Author Archive

Making the switch.

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

I’ve been back and forth on whether or not I’m going to leave the PC world in the dust and transfer everything over to a Mac in the near future. An avid mac-user friend of mine is trying to convince me to drop about $10,000 on a fully loaded Mac Pro with a 30-inch cinema display. I put that idea out of her head when I sent her a screen shot of the money in my bank account. Now she’s all up in arms about how a loaded iMac would do the same thing for me.

I’m upset to know that the 17-inch iMac can no longer be found anywhere (new at least). I guess I can deal with the now standard 20-inch iMac but this doesn’t mean there’s going to be enough room on my desk for it, considering there are two monitors there already. The base model is going to run me in the $1200 range. This is a lot better in regards to finances, but it also stems back to whether or not there’s going to be enough room on the desk.

Another option that I’ve been considering is the Mac Mini. I have a dual-monitor setup but when I’m actually at my desktop, I’m using one side specifically for design and the other monitor is basically used for everything else. So the only real change here is the fact that I’m going to be switching back and forth between keyboards. With the wireless keyboard option, I can just store them away whenever I’m not using it so I can just go back to it later.

The final option, and this one hurts the most because of how hard I worked for it, but getting rid of my HP DV5000 laptop and purchasing a Macbook. It’s a leap for me considering I’d be losing 2.4-inches of viewing space but what I like about the Macbooks is that no matter which model you get – 1GB of ram comes standard with all of their systems.

So here’s my question –

You have a $1500 budget and you’re considering switching over to a Mac. Would you get an iMac, Mac Mini or Macbook? And why?

I’m having trouble waiting for this one…

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

It’s been a pretty long day.¬† I woke up a lot later than I intended to but I’ve managed to put in a solid six hours of work so far, so I assume that counts for something.¬† Monthly earnings, thus far, have me in the $300 range so if I can keep up with it I’ll have another $3,000 month – before any design work kicks in for me.¬† I’ve been putting in some bids on GAF to make up for the slack of last month.¬† I went through a few weeks where I just wasn’t doing too well so hopefully this will resolve itself, financially, over the course of the next few days.¬† I’m still not feeling very well but I want to assume this is due to the weather change.¬† I don’t feel a cold coming on, but my body kind of feels as though it’s eventually going to crap out on me.¬† I have antibiotics and aspirin on hand in case something big blows up.¬† Stress may be the cause of it, lord knows how bad my back has been acting up because of it.

We’re leaving for New York on Friday around 6.¬† If we can avoid any major traffic we should be there by 11 (midnight at the latest) so I can take a much needed nap and then head out to the bank on Saturday morning with my father.¬† I’m have to call him tomorrow to verify plans, I’m just patiently waiting for the HSBC letter to show up for me.¬† If it’s not here by Friday – I don’t know what I’m going to do.¬† 7-10 days takes a lot longer when you’re anticipating something so heavily.

I figure on Sunday I’ll go to Breakfast with my father since we’re leaving on Sunday night.¬† Originally we were going to go to dinner but we have to get back down here before Monday morning so there really isn’t much of a choice there.

I’ll be booking the room for A.C. on Saturday as well.¬† I figure if I’m up there the same weekend as my father we can at least have dinner together there.¬† I have a few comps for buffets in almost all of the hotels so I’m sure something will work out.¬† Sean has one, I have one and my father has one but each comp covers two people.¬† So whoever winds up tagging along is covered – basically.

In any event, I could put in another four hours – maybe it’ll keep my mind off things.

Show your support.

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

PPPMemorial Bracelets was the first firm to begin selling engraved bracelets on the web to raise funds for families of September 11th victims and heroes of terrorism. They’re now offering this special bracelet just for the troops and their safe return home from the war in Iraq. If you’re someone who supports your troops, even if you don’t support the War, then this is something you may be interested in. It’s called the “Until They All Come Home” bracelet, and if you’re interested you can head over to the Until They All Come Home Bracelet Order Page. They’re available in small, medium, large and extra large sizes and they range from $12.99 to $18.99 in price depending on the material and type of engraving you choose. Two dollars from each bracelet sold are donated to a charity that supports the families of fallen and wounded U.S. Soldiers.

