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Tag! I’m it?

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

Shauna has tagged me to tell you six weird things you probably didn’t know about me. While I’m close to positive that it won’t be a great list, I’ll still give it a shot anyway.

#1 – I love the smell of gasoline.
I know this isn’t really a ‘weird’ thing because I’ve heard of many people who feel the same way. The thing is, I spent close to 20 years living next to a gas station. I never really got used to the smell until I was about 10 years old and now I can’t get enough of it.

#2 – I’m sound sensitive.
This is why I’m so easily agitated by noise around me. I can hear basically everything, even if it’s from across the room and when background noise gets to being too much for me, I typically wind up going crazy and wanting to rip my hair out. I’ll frequently ask the higher-powers to make me go deaf for a few days but they haven’t quite gotten around to it yet. Sometimes even the sound of the keys while typing can agitate me and I have full control over that. I’ve been through many pairs of head phones over the last few years trying to drown out the noise behind me, nothing’s changed.

#3 – I have more than perfect eye sight.
Everyone in my family from both sides has trouble seeing. They either wear glasses or contacts and if they don’t, they’re to the point where they need to but are too stubborn to admit to it. Even looking at a monitor for close to 15 hours a day I still have better than 20-20 vision. I can read liscence plates for up to 200 feet away and it freaks some people out when I’m driving with them because they’re lucky to even be able to SEE the car 200 feet away, let alone read the plate on it.

#4 – I have O.C.D.
I’ve had this problem for years. If I can’t do it with even numbers then I can’t do it at all. I wash my hands twice, I clean things twice, the volume number on the television has to be able to be divided by two or I go crazy. For quite some time I was washing my clothes twice but knowing how much water was being wasted I had to stop myself from doing it. I now, however, get my way still. I only pour half caps of detergent into the machine so I can do it twice to get one whole. I light cigarettes twice, I take two sips of everything I drink, I chew only with even numbers before swallowing…it’s just a whole series of things that build up.

#5 – Organizational Freak
I’m sure this falls under O.C.D. but this is another problem of mine. I live by the motto of “A place for every thing and every thing in it’s place.” I file paper work that most people wouldn’t even think of saving. I have everything labeled in a way that’s easy for even the dumbest of people to figure out. Kitchen cabinets need to be organized in a manor that makes sense when I’m cooking. Karen has things kind of all over the place because she doesn’t really cook so she doesn’t understand a chefs point of view on accessibility. Since it’s her kitchen, however, I can’t rearrange anything and I have to tell you – it’s driving me bananas.

#6 – I’m engaged.
While it’s not really a ‘weird’ thing, I haven’t been that open about it either. I’m in a very happy relationship and will more than likely be in this relationship for a very long time. We get along very well, know what each other is thinking and can battle it out like no tomorrow and still love each other five minutes later. It’s a great feeling. Now, if only I could get him to clean his shit up to cover my issues with number 4 and 5, and maybe this will be a match made in heaven…heh.

So yea, there’s my six. I’m going to tag: Ranee, Esther, Jenny and Sean for this one.

Back to Relaxation Time…

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

I was working on Shauna‘s template for most of the day, I completed it not too long ago. I’m sure she went to sleep quite some time ago considering it’s about 5am for me, so I’m sure I’ll hear from her in the morning. I started doing a little bit of work for Dick, I need to get in touch with him to quote him for it. I tend to jump the gun sometimes but I doubt he’d mind considering he’d already given me the list of changes that he needed done.

I did have some downtime when Sean and I took a quick drive to EB Games and cashed in on his store credit for a few games. They’re running some thing at the moment that’s buy two used games or accessories and get one free. I got myself a new Nintendo DS game and we picked up two Playstation 2 games in the process. I’m not sure what the basis of the game is. Since I’m not really a ‘gamer’ I chose the game based on how pretty the box was. That sounds stupid, I know…but that’s just how I work sometimes. It’s RPG based according to Sean, maybe it’ll actually be worth getting into.

