It's my B-Day and I can cry if I want to

Last Friday was my birthday, and I certainly felt a year older. Like they say, a year older, but none the wiser (at least I think that is how the saying goes). :)

Those who have contributed to the "Out of the DARKNESS Overnight" walk

I wanted to personally thank everyone who has generously donated to the AFSP "Out of the DARKNESS Overnight" walk for me. I'm now up to $770 out of $1000, and the walk is a little less than 8 weeks to go.

Now, I really need to step up the plate and start training for the walk. The next few weeks will be strenous, but I'm definitely looking forward to this journey.

Thanks again everyone!

Cars can be so frustrating

I often find myself griping about various things, and try to avoid complaining, but some days it seems inevitable.

My 1996 Ford Probe GT is on the fritz and has been most of this year. It started having engine troubles last December, and I took into the mechanic after Christmas to have a major tune-up. The water pump was replaced as part of this repair, but a leak in one of the hoses near the water pump lead to more repairs. So, after a new-used engine and $5k later, the car now is in dire straits. The transmission, which was installed on the vehicle 3 years ago and was used, has given out. Now, given that Ford no longer makes Probe parts, I can pay ~$2k to have another used tranmission installed, but who knows how long that system will last. I'm thinking the car just wants to no longer be driven. Could that really be the case?

Cars, cars, cars... What next?

Vacations are necessary

I'm a frequent reader of many of the articles on cnn.com, and came across an interesting one today about how many Americans don't make use of all of their allotted vacation days. I am under the impression that taking vacations are necessary to keeping a person on an even keel, sane and happy. I try and avoid more than a week off a time, and sometimes don't even travel when I'm taking a vacation day (you know, a vacation from your vacation).

Vacations can often be as stressful as the job itself, but in order to keep my personal life apart from my work life, sometimes the only way to do is to take a day off here and there.

Email jokes that make me giggle

A friend emailed me the following that made me giggle:
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This teaches you to appreciate your ability to think…


ONE Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen nuggets. "We don't have half dozen nuggets," said the teenager at the counter. "You don't?" I replied. "We only have six, nine, or twelve," was the r eply. "So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?" "That's right." So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets

TWO I was checking out at the local Wal-Mart with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of those "dividers" that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn't get mixed. After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the "divider", looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it. Not finding the bar code she said to me, "Do you know how much this is?" I said to her "I've changed my mind, I don't think I'll buy that today." She said "OK," and I paid her for the things and left. She had no clue to what had just happened.

THREE A lady at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly. When I inquired as to what she was doing, she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card number, so she was using the ATM "thingy."

FOUR I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. "Do you need some help?" I asked. She replied, "I knew I should have replaced the battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can't get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?" "Hmmm, I dunno. Do you have an alarm, too?" I asked. "No, just this remote thingy," she answered, handing it and the car keys to me. As I took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, "Why don't you drive over there and check about the batteries. It's a long walk."

FIVE Several years ago, we had an Intern who was none too swift. One day she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, "I'm almost out of typing paper. What do I do?" "Just use copier machine paper," the secretary told her. With that, the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper, put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five "blank" copies.

SIX A mother calls 911 very worried asking the dispatcher if she needs to take her kid to the emergency room, t he kid was eating ants. The dispatcher tells her to give the kid some Benadryl and should be fine, the mother says, I just gave him some ant killer..... Dispatcher: Rush him in to emergency!

Life is tough...
it's tougher if you're stupid.

Rent or buy, ARM vs. 30 year mortgage, SO MANY DECISIONS

I'm going in tomorrow into the escrow company to the sign the documents to complete the refinance of my first home that I purchased in June 2004. I'm also taking out a home equity loan as part of this part to pay for some home remodeling projects.

My ultimate goal was to completely refurbish the house so I could put it up on the market the spring of 2007. I'm starting to waver however considering the numerous articles I've read recently on the next hot real estate markets for 2006, and seeing several communities from the Washington State at the top of these lists. Now, I'm really thinking maybe I should still continue with the remodeling projects I had in mind, and rent the house out, but ugh, there are so many decisions. Making large decisions has already been difficult for me, so the next few months should be interesting...

