three hours I've had in a while :)

Mmm that sounds like some tasty food. I'm hungry now... Nothing to eat around here either!

Talked to the mortgage broker today. The path to home ownership looks like this: We are waiting to get the papers that show that the title is clear. Supposedly the research HAS been completed on it. The new title is being drafted. The insurance is set to go. Papers are set, information has all been entered. The minute we had them a check for our car and our home owners insurance we have it. A day or two later we will be allowed to sign the papers as soon as the lender has confirmation of insurance. We SIGN the papers! The longest that the broker tells us it will take to finish all this is 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS! We're almost there. We're rounding the last corner. I can ALMOST see the finish line.

I packed some boxes out to the garage today. My neighbor noticed me toting them out in the kids wagon. Getting ready. I have lots of packing to do but I know we can do it. For goodness sake I've packed in 3 days to move I most assuredly can do it in 2 weeks or more. Yippee.

Gonna go celebrate at an on premise club tomarrow too - Can't get any better than this. Besides I might as well have fun now. Between now and next month I have my plate full. What with getting my wisdom tooth pulled, closing on the house, moving, and then after moving - possibly preparing for knee surgery IF they find something this Wednesday. WOW is it any wonder I've been battling a migrane the past two days. Thank GOD for Maxalt!

Off to bed if I hope to be in any shape tomarrow. Hubby's out on a date. Hopefully he has fun.

The Trip (WI to AZ)
 

I kept a journal in a notebook (not a computer, a real notebook) about all the interesting things that happened on our little voyage with the intent of posting it here and putting pictures in the picture section. Change of plan: when I get the film developed I'll see if any of the pics turned out. We'll see. When I get my computer hooked up, I'll unload the digital camera. Till then, here are the highlights:
Left later than expected on Saturday, so three day trip turned into four day trip. CB radio in Metro burned out just before Milwaukee, roughly an hour into the voyage. Saw a rolled-over SUV just after Illinois toll-booth. Truck started losing transmission fluid somewhere in Missouri. Added oil in Oklahoma. Ate at a Denny's in Oklahoma City where the wife was a little freaked by a homeless guy who chain smoked and stared from another booth. At a Texas McDonald's I saw a woman who looked a little like someone I had seen in the Exhibition section. In New Mexico one of the wheels came off of the trailer. A slight delay getting that fixed. Albequerque looks beautiful at night. South of Tucson up in the hills is a section of unique looking rounded rocks. Of course I didn't get any pictures of them. Driving by Davis-Monthan AFB was interesting, lots of planes of all types just sitting around. Couldn't find a place to stay down there that was cheaper than staying with the wife's cousin (free-ish), so we're here in Mesa. I started tossing resumes around today and we'll see what happens. I gotta go outside for a cigarette now, so I'll end this.

Feel like getting depressed? Then read on..
 

Oooh a dime! I found a dime under my keyboard! Awesome :)

Ahem, anyway.

So, I’m still broke. Broke-ity broke broke. I’ve canceled cable TV (and Time Warner is taking their sweet ass time getting a truck out to disconnect it from the pole) and Road Runner will be getting the ax soon. That will be hard. Really, really hard. It will be like cutting off my arm or something. Okay, not that extreme. But it’ll suck. It’s necessary though. It has to be done. I’m struggling right now. My credit cards are all at their limits. And damn if Everwood Season 1 didn’t come out on DVD yesterday. So yes, I went and bought it. And some razors. It’ll be the last luxury item that I’ll get for quite awhile. Hell, I can’t even afford to buy groceries. I’ve got some eggs, pasta, chicken, and that’s about it. So I’ll make that last. I’m going to get a loaf of bread tonight. I bought some blackberry jam the other day, I’ll start bringing in pb&j sandwiches for lunch. I’m making chicken parm tonight, I think I have 4 chicken breasts defrosting in my fridge. So I’ll make that and have leftovers.

Next weekend is my friend Liz’s birthday and we’re going to see a local band play. $12 cover. And for her present she’s getting a pint of Harp. That’ll be a $20 night. I can’t really afford to go out, but it’ll be good for me. Good to get out with my friends.