Karen’s house guest will be here in about 9 hours or so, She’s taking the Cape May Ferry around 1, so considering that drops off about two towns over and the trip is only about an hour I figure she’ll be here 2 – 2:30. Sean hates the woman, she tends to nag him to death which typically will piss him off. I’ll just keep him locked in the office with me all day tomorrow. I doubt he’ll mind though, Halo 3 is going out of Beta on Monday so he’s most likely going to be playing quite a bit anyway. Hopefully his boss gives him some time off this weekend, he’s been working pretty hard anyway. I don’t think he’s had a single day off this week, honestly. That needs to change.

MmMmm, I almost forgot it was after 5. The coffee pot is perking and now the house is filled with the sweet smell of fresh coffee. Too bad I’m going to bed in a few minutes, I’ll just have to reheat it when I wake up later. Oh well.

I’m going to get some final email checks out of the way and then get myself to bed for the night. Bella’s a little antsy at the moment so if I were laying down with her she’d calm down fairly quickly. She’s seriously like having a child. I’m just lucky enough to not have to deal with crying, diapers or her talking back with a queen sized attitude.

[insert title here] ::blinks::

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

I’m not quite sure what it is but I seem to be losing my mind. Many of you saw this coming, I know, but for some reason lately it’s hard for me to finish the things that I start. Tonight, for example, I was in the mood to get some cleaning done, cleaning I’ve been putting off for quite some time. I started throwing the garbage away and got some other random things taken care of and I walk back into the kitchen to pick up a bag of garbage to then completely forget why I’m in there.

This isn’t the first time it’s happened to me either. When Sean and I were moving rooms around, I went to the living room to bring a box or something into the office and wound up staring at the floor wondering what I was even doing in there. I’m not sure why it’s happening but I can tell you this much – I don’t like it.

I’m 99% finished with Shauna‘s template, the only thing stopping me is Adobe being a butt head while I’m working on these finishing touches. That’s another thing though, I opened Adobe to create the fav icon and once it loaded I’d completely forgotten why I’d even opened the stupid program.¬† [edit] Make that 100% completed. Email me when you get the chance, Shauna! [/edit]

Maybe I should start popping some Ginkobaloba on a regular basis… :hrm:

:: smacks senseless ::

Friday, June 8th, 2007

I have no idea why but I’m agitated as SHIT right now. I’m trying very hard to work on getting Shauna‘s template completed and every little noise around me is driving me bananas. Sean is having a sneezing attack, Bella is being obnoxious and just little stupid noises like the air conditioner kicking in are bothering the shit out of me. It’s to the point that I wish I could just go deaf for a little while just to get some shit done. I threw my iPod on and now hopefully this will get my concentration back.

I’ll tell you this much, the one millisecond pause between songs is equally annoying.

WhoGets.com

Friday, June 8th, 2007

If you’re poking around the internet looking for new and interesting resources (they’re rare these days, trust me) there’s a site named whogets.com that may be right up your alley. It’s a completely free website (that’s also spam free) that’s offering you the chance to win a huge array of prizes in their online contests. The contest prize values range from $10 to $600 and will be displayed in each contest. The contests are open exclusively to members of whogets.com, it’s free to join just sign up! Once you’re a member you can enter each contest for free via the website. There’s nothing to buy, no offers to complete and you’ll never receive any spam emails. Hundreds of contents, many different rounds to participate in, it just keeps building from there. If you’re interested in joining a new fast pace and fun site that will give you CASH for absolutely no money down then whogets.com is the way to go. Sign up now!

Not done, but getting there…

Friday, June 8th, 2007

It took about a day longer than I’d originally wanted it to but I got all the cooking done tonight that I wanted to do last night. The problem is I ate too much and now my stomach is killing me. I’m no where near done for the night though, I do still have to clean the kitchen and the bathroom. The towels need to be washed, the office could use a little vacuuming and the bedroom needs to be straightened up a little because while I’m completely moved in, there’s still some things that are just out of place at the moment. I should probably put one of the blankets away in the linen closet because it’s just too heavy to have on the bed at night, even with the air conditioner blasting and the fan blowing directly on us. It’s a small room that’s hit with sun light all day long so naturally it’s like a heat box in there. It’s an easy fix though, just load up on some more fans that aren’t that hefty so they don’t aid in giving off a shit load of heat themselves.

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo?