AFSP Out of the DARKNESS Overnight

While on a business trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, I heard a radio commercial for the "AFSP Out of the DARKNESS Overnight" walk. After losing my mother to suicide in 2000, I had always wanted to find a way to help those that suffer from depression or other-related illnesses.

Well, I registered for the Overnight walk and thought I would never be able to raise the minimum $1000 required to participate in the walk that will be used to help fund suicide prevention research. I created a personal fundraising page and send an email via the website to several of my co-workers, family, and friends. In one day, several of these generous souls had already donated $570 to this cause in my name. Their support is greatly appreciated!

The freakiness of online dating

I'm not sure if this is irony or a coincidence. A fellow that my sister in another state met through an online dating site sent me a flirt today. Now, this poor individual wasn't the right guy for my sister, and I highly doubt that he would meet the profile of the man I am currently looking for as well.

I am also positive if he knew I was her sister, he wouldn't have tried to contact me. I just thought this was a little freaky for a Friday morning.

So what is it with current oil and gas prices?

I borrowed this image from http://science.howstuffworks.com/oil-drilling.htm. I read an article today on cnnmoney.com about oil prices dropping to $72 a barrel. Ironically it seems that a drop in oil prices leads to a rise in gas prices. I'm just like every other American who likes to complain about gas prices, but hasn't changed my drives habits to help with the current shortages, plus I don't own a hybrid.

I guess I'll continue ranting until I can no longer afford to drive to work, at which time I'll probably be walking, biking, flying or using a transporter to get around.

Rock on Stephen Colbert...

Also see an article on Stephen Colbert's hosting of the 2006 White House 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on mtv.com.

I was never quite sure what to think of Stephen Colbert up to now, but after reading about his remarks this past weekend at the White House Correspondents Dinner, such as "I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things, like aircraft carriers, rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message that no matter what happens to America she will always rebound with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world," he must a man who can stick by his guns. Good for you Stephen Colbert!

C is for Cookie

I'm sure many people have already seen this, but I just came across the "C is for Cookie" spoof/trailer on the "V is for Vendetta" film. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9rzMaAucI4. You gotta those Sesame Street characters. :)

Marketing mumbo gumbo

This is taken from www.woot.com where they were selling a Toshiba Gigabeat 40GB MP3 for $169.99. I thought the following excerpt plays so much into what I, and many other office workers, deal with on a daily basis.

Gigabeat Yourself Senseless
Toshiba Executive: I don’t get it. All these trendy music players use our hard drives, right? So we take the next logical step and manufacture our own. Sounds like a can’t-miss to me. Now, two years later, we’re dumping our overstock Gigabeat 40GB MP3 players on Woot while the other guys are sipping champagne with Larry Mullen, Jr. What happened?

Toshiba Marketing Guy: Short answer: we don’t know. Our metrics indicate solid brand penetration, strong CRM follow-through, and a robust heritage of integrity associated with the Toshiba identity. But the ROI figures reveal a profound disconnect somewhere in the schema chain.

Toshiba Executive: Damn right they do. I mean, this is a great product – forty gigs of hard drive space, but nice and compact the way the rubes like ‘em these days. That docking cradle is a thing of beauty, letting you rip CDs from your computer directly to the Gigabeat in minutes. You can use the big color LCD to view pictures, or even sync up slideshows to your playlists. It’s Plays for Sure-certified, so it’ll play DRM-protected files, and they’ll sound great thanks to 29 different EQ settings and SRS WOW processing. We could go on all day talking about the great features of this thing. It even looks pretty cool. So why are we drowning in unsold Gigabeats?

Toshiba Marketing Guy: Short answer: degenerating market literacy and unprecedented regimentation of key demographic segments produced a minor but detectable chill in positioning-repositioning flexibility.

Toshiba Executive: What are you talking about?

Toshiba Marketing Guy: Short answer: absent a compelling narrative for redeployment, household decision-makers maintain high levels of functional certitude toward aggrandizing top-down calls to action.

Toshiba Executive: I don’t know what any of that means. And you know, I’m starting to think you don’t even know what any of that means.

Toshiba Marketing Guy: Uhh, scalable co-branding? Destabilized convergence of action items? Synergy?

Toshiba Executive: You’re fired.