A ticket you won't soon forget -
A ticket you won't soon forget -
Talk about the Grinch that saved Christmas! In Barre, Vermont, citizens who receive parking tickets can now pay their tickets by dropping off a toy for the Christmas for Kids program. Like most of the country, the program is down on its luck. This program will help the city to make a brighter Christmas for needy children.
Of course, if you still feel the need to be a grinch, you can just pay the ticket! :)
Who couldn't love this idea?
Buy Gift-Cards with Caution!
Buy Gift-Cards with Caution!
Just a little FYI from Newsweek, be careful where you buy gift cards this year. The stores may not be open in 2009!
If I buy gift cards, I'm probably going to stick to Walmart, Starbucks, grocery stores, or dare I say it - gas station. You might want to check the trends on your favorite store before you run out and buy a gift card. I was in Linens n Things about 2 weeks ago, checking out their bare "Going out of Business" shelves and they are no longer accepting store gift cards.
School Update
School Update
I am slowly working myself to the end of a very frustrating semester. We have a little over 2 weeks left and finals will be here soon. I am taking an incomplete in my hardest class so that I can have some time when my head isn't in a "central hypothyroidism" fog, but will be completing the other class on time. The final exam in the class that I am going to complete late is a computerized assessment with 33 questions on it. I need to get every single one of those questions right in order to pull off a B in the class. Fortunately, you can start and stop the test at will. While you can't go back and amend answers, it does give for more time to consider the proper answer.
All I have to say is that when grad school is over, it may really be O-V-E-R for me. I am so burnt out on going to school. If there is a Ph.D. in my future, it is a long ways away! I just can't feel the prestige of a Doctorate deep in my bones right now!
As soon as school is over, I am going to pursue some specialized tests that will be able to tell me if my illness is getting better or worse - or about the same. I just can't handle the stress of knowing what those results would be right now.
The "New Comfort Zone" Revolution!
The "New Comfort Zone" Revolution!
...its so en vogue right now!
I hope it stays that way!
A few months ago, I issued a warning to my readers about the current state of the economy. About a month after my warning, the doo-doo hit the fan! I hope that my readers were at least taking to heart what I was saying but more than anything, I hope that I take to heart what I was saying!
I want to echo the though fact that wasteful spending is OUT and frugality is IN. This darn-near Depression is horrible, jobs are lost, homes are lost, people around the world have had their lives wrecked. But we don't have to think about all of this as bad. Aside from certain discomforts such as losing a job or a home, we don't have to let us defeat us. We can be just as happy was we were before by creating a new comfort zone - and that can be done by accepting frugality as our new comfort zone.
I'm sure everyone here has gotten a Boycott email about certain gas stations. We were told not to go to certain gas stations for a certain amount of days. The thought of a gas boycott was good, except for the fact that if you didn't buy gas on Tuesday because you were boycotting the stations on Tuesday, you would eventually buy the gas on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Fortunately, not everything in life is as vital as gasoline to get us to and from work or school. Most of the things we have, we don't really need.
For example:
Unless you are running a sports bar in your living room, you don't need that 60" plasma tv. We probably don't need unlimited texting. It is okay to get emails five times a day - really! And here's one for the ladies....freshening wipes for the bathroom. News Flash: Baby wipes work just as well and the generic brands cost half the price.
We probably don't need many of the things that we have been led to believe that we need. Retailers know that we are on to their game and are trying to protect themselves from the frugal-revolution by packaging goods into almost irresistable deals. We can learn to recognize these games and avoid them. If we can't avoid them, we can try to resist the products until the prices come down. Unlike gasoline, retailers know that they have one of two choices for most items on store shelves - buy them or leave them there! Retailers already know what we want and what we need. We just have to figure that out ourselves!
If you are an impulse buyer (like I tend to be), try this tip out. If you see something you want, imagine that the price is $2 higher than the price on the shelf. If you would still pay that much for the item, you may need that item more than you want that item (mind you, it may be an emotional need, but you feel that you need it). If you decide that a bag of Doritos isn't worth $6 (the price plus $2) - you didn't need them anyways, you wanted them! Retailers don't want us to think that way, they want to keep prices "slightly within our reach", but still at a breath-taking profit to them. This is why they get away with offering us a $.25 coupon on a $7 item. Aside from artificial satistfaction, there is no glory in paying $6.75 for an item that is normally $7 when it only cost $.50 to get it to the store shelf! If it takes the anger of knowing that the retailer is making a profit sometimes in the range of 900% on your purchase to get you to stop and think about what you are buying, then you're on your way to a better self!