Friday, June 8th, 2007

PPPPPPBaby and I spend quite a bit of time watching the cartoon network, mainly because he’s a big Futurama fan and I personally enjoy Family Guy, either one is typically on around the time we turn the television on for the night. A few times during the day, however, I’ve seen commercials for a series named “Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo” I personally have no idea how to say it without sounding like an idiot but when I saw an opportunity to learn some more about it, I went ahead and took it. After logging into a download site for them, I came across a few episodes. I’m not really into anime but I found the first episode to be rather amusing. Some guy is going around and basically scalping everyone. Not in the way you’d assume though, they’re just stealing peoples hair.

This one girl had very pink hair that I actually found to be rather cute. She’s running for her life to get away from him and some other guy comes up and ‘saves her’ from it. She then turns around to find out who it is and it’s some big blonde dude with nose hair that’s so long it’s waving in the wind. He’s the main character Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. I found it to be rather amusing, there are sections in Japanese when it comes to the wording of the video, however, and I have no idea what any of it says. I figure if you’re going to convert a video for multiple audiences, at least transform the text too – you know? The running theme for each episode is rather funny too “Let’s get wiggy with it”.

It’s not as obnoxious as most anime that I’ve seen, I may actually watch this show on occasion. If you’re interested in learning more about it, you can check out the Official Website for it.

Just when things are going well…DAMN IT!

Friday, June 8th, 2007

I’ve recently been in touch with an admissions director at AIU Online. In order to go for my bachelors through them, I need to have already completed my associates because their school year starts on the junior level, not the freshmen level that I was previously assuming. The problem is, she only could really crunch the numbers for me – I want to talk to someone in the visual communications department and really learn some more about the actual course itself.

It’s going to cost me about $32,000 to get my bachelors through them, that counts for the entire course and includes books, software and other things. She claims it’d be smart to stick with them when it comes to the associates degree because it’s only going to take me about 10-15 weeks tops. The issue I have with that is, how am I going to come up with the $19,500 to take the Associates and then another $32,000 to take the bachelors all within maybe 5 months of each other. It’s also 90 credits in 15 weeks that makes no real sense to me, that’s borderline killing myself just to get the damn degree.

I could just go to Penn Foster and get that taken care of for $4,000 but I also have to factor in that at the end of each semester I need to take a proctored exam and I don’t know ANYONE down here that has the minimum of an associates degree that could help me out in that regard. So when it comes to that alone – AIU is looking much better.

Either way I’m going to be completing the degree through AIU, I need to get my ID’s taken care of to reposition me down here because any scholarship, grant or financial aid that I file for needs to be sent down here and I don’t have any current proof of residence other than my WAMU account being sent down here and my casino mailers coming here as well. If I spent $50 to register to live in the complex, I’m sure that’ll count for something as well. Either way I consider myself screwed just when things were starting to go well for me.

Lack of inspiration getting the best of me…

Friday, June 8th, 2007

I’m going through a severe lack of inspiration at the moment. I believe it’s based on the fact that I haven’t been down to the beach in a while. According to my inbox I have quite a few jobs coming to me but I feel as though I don’t have enough energy to get through them. The work I’m doing at the moment seems rather small in comparison to what I’m used to. I don’t discredit it in any way because I do love what I do, don’t get me wrong. I just feel like I should be doing something much bigger than I have been lately. The little site work here and there doesn’t bother me by any means, I just want to work on something HUGE.

I get quite a bit of inspiration from listening to the waves. I always feel a lot more energized when I’ve left the beach. I get the same effects by looking at the stars as well. Unfortunately with all of the ambient light around here, it’s close to impossible for me to see enough stars to keep me calm. I came across a new product recently; it’s called skyscout. It’s a hand-held, point-shot-and-identify multimedia guide to the universe that can guide you through the night sky better than if you had your own private astronomer standing next to you. I’m used to my grandfather telling me where things are located. He’s always been into astronomy, he’s spent lord knows how much money on telescopes and other interesting gadgets so he could get a better look at the sky at night. He trucks it up to Maine with his friends once a year when they’re doing the children’s toy run. They spend a bit of time just laying in the grass looking up, there’s close to no light up there so the sky looks like nothing but sparkles at night.

