Author Archive

Time Capsules

Monday, October 15th, 2007

PPPI just came across something pretty cool. Have any of you ever taken a time capsule and buried something in the back yard? I remember doing it at my grandmothers house when I was about 8 years old. I think there’s a doll and some random little toys in there that I felt I could do without. Knowing that my grandmothers house is going to be in the family for many decades, I figure it’s still save to have it back there. My sister and I both wrote little letters explaining where we’re going to be when we finally open it up. It was a big project that my grandmother did with us. She knew that she’d be passing away soon so having some place in the back yard that was just between the three of us was important to her. We didn’t understand it back then but now I can truly say that I understand why she had us do that. Based on a conversation I’ve had with family, my aunt has informed me that when she passes away I’m considered next of kin and will be almost an instant owner of the house. So while this may be a certain number of years down the road, I’m honestly happy that I’m going to have real estate on Long Island that will be more valuable to me then any amount of money could buy. How could you not love having a 1800 sqft home on an acre of property? Seriously now. So I know that I can take my kids and dig it up in the future, then replant our own. I think that’s something I would seriously turn into a family tradition, I know that for sure.

PPPToday I came across something pretty interesting as well. It’s called the Virtual Time Capsule. You can take photos, videos and even text to have them stored on a password protected website where the creators promise to keep the site up for the next hundred years or so. It seems like a pretty cool idea, and even after that it proves how technology has really come a long way. The thing for me, even if I do have another 60 years left in me, by this time next year I’ll have forgotten that I even HAVE the site, lol. But, if you are interested, head on over to http://www.the100yearwebsite.com/, maybe you have a better memory than I do.

Baked Ziti

Monday, October 15th, 2007

I’m teaching Karen how to cool.¬† Her dog is a pretty picky eater and lately instead of the Meatballs she was eating previously, she’s switched over to Baked Ziti, talk about high maintenance – eh? So she bought all of the cheaper ingredients knowing that it’s just going towards a dog anyway.¬† So I walked her through everything once the pasta was finished cooking and within the next half hour we’ll know if she’ll eat that version or not.¬† The humans in the house, however, are eating the more high end ziti tonight.¬† I’ll throw in some crescent rolls to keep Sean happy and the rest is history…heh.

Halloween Costumes

Monday, October 15th, 2007

PPPWith the holidays fast approaching, many people forget that there is an important one that’s just as important to adults and children alike, before Christmas is even considered. Sean and I have been floating around the stores looking into halloween costumes because we haven’t really dressed up for the holiday in a few years now. I’ve been looking into some funky clown kind of outfits, Sean has been looking into the more dark and sinister Vampire kind of outfits. His reason behind it is based on the fact that his mother calls him a Vampire because he seems to be more creative at night than he is during the day. There’s nothing wrong with that though; many people are the same way. I know that I am.

I’m anticipating Halloween, I even found a costume for it. I went poking through HalloweenExpress.com, and I found an I Love Lucy Polka Dot Dress Costume. I’ve been a huge fan of hers for years so dressing up like her for Halloween seems like a cool idea for me. It’s only like $40, which is a great deal on a costume. I saw a few other ones on the site that seemed pretty interesting, I poked around the animal section quite a bit. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the one that I saw in Petco for Bella. There was the choice between a pumpkin, which was one of the cutest ones I’ve seen, and a little devil which was equally as adorable.

Now things are rolling…

Monday, October 15th, 2007

The loan information still hasn’t gotten here but at least I now have a reason as to why.¬† The paperwork wasn’t even printed out until the 11th, and being as it’s the 15th I should expect to see it sometime over the course of the next few days.¬† Sean and I are heading up to NY this weekend so I can head to the branch up there with my father on Monday and by Tuesday the money will be available in my bank account.

After being redirected four times talking to Corporate, I was directed to a man who told me that I don’t even have to wait for the letter, I could have gone to the bank the second I was given the approval.¬† Knowing that I’ve waited two weeks to see some kind of silver lining, this was a bitter sweet moment for me.¬† So I called my father and let him know that we’ll be up there this weekend and I know that Sean, My Father and I are going out to dinner for my birthday on Monday evening.¬† My sister may tag along but we’re going to The Outback so who knows if she’ll find something on the menu there.¬† The certified check that I’m getting from HSBC will travel with me to WAMU, I’ll deposit the money and then by Tuesday I’ll be rolling in it.