Press Release:

Novi, MI September 29, 2007 — In an earlier era, tying a ribbon around the old oak tree — as the lyrics of a 1970s pop-tune suggested — was a way to remember U.S. troops off at war. But a Michigan man has another idea. He’d like to see people demonstrate their support for our troops at war in Iraq by wearing a bracelet around their wrists engraved with “Until They All Come Home”, and he has begun offering the bracelets on a Web site in hopes of achieving that goal.

The site, www.untiltheyallcomehomebracelet.com offers colored aluminum, stainless steel or leather bracelets which are engraved, “Until They All Come Home, Operation Iraqi Freedom” or “Until They All Come Home” and the name of an active-duty soldier of the wearer’s choosing. The bracelets are personalized with the date ordered or with a “worn since” date to indicate the wearer’s dedication to the completion of U.S. troops’ mission in Iraq and their safe return home. Bracelets are also engraved with the wearer’s initials, making it uniquely their own.

“So, even if you are against the war and believe that we should withdrawal immediately, you can wear an Until They All Come Home bracelet to let the troops know that you want us to do it in a way that best protects their security.,” said Rob Tacy, the sites’s founder. “If you want us to continue fighting the war to show the terrorist that we will not back down and provide security for the Iraqi people, you can wear an Until They All Come Home bracelet to show our soldiers that you support their efforts until their mission is complete.,” Tacy added.

Until They All Come Home Bracelets‚Ñ¢ are available at www.untiltheyallcomehomebracelets.com in small, medium, large and extra large sizes and range in price from $12.99 – $18.99, depending on the material and type of engraving chosen. Two dollars from each bracelet sold will be donated to a charity that supports the families of fallen and wounded U.S. soldiers.

Catherine Knight Linsley of Tallahassee, FL has worn two of the bracelets since May 1. “I have two soldiers in Iraq that I have ‘adopted,’ and I wanted something to show everyone that the soldiers there are thought about, prayed for and wished a quick and safe return home,” said Linsley. “My guys do not know about the bracelets yet, but my plan is to wear them 24/7 until they come home, just like I did with my older Vietnam War bracelets.”

Linsely is among many bracelet owners who have posted their stories about their bracelets on the site’s blog page. To read other stories from people who wear Memorial Bracelets, visit their blog at http://memorialbracelet.blogspot.com/.

About Memorialbracelets.com
With the launch in October of 2001 of www.memorialbraclets.com], the idea of wearing a bracelet to support a cause was revitalized. The site was created to raise funds for September 11 heroes and victims of terrorism. Since its inception, Memorial Bracelets has donated over $60,000 to charities supporting these families and to those of Vietnam POWs and MIAs, and U.S. soldiers wounded or fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In response to customer requests, Memorial Bracelets also offers bracelets for U.S. soldiers who were listed as POW, MIA and KIA in the Vietnam War and for military personnel lost during the Gulf War, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Visitors to the site may also create a personally engraved bracelet with a message of their choice, such as the name of an active-duty soldier or that of a lost friend or relative. Many of these bracelets are created as personal, meaningful gifts.

Show your support, order one today.

The Daily Three

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

I’ve never done The Daily Three before, so I figured I’d see how I liked it.

1. Do you feel the need to say something such as “There you go!” when handing something to another person? It depends. When I was a cashier I was usually good on keeping my mouth shushed. If they were a bitchy customer, however, I didn’t quite have that censor.

2. In reference to different regional slang, how do you describe the following things where you’re from?

a.) An expensive item (for instance in MN, we use the term “spendy”.) For me it’s usually “Nope, can’t afford it”. Guess that’s another way of saying “pricey” huh?
b.) The place where you buy food Depends on where we’re going. If I’m in the mood for Italian I just say Pizza and everyone else kind of jumps on board – even if they’re getting a calzone or a chicken parm. dinner or something.
c.) The fizzy stuff you generally drink from a can or bottle Soda, most people say pop but I find it absurd.

3. List three cities in your state/province that have odd spellings. Challenge your friends list to pronounce them correctly. For instance: Faribault, MN is pronounced FARE-uh-bo.
I’ll base it on NY terms because down here it’s pretty straight forward:

Wantagh
Aquebogue
Copaigue

Good Luck with those. heh.