Living in a highly populated area with a lot of ambient light, I never really believed that the sky could be over loaded with stars. Sean took me to some farm a few miles inland and I close to pee’d in excitement – I could see everything. The area we were in had us both on edge but if we could happen to find another field like it (which isn’t hard in Delaware considering it’s all freaking farm life here) I’d really like to go back and sit under the stars again.

You can’t see them very well from the beach, the lights along the board walk make it hard for you to really see anything at night. Sure, the waves calm me down but after that, there’s not much to look at – you know? I guess I’m just venting, I don’t know…could be that I’m feeling borderline depressed today for some reason.

The weekend is creeping up…

Friday, June 8th, 2007

We finally got out of the house and I was able to pick up things I needed. We went to Dollar Tree and I wound up spending a bit more than anticipated but it was still only about $20 in the end. Then a quick trip to Food Lion got me everything else that I was looking for. The problem is I wasn’t expecting to get back as late as we did and I wound up not cooking the Sausage and Peppers as originally planned tonight. Karen was already eating when we got home and I know for a fact that Sean wouldn’t bother with it so I wound up just making some pasta and I’ll just cook it all tomorrow.

Karen’s friend is going to be here this weekend, Sean hates her so I can only imagine how well this is going to go. They’re going to spend the day in Ocean City so I’m sure that’ll take some stress off of him. She complains that he drinks to much, meanwhile the minute she walks in the door is typically when anyone would grab for the booze. I don’t know the woman yet and I’m more than positive that she’s going to drive me to drink. I know people who have never TOUCHED alcohol who would probably consider picking up a new hobby after coming in contact with this woman.

Anyway, Karen and I wound up outside after dinner cleaning up the yard. There were a few tree’s growing a long the side of the house that weren’t actually trees at all…just a lot of weeds that seemed to appear over night. The gardeners in this complex do NOT get anywhere near the house when they’re mowing the lawns. Because of this, there are bushes of tall grass growing around the house that aren’t supposed to be there. If any of the fuckers spoke English it would be easier to tell them to get NEAR the house when they’re doing this stuff instead of just kicking all the grass up to the back of the house. It’s now mutated into a mini-hill that’s hard to dig through. We got it done though, the front of the house can wait a few days before we get in there to clean it out. We need a new wire on the weed wacker, something I’ll be picking up tomorrow anyway.

For now I’m just getting some small things done and I’m also doing a little bit of editing to the header image I made for Shauna’s template and then I’ll work on getting the rest of the kitchen cleaned up. The counters are taken care of around the back wall – the Island is the real hell hole that’s filled with mail, newspapers, and little packets that just need to be sifted through and thrown out. It’s a quick 15 minute job, I just have to get my ass in gear on it.

Why Spy Sweeper is the way to go!

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

PPPAs many of you may know, my old desktop crashed a little while after Joe died. At first I thought it was because of the fact that he may have crashed his the night he died and wanted every computer he’s ever worked on to die, or it was a virus or spy ware attack that destroyed windows. Either way there was no fixing it. I tried everything I could in order to get things back up and running the way it was supposed to. It took me about 4 days just to remove all of the spy ware and it was all put on there because my sister decided to install some stupid download program that permitted EVERYTHING in, damn Kazaa! I had an overflow of pop ups, more installations of programs like bonsai buddy and other random crap that I could imagine. I was SO happy when I finally found some decent programs to start getting rid of it all.

I used many different programs but the only one that actually got the job done was Spy Sweeper. I bought the program about six months prior to my computer crashing. I’d been using a trial version for a while and decided to go ahead and purchase it. I was rather content with it so I figured purchasing it would be the best way to go.

I’ve used many other programs in the past but the only thing that ever worked for me was in fact Spy Sweeper. I will say, however, if you’re running on a system that naturally lags I wouldn’t recommend using it, it does eat up a lot of resources. But I’m basing this on older systems. Karen’s old computer was really crappy and had no resources to eat up, Spy Sweeper did keep a lot of extra things off it, but she did still need the new one. Now she’s got everything loaded up on the new desktop and thankfully with more ram and a better processor, Spy Sweeper runs PERFECTLY for her.

Get your ass up already!