Now, lets focus on some basic money saving tips:
- If you have to buy it on a credit card, you don't really have the money. You have the bank's money and soon they will have that money back plus more of your money.
- If you walk past a dime on the street and don't pick it up, its either because you have a germ phobia or because you don't want to get 20% of the price of a gallon of gas for free. And lets just face it, if you'd clip a coupon for $.25 off of a $7 item, passing up on a dime would just be ridiculous!
- If you're clipping coupons for stuff that you would never buy, you're not saving, you're spending - and its money that you didn't even think about spending.
- No prepackaged food ever tastes as good as the packaging would like you believe that it is. Frozen mac and cheese is not yummy and canned mac and cheese just isn't natural! If you're going to buy that stuff, remember to swirl it around in your mouth for a while before you swallow - just to get the full effect :)
In conclusion, I say, "Hurray for the Frugality Revolution". Getting back to the basics can really help us to find out who we are. We don't need the government or retailers to tell us who we are and we don't need to have another Great Depression. You can be a winner in a battle of survival of the fittest by getting a head-start on the financial basics by becoming frugal before you are forced into frugality.
Is the White-Way the Right Way?
Is the White-Way the Right Way?
Today, I would like to talk about race.
No! Don't run and hide, I'm only going to talk about my perspective as a white girl. You can add your input if you want.
My current job (until I graduate) involves entering phone orders for door-to-door sales reps. It's a crappy job, but for now, its a job that is marginally paying the bills and giving me subpar health coverage.
I work very close to Washington D.C. In my office, I am the only white person out of 30 people. There is one Asian girl, 4 Latinos, and the rest of the people in my office are black. Since the Asian girl sits in a secluded area in the office, I am the "lonely only" of my race in the room. Even if the Asian girl sat in the center of the room, the attention on her wouldn't be half as strong as it is on me. There is a classic level of "acceptance" in the fact that whites and blacks are very different from one another in many ways.
Some days, being in this office is very difficult. I wasn't there the day of the Election, but the following day that I was there, a very mouthy girl - probably age 26 - made sure to rub it in my face that a black man had won the Presidency. She then went on to tell the whole group how she couldn't wait for Barack to send out "her check". Her totally ignorant statement really showed the entitled side of humanity that I am sick and tired of seeing. It didn't help for me to see through my bright blue eyes the fact that she was black. After I was done puking from her statement, I did note that none of the other black people in the office said anything to me. Yes, there was a lot of Pre-Election bravado, but it was very guarded and it is still guarded. I tend to think the older adults who do this work part-time are being respectful of me and my passion for the losing candidate. So, where does that leave me? The obnoxious black girl, who is constantly offending people, really made me despise black people for the color of their skin and not who they were as a people. But then, the other part of me remembers the majority of the black people in my office who said nothing to me - despite their elation over the election of Barack Obama. I appreciate the respect of the majority of my black co-workers.
From that extreme, we move over to the other ways that black people in my office handle the racial gap. All of the black guys that I deal have their own unique way of dealing with me - some better than others.
My favorite guy is named Tony. He's about 6'5" skinny as a rail, middle-aged. He calls me his "Favorite white woman". Whatever that may mean, I appreciate it because at least he says what everyone else is thinking...that I'm different! Tony calls me his "favorite white woman" and I call him "Big Daddy". We have fun with it and it really breaks up the tension. When I'm talking to him, I don't have to worry about him judging me or thinking things behind is back because he's so animated that he simply says what he is thinking. Maybe Tony is being 100% sexual when he says I'm his favorite white woman, but he still makes me comfortable, and included. The only shame is that he isn't in the office every day and none of the three guys that I will refer to here are.
Joe, from the same group that Tony works in, treats me like he's my big brother. Unlike Tony's flamboyance, Joe is pretty down-to-earth and you can't talk to him without having to use cartoon characters as parallels. If there is something really bothering me, I can tell Joe. He may not do a darn thing about it, but he will at least listen and tell me what he thinks.
Another guy is Donnell. Donnell is like my protector. There are some pretty offensive guys on Donnell's team and when they cross the line, he takes them on for me.