Security Bonds

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

PPPI like to look into more information on things, mainly because I consider my brain to be one big information sponge. While in search of information on financial security, I came across a bonding company that specializes in everything from getting a mortgage broker bond to even a Cigarette Tax Bond. As a smoker I kind of found myself reading more into this subject, and I then find out that there’s more than I really knew about them. Sure, brand and flavor are important to me (spoken as a true addict, right?) but the finances behind it kind of interest me as well.

The Cigarette Tax Bond is broken down pretty easily. This was taken directly from jwsuretybonds.com:

Description: Cigarette Tax Bonds are required to guarantee taxes are paid from a seller of tobacco to the government requiring the bond.

Current Market: Any type of financial guarantee surety bond is looked at with a close eye. Many larger bonding companies are still willing to write Cigarette Tax Bonds, but may be more conservative than they would be with a more traditional surety risk. Our agency is appointed with several bonding companies that write this particular class of business more freely than the rest of the industry.

Special Programs: Cigarette Tax Bonds are not required by many. The relatively small amount of requests does not allow for any bulk specialty programs.

I knew that having to pay taxes on cigarettes were a requirement state to state but I was unaware of everything that goes on behind it. I just recently found out that states are using the cigarette tax to put towards health care – something I completely agree with considering my tax dollars (on anything) up to this point have really only been lining the pockets of those who implement these taxes.

There are a few different options on the site that you can look through if you’re interested in a Security Bond for your company. The site is filled with step-by-step break downs of what each bond means and there’s also an application process as well if you decide to go through this specific branch.

Loaded Questions

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

I haven’t done the Loaded Questions meme in quite some time now, so I figured I’d head over to Lynda’s site and take a peak at this weeks questions.

Hypotheticals: If you were city commissioner, what would you do to make your city better?
For starters I’d get some kind of a recycling system going on because of the dumping problems. I’d also have more than 7 police officers for the entire “town”. Right now they only cover a three block radius around the beach and I find it completely absurd. I could really go on with this list, but that’s a whole new thousand-word entry.

Anything Goes: What book should be banned based on its boring subject matter?
See Spot Run – The damn dog doesn’t go anywhere!

No-Brainers: What is your favorite cliche?
Buy now, pay later.

Personals: What would you guess your IQ is?
I’ve actually taken a test on this recently at a local school. (Don’t ask). It was in the 135 range.

Interested in a Free Raleigh, NC Getaway?

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

PPPSean and I have been planning on taking a trip for quite some time now.¬† For my birthday (22nd) we’re heading up to Atlantic City for a few days because they’ve offered me 6 comped rooms on top of a few hundred dollars in slot cash to load into the machines.¬† The trick with that is you can cash out after one roll and then walk away from them and enjoy the free money.¬† But this is me we’re talking about, so by the time I do cash out $50 will have already been put into the machines.

After that, however, we’ve been considering more of a relaxing vacation.¬† The casino is great and all because it’s free, but we’d kind of like to go somewhere we haven’t gone before.¬† We’ve been looking south because the north has already had our attention for so long.¬† My sisters boyfriend lives in North Carolina and he’s been telling us about Raleigh, NC because of all it has to offer.¬† I just recently found out about some pretty interesting giveaway from visitraleigh.com.¬† They’re currently offering a pretty cool package deal.¬† You register for the free drawing and if your name is chosen you’re given the following:

– One night accommodations for two at the Courtyard by Marriott Raleigh Crabtree Valley
– $25 gift certificate to Bloomsbury Bistro
– Free VIP admission for two to Rum Runners
– 2 tickets to the North Carolina Theater (you can see shows like Mamma Mia! and others)
– 2 tickets to the North Carolina Museum of Art’s Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism
– 2 tickets to Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences.

It’s a pretty interesting deal. you can register for the FREE Raleigh Getaway.¬† You can also look into their Fall Getaway options to check out everything going on during the Fall weekends in Raleigh.

Worth a look.

Sponsored

Still Awake…

Monday, October 1st, 2007

I can’t sleep and I hate when this happens.¬† Sean is in the office playing Halo 3, Bella’s snoring her little head off next to me and since it’s after 5:30am, an alarm clock is going off in excess because it’s owner is a dead sleeper who refuses to get out of bed until about 6am.¬† I never thought alarm clocks were made to be that loud but if it’ll wake the dead then it’ll wake the rest of the complex too.

