Archive for December, 2004


Emma dies

12/12/2004

My cat, Emma, after being here since 1992-ish has passed away. A lot of my friends knew her.

Her reason for departure is kidney failure (I think). She was drinking a lot of water but never absorbed it.

The failure in her system seemed to happen suddenly… but what can you expect from an almost 13-year-old cat.

I’m sad, but.. at least she isn’t suffering any longer. Her last few weeks must not have been good. I tried in my best effort to make her comfortable and can only hope it eased her pain a little bit.

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Show me the money

12/13/2004

Yes, I know. Very overused phrase. But it fits.

Today I got my first official paycheck from the company I work for (who up until recently I was working on contract for).

So.. life is good. Pay day is always a good day. (grin)

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Holiday Fiscal Report

12/15/2004

I took a nap earlier so I’m still up (ugh). Wish I wasn’t. I really should start developing better sleep habits.

Anyway..

Yesterday was the first of several large payments I will be making towards killing the credit card debt. Most of my paycheck went right to the credit card company. This is voluntary, of course. I could just make the minimum payment and leave it at that. Nope nope nope. Not going to do that. I said before I’m on a mission to pay that off, and I will.

Some would say that starting to kill debt at Christmas time is the worst time because you should be spending money on others. “On the contrary,” I would say. I think it’s the best time to kill debt - or at least not amass any more debt than you already have.

Needless to say I will be sending mostly Christmas cards this year. I’m not buying gifts. If I have to, it will be things people can actually use, like gift cards for Blockbuster or Wal-Mart or something like that. Everyone can use those. If you’re stuck thinking of a generally good gift for someone, gift cards are a good idea.

The whole family has overall decided not spend cash on gifts for each other this year mainly because we all have everything we need already and we all have some big bills to pay off. Most likely we will be trading gift cards. Like I said a second ago, those are things you can generally use.

After re-doing some fiscal calculations - it appears that I should have my credit card debt killed (hopefully for good) by late March 2005. It just so happens I turn 30 in late March - and I think paying off my card debt will be the best present I ever gave myself. (grin)

After the card debt is killed I have one more biggie bill which I call the ‘back’ bill (those who read this blog regularly know what this is,) and then I am officially at zero. My ETA to have that killed off is either June or July 2005.

I think about this whole zero thing and it feels just.. good. What feels even better will be all the cash I won’t be sending to the Evil Credit Card Company that I can actually.. um.. save? (grin)

—

It is possible, although highly unlikely, that I will treat myself to an ‘84 (or somewhere ’round the 80’s) Corvette for my birthday. Like I said - highly unlikely. The insurance for that car will obviously be through the roof. The car will also love to feed on 94 octane fuel. Expensive.

And do I really want to go into debt right after I hit zero on the card before tackling the ‘back’ bill?

Maybe. (grin) You do only live once. And everyone should own a hot sports car at least once in their life - while you are still young and can drive one without looking like you’re going through a midlife crisis.. (haHA!)

The cost of the ‘Vette I want would be around $7500 bucks. I would have to travel south (Florida most likely) to get it to ensure I get a rust/rot-free car. I could finance that on a car loan and pay it off relatively quickly considering I wouldn’t have and card debt left. Hmmm…

Guess we’ll see what happens in March.

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‘Vette vid.. check it!

12/15/2004

Me (being the fool I am and feeding into my 84-90 ‘Vette dreaming) starting dream shopping around. I found this dealership in Kansas that takes videos of the ‘Vettes they have for sale. 1989 with stock TPI motor (I think) and auto transmission (I prefer the auto).

I grabbed one of the vids. Check it out by clicking the link at the end of this post. Please bear in mind this is not those typical “racer” videos you see on the ‘net everywhere. The video is meant to showcase the car for sale.

A few points to note: I have never seen a better video that shows off the digital dashboard. And yeah I love those digi boards. Also - this ‘Vette is completely stock and has an awesome rumble to it on idle and takeoff (this is what a stock GM 350 should sound like in this car).

And yeah, the car is as clean as it appears to be. Seats were refinished. Carpets redone. You’d never guess this car has 112k miles on it (for real).

The price they wanted was too much (over 10k), but it’s still a neat vid to watch, at least for me. (grin)

Video in WMV format (1.8MB). You might need the latest version of Windows Media Player to view it.

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Day off?

12/17/2004

This morning I was preparing to go to werk and turned on the radio. I-395 had been closed down. Of the reports that came in, there was a 7-car pileup and more than a dozen spinouts and rolled over vehicles.

So I called into werk. Told them I would wait a bit before heading out.

Some time passes. I click on the radio again. No improvements on the road at all. More accidents, more rollovers.

I can into werk again and tell them I’m still waiting for the road to clear.

Some time passes and once again I click on the radio. I-395 is still a mess and the State of Connecticut has not changed their tune. They are still instructing people to stay off the road. At this point I say to myself “better stay home today”.

Called into werk. Told them I wasn’t coming in - and told them why.

A few hours later I get a really angry phone call from my supervisor and the manager. I got a whole load of yelling thrown at me. “Why aren’t you here? We have other people from where you live that made it in..” and the kicker: “So you’re saying that every time it snows you’re not coming in to work?!” Um, no.. that’s not what I said.

