06
Dec 04

Christmas Came Early!

While I was at work today, Mr. Bergstrom came over and brought two plastic containers full of sugar cookies and fudge his wife had made for me. He introduced himself as “Mark Bergstrom” to Jody and told her that he and Mrs. Bergstrom were going out of town for a short while and wanted to drop the cookies off before they left. When I got home I had three of the fudge covered peanut butter balls from the Cool Whip container and boy were they good!

Related entries where I go on about Mr. Bergstrom. Like I’ve said before, he could really teach you a lot about living.


06
Dec 04

Interesting films and things

  1. I’m interested in watching the Sci-Fi channel’s miniseries based on the Earthsea novels by Ursula K. Le Guin. Unfortunately, I do not have cable. Maybe I can download it when it finally airs as I’m sure someone will have a torrent up for it. It has one of the guys from LOTR and the luscious Lana (Kristin Kreuk) from the WB’s Smallville.
  2. Alaric sent out a link to the new Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie movie, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”, by the director of the “Bourne Supremacy”, which I really liked. I’m tempted to pick up one of the Ludlum novels to check and see if they’re any good.

05
Dec 04

Little bits worth mentioning

  1. My mom called and told me she got promoted to Vice President at whatever the name of the company is that she works for. I’m proud of her.
  2. We had the McRib challenge today. A friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) ate 8 McRib sandwiches. It was excruciating to watch. I don’t think I could have held down more than 2.
  3. I’m in the thick of a new (new to me) fantasy series by George R.R. Martin. You know a series is going to be good when the author has two middle initials. The books are engrossing, especially for their level of detail. I do find myself getting annoyed by the recurring mention of certain words or phrases. It’s hard to read when you keep rolling your eyes. All in all, they are excellent as far as fantasy novels go. If you go to his website, he has a section where he lists what he’s currently reading, which is cool because I like getting book recommendations from authors.
  4. If you’re like me, you don’t make a lot of money. So, it’s good to know where it’s going and how much you have squirreled away in different accounts and locations. For that reason, I heartily recommend Microsoft Money. I’ve been using it for almost 2 years since it came preloaded on my laptop. I liked it, so much that I bought the 2004 edition some time last year. Microsoft Money connects to my bank and downloads and organizes all my transactions. I can pull reports on how much I’ve spent on coffee throughout the year, for example, and it does other things like provide reminders to pay bills, etc. Microsoft Money has really helped me get my financial house in order. I can honestly say that it has saved me thousands of dollars just because I have a handle on my money situation. Knowledge is power. I haven’t tried Quicken, but I would assume it does a lot of the same things.

05
Dec 04

Christmas Chores

My brother came over yesterday and we strung up the Christmas lights around the house. I bought these plastic clips from Wal-Mart to hang the lights with. They worked but just barely. A strong wind could blow them down I suspect.

Of course, my little brother is a physical genius and did not even need the ladder to get onto the roof. He just did a little Jackie Chan maneuver and then he was up there like a cat. In fact, when I was finishing up this evening Sarah the real cat showed me how it was done and jumped on the roof herself. I have no idea why she wanted to get up there unless it was just to show me how easy it was for her. Apparently, no one else seems to find it difficult to just get up on the roof.

I strung some of those icicle lights around the front of the place and used my lights from last year to wrap one of the trees in the front yard. Scott climbed up in the live oak to string the lights but we didn’t realize that part of the strand was out until we finished and plugged it in. As a result, the tree looks rather crappy, but I’m not itching to undo all that wrapping just yet.


03
Dec 04

Google AdSense

I’m trying AdSense ads out on the right of the page. Let me know if you hate it or if you don’t care. I like trying new things and I’m curious if you can make any money at it, which would help defray the costs of having a website.

If anyone wants help trying this out, let me know and I’ll be glad to help you. You can read about it more here.

I just realized that I’ve been blogging steadily for 4 years. That’s kinda cool and kinda embarrassing. I’d like to lock a lot of the entries just because I don’t feel the same way anymore about a lot of things, and I don’t even feel like the same person. I’d rather not have people read things I wrote during very different periods in my life and assume that it is representative of anything about me. On the other hand, I guess it is a document of sorts. I’ll think more about it. There is a lot to be said for starting with a clean slate.