I need to call around and get prices for my kitten’s vet visit. He’s getting deballed and declawed. Poor guy, he doesn’t even see it coming. I can’t afford that either, but it needs to get done. I don’t need him spraying my apartment and wrecking my furniture (and myself) with his claws. He also clawed my boyfriends mouth when he was visiting. That’s no good. Got him right across his upper lip. Grrrr… I’m also a wee bit tired of being a human pin cushion. So he’s taking a little trip to the vet.

I also need some work done on my car. Fuel injection maybe? I’m not sure, I forget. Oh, and a new air filter. It’s all fine for now, but apparently at my next oil change it’ll be needed.

I haven’t ordered new contacts yet. Probably won’t be able to without a new prescription. Which won’t happen anytime soon.

Just need to keep plugging away. Keep on keepin’ on.

In other news, my Grandpa is in the hospital. Going on over two weeks now. It’s hard for me to think/talk/write about it. When my grandparents visited this summer, Grandpa did not look good. His stomach was very bloated, his voice was shaky and his appetite was gone. He had fallen a few times, cutting up his arms and legs pretty badly. It’s hard for him to heal up now. His heart is so weak. He had a few heart attacks last summer-fall, and had a pacemaker put in. The cancer treatments he went through didn’t help either. At one point the doctors were trying to figure out which to deal with first, his heart or the cancer. And I know he’s just so tired of it. My Grandpa, like most men his age, is so proud and stubborn. He doesn’t want to admit that he can’t do things like he used to anymore. Hell, he wanted to drive up here. It must have been so hard for him to be in a wheelchair through the airport when they came up. And now he can barely make it from his chair to the refrigerator to get water.

As for this hospital visit, he was admitted to get the fluid drained from his stomach. And he’s just so weak. He’s fallen many times when he’s been in the hospital. He’s also showing signs of Alzheimer’s. He’s been so terrified of that for so long. His mother had it. She was eventually placed in a home. I never visited. Maybe I should have, I don’t know. I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t handle seeing her, and knowing she had no idea who I was. To have her call me by a different name, thinking I was her sister in law or something. To know that when she looked at her only son she had no idea who he was. And my Grandpa will be the same way. He is showing signs. My sister says that he was calling her Dorothy when they were visiting. Dorothy was his aunt. He gets confused and he talks to himself often.

My Grandma has talked about looking into an assisted living facility. She’s okay, but she can’t take care of my Grandpa on her own. She occasionally has bouts of vertigo and had surgery for an aneurysm in her stomach over a year ago. They live in Florida, but it sounds like they may move back here. My Grandma’s family is all here. My Grandpa doesn’t have much family. He was an only child, has a few cousins but they never really see them. And there my parent’s and us kids. It would be best for them to be here.

Sadly, I’ve let myself lose touch with my grandparents. Since my Grandpa’s cancer treatments a few years ago (his 2nd bought) it was hard for him to talk on the phone. And they both can’t hear very well, so you have to repeat things. It’s just hard. And it’ll be even harder now that my Grandpa is sick. If they should come here, it will be so hard for me to visit. When my Grandpa first had cancer in his throat years ago I visited him in the hospital. He was all bandaged up with tubes coming out of him everywhere. I stood at the foot of his bed frozen. I remember feeling cold, and everything getting black. Somebody noticed and grabbed me and put me in a chair as I fainted.

It’s just not fair. Our Grandparents shouldn’t get sick. Our parents shouldn’t either. They need to be here forever. They need to be around to tell me stories about their childhood. About what I did when I was a kid. They need to see me get married.

Okay, well that did it. Swallow hard kid, bawling at the office is never a good idea.

Both my grandfathers missed my kids. My grandmothers have had the pleasure of knowing them.

Life moves on and their is no stopping it. Just focus on what you can control and the rest will take care of itself.

As for your financial situation you know I feel your pain. We talk and you know I'm in the same boat only with a family attached. We'll all be fine, just need to make do with what we have for the moment and work to do more in the future.