Sean and I will then book a room in Ohio for possibly a one to two night stay until we can have the deed signed over to us and then we’ll stay there until the major modifications have been completed.¬† We’ll probably do some minor shopping so we can begin furnishing the place, I know from the get go that a few kitchen based items are important to us.¬† I’d like to at least have some pots and pans in the house, as well as plates so that we’re not eating out every night until we have the rest of our things out there.¬† We’ll get the cable reactivated, get the electric and everything else switched over into our name and then go from there.

It’s going to be a rough couple of weeks but that’s OK by us, we know that once all of the chaos has ended, we’ll be home owners and damn happy about it.¬† The loan is only going to be about $150 a month as far as paying it back is concerned.¬† I figure if we can spare about $300 we’ll be able to pay it back quicker.¬† It’s approved for 15.9%, which is unfortunate but HSBC is known for higher rates and that’s just fine for me.

While we wanted to get out there before Halloween, moving in around the date is just as good for us.¬† Sean wants to go to some haunted house so I figure while we’re out there we can do that.¬† We’ll bring a few extra things with us when we go out there the first time, this way we’ll have some things to move in with that don’t need to be loaded on to the truck that his brother is driving down here for us.¬† Maybe the place will start looking like a home a lot sooner than we’d originally thought – who knows.

In any event, I guess I should get my ass in gear on some work, lord knows when I’ll have this kind of downtime over the course of the next few weeks.

I’m Ready!

Friday, October 12th, 2007

I’ve decided to park my ass in the living room again. I’ve been doing it for a few days but today I have even more of a reason than I did, yes – this one tops the whole working environment for me. I already have the TV tuned to Lifetime, but that’s typical for me considering I tend to watch it all day long anyway.

Tonight marks the start of season two for Lisa Williams – Life Among The Dead. I’ve been a fan of this show since it first aired last year and I can not wait for the season to start. It’s then followed by Americas Psychic Challenge but I’m unsure of if I’ll pay close attention to that or not. I’ve always been interested in that world. I think I grew more interested when I lost Joe, but knowing now that he’s around for sure that’s helped my healing process.

So tonight I’m sending Sean to the mailbox on his way to pick up dinner, I decided to have Chinese tonight because I’m really in no mood to do any cooking. From there Lisa should be on a few hours later and I’ll enjoy some ice cream and psychic ability and that’ll be my night…heh.

You can quote me

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

PPPWith the move we’re going to have to transfer the insurance over to whatever is available out in Ohio. So I’ve been poking around looking for a Car Insurance Quote that will better suit our needs. Luckily, Sean has a pretty clean driving record so his insurance shouldn’t be TOO high, the fact that he’s under 25 will play a role in things but I’m sure we’ll be able to figure something out. His brother has a pretty bad record and even he has full coverage for about $90 a month on two brand new cars. We’re not quite sure as to how that’s possible but that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to find something just as good, if not better considering there will only be one car under the insurance from the get go.

Once we’ve settled in and have some money being put aside after all the bills have been paid, we’re considering purchasing a second car. For now we’re both content with the one we have but having another one for when I wish to run errands without having to use his wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I’m thinking more along the size of the car, as opposed to the price. Yes, naturally I’m interested in getting a good deal on the car, don’t get me wrong, but knowing that his car really isn’t large enough to handle the trips to the grocery store without filling up the trunk and the back seat – getting something a bit larger is the route I’m interested in taking. I’ve been considering a CR-V for quite some time now, my aunt owns one and it’s one of the most comfortable cars I’ve ever driven in. She has more than enough room to do everything she needs to do and when you’re traveling long distances, you aren’t concerned about sitting on top of someone the way you would be in the Baretta. Extra room means more comfy trips for all involved.

Keeping warm…and calm.