I tried going to sleep about two hours ago.¬† But when you spend time looking at the ceiling and your brain won’t shut up long enough for you to relax then actually falling asleep just doesn’t seem like an option at that point in time.¬†¬† Hopefully this will change soon because I’m sick of being awake at this point.

On Friday I brought Bella in to the groomer.¬† I’m not really happy with the result, but I’m not unhappy either.¬† Knowing that Winter is just around the corner, having her shaved down now seemed reasonable because by December she’ll be back to her usual fluffy self and just some upkeep here and there to avoid heavy matting is all that really needs to be done during the winter months.¬† I asked for my usual puppy cut, cut the nails, squeeze the anals so she doesn’t drag her ass across the floor, thin out the ears and definitely thin out the tail.¬† I leave and hang around for the day until about 2pm when they call to have me come and get her.¬† The groomer comes out with this little tan dog that’s dying to get to me but looks NOTHING like Bella at all.¬† She cut too short around the face but left these fluffy ears so she kind of looks like an alien with a wig on.¬† Her tail was done right though, but they did cut a little too close to the skin and I have to say this is one of the shortest puppy-cuts I’ve ever seen.

So this, to me, explains why she’s been so clingy being as she’s freezing her ass off thanks to the damn weather change.¬† She never usually gets cold, but she’s been shivering lately which has Sean comparing her to a Chihuahua.¬† Based on how thin her face and legs are now, yea I can see the comparison, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be verbalized.

I knew it was going to start getting cooler down here but the 80 degree days followed by 50 degree over-nights are more than enough to drive someone to the point of being violently ill.¬† I know that my nose is starting to run because I’m freezing at night and then sweating my proverbial balls off during the day.

Oh great, now Princess is looking to get into the bedroom.¬† I’m going to force myself to sleep so I don’t have to listen to anymore whimpering.¬† She’s trying to get into Karen’s room but for some reason Karen left her in the living room tonight and I won’t be awake long enough to find out why so I’ll ask later – I guess I only noted it here as a reference for when I get back online this afternoon.¬† I forget things when I’m tired, I always have.

Approved.

Saturday, September 29th, 2007

I was approved for the loan, but that doesn’t mean that life has been made any easier.¬† In order to get the loan I need to be in person at the bank, which is fine, but the cosigner needs to be there as well.¬† My problem is that my cosigner lives in NY, so this means we’ll be taking a trip up there sometime over the course of the next week.¬† However, we’re also dealing with a broken car – so how are we getting up there?¬† On Monday we’re calling a car rental place and then taking the trip up.¬† I figure if we leave on Thursday or Friday, we can take the drive home for Sunday/Monday.¬† It’s a lot of driving to do but at the same time, there’s no real choice.

Once we get back, with money in hand we’ll get his car fixed because he refuses to look into an auto loan.¬† My issue is the fact of putting $1,000 into a car that probably won’t even MAKE it to Ohio if it’s fixed, so what’s the point?¬† I know for the initial trip we’re renting another car, this way his car only needs to make the one trip and then after we settle in we’ll work from there.¬† It just seems like a lot of extra steps but we also know that insurance is a bit different out there as well, so buying a car out here is going to more than likely cost us more in the long run.¬† His brother is only paying like $90 a month on two cars, and he’s got full coverage.

Everything is cheaper out there I guess.

Anticipating the future

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

I’m waiting to hear from HSBC in regards to the loan.¬† It’s a pretty substantial amount of money so I want to assume it’s going to take a few days before I hear anything.¬† As of right now we have everything planned out.¬† Sean’s credit cards will be paid off within 24-hours of the check clearing, a trip to Ohio will be quickly planned and after a trip north to purchase a new car – we’ll be heading out to look into our available options.¬† My bookmarks list has grown quite a bit over the last few days and based on that list alone, about $2,000 is going straight to furnishing the place.¬† That doesn’t seem like a lot but I’m not only a smart shopper, I’m a cheap one too.