Believe me, the list could go on and on....needless to say, all of the guys that I work with are different! When I put it in that perspective, those who are able to cross the racial barrier to be my friend make my job a little easier.
On my inner-office team, half of the black girls are single mothers with no education and the other half have no more than one child and are actively pursuing their educations. I am like the latter. I have no children and I am almost finished my Masters degree. When I have a free moment at work, I do my homework. I see the black single mothers on my team checking out black entertainment sites online all day and I wonder if they know how important an education will be for them in the very near future. My "white self" has been trying to probe them for the reason that they won't go to school. While I don't say it outloud, I am thinking "You could go to school for free while I had to pay for every penny of my education - and yet, you still won't go". Up until a week ago, when our insurance carrier changed and made us all really hate our jobs, I bet they were all thinking "Why is she judging us?"
Last week, when the HMO take-over happened, I found out that now these same girls are all going to try to get into community college in the spring. They want more opportunities. I'm very happy for them, but I still have my apprehensions because I am almost done and they are just starting. Will they think that I am better than them because I have painfully travelled this far? Will they appreciate me for all of my hard work and now understand how hard that work has been? Do they see my point about the value of an education now? Do I have a right to even ask these questions to myself? Am I allowed to be angry that they will get free educations and probably get some benefits from Affirmative Action that I would never have access to? Is any or all of this wrong of me?
Moving on - I think that its good that Barack Obama is making statments about certain racial issues. While I don't believe that we will ever be one race - the human race - I am encouraged by his speech and mannerisms because maybe they will set a good example for the obnoxious girl in my office. Then again, am I right to even want this? Most of Barack's refined behaviors mirror "white mannerisms". Anyone who wants to contest that needs to look around them. Barack is trying to do the same thing that Bill Cosby is trying to do. So, if Barack Obama and Bill Cosby are both urging black people to raise their standards, be more professional, and earn instead of asking - why do I feel guilty for applauding these instructions?
Why do I feel like the white way is the right way? Why do I feel like blacks should assimilate instead of me assimilating to them? Do I have the right to ask these things? Do black people feel the same about white people as I feel about them? Moreover, I have fun with Tony, Joe, and Donnell, but I wouldn't want to live in their worlds all of the time. Without these guys and a few others, I am not comfortable in my own skin at work. There has been a great deal of tip-toeing and attacking going on as well - none of which I can exactly attribute to race, although I suspect it plays a key role. So, where do I fit in?
To those of you who have actually read all of this, I'd like some feedback. If you are black, I welcome your feedback on my perspective. Tell me how you feel about this!
Thanks!
Just take the polls!
Just take the polls!
Don't be boring - Take my daggone polls. I didn't put them up their for my amusement only! They are very timely ---- plus I want to know what you're thinking. Well, I don't want to know what YOU specifically are thinking (the poll doesn't tell me who you are)...but I'm still curious.
The upside is that there isn't a spot on the White House job application that asked if you answered one of Wendy's polls. Granted, there may be a question that would disqualify you for visiting my page - but not just for taking the poll!
Now you see it - Now you don't - now you do!
Now you see it - Now you don't - now you do!
That's right, baby, layaway may be back!
Back in 2006, (before most of us in the real world knew that the sky was going to come falling down on our heads), Walmart, the ultimate haven of long layaway lines got rid of their program. I guess we can't much blame them for this as they probably thought everyone had credit since homes were being given away to anyone who asked for one. Needless to say, the advantage of having layaway programs is back. K-Mart is really pushing layaway and with any luck, Walmart will soon follow suit. Just for those who are interested, you can also layaway a nose-job or a vacation. Just have to look in the right places!
I think that layaway is a really good thing for America and I would like to see it come back. Not so much for the purposes of indulging in more materialism but reminding those of us who have lived in the "microwave generation" that it is okay to wait for things to come to us. Not only is not taking that plasma tv home from the store that day good for the soul, waiting in that layaway line to put the plasma on an account will make us think about whether or not we really want it!
So, what do you think about a possible resurgence of the layaway program? Let me know!
Hooray! I got my special powers back!
Hooray! I got my special powers back!
I feel like a kid in a candy store. For over 2 months, I haven't been able to do any links or do any cool fonts or colors on my Front Page. Lauren suggested to me that I download Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox to fix the problem. I.E. didn't do squat (as if I actually thought it would), but firefox did the trick. For that...hooray for Firefox, me sooo happy!