I was also asked.. correction.. screamed at: “And there’s no way you could take backroads to get to work?!” Um, no…. when the highway is bad the backroads are OBVIOUSLY WORSE… (duh)

The manager ended the conversation by stating very sarcastically “Hope you enjoy your day off, hang up the phone.” So I said “Okay” and hung up.

I clicked on the radio again right after that. Guess what.. on those backroads which my manager would otherwise have me RISK MY LIFE taking trying to get to werk, there were FIVE REPORTED ROLLOVERS. Yeah. Five. And that was only from what was CALLED IN.

The whole thing that makes me upset is that I did do my part. I called into werk three times. I was intending on going to werk. It’s not like I just made one phone call and said “Too icy, screw you guys, I’m staying home.” No. I made the effort and followed procedure, and for this I get the riot act read to me. Mother nature decided to drop an ice ball on us. That’s not my fault. I’m not about to risk life and limb for a JOB, thank you very much.

Some would say to me “But dude.. you have Blizzak’s on your car, why would you be nervous driving in icy conditions?” My snow driving stability is not in question. It’s those other fools out there that make it dangerous.

When Connecticut says “stay off the road”, I stay off the road. Duh.

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New look

12/19/2004

Decided to change the look of the blog again. At the time I write this, just the home page reflects the new template. All the other pages will follow suit shortly.

This is my first experimentation with “correct” colors that follow the color wheel properly. I’ve already been told the blog is easier to read (which was the whole point,) so that’s cool.

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Overhaul done

12/19/2004

Just finished up all the rest of the pages here. I think I got ‘em all (grin). This new template seems to be a lot easier on the eyes. Stuff is easier to find and everything seems to be a bit “cleaner” in design. So.. we’ll stay with this template for a while until I get bored with it and change it to something else. (hehe)

Note to FireFox web browser users: If the text appears too small, you can easily increase the font size by pressing CTRL and +.

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Hotei returns

12/19/2004

My family has had a two foot tall ceramic Hotei statue (”Laughing Lucky Buddha”) ever since before I was born. The one we have is green. It was one of those things where my pop thought “that looks pretty neat” and we used it as an ornament next to the fireplace at the old house we used to live in. It’s supposed to bring good luck.

When my family got divorced years ago, Hotei went missing. His whereabouts unbeknownst to anyone.

When my mother died a few years back, my sister and I went to the old house to divy up what was left and so on. As I was going through the garage picking out stuff, I found Hotei. Joy! (grin) Hotei brings back good memories for me as a kid - a time when things were a lot simpler and easier to manage.

Hotei, although recovered, was damaged. He lost his little red gem on his tummy and also had a chunk of the back of his head taken out somehow. It wasn’t severe damage or anything like that.. but he needed to be fixed.

There is a small craft shop down the road from my house. My pop took Hotei there to see if he could get fixed. The lady there said “sure” but also noted it would take a while. She runs a very small shop and it can take literally months to get something done since she only does the craft thing as a hobby.

Almost a year passes by.

Today, pop came home with Hotei. He is now a very dark green. The lady had to glaze the ceramic again and couldn’t find the original color so dark green had to do. That’s okay. Pop also had a new gem for Hotei’s tummy at the ready.

I glued the new gem to Hotei’s tummy. He now sits in the living room, happy as ever. Still lucky, still laughing.

I think Hotei will be around for a long, long time. (grin)

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Yahoo Anti-Spy

12/19/2004

I had to go over to my pop’s computer to test something and I noticed on his computer that a “Yahoo Toolbar Update” notice appeared.

Note before continuing: I have my pop’s computer completely “Yahoo-ized”. This is for ease of use on his part. Personally speaking I never install any of that crap on my computers. But on his it’s okay because he is what I consider a “safe” internet user and doesn’t do stupid things on the internet like.. 99% of the rest of people do. Anyway..

I installed the update. A new feature was the Yahoo Anti-Spy. This is spyware detection software. I tried it out. Since my pop doesn’t really surf ’round that much on the ‘net it didn’t find much but a couple of cookies here and there - but it did work.

I have to say it was nice of Yahoo to actually provide anti-spy software that’s right there and easy to install. Will I use it? Nope. I have other utilities I already use. But for Joe/Jane Average internet user this should be good. How well it works I don’t know - but at least it’s better than nothing for most folks out there.

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Guitar Vader

12/20/2004

I discovered Guitar Vader on mp3.com back when that site used to host anything and everything (but unfortunately that site completely sucks now). Being that I’m a guy who’ll listen to anything that I think has a cool groove to it - I gave GV a listen. Cool stuff.

I like eclectic Japanese bands, admittedly. They have a flavor that only a few of us in the ‘States will ever truly understand. Guitar Vader for some reason has that certain something which is just all catchy as hell. It’s catchy for the same reason Gorillaz was catchy for those who remember them.

GV also sings most of their songs in Japanese - and there is something very cool about listening to music in another langauge you don’t even know. I won’t bother trying to explain it. Either you get it or you don’t.

So, check out Guitar Vader when you get a chance. Who knows, you may dig it.

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