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

Baby’s finally awake and now I’m waiting patiently for him to take a shower so we can get out of here. I’ve got my lists made out so I know exactly what I’m looking for at Dollar Tree and Food Lion but it’s hard to do anything when you’re waiting for someone to get up and go. I’m sure he’s working on something important but it’s just not going fast enough for me. I know I seem kind of bitchy about it but there’s a lot of shit for me to get done today after I get back from the store.

I have to start dinner, finish cleaning the kitchen, work on straightening up the living room and dining room. I then need to get back to the computer while dinner is in the oven and continue working on things for clients. I also need to get a few templates knocked out for blog-ideas.net so I can work on getting that up and running. I need to finish the format of the administration panel so that Sean can get to working on that as well. It’s just a whole series of things that need to be done and unfortunately there isn’t enough time in the day for me to do it all without a tiny bit of help.

Yep, I’m stressed out – can you tell?

Fathers Day Fast Approaching

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

With Fathers Day fast approaching, I’m confused as to what I’m going to get him. Sure, there’s always the typical Fathers Day Baskets but I’ve done those so many times that I feel sort of repetitive with it. Another thing that needs to be factored in is my fathers BIRTHDAY is the following Tuesday so I either need to do a large gift that will cover both in one shot or two little gifts, either way I’m stuck for ideas.

I came across gourmetgiftbaskets.com not too long ago and while I like what they have to offer, I don’t know if my father actually would. Now he appreciates everything, don’t get me wrong, he’s on a diet at the moment though so I’m not sure if sweets are really the way to go for me. I know he’s into meats and cheeses but considering his diet, not sure he’d take to it quite well either. I certainly couldn’t get him any candy, though he’s a fan of trail mix at the moment considering he’s eating it all in moderation. He’s lost about 15-20lbs and is starting to get himself back towards his college weight, that seems like so long ago but he was happier back then, so were his back, neck, shoulders and legs.

I did find a lot of their other baskets to be rather interesting though. They’ve got these cool beer baskets with all different kinds of goodies in there. There are also theme baskets and any other kind of basket that you can really think of. They’re a bit on the pricey side, then again the one I figured would be perfect for dad is in the $150 range and that’s just my personal taste. They also have baskets in the $70 range and considering they overload them with tons of nifty gifts, it’s worth the price. I found a couple in there for Baby but we’ve got other plans for our anniversary anyway, no reason to spend all the money on a gift basket containing food he’d probably never touch (very, very picky eater), we’ll stick to our vacation plans.

At the end of the month I’m going up to New York to visit dad and my sister for their birthdays. I guess I should start getting some baskets together now, shouldn’t I?

Student Loans, Debt, Valuable Money Articles

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

With the new flow of money coming in, I’m confident that I’ll be able to work towards getting a student loan to get myself into school. I’ve been doing a lot of research on a few schools and after talking to a representative from AIUOnline.edu, I’m confident that they’re the school I’ll be working towards attending. They cost about $32,000 for the entire course, this will give me a bachelors degree in web design, which is exactly what I was looking for. Sean was going to help me look into grants and scholarships, even financial aid considering I’m emancipated from my father at this point in time. The one I think will actually WORK is a student loan, because they know if money is lent they’re getting it back. While scholarships, grants and financial aid don’t require being paid back – I know that they’ll give almost anyone with a co-signer a student loan so they can overcharge you with interest rates.

Worse case scenario, I’ll have to pay off a student loan with a debt consolidation loan but this is based on whether or not business maintains the flow it is at the moment. There are a few aspects of this that kind of freak me out though. After doing some surfing around thriftyscot.co.uk, I came across a list of articles about loans, credit cards, mortgages and other money related things. There were a few that stood out for me; The real cost of borrowing is measured in fear. Another article that stood out was in regards to student loans, naturally I was looking for one about it considering what’s on my mind right now. It’s respectively titled The mechanics of a student loan. There are a lot of money based articles listed on thriftyscot.co.uk, I’d seriously recommend it to anyone.

How could I NOT be smiling?

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

I’m not sure how I managed it, or what powers that be are floating around me helping me out at the moment but I’ve landed some work that’s more than likely going to keep my schedule full for a while. I’m working hard on cranking out templates for current clients but after that I’m going to have a fairly solid work flow with a few people whom contacted me over the last couple of days. It could turn into some fairly decent money, adding a few thousand to my income every month. That on top of the $800 average a month on paid posting and then the web hosting subscriptions coming in, it’s safe to say I’ll be set for a while.