Day off.....finally
 

Just started patching the ceiling, kids jumping upstairs in a house bordering on a century old blew the plaster ....Crack, flake, fall. Used joint compound (lack of time, and motivation for plaster) but it looks ok, paint will make the difference. House is trashed, havent had a day off in three weeks so neglect is taking its toll. Oh well, spring cleaning once a month.
Next is the dining room....started patching the walls in there too, ols plaster walls+moisture=buckling. Taking out pieces and patching. Sarah wants hunter green in there so gotta prime the walls when time permits. Been in this house over a year and this is the last room to renovate....can't wait till it is done as well.
Getting sick of the politics forum again. The current state of dissent amongst opposing sides is disheartening. Everyone is right, and nobody listens to what the other has to say. As disgusted as I am with the current administration, I cannot accept the attitude of hatred portrayed by the democratic community on the forum. Not that the Repubs have anything constructive to say either. Oh well...maybe it is time to do the Lurk thing again.

I've thought about assisted living facilities for myself sometimes... I'm just such a slug at times.

You've got a great relationship with your grandparents, and they've been with you a while, no matter what happens, they'll always be in your heart, and when you do get married (oooh can I come?), they will be there, dancing their feet off, beaming proudly and what a beautiful bride you are.

Why do you think the ladies room was invented? it's a great place to go have a good cry-- just wash your face when you are done.

PLugging away is a great attitude -- you will succeed, your financial situation is just a temporary bump, and a learning experience, you'll get thru it, and you'll be just fine... You will :D

COuld not have said it better myself. One of my most favorite things in the world to do was to argue/discuss/debate poltics. It was fun. It's not fun anymore, and it's not just here, it's the other political centric sites that I used to go to, I can't anymore, it just makes me angry/annoyed/tired. I just want to stand in the front of the room and just say SHUT UP already just SHUT UP... No one is right, no one is wrong, no one is listening.

I definitely feel your pain...

I just can't get into writing here like I did in the journals. Guess I'll have to move it on over to Blogger.

Things I don't understand
 

I was reading a journal on another site I used to go to (I say used to... Hell, I still visit daily :rolleyes: ) and the woman was saying how she's broke, and how TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) only covers so much. Then she rattles off the things she needs... "Smokes, gas, dog food, shampoo..." Notice the first thing. Smokes. Not the gas to get around, not the dog food, not the shampoo and other things. But Smokes. God forbid she doesn't have her smokes!

I know there are many people out there (probably some of you reading) who forgo other things in order to buy that pack of Camels. How can someone justify getting a pack of cigarettes over dog food? Or gas? I don't get it.


Then again, the finger can be pointed right back at me and I know it. I spend my money on TV and my cell phone and internet rather than get rid of all of that and pay off my debts. So I really can't claim to be any better.

Oh, and another thing, I don't think TANF is meant to provide "Smokes."


In other news, I think the only way that I can not be online at work (here mostly) is to be banned. So yeah. We'll see.

Don't worry powers that be... I'm not going to go on some asshole ranting stage in order to get banned. I'd ask politely to have my account ended or something. But like I said... We'll see.

People have some screwed priorities. Really kinda sad, she'd rather have her dog go hungry than go without a cigarette? Messed up. But I'm glad that the aid she's getting doesn't cover that, it used to kill me when I was first living in Manhattan, having pretty much no money, I'd go to the grocery store with coupons and shop frugally, and it never failed, the person in front of me would have ice cream, chips, soda, beer even, and pay for their order with food stamps (not exactly legal, but I'm not sure anyone cared.) It was nice to know where my tax money was going...

You are being responsible, :thumbsup: you cancelled your cable because of your situation, so no fingers pointing at you... Phone? That's important...

Don't go getting yourself banned... You'd be very much missed... :D

Fun night ends with potential
 

Thursday night, and that means hanging out at a bar with the German club.

Interesting twist to start the night though. We started a sub committe to the German club called the Foriegn Language Improv. We're not just doing improv, but we're doing it in a language other than English. Right now it's mostly German but there are a few French students. We hope to include other languages as this progresses.

After that we headed over to Mill Ave. and stopped by our usual bar. Pretty large crowd tonight mainly do to the fact that the German Teachers and TA's started advertising the meeting.

While hanging out there doing the typical social conversation with a couple of new girls I ran into (L). She is the twin sister of a girl that lived in a dorm I worked at last year. She started taking one of the german classes and decided to come to the meeting. We talked a lot during the evening and I got her phone #. I'll definatly have to give her a call tomorrow.