02
Dec 04

Oh yeah

Weird. I got a phone call tonight from some market research company who wants to pay me 75$ to come in for an hour for an interview next week. It had to do with retirement plans, so I figured it was at the behest of my current 401k provider. In fact, I asked who they were doing it for and the guy said he didn’t know, but then when he was doing my pre-interview questions he asked my education level, my age, my race, and then… if I was or had ever been an employee of Principal Financial Group so that pretty much told me who they were working for. They also asked if I minded if the interview was videotaped for internal use, which I don’t. It might actually be a fun thing to do, but then I like being interviewed.

Tomorrow Phillip, Courtney, Sab, Jody, and I are supposed to go walk down and check out the Christmas lights at Zilker Park. That reminds me that I need to put our Christmas lights up around the house this weekend. Maybe I can get my brother to come do some male-bonding with me while we do it together. It’s a lot of fun once the house is lit up and I know my landlord / neighbor, Joyce, really likes it too. I’ll have to borrow Mr. Bergstrom’s ladder to do it. He’s the elder neighbor with the pale blue eyes who worked at the university during the 50’s hand-lettering signs, door glass, etc. He’s a very interesting man, and Sarah the cat loves hanging out with him and his wife. He’s 87 years old and could teach you a lot about how to live. If he’s not out in his front yard cutting his own grass once a week then something is wrong. He is always dressed in starched khaki pants with plaid shirts and his hair is always combed. He has a lot of neat stories and is a very kind man, although sometimes I think he doesn’t remember who I am exactly. Every time I talk to him he likes to talk about what a different sort of cat Sarah is, and how she’s so friendly. Apparently, she goes over and hangs out inside with him and Mrs. Bergstrom. Sarah could teach you a lot about how to make friends since she seems to know everyone around here on an intimate basis.


30
Nov 04

I like lists and bullets

I haven’t been inspired to write long entries and I find little notes to be more helpful lately.

  • Soundtrack for today:
    1. Pantera – This Love You have to love caveman lyrics like: “You keep this love, fist, scar, break”
    2. Notorious B.I.G – Hypnotize It just came on the radio. Nice sampling.
  • Christmas wishlist:
    1. XM MyFi
    2. Treadmill (I have a spare tire that needs puncturing especially if I even think about going to my 10 year high school reunion.)
    3. Books by or about Otto Weininger. I’ve always been perversely fascinated with history’s heretics.
  • Provocative William Blake quotations:
    • Active Evil is better than Passive Good.
    • Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
    • The fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion.

29
Nov 04

Short Jots

  • The holidays could have been better and it could have been worse, but I’m glad to have it behind me. It was nice to visit with some of the family, and it’s interesting to see what changes from year to year. The food was great and I got to visit with both parents. On a scale of 1 to 5, the whole experience rates a 2.
  • We got to finally meet Sab’s friend Justin last Wednesday. He came in from San Luis Obispo to visit. We went to Hyde Park Bar & Grill for dinner, which Sab seems to love for some reason. Justin was very cute and funny, and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. He’s the kind of person who needs to move to Austin because he’s easy to talk to.
  • I spent about 20 hours this weekend just playing World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment where some of my friends work. It’s super-addictive. Here are just a few things I got to do in game that were really cool:
    1. Tamed a mountain lion and named it “Meow”. She fought by my side until level 15 when I ditched her for a Hyena I named “Giggler”. Apparently, I’m damn creative with pet names. (screenshot)
    2. I fished for a long time off the docks and banks and pulled up some clams with pearls inside as well as all sorts of fish.
    3. Helped get rid of Alliance players (Dwarves, Night Elves, etc.) who invaded our area. PvP is fun! It’s also something EQ2 lacks.

24
Nov 04

Revving up for Thanksgiving

My mom was in town yesterday and invited me out to lunch with her, my aunts, and my grandma. Since I was at work and my Aunt Vicky works nearby I suggested Chili’s. It was nice to see everyone and I had one of those moments where I felt like a ‘grown-up’, maybe because my mother started in on the not-so-subtle “when are you going to get married” talk. Even though I’m only *cough* 27, it is one of those things you have to start thinking about if you ever plan on having a family. I’m one of those people who have always wanted children of my own, so I think about it pretty often and lately more in the “I need to start seriously thinking about it and making decisions” way. Making decisions is essential to life. Even deciding to defer decision-making is a decision in itself.