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

I’m freezing. I guess I got used to the warmer weather down here because I can’t stand the 55° that we’re in now. I just ran to the bedroom to pull one of my sweat shirts out of storage. I have all of my winter clothes vacuum packed at the moment. With the warm front in the area there’s been no real need behind my taking things out earlier than usual. I know that before we move I’m going to have to switch things around based on the cooler weather that’s normal this time of year. I like the cold, growing up in NY you get used to the cold. It’s just the fact of adjusting to warmer weather that’s kind of getting to me at the moment.

Guess I’ll be brewing that tea sooner than anticipated. I’ve been looking into a few different things for the house and I found the Bodum Assam 4-cup Tea Press at Target. I’m content with the standard tea bags at the moment but I think using a gadget specifically for tea brewing would be a pretty handy thing to have around. I love coffee, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes you don’t want a heavy caffeine, you want something light and tasty and I think that’s why I go with green tea more than standard. It helps to regulate you, I’ll tell you that from the get go, but there’s also a warm and calming effect with it. That with random lavender accents around the house will really keep me calm, I’ll say that much.

Still not here

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

It’s yet another day and no word from HSBC. Tomorrow I’m going to have to call up the main office and see what’s going on. They said 7-10 business days, and when removing weekend and holiday dates from that equasion it should have been here on Wednesday. It’s now a few hours to Friday and there still isn’t anything here. Now I’m on the verge of looking into payday loans just so we can at least get the basics accomplished. It’s kind of putting the cart before the horse but either way a few thousand is going to have to be paid back within the first month so it really shouldn’t matter which route we take.

I’ve been looking into a cash advance site called cashadvance1500.com. You can get a loan from $100-$1500. The process can be done anonymously online and I don’t need to sell anything, or ask to borrow money from someone. I don’t think that asking to borrow money is an uncomfortable situation for me, as most cash advance and payday loan companies would claim but that’s based on the fact that I tend to pay back whatever I borrow so it’s really not such a big deal. It’s just the question of whether or not I want to borrow money with interest or not. Either way something is going to have to be done soon because now we’re just itching to get out to Ohio so we can get into this place and start turning it into our home.

Mobile Broadband

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

Knowing that I’m going to be spending quite a bit of time in the car over the course of the next few weeks, I’ve been looking into a Broadband company that I can use to travel with.¬† I’ve narrowed it down to Sprint and Verizon but I am leaning more towards Sprint based on the pricing at the moment.

Has anyone of you used either of these companies?  What do you think of their mobile broadband services?

Does anyone else know of a mobile broadband company available in the U.S. that’s prepaid?

Most services require a two-year contract, I don’t see the point in investing in that when I’m going to have broadband the second my computer is even put through the door out there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Senior Cell Phones

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

PPPWhile I hate to say it, I know that my father is officially a Senior Citizen. He’s pushing 60 and while he may feel old, he truly is young at heart. With age comes it’s downside though, he’s slowly beginning to lose his eye sight. He’s had to wear reading glasses for the last 10 years or so but now he’s going to have to start using them for every day driving, so that has him a little bit annoyed.

He didn’t grow up with fancy technology the way today’s generation is, so him getting a cell phone was a pretty big deal to him. He had trouble seeing the buttons on the phone because even I’ll admit that in some cases they’re a little bit too small. He has very thick hands, but that’s a trait on that side of the family, all the men do. Today I found out that they actually have an option for a Senior Cell Phone service. He just renewed his contract with Verizon so I highly doubt that he’d be interested in it, but they seem to have some pretty decent options available. Not only do you get bigger buttons, you also have brighter screens and easier to hear ring tones for those losing their hearing as well.

I went looking through their services and they have pretty easy to to use cell phones that can be used as your standard cellphone or an emergency cellular to keep around the house. They’re pay as you go plans, but I’m sure somewhere down the road there will be enough of a backing for a standard monthly service. I look at it this way though, there’s more of a benefit to having a prepaid service to a monthly service if you’re only using the phone for emergencies. I hardly ever use my phone, hence the reason for having a prepaid. I see no point in keeping a phone for more than $10 a month if there’s no point in it, again this is just me. My father hardly ever uses the phone at all and now he’s spending about $40 a month with Verizon. I think switching over to jitterbug.com will actually help him out, especially when it comes to saving money. I’ll have to let him know about it when his plan is up for renewal in 2009.