So it was a fun night and there is great potential for my currently nonexistant dating life.

Well, gave (L) a call on Friday. She called me back today, won't be able to hang out with her this weekend since she has a lot going on. But really I'm just happy that she returned my call, and maybe we can do something next weekend.

Yay for girls that call you back... Too bad she was busy... but she did make the time to call you back, so that's very good news.

Here's hoping she'll make time for you next weekend... If she's got intelligence and taste, she'll make the time..

Very appropriate....

enough is enough.....
 

I have just said my goodbyes to the Politics Forum , at least until the elections are over. The mindset of this forum at this time is so damn frustrating. I cannot believe how polarized the two sides are. For a time it was actually entertaining to watch, and learn how these two factions work. Alas, I do not think there is much to learn anymore, the conservatives seem totally blind, and care not what information becomes availible to refute the skill of our esteemed leader.
The Dems make valid points, and try to place as much information as they can into the limelight, only to have someone ignore it all in favor of slamming Kerry into a wall for one thing or another. What a complete waste of time, and energy. I had attempted over the last week to place non-partisan threads into play there....only to have them completely destroyed by a select few Bush supporters.
There was a time, when actual debate took place in the politics forum, and insight could be gained. Many,(myself included) learned enough to be swayed in one direction or another, and were better for the dialogue. Those days are gone.....hopefully not forever.

Leaving the TFP journals
 

As someone who used to be a pretty avid journaler here, I have not really been able to get into the journal threads (either of them). I had been waiting it out in the hopes that a journal section will return, but it seems the longer I wait, the more I have a feeling that the journals won't come back.

So I have decided to cease all journaling activities here. I have created a blog which can be found by the homepage link on my profile and that is where I will resume journaling.

It sucks that we're losing journal writers around here. I haven't written much either, because of this format. I wish we could get an update from Halx, but there hasn't been any since the middle of August. I realize things take time, but an update would be nice.

I'll be sure to check out your blog, mirevolver :)

You know I have to completely agree with you on all points. Since moving out to Virginia (From Mesa/Tempe area) I have found myself more and more missing it. I don't know that I could live in Phoenix again, but with both sides of the family living there... friends... and decent mexican food... (plus I know where things are there), it's kinda sad. Got the chance to visit in July and getting back in the plane to come to Richmond just made my heart sink a bit. I knew that moving across the country for school would be hard, but I didn't imagine I'd be this homesick.

On the rain note, I always love the rain in Arizona. Even when it's not raining the sunsets are just beautiful and just gives me another reason for missing Arizona. It seems to rain here constantly... and the humidity added to it sort of takes away the nostalgia of it all. But it is gorgeous out here and going out to the parks or out for a walk away from the city is just so awesome because it is nice here, but it's definently not home.

Mine's been moved here, http://www.dano069.blogspot.com/ as you can tell in my signature, down there.

I'm drowning
 

I'm not even sure what to do anymore. It's getting bad, really bad. I don't know how I'll be able to pay upcoming bills.

I need to go grocery shopping. I need dishwashing liquid. I need soap.

I don't have much food. I have some chicken, pasta, cheese, sauce. I made a PB&J sandwich for lunch today with the last of my peanut butter. I have a full jar of jam that I could use for sandwiches here at work. And dinner too if it comes to that. Luckly I have my parents. I had dinner there last night and I'll be going again tonight. But that causes another problem - gas money. That little bit of distance adds up.

This Friday is my friends birthday. There are plans to go to a local pub to see a band play, but I don't think I'll go. There's the $10 cover charge. And I'd buy her a birthday drink as it would be the only thing I could do in the way of presents, so that would be another $5. Sadly I can't justify the cost. I'll call her tonight, I hope she'll understand. But I don't think she will.

I've mentioned doing this before but I've put it off. I'm going to put up a lot of stuff on Ebay. I have quite a few things that I can sell. When I do that I'll put a link up here, you lovely people here can have first dibs. I'm going to look into used CD stores and get rid of some CD's that I don't listen to. Books as well, I have so many books that I can get rid of. And video games. I bought Simpsons Hit & Run and I don't think I ever played it. And I wonder why I have financial problems...