I’m keeping everything in savings though. Yes, I’m going to enroll in school. Yes, I’m going to buy an iMac (I’ve wanted one for years) and Baby and I desperately need a new bed. After that, however, it’s going to be smooth sailing for quite some time, I can’t wait.

Baby is still asleep at the moment, though I think he’s getting close to waking up because there’s a lot of sniffling going on in the bedroom and typically he can’t breath too well in the morning. It’s either him sniffling or there’s a bird outside the window making a strange nasal sound…do birds even have a sense of smell? :hrm:

Bella’s sweating her butt off but that’s because the air conditioning hasn’t been on yet today. It’s only about 70 something and while it’s rather warm in the office, it’s comfortable outside. It’s nice to air the house out on occasion so I’m keeping myself from switching on the central air.

In a little while Sean and I are going to take a quick trip up to Lewes because I need to pick up a few things from Dollar Tree. Last night I made corn on the cob with dinner and there weren’t any corn holsters to keep Karen and I from burning our fingers off. So I figure I’d drop a dollar or two and pick some up – cheaper than Wal-mart! Then I’m probably going to hit up the super market because I need to pick up some things for dinner tonight and Blockbuster is right next door, I know Baby needs to pick up a few things…I think he’s getting Norbit, It came out on Tuesday – who knows. I’m just waiting for Reno 911 to come out, I think that’s the only movie this month that I’m actually looking forward to.

I’m going to get some emails taken care of, then I’m going to continue working on a template for Shauna and then pick up on a few things for Dick. Nothing beats productivity!

Cooking, Cleaning, Grooming … it never ends.

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

Kay and I went shopping tonight. We traveled up to Milford to Big Lots and I’m happy to say that I got myself the baskets I was looking for. I was surprised to find out that they’re only $2 each and the perfect size for everything I need to go in them. When I moved everything over to my new closet I had to factor in that I wasn’t going to have a dresser readily available to me so I knew once the shelves went up that I was going to need some baskets to get my underwear, bras and socks in the same room with my clothes. Right now I still have my clothes in Baby’s dresser which is in the office closet, it makes no sense for me to go across the hall just to get the important stuff – you know?

After Big Lots we took a quick drive over to Wal-Mart, I was happy to find that a lot of the things I needed were on sale so I was able to get everything I set out to get today. I know I’ve been spending quite a bit lately but that’s also based on the fact that it’s items I need on a day-to-day basis. I’m not sure what’s up with Wal-Mart lately but they haven’t had the canned chicken that I give to Bella in quite some time. A lot of items are on back order for them (according to the few employees we spoke to) so hopefully that will all be taken care of soon. For now I found another brand that’s still 2 for $4 so I’m not too concerned – she’s eating well either way.

We picked up a lot of veggies and meat for the week. We plan on doing a lot of barbecuing. There’s a farm right next to this Wal-Mart so there was an overabundance of fresh unshucked white corn, watermelon and other yummy foods. Tonight I’m going to do some turkey burgers for myself, beef burgers for Kay and Sean and maybe even a steak or two. I’m also going to steam some corn and carrots to throw on the side. Tomorrow I’m doing sausage and peppers and the following night will most likely be grilled chicken. So at least I’m going to be keeping myself busy and still sticking to my diet as well.

It’s going to be a fairly busy day for me. Right now it’s about 5am so I intend to get some sleep soon but when I wake up I’m going to be cleaning the kitchen, finishing up some work online and then I’m going to give Bella a bath because she desperately needs one. It’s been a few weeks since she’s had one, I’ve been rather busy lately, so her eyes are getting a little dirty and her paws could use a cleaning as well. I used to give her one every week so I never had to worry about her ears getting too bad or her eyes for that matter. Since it’s been almost a month she just looks really ratty. I’m going to soak her down, scrub the hell out of her and then once she air dries for a little while I’ll hit her with the hair dryer and fluff her up.

I’m sending her to the groomer next week, I know I was supposed to do that a few weeks ago but I wasn’t expecting to come up to a dog in pain either. Since she dug herself out of the room I had no choice but to post-pone her appointment and take care of her medical needs before the vanity ones – you know?