(no subject)
Well.... let's see here. I finally finished suffering through all ten episodes of 'Galactica 1980'. Unlike 'Firefly', which died of network incompetence, someone should have put '1980' out of its misery the moment the first episode was screened. The only recognizeable faces are Boomer and Adama; and unlike the original Adama full of spit and fire, this one's a whipped dog, tail between his legs, and usually grovelling in front of a kid. I really wish I could have those hours of my life back.
Work's crazy, as seems to be the way of things lately. Someone's doing something with a UPS that apparently nobody has ever done before, and while everything is correct from a code+technology+application standpoint (and has probably been done hundreds of times before), MOVs are popping, and it's causing no end of headaches. We're pretty well on our way to a fix, though, and hopefully we'll have a final resolution before the end of the week. Annual raises also happened last week, and while this year's wasn't as jaw dropping as last, it still beats inflation, so I'm happy. I'm also pretty confident that I'll hit $50k gross for the first time in my life come tax season (I just barely missed it last year).
After playing with yet more rent vs. buy calculators, and getting input from people on the Fool (real estate agents and mortgage brokers in particular), I've come to the conclusion that as a financial decision, renting versus buying is currently a wash. My rent is so low that buying doesn't make sense unless I can stick around for at least seven or eight years, and being a young single guy, I just don't see that happening. So to celebrate, I became a card-carrying Fool, and I now have a low-interest + cashback card to substitute for the insane-rate (if I had a balance, anyway) Browns card I've had since college. This decision also frees up cash for some other things I've been putting off, like taking advantage of the personal trainers at the gym to see where I'm going wrong with the workouts, and opening an investment account in addition to my savings. It's well past time I started taking advantage of the market.
The spam mail I've been getting of late has gotten a bit more interesting. Used to be the regular old embedded images, nonsense word salads, and other assorted jibberish. Now it's actually coherent sentences, like "Hi, I'm a 25 year old girl who's so lonely I'm going to kill myself and eat my dog. I'd really like to meet some guys, though, so....." Now pray tell, if you're so lonely, does that mean seeing you will push you over the edge because you're a spammer, or that seeing you will end your spammish ways and you'll stop being such an annoyance? For that matter, are you going to shoot yourself and then eat the dog (which would be quite an accomplishment), or eat the dog first, then shoot yourself in some kind of twisted murder-suicide scheme?
Ahh... Bush. You've gone and really screwed up. Yes, just like your father, who said "Read my lips, no new taxes," and then raised them, you've gone and said (paraphrased) "Anyone who is guilty will be prosecuted and punished." But now you've gone and commuted Scooter's sentence. I'm no power politician, so maybe I'm not fully up to speed on The Way Things Work In Washington (which means that it's entirely possible the rules the rest of us normal folk have to live by don't apply there), but isn't giving Scooter a 'get out of jail free' card (and don't give me the "he's still a convicted felon" crap... speaking tours and talk shows were his next stop anyway) the very thing that 'prosecute and punish' is supposed to preclude? Just saying. If this keeps up for another 15 months (and the noise coming from the office of the Emperor... err... Vice President suggests it will), I can't see even the faintest glimmer of hope for the GOP next November. Of course, the Democrats aren't exactly riding high either. They don't have the votes (or the gumption) necessary to make any kind of impeachment drive succeed, and so their attempts to force Bush/Cheney's hand are doomed to failure, as well as making them look impotent. End result, people get fed up with them as well, and voter turnout for '08 makes the Cubans look like a model democracy. Unless, of course, a well-funded pragmatist (Warren Buffet, anyone?) decides to put up their own money and run, much like Perot did in '92. If *THAT* happens... well... things would not only get really interesting, they might actually improve.
And so I bid you a good night. I really want to watch Bleach live for a change, and I've done enough griping about politics for one night.
Late night commercial break edit: I just saw that Flogging Molly will be playing the Irish Festival this year. Nate, John, Ed, and other friendly and interested friends, let me know if you plan on coming.
Work's crazy, as seems to be the way of things lately. Someone's doing something with a UPS that apparently nobody has ever done before, and while everything is correct from a code+technology+application standpoint (and has probably been done hundreds of times before), MOVs are popping, and it's causing no end of headaches. We're pretty well on our way to a fix, though, and hopefully we'll have a final resolution before the end of the week. Annual raises also happened last week, and while this year's wasn't as jaw dropping as last, it still beats inflation, so I'm happy. I'm also pretty confident that I'll hit $50k gross for the first time in my life come tax season (I just barely missed it last year).
After playing with yet more rent vs. buy calculators, and getting input from people on the Fool (real estate agents and mortgage brokers in particular), I've come to the conclusion that as a financial decision, renting versus buying is currently a wash. My rent is so low that buying doesn't make sense unless I can stick around for at least seven or eight years, and being a young single guy, I just don't see that happening. So to celebrate, I became a card-carrying Fool, and I now have a low-interest + cashback card to substitute for the insane-rate (if I had a balance, anyway) Browns card I've had since college. This decision also frees up cash for some other things I've been putting off, like taking advantage of the personal trainers at the gym to see where I'm going wrong with the workouts, and opening an investment account in addition to my savings. It's well past time I started taking advantage of the market.
The spam mail I've been getting of late has gotten a bit more interesting. Used to be the regular old embedded images, nonsense word salads, and other assorted jibberish. Now it's actually coherent sentences, like "Hi, I'm a 25 year old girl who's so lonely I'm going to kill myself and eat my dog. I'd really like to meet some guys, though, so....." Now pray tell, if you're so lonely, does that mean seeing you will push you over the edge because you're a spammer, or that seeing you will end your spammish ways and you'll stop being such an annoyance? For that matter, are you going to shoot yourself and then eat the dog (which would be quite an accomplishment), or eat the dog first, then shoot yourself in some kind of twisted murder-suicide scheme?
Ahh... Bush. You've gone and really screwed up. Yes, just like your father, who said "Read my lips, no new taxes," and then raised them, you've gone and said (paraphrased) "Anyone who is guilty will be prosecuted and punished." But now you've gone and commuted Scooter's sentence. I'm no power politician, so maybe I'm not fully up to speed on The Way Things Work In Washington (which means that it's entirely possible the rules the rest of us normal folk have to live by don't apply there), but isn't giving Scooter a 'get out of jail free' card (and don't give me the "he's still a convicted felon" crap... speaking tours and talk shows were his next stop anyway) the very thing that 'prosecute and punish' is supposed to preclude? Just saying. If this keeps up for another 15 months (and the noise coming from the office of the Emperor... err... Vice President suggests it will), I can't see even the faintest glimmer of hope for the GOP next November. Of course, the Democrats aren't exactly riding high either. They don't have the votes (or the gumption) necessary to make any kind of impeachment drive succeed, and so their attempts to force Bush/Cheney's hand are doomed to failure, as well as making them look impotent. End result, people get fed up with them as well, and voter turnout for '08 makes the Cubans look like a model democracy. Unless, of course, a well-funded pragmatist (Warren Buffet, anyone?) decides to put up their own money and run, much like Perot did in '92. If *THAT* happens... well... things would not only get really interesting, they might actually improve.
And so I bid you a good night. I really want to watch Bleach live for a change, and I've done enough griping about politics for one night.
Late night commercial break edit: I just saw that Flogging Molly will be playing the Irish Festival this year. Nate, John, Ed, and other friendly and interested friends, let me know if you plan on coming.