Winding Down

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

It’s getting pretty cold outside. According to my little Weather dude it’s a cool 57°F outside.. It’s supposed to get down to the upper 40’s tonight and I just can’t wait for it. I have my green tea and my blanket all ready to go for when I curl up and watch a movie later on with Sean. We’re not sure what we’re going to watch yet but he’s got a few hundred to choose from so I’m sure we’ll be able to figure something out.

Right now he’s watching “The Office”, I personally can’t stand the show but he seems to get a kick out of it so that’s just great for him. I’ve been doing some poking around on Amazon so I can start updating my Wishlist before we move. There are alot of things that we’re interested in purchasing and in some instances, it’s cheaper to get it on Amazon – even with the shipping. But knowing that we’re spending over $50, the shipping is free anyway so that mixed with the no sales tax, it’s like we took the drive up to Dover to do the real shopping anyway – heh.

I have some emails to go through. Guess I should get my butt in gear.

Mobile Marketing at all time high

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

PPPWith the rise in mobile technology, there’s no surprise that the demand for mobile marketing software is also at an all time high. Everyone with a PDA or other variation of a mobile device is using it to surf the Internet. If it’s just a quick email check or surfing the web to find out the latest news, or even stock options, there’s no doubt that PDA’s and other mobile PCs are going to take the world over by storm.

I’m currently in the process of developing a WordPress plugin that works along side WordPress giving PDA users the ability to access a specialized control panel so that they have the same functionality with the WordPress panel as one would have accessing it on a computer based browser. As of right now I only know of a plugin that converts your weblog to a basic feed via the iPhone browser. However, some smart phones include full browsers that allow you to do everything you could on a standard computer. The problem with the current WordPress administration panel is the amount of links and other options that are included in the administration panel. This makes it hard for a user to easily navigate the program when it’s loaded via a smart phone. So changing the template around via a plugin would make things a bit easier to use. I believe this is called WAP Site Design, based on everything I’ve heard of it at least.

Now this is mainly for blog options but mobile marketing has a pretty solid ground in the industry so working with a company like golivemobile.com, or any other company that specializes in mobile marketing, would be a great route to take if you’re interested in getting into the SMS and MMS world. There are numerous TV shows that require you to send in a text message and then you’re involved in the show. I know of one on G4 but I’m forgetting the name right now. But you’re chosen at random (if you submit your number, naturally) and then you’re in the drawing for numerous prize amounts if you can guess the word, find the square, whatever it is they want you to do.

Some things may seem very simple, but once you really start looking into them – the work behind a simple text message can seriously be mind blowing.

Ughness

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

I’ve been keeping myself pretty busy for the last few days.¬† Going through email and what not.¬† There’s a rise of stupid people coming my way that have had me a bit annoyed lately.¬† No one knows how to read, it’s like a running trend.¬† I know that when they received the email from me, it was written clearly with detailed instructions on what they had to do.

When you sign an agreement through Paypal, they’re the ones who handle all of the billing from there on out.¬† If it’s a subscription payment, the payment goes through I add it to my spreadsheets and you’re good for another month (or another year depending on your original agreement).¬† I don’t call your bank account and have money wired, I don’t automatically bill you at times that you’re unaware of.¬† You sign the agreement on the 12th, if it’s monthly you’ll be billed the following 12th and many there after until you no longer need your account.

It’s written on the confirmation email that you’ll be billed monthly, so you should expect to freaking see that from the get go – why is it my damn problem if you forget? For crying out loud.

Random Chatter

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

It’s a little after 4am and there’s a storm rolling in.¬† It’s the second one in the last 24 hours but I’m unsure of whether or not this one is going to bring in any rain with it.¬† There’s a lot of booming going on out the window, and there’s also a nice cool breeze coming along with it so I’m certainly not complaining.¬† If Bella could speak, however, I’m sure she’d be crying about it.¬† With the ear infection she’s already a little on the clingy side, when you add thunder on top of that it can only mean that it’s going to amplify over time.