I don’t need a lot of useless items to throw around in the house, we have more than enough coming with us in order to fill the house up.¬† The larger purchases include a new TV, a vacuum and probably new flooring depending on how old the carpet is in this place.¬† The list is mainly limited to Best Buy, Walmart, Kmart and Target.¬† Depending on the condition of the couch – a trip to IKEA or any store in the area is going to be another “big” purchase for us, but nothing that will break the budget.¬† We know from the get-go that we’ll be paying taxes on the loan so that’s really not a big deal.¬† I just have the list all taken care of, now it’s just getting the money that’s holding us back.¬† It’s not easy to get tens of thousands of dollars thrown into your bank account over night, and I’m not exactly working for a corporation where I can take out an advance on my salary in order to make that happen so being as the only option is a loan – I want to think I made the right choice.¬† I just checked my email and saw that a notification for me is going to show up within the next 7-10 days.

Things on the family front seem OK.¬† My grandfather is undergoing his cancer treatment, my aunt seems to be recovering nicely from her treatment and knowing that it’s in the family on both sides, it’s had me in an “ehh…” kind of a mood for the past few weeks.¬† My grandmother (father’s side) died when I was about 8 years old of lung, bone and breast cancer it kind of just hit her breast and shifted its way into every other organ.¬† I haven’t gotten a mammogram in years and now it’s just starting to hit me, hopefully with this loan some much-needed self-insurance is going to come through as well.¬† From the tooth issues to the fact that I’m a high risk for cancer, my attention span has been close to ‘shit’ lately.

I called up the groomer this afternoon, she’s scheduled for an appointment on Friday morning.¬† I figure getting her shaved now will give her enough time to have a decent amount of hair on her before Winter.¬† From there I can keep her trimmed up until Spring.¬† I don’t really like the idea of going six months and may wind up doing it around Christmas and keeping a jacket on her, but for now I’m itching to get it done because she had a brutally hot summer to deal with and I felt horrible that I couldn’t spare the funds, or the time, to get her done.¬† I kept her trimmed up by myself but there’s just a lot of hair on her.¬† I don’t know how the larger dogs that are covered in thick long hair can be even remotely comfortable in the heat.¬† She’s only like 17 pounds and has thin hair and can barely stand it.¬† She plops out next to the AC vent on the floor in the kitchen and rolling around on ice-cubes are her only real relief.¬† Meanwhile, Sean is always freezing in the bedroom and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more content dog when she’s in here sprawled out on a nice cool bed…heh.

It’s knocking on 4:30, and knowing I need to crash by midnight tomorrow – I’m going to take a nap and then wake up to get some work done.¬† This should be fun.

Outage

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

For those of you located under the ns1.acidgloss.net and ns2.acidgloss.net nameservers, the following post is in regards to you.

The servers have been successfully transferred, with this transfer the downtime we’re experiencing is the IP address changes. Please make sure your DNS reads as the following:

ns1.acidgloss.net – 72.52.224.206
ns2.acidgloss.net – 72.52.224.207

Note, you do not have to use the IP addresses. If you do, then make sure to update them to those addresses ASAP. Once the IP’s verify, all accounts should be back up and running with out any issues what-so-ever. This move has been made due to the excessive downtime and server outages experienced over the course of the last month. It should resolve everything.

Halo 3 Continues…

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

Sean is a few hours into his 24-hours of Halo.¬† He’s updating his blog between rounds.¬† I’m having trouble sleeping at the moment.¬† I should have been knocked out for over an hour at this point but the A.C. is making all kinds of noises at the moment.¬† It’s a cooler night here in Rehoboth so that would typically mean that the A.C. is trying to cool down already-chilled air so it’s just causing it to freeze.¬† Unfortunately there’s only one window in the bedroom so I can’t even open the window to enjoy the cooler air.¬† Now there’s a lot of noises going on around the house in general, and I know it’s not Sean so it’s starting to freak me out a bit.¬† Even Bella has perked up out of a dead sleep.¬† This should be interesting.¬† Time to investigate the house, and maybe finally get some sleep.

Halo 3, Loans, Sickness and Stress

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

Sean’s birthday was this past Friday, I gave him a gift certificate to EB Games because tonight was the launch of Halo 3.¬† He’s been playing Halo 2 for the past four years or so and the anticipation, plus the hype, surrounding Halo 3¬†was bound to spark his interest.¬† Me, being the good girlfriend that I am,¬†decided to give him a $150 gift card so he could get the limited edition version that game in some helmet with a few other disks.¬† I figure since it’s the last installment, it’s something he really wanted, and it isn’t worth waiting in line for hours just to pick up a single game – the $130 limited edition would be more than worth it.