I've fucked myself over basically. And it's going to last so long. It'll take years to pay off my credit card debts. I'll be lucky if this debt is gone by the time I'm 35.

Averett if your friend is REALLy your friend they will understand....and if they DONT understand then they arent worth wasting the money on in the first place. Someone taking the time to tell me happy birthday to me is just as good as any present. I would never ever want my friends to spend money on me when I knew they were having money problems.

Do they have dollar stores where you are? I know at mine you can get dishwashing liquid, soap, shampoo, etc. It might not be the "best" or exactly what you'd want to buy...but it works for now. I'd be very interested in the books you want to get rid of...Im a book whore so PM and I'll see what I can do to help you out with getting rid of them :icare:

Averett,
I don't know if this'll help you out or not, since you're on the opposite side of the country, but here goes. Another way to scrape up some extra cash, if you've got some clothes lying around, would be to check out a place that resells clothes, but is a little more upscale than a thrift store. Out here, there's a chain of stores called Name Brand Exchange, and they pay money for your clothes. I'm a person who never throws anything away, so that's a good place to clean out my closet and see what they'll take. I think my friend took 3 pairs of pants and a sweater to them, and they gave him $20 for them.

Thanks for the replies ladies :)

Never really thought about the Dollar Store idea, but I think it'll work. I'll stop by there tonight and see what's there. I'll be sure to get together a list of books/cds/games I'm going to sell and post them here before I put them up on Ebay. I'd much rather somebody I "know" get my stuff than a complete stranger.

And the thrift store idea is great. I have a ton of clothes that I want to get rid of, I usually just toss them in a charity bin by a local church. I'll look into that this weekend :)

For getting rid of books/cds and such - look at Amazon.com -- they have a reseller section where you can unload stuff you don't want - and name your price for it... (It's a little safer than Ebay as well)

TV my way, from VCR to TiVo
 

When I decided to get a home theater system I wanted to do more time shifting than I had previously ever done. Supposedly there were technologies out there that would help me discover shows and programs that I enjoyed to watch but never seemed to find in the sea of cable channels.

If you already have seen a SmartFile VCR you know this ability to find shows is amazing. The SLV-M20HF is unique even among SmartFile VCRs because it has built-in TV Guide Plus+ (yep, two pluses) on-screen guide, VCRplus which was also an option. The system was visually based which made it really easy to figure out what to record and it also handled some basic conflict alerting.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/cynthetiq/VCR5.jpg" width=320 height=240>
When you want to record something, you just find it in the guide and select record. No need to specify start time, end time, day of week, channel, etc. Just point to the show and the VCR gets all the necessary information from the guide. Even better, since it has the show names, this is what is written to the SmartFile label when the show is recorded.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/cynthetiq/VCR6.jpg" width=320 height=240>
This shows the total amount of things that are queued up for regular recording.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/cynthetiq/VCR4.jpg" width=320 height=240>
To watch one of the shows, simply insert the tape into the VCR, highlight the name of the show, and press select on the remote. The VCR will locate the show on the tape, go to the start, and begin playing. If you have a number of tapes, you don't have to put them each into the VCR, you just wave them in front of the unit and voila it comes up on screen. There are even readers for those people who happened to have created vast libraries of SmartFile tapes.

Once we had setup the recordings and got enough tapes and smartfile labels, we were in time shifting business. We watched seasons of Buffy, X-files, Angel, Sopranos and other series. We didn't just watch one episode at a time, since we didn't have to watch it immediately sometimes a week or three would lapse between episodes so instead of watching a movie we'd have a mini-marathon. We watched almost 1/2 of Firefly that way until we heard that it was cancelled then we just erased the rest of the series we had recorded.

I remembered TiVo but was always so hesitant to move to the new technology, mostly due to the price considerations. It was costly to start up and the initial units were like 14 and 28 hour units. I had at least 60 hours worth of (10) VHS tapes that we cycled through. Series one had it's limitations and the talk about Series 2 and it's abilities to do remote scheduling via internet (something sorely missed on the VCR system), ability to play MP3, photos, and also pass items from one unit to another via a home network all conspired against me.