Sean is waiting on some money to clear in his bank account so he can bring his car in to the mechanic.¬† Once his compressor is taken care of, we’ll continue the patient wait for my paperwork to get here so we can take the trip up to New York.¬† I’m hoping to be able to accomplish this trip over this following weekend but I’m not going to hold my breath.¬† There’s obviously some kind of a reason as to why nothing has showed up for me, I just hope that it doesn’t delay itself for too much longer because we’re itching to get out of here and get into our own place.¬† While we do have the money to get out there and at least put a down payment on the place, the bulk of the loan money was going to cover moving costs.¬† What’s the point of owning the place if there’s no way of affording to get our shit out there, you know?

I sent Sean on a download spree yesterday.¬† I’m now overloaded with games to keep me entertained during the drive up to NY.¬† I already tested my battery out and without a network connection I’m good on about 4 hours of battery life while playing the games.¬† After we have the loan in my bank account I’m going to have him send his car back into the mechanic so that we can get the cigarette lighter fixed, this way there’s some extra power in the car for when his iPod and my laptop begin to die during the 8 hour drive out to Ohio.

There’s a lot of heat coming off my computer at the moment so I think it’s time to shut things down for the night.¬† I also don’t like being on direct AC power with a lightening storm hanging over head.¬† I don’t have a surge protector out here and there’s no way in hell I’m losing my laptop because of a few electrical shorts.

Unreal

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Unfortunately I had no choice but to bring Bella to the filthy vet. After three hours of waiting (almost too patiently) we were finally in the exam room. Ten minutes later the tech showed up and just kind of looked into her ear. The Vet showed up a few moments later. Bella has a pretty nasty ear infection that requires a lot of cleaning and even more ointment. I have to clean her ears out with a special solution twice a day and following each of those cleanings I need to pump a few drops of the antibiotic ointment into them. The vet said that her ears had a few months worth of caked on wax which made no sense to me considering I clean her ears but she told me that I don’t go deep enough into her ear canal which may explain why the infection formed in the first case. The moisture in her ear from after her bath probably didn’t dry very well so that sat on the wax and then the rest is history. Either way I’m going to have to invest in longer qTips so I can get down into her ear canal and I’m going to now have to make it a point to clean much deeper into her ears. She gets a bath once a week (the same time-period on cleaning her ears out) and it’s hard enough getting her to sit still for it, hopefully it’ll be easy for me to accomplish once she gets used to it.

In other news, thanks to the flea/tick bath she had a few days ago, on top of adding a second ointment to her for the month she’s really cut down on the itching. I really wish I could find out where this started. I partly believe it was from the groomer, but she was a bit itchy before she’d left the house that morning. I just don’t know if it’s based on the fact that she had some matting on her side that was bothering her. Either way all seems to be clear there.

The letter didn’t show up today, I’m going to give it a few more days. If there’s nothing here by Thursday I’m going to be making a phonecall to HSBC and requesting that the forms be faxed to me because I’m personally sick of waiting. A letter showed up yesterday but it wasn’t mine so that annoyed me. And I also received a check yesterday from some affiliate program that I signed up to months ago. I had no idea that anyone had even used my referral for anything. When it comes to referrals, I am still patiently waiting for six more people to be a valid signup through the notebooks4free account. I’m six away from $1800, and that would help me out as far as moving expenses are concerned. Oh well, I’m sure it’ll come in when I’m supposed to get it. Or whatever they (points up) have in store for me.

World Travel: Amsterdam

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

I’m not sure if I’d ever actually make the trip out there, but for a quite some time I’ve been interested in learning more about Amsterdam. Over the last year an old friend of mine kind of moved himself out there, but he’s heavy into the “rock & roll” kind of lifestyle that Amsterdam has to offer. So I looked into Amsterdam hotels just to get a general idea of how much it would cost me in the chance that I do actually get out there. I was actually surprised to find a few cheap hotels in the area that really weren’t that bad looking. Sure, when you go on vacation you don’t want to stay in some kind of a dive and that’s completely understandable to anyone involved. I wouldn’t recommend going to some horrible motel that costs $10 a night. I figure if you’re going on vacation you can find something in the $50-$80 range which is about what you’d spend for a decent two star here in the states. I was shocked to find out that a few hotels out there are in that price range and they look more like the three to four stars that we’d spend over $200 a night for.