I was expecting him to be gone for a while, he left at 11:30 for the Midnight launch but found out earlier this week that the Halo 2 launch had a pretty large turn out, so much so that the parking lot was full and the line stretched from EB Games to Superfresh.¬† This is about 1,000 or so feet, so I assumed this time that he’d be gone for a while, so I curled up in bed and started reading my new book.¬† He walked in the door at 12:15 and I’m sitting here thinking “Oh shit, what happened?”.¬† He had this large box in his hand and literally jumped for joy, he was #50 on a line of 100 pre-order people, the non-preorder line was quite long so he’s happy that he’s already completely paid for the game.¬† He walked in with the voucher and his photo ID and the rest was history.¬† Now he’s playing in the office, and I’m on Karen’s computer in the kitchen because my laptops in the office and walking in front of him isn’t an option right now.

On the loan front, instead of Sean and I co-borrowing, I’ve gotten in touch with my father and he’s willing to co-sign on a loan for me.¬†¬†I didn’t want to ask him, but with the amount of money we’re looking to take out, having someone with a 760+ credit score is the only option.¬† I’m in the 680-700 range, Sean probably doesn’t even rank based on his credit history so maybe going with my father on the loan will get us the money we need to get out of here.¬† So tomorrow I’ll be making a phone call for all of the information and going from there.¬† Hopefully this is the route that works, if not – we’re completely tapped for ideas.¬† Staying in Delaware would be great but it’s just too expensive.¬† I refuse to live in Pennsylvania and New York (while it would be the best option for me) isn’t the best option for my wallet.¬† An apartment anywhere on the Island is going to cost more money than we can spare if we’re paying back a loan.¬† And knowing the Island the way that I do, anything “affordable” is usually in the worst of area’s so it’s not even worth it at this point.

It’s not that we don’t HAVE the money that we need in order to get out of here.¬† It’s just the matter of extra expenses showing up.¬† We could easily put our savings into getting his car fixed, or even getting a new one, but that would wipe out the account either way and then we’d be back to square one.¬† Having the extra money via a loan is the only option right now.

I’m not sure if it’s the fact that the loan situation is getting to me, the fact that my period is coming to an end or just the weather in general but I’ve been under the weather for the past few weeks and it’s getting harder and harder to shake it.¬† Frequent headaches have had me in bed for longer than I’d like to be, I’m lucky I can even sit up straight right now considering the throbbing.¬†¬†I’ve put myself back on antibiotics because my tooth has been acting up and a dentist won’t touch me until the swelling goes down, another reason for the money crunch right now.¬† You go out of your way to eat better, lose some more weight than you currently were, and that one freaking piece of broccoli can rip a soft tooth in half.¬† The nerve is exposed, so I’ve been having trouble chewing, it’s just the swelling that’s stopping me from getting any work done.

Bella seems as though she’s feeling a little better, I’m scheduling an appointment for Thursday to get her groomed.¬† She’s starting to get a little matted down on her ears, I’ve done a good job on keeping her brushed out so that they don’t form around her legs, but trying to get anywhere near her face with a scissor is like pulling teeth.¬† I’ll have the groomer take care of it.¬† I figure if I get it done now,¬†she’s covered for Winter until the next time she has to go back.¬† And if it gets too cold, she’s got a jacket so there’s no big deal.

I get picked on for having clothes for the dog, but it’s not like she’s running around the house in a little tshirt that says “Princess” on it or something.¬† I have a standard heavy jacket that just snaps on for Winter.¬† Vets and animal lovers across the globe have said that if it’s too cold for you, it’s too cold for your dog.¬† So yea, in 40 degree weather, she’s not exactly freezing, but when it drops down to like 15, as predicted in Ohio, she’s going to need one.

In any event, it’s pushing 1am and that means it’s time to get my ass to bed.