Boxers or Briefs?
Boxers or Briefs?
Want a job in the new Obama Administration? Get a load of this!
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/13apply_questionnaire.pdf
This makes your preference of boxers or briefs look pretty tame!
Caylee - The Cliff Notes
Caylee - The Cliff Notes
Come to find out, Disneyland isn't the only attraction in Orlando. Coming soon to a neighborhood near you, the battle between enraged onlookers, searchers, and sympathizers of Casey Anthony.
The Anthony's, A Primer:
Caylee Anthony - Missing since June 2008
Casey Anthony - Mother to Caylee
Cindy Anthony - Grandmother to Caylee, Mother to Casey
George Anthony - Grandfather to Caylee, Father to Casey
Lee Anthony - Uncle to Caylee, Brother to Casey
Zaneida Gonzalez - Alleged (and assumed imaginary) Nanny to Caylee
Leonard Padilla - Bounty Hunter and Uncle to Bail Bondsman, Tony Padilla - sprung Casey from Jail the first time.
Jose Baez - Casey Anthony's lawyer
Tony Lazarro - Casey's latest boyfriend on record
Amy - Friend who had checks stolen by Casey
Casey Anthony is the mother of the now 3 year old missing Caylee Anthony. Caylee went missing in June 2008. Casey runs around with her friends for an entire month, living with her boyfriend Tony and his roommates and partying in a Hot Body Contest at a local club. She's telling her friends that Caylee is with her parents and telling her parents that Caylee is with the nanny, Zenaida Gonzalez.
Fast Forward one month to July. Grandmother Cindy gets a call from a local tow yard. They say that they have a car there belonging to Cindy and George Anthony. This was the car that Casey had been driving. Cindy manages to dig Casey up and picks her up - no Caylee in sight.
An angered Cindy calls the police on Casey. She is mad because Casey has stolen money from her grandparent's assisted living fund by using the routing and account number on the bottom of a birthday check. She calls the police while Casey is in the car, saying that she wants Casey arrested. The dispatcher questions her and then places her call in for a transfer to the sherrifs office. While on hold (and still being recorded), Cindy can be heard to tell Casey that she hasn't seen Caylee for a month and that if she doesn't produce her, there will be a custody battle. Casey doesn't give up the goods.
Later, on a call to the police, Cindy is heard telling the dispatcher that she just found her missing daughter, that her granddaughter is missing and that is smells like there's been a dead body in the damn trunk. Common sense to a trained nurse does not dictate to Cindy that it wouldn't be okay to wash the pants that are in the trunk that smelled like it had a "damn dead body" in it.
The police come, they question Casey. First Casey says that she dropped Caylee off with the nanny, Zaneida, at Sawgrass apartments. They check this story out and find that no one had lived in that apartment for well over 100 days. Then, Casey says that her friends, Jeff and Juliette, at her job at Universal Studios have some connection to the case. She boldly strides into Universal, walks all the way down the hall with the officers, turns around and tells them that she hasn't worked at Universal in 2 years.
The police get a little perturbed and lock her up for Felony Child Endangerment and Obstruction of an Investigation. Casey sits in jail where recorded phone calls prove to be nothing more than her sulking and cursing at her parents, friends, and brother because everyone is upset about the missing baby, Caylee.
On the news, photographs emerge showing Casey dancing in a Hot Body Contest, smiling from ear-to-ear while her daughter is missing. The police send cadaver dogs to the Anthony home, where Casey lived with her parents and Caylee until her June 2008 foray of events with her newest boyfriend, Tony. The dogs hit on the trunk of the car and on a spot in the backyard. Despite the fact that cadaver dogs hit on the yard and the car smelled like it had a "damn dead body" in the trunk, Cindy denies the death of Caylee as a possibility in the case.
Zaneida Gonzalez is found and she's mad! She has no idea who Casey Anthony is and is upset that Casey is making her life difficult. The police show Casey a picture of Zaneida, whom she cannot identify, and Casey tells the police that its another Zaneida that she was referring to.
As Casey sits in jail, the judge sets the bail at $500,000. Lawyer for Casey, Jose Baez fights it but the judge is unimpressed. He too wants to know where Caylee is and if he can't force it out of her, he'll make her rot in jail for it.