One day when I was in the hospital I found a good deal for TiVo on ebay. I won the bid for an 80 hour unit.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/cynthetiq/TivoWishlistCreate.jpg" width=320 height=240>
The most powerful thing that TiVo can do is wishlist. I can tell it any keyword, actor, director, etc, and it will find those programs and record them. It solves conflicts and records second or even third instances if there are conflicts in the recording schedule.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/cynthetiq/DTivoIPreview.jpg" width=320 height=240>
After the wishlist the thumbs up feature is supposed to be a great thing. As you watch programs you rate them thumbs up and thumbs down. This example is a commercial that is TiVo enabled and if you press thumbs up it records it automatically. No need to hunt down any VCR+ codes, TV Guide, etc.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/cynthetiq/TivoSuggestions.jpg" width=320 height=240>
It takes your ratings of thumbs up and thumbs down and then populates a suggestion list. I don't like the suggestions to record automatically myself, but I do peruse through the listings.

It has truly revolutionized the way that I watch TV, even more that the VCR did. (We even have two VCRs because it was hard not use smartfile, a reason that we now have 2 TiVos as it's hard to not have the pah-kuk-pah-kuk ability) The VCR for the most part is collecting dust. I'm thinking that I'm going to start laying some things off to tape and sending them off to friends in far away lands. Of course TiVo has this in mind for the future with TiVo2Go where you'll be able to record them to DVD and I'll then be able to ship shows to friends for the cost of a first class stamp.

When we first got Time Warner digital service we opted for the DVR service. I wanted to compare the abilities and while it does have dual tuner capabilities, I found it clunky and kludgy to use. The interface was difficult, the lack of simple things like group sorting made it maddening to find shows sometimes. The remote control buttons were the most frustrating, as they put the LIVE button next to the DVR controls so one finds themselves accidentally pressing the wrong button and thus interrupting their show because it now needs to be restarted.

I recently found a good sale at Circuit City of all places and got another TiVo for $50 and that's now in the bedroom. The best thing we can do now is transfer shows from one unit to another facilitating the ability for one person to be in one room and then when needing to go to bed can continue watching that show in the other room.

Initially I saw people putting huge drives into their TiVos and my own thought to it always has been that the TV doesn't own me. I own it. I would always wig out when I knew we had too many hours of programming to catch up with, from TiVo or from VHS tapes. Yet now, I'm thinking that I'm going to upgrade the original TiVo with a secondary drive. I'm going to wait to see just what the service upgrades happen over the next 6 months. Supposedly the new kernel supports hard drives > 137Gb so we'll see.

I've been reading more and more about TiVo's underground hacking community. They are extreme fans and aren't interested in pushing the legal envelope of the product. All topics on how to get "free" monthly service, extract video, or other items that border on the illegal side are frowned upon. Yes, there are some sites out there that do exist but to me they aren't all that interesting.

It's not all that interesting to "steal" the service, or even extract the video. If you really need encoded video there's better ways than TiVo.

I am amazed that people are interested in doing things like listening to <a href="http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=194869">Live Air Traffic Control through Tivo</a> or <a href="http://www.zirakzigil.net/tivo/TCSscreenshots.html">looking at weather radar, interest rates, and stock quotes.</a>

i think that we all have the buy it syndrome. we buy things we don't need or don't use, but we buy it to "own it" or "have it" yet it doesn't do much for our lives.

i have plenty of those same things. I even have a brand new unopened Metal Gear Solid 2 game for PS2 and I don't even own PS2. I bought it in hopes that I would one day get a PS2, but I got the game the day that it came out... that was in November about 2 years ago. I still don't own a PS2 and in fact recently found the game in the bargain bin for $10 for Xbox which I do happen to own.

We live and learn.

good luck.

As long are you are okay, that is really what is important. I'm in the same boat as far as bills myself... don't make enough to cover them, and I hate not paying bills on time.. but I've come to the conclusion that it's better to pay it later when I have money in my account than to not pay them at all or let checks bounce.

You have a car, you have a roof over your head, you have a job, and as you saidyou won't starve... it doesn't sound like things are really so bad. Be happy about what you do have and don't spend so much time worrying about money.. causes nothing but stress and unhappiness. I would say just make those little changes temporarily to help you out now and later things will work out, they always do.