I’m confused…

Sunday, September 23rd, 2007

The last few days have been kind of strange. Nothing seems to be working out the way it should. I went to turn on my laptop and instead of loading the Desktop, it would just get to the windows boot screen and reset itself. It took a few days, mainly due to procrastination, but now everything seems to be running just fine. Bella’s been sick, to the point that she’s been going in the house, something she hasn’t done in years. I’m still not feeling too hot. The loan situation has us kind of down but we’re working on getting around that. And yet another bump in the road is the fact that Sean’s car is on the verge of death. The compressor is going, so any loan money we happen to get – a lot of it will go towards a new car. I’m not talking a 2007, but something newer than the 1995 he’s been driving. He doesn’t want to get rid of his car, but when it’s going to cost like $1500 to fix it, we’d be better off spending $3,000 on something that’s a few years younger (1999-2000) and has a lot less miles on it. I think his car has like 150,000 on it or something. It’s just time for an upgrade. We were going to take the drive next weekend to visit his brother but knowing that his car could die at any minute, staying local is the only option right now. I know everything happens for a reason, but I’m having trouble trying to figure out exactly what the hell is going on, and it’s driving me crazy.

Playing around

Thursday, September 20th, 2007

I just downloaded a program called A-PDF Size Splitter.¬† It lets you split any Acrobat PDF file, or group of files, into smaller-sized PDF files. It’s decent when you have to deal with file sized limits imposed by your email provider or even for meeting specialized requirements such as maximum attachment size on websites that you’re involved with.

I’ve recently dealt with a client who sent me all of his write-up’s via PDF format.¬† Now, the questions about the site itself were done via email, the write-ups were all of his content pages that needed to be worked into his 300+ page website.¬† He’s an amazing author but even his short stories were like 15MB files, my inbox nearly blew up on me because of it.¬† I kind of wish I knew about this program before I started working with him, he’s recently downloaded it to make my life a little easier.¬† I could easily split things up on my end but he’s in love with the program now.¬† It wasn’t an email issue for me though, it was Acrobat, it would crash on me with the initial load of some of the files considering how large the file-size was.¬† I think it would benefit anyone who uses PDF’s on a regular basis, honestly.

Funk-tastic.

Thursday, September 20th, 2007

I’ve been in a funk for the last couple of weeks. From the server issues to the PMDD and the fact that I’m just not feeling very well in general, I’ve been spending a lot of time in bed. It’s not that I’m not getting any work done, I’ve just switched myself back to my laptop for a little while. Go figure, I drop $180 on a second monitor and I don’t even bother to use the desktop anymore. The original monitor is acting up a little bit, it’s making a buzzing sound that is strange to hear out of an LCD. If it happens to die on me, oh well. I’m under warranty for another couple of months and I have to go up to NY in the near future anyway so I can just walk into Microcenter and get a replacement.

With all of the time I’ve spent in bed, I’ve been going through a lot of things in preparation for the upcoming move. Getting rid of paperwork and other things that really don’t need to make the move with us, and would really just add to the excess of clutter we currently have. I’ve also been building up a large bookmarks folder for the things that I’m going to need to purchase before or directly after we move in. A coffee maker, for me, is the most important thing considering I can’t really function without coffee, I’ve also been looking into a lot of housewares so that we can move in and be able to LIVE once we get the house cleaned out from the previous owners.

Vision BeddingKnowing that there’s going to be one room in the house that’s all mine, I’ve been looking into a lot of things for the bedroom, I want a room where I can kick back and relax – I’ve even looked into Teen Bedding because there are a lot of funky designs out there that would keep me very happy. The one to the left was one of the first ones I looked into. It’s got a really cool vector design, and they print bedding for up to a king sized duvet cover, which I think is pretty cool. There’s also the option of sending in your own images and having them blown up. So essentially I could take my favorite desktop image and have it turned into a throw blanket to snuggle up with in the living room on those cold Ohio nights.

There are a lot of options available, even dog beds with personalized pictures. I’m not sure if I would take that route though, Bella already stares herself down in the mirror, attempting to get behind the mirror to sniff things out, I could only imagine what she’d try to do if she was looking at a bed with her face on it, heh.

Sean and I have a lot of packing to accomplish, I really sat down and looked at everything going on in the office and kind of went to hide back in the much-cleaner bedroom.¬† You don’t realize how much stuff you can accumulate until you have to pack it all up.