Enter - Stage Right - Leonard Padilla, bounty-hunter with an affinity for attention. Leonard says that he'll put up the $50,000 necessary to spring Casey from jail so that she can help in the search. To the horror of onlookers and television personalities such as Nancy Grace, this is done. Casey walks free, supposedly to help find Caylee. She does not do so. Security at the house is a total nightmare, Casey isn't talking and the airwaves are filled with Leonard Padilla stating that Casey did indeed drop the baby off with Zaneida and that she is still alive.
We are now in mid-August 2008 and tests from the car come back. A sniffer test, sent to the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee comes back positive for a decomposing body in the trunk. Cindy is angry at the media for portraying her daughter as a murderer and insists that Caylee is still alive. Leonard Padilla starts to change his mind but still insists on national television that Casey did not dispose of her daughter in any way, shape, or form. He simply doesn't believe that humans can be that evil. A bounty-hunter doesn't believe that humans can be evil - now that's irony for you! Then, the hair tests come back from strands of hair in the trunk. They show decomposition on them. There are 400 pages of documents open to the public regarding the investigation - still, Cindy and Leonard deny any problem and Casey happily chats away with her friends online.
Searchers are sent out to the airport where cell phone "pings" have Casey at odd hours of the day. A couple of backpacks are found but not too much is said about them. When George Anthony last saw his daughter and granddaughter leaving the home, he said they had backpacks with them.
As we all approached Labor Day weekend, 2008, protesters circle the front of the Anthony lawn. Live on national TV, during the Nancy Grace show, police arrive to cart Casey back to jail. This time for stealing checks out of her friend Amy's glove compartment and using them at Target and other stores around the area. Leonard has changed his story. He has seen that Casey is a very dishonest person (no rocket scientist at all - this guy, Leonard). When Casey goes back to jail, Leonard and his nephew Tony pull the bond.
In the meantime, the FBI labratory comes back with information stating that there were large quantities of chloroform in the trunk of the car that Casey was driving when Caylee went missing. The FBI also found chloroform searches on Casey's computer. Where did she get the chloroform from? Did Cindy have access to it or Casey buy it off the internet?
Casey convinces her parents to put up all kinds of property for collateral and place themselves on the hook for the $50,000 portion of the bail which must be paid to spring her loose again. Casey gets out of jail,wearing a "Where's Caylee shirt" with about the same amount of sincerity that you or I may wear a "Where's Waldo" shirt - not really caring if we find Waldo or not. She immediately begins to lodge herself at Jose Baez's office for several hours a day. Early this week, Casey changes her story and tells her bodyguard Robert Dick that she met Zanaida at Jay Blanchard Park where Zanaida kidnapped Caylee and gave her a script to read to the public.
As of late, George Anthony has begin fighting with protestors on his lawn and has picked up a couple of assault charges. Lee Anthony, who could at one time be heard on taped jail-house conversations warning Casey not to talk too much has been silent, Casey isn't talking to anyone, and Cindy is still denying the death of her granddaughter and blaming the media for talking to much and the police for not doing their jobs.
If you're head isn't spinning by now (and I've left out many facts to keep it from exploding), keep watching - I'll have updates as they happen!
Maxxed out - and I didn't even feel a thing...
Maxxed out - and I didn't even feel a thing...
Talk about the fleecing of America - recently, myself and many of my friends with great credit have been having their credit card limits lowered to their current balance. I had 2 of my own cards, owned by GE Money Bank lowered to their current balances. Never mind you, that these cards were holding a 15% balance at the time that they lowered them.
There is a huge problem with lowering the credit limit on a credit card. Not only does it impede the card-holder from making any emergency purchases, but it also impacts their credit ratings. One of the ways that your credit is judged is by how much of a balance you hold on your credit cards versus the actual limit. This means, if the credit card company lowers your limit to your actual balance, you are at 100% of your credit limit - which means you have maxxed out your cards!
This is unfair and sickening! If you are out there, and this has happened to you, please write your Congressman and tell them how you feel about it. It truly is a theft of your good credit rating.
A timely quote
A timely quote
Be very very careful what you put into that head, because you will never ever get it out.
Thomas Cardinal Wolsey (1471-1530)
Despite the fact that Wolsey made this statement almost 5 centuries ago, it still remains the same today. Look at how we argue back and forth about politics. Each little thing we say was planted as a seed by someone else and we logically processed it until it can never leave our minds and most likely will never be dismissed.
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