Letter Never Sent

I’ve been back from Oklahoma for about two days. It was fun and relaxing, although occasionally stressful. It seems to be that way when you have to stay with other people. I would prefer that all people lived in shells like snails and turtles. That way if you had to leave your town you would never need to invade another person’s private space. You could just tuck your arms and legs into your person shell and go about your own business.

The night before we left for the drive north I bought a new digital camera as a present to myself. It’s a Nikon Coolpix like my previous camera. This one is the 5200, which is smaller than the Nikon 775 I bought almost exactly three years ago when I spent Christmas in Louisville, Kentucky for my grandmother’s funeral. The 5200 is a 5.1 megapixel camera whereas the 775 was a 2.1 megapixel camera. Everything else is pretty similar, although it is neat to see all the enhancements they have made to the Coolpix line over the past three years. My favorite new thing is the panorama assist mode.

I took some photos over the holiday break. I had this week off from work, and I think that’s the first time I’ve had off for Christmas since I took a leave of absence to attend my grandmother’s funeral. It’s been nice. Here’s a photo from when I helped feed the cattle at Jody’s parents’ place.

There’s nothing to it, every day in the winter when there’s not enough grass for the cattle to graze you have to go out and give them sacks of feed made from dry molasses, alfalfa pellets, and feed corn. Keeping livestock is something a lot of people in the area do since the land is too rocky for farming. I asked Marty a lot of questions about raising cattle since I’m curious about it. Daily life in the US depends on farming and ranching yet many people know nothing about it. I also learned that cows normally give birth in the fall or winter. When we were there there were three or four brand new calves. There seemed to be a new one each day. You notice this because when you go out to feed all the cows they’ll come up and tagging along will be the new babies. One day I got up early and went out to do the feeding by myself. The part I hated the most was calling the cows to come up from the pasture. I felt like an idiot hooting and yelling, “Come on cows.” over and over. It’s difficult to yell loudly when it’s so quiet all you can hear is the wind blowing.

All things considered, Christmas was very nice. I got several nice presents from a few people. Much more than I deserved. I am ready to usher in 2005, and I look back on the past year with the usual mix of feelings. I am glad for everything I’ve experienced. Much has happened, so it seems when you look back and add it up. I hope the holidays found you all well and happy and I hope that the coming year brings to you a bounty of satisfaction and success. Here’s one last photo I took of Josalyn, red-faced from the cold, as the sun set this weekend:

I’ve learned a lot of things from this book I have with a bunch of condensed book summaries on different subjects. I love stuff like that. Regarding financial matters here’s some helpful advice, every time you get a paycheck, take your net income and divide like so: 20% to debts, 10% to savings, and live on the remaining 70%. It sounds good to me.

Here are some things I’ve learned on my own that I would add:

1. It helps to take the debt payments and savings right off the top. Over time you will get used to living on less money that way. Obviously, once you pay your debts put the extra 20% into savings.
2. Another rule of thumb, you should try to spend 25% or less of your monthly income on rent.
3. Pay your bills as soon as they come in. This may not be realistic at first, but try to start saving so you can do this. Late fees can account for an additional 10% on top of your regular bill.

I need to finish my Christmas shopping. TODAY.

Here are a few good ways to stay organized with your email. I’ve gotten these tips from a few different sources and here’s what works for me.

1. Use filters and rules in your email client. At work you will probably belong to a few different email lists or groups. Filter by email list and create a folder where those emails will be sorted. That way only things sent directly to you will end up in your actual inbox. Those are likely to be of a higher priority than anything sent to lists. Creating Outlook rules.
2. Keep your inbox cleared out. Delete anything you don’t need to know, do anything about, or remember. I get a lot of email messages about a lot of different things especially at work. Once I read it, I decide if I need to know the information, do anything about it, or need it for something later. If I don’t need it, I immediately delete. I use 3-4 folders a la Getting Things Done: @Action, @Deferred, @Waiting For. @Action is for messages I need to do something about. @Deferred are messages I’m putting off for whatever reason. The “@Waiting For” folder is for items I’ve replied back to for more information or work and for which I’m awaiting a response. If it’s in the inbox I just haven’t sorted through it yet.

Related:

Top Ten Ways to Handle Email Overload

Spam Karma is the best spam filter I’ve tested for WordPress. Since I installed it this weekend no spam has made it through even after multiple attempts.

A while back I sold my Nikon Coolpix 775 digital camera to my little brother at a heavily discounted rate partly as a favor for helping me move and partly because I was planning on getting a new camera. That was over a year ago and I never did buy another camera. This year I plan to. I could always use Jody’s camera, but I miss having my own. I haven’t taken near as many pictures as I use to when I had my own camera.

Anyway, point is, I’m looking out for a new one. Any suggestions would help as I have no idea what I’m doing. It’s most likely going to have to be from Best Buy since I have a couple gift cards for them. Here are a few I’m looking at:

• Canon PowerShot 5.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Garnet Model: SD20
• Canon PowerShot 5.0-Megapixel Digital Camera Model: S500
• Canon PowerShot 7.1-Megapixel Digital Camera Model: S70

I watched a few movies this weekend. Here’s what I saw:

1. Collateral - Cruise should always play sociopaths. It’s the only role he can convincingly play. Enjoyable and stylish.
2. Ju-on: The Grudge - Scary japanese movie like Ringu. Slow-paced and scary. Very, very creepy in parts. I am swearing off horror flicks because I embarrass myself by screaming. Go to the website to see a taste.
3. I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead - Clive Owen is cool, but this movie was too slow. They needed more scenes where he does the violence thing.

Admittedly, I have been hooked on watching The Apprentice. I didn’t watch it the first season, but I got into it this year. It’s gotten to the point where I will watch almost any reality TV show if it’s on while I’m sitting and eating dinner: Nanny 911, Wife Swap, Trading Spouses, the Biggest Loser, etc. I don’t watch a lot of television and I don’t have cable, so besides Will & Grace, it’s the only type of thing I have occasion to see. If anything else comes along I usually just download it from one of the tv torrent sites.

The 3 hour season finale of The Apprentice was on last night and that was a pretty huge television committment. The best part was the announcement that season 3 will consist of the so-called booksmarts against the so-called streetsmarts, which is enticing. We will be sure to see heated moments of class warfare. I predict the streetsmarts will have an early edge given that they are certain to have a more practical and pragmatic intelligence. In the video preview, they looked a lot harder. There will be a few cutthroat booksmarts who will pass muster.

I jousted for another position here and lost again. Time to mull it over, pick apart my performance and qualifications, readjust my plans, consider other alternatives, and do a lot of deep thinking. The same day I found out I was not chosen for the job I was glad to see a message from the gods delivered in a fortune cookie from the desperation deli. It read: “The sun is new each day.” The gods can afford to be optimistic.

Have you ever wanted to check something on your home computer from work? Ever needed to mail yourself a file on your home computer? Has anyone in your family needed help with something on their computer and you had to walk them through it on the phone? If so, you will benefit from using the Remote Desktop feature in Windows XP Professional.

Basically, it allows you to use any computer remotely. You will see everything on the remote computer as if it were right in front of you. I’ve been a long time user of VNC (which is similar to remote desktop but works across multiple operating systems), so I had never used Remote Desktop until yesterday and I’m pleased with how well it works for a number of reasons. It works so well I forget sometimes I’m working remotely. The screen can be maximized to take up your entire screen and if you unstick the little remote desktop menu there’s no way anyone can tell your connected to a remote computer. You will need to have high-speed internet access otherwise the connection will be frustratingly slow.

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