December 4, 2009
Free Vistaprint card design
I was recently roundly scolded by my mentor for not having business cards when we met a potential professional contact.
Me: But .. but .. we’re on vacation!
But she’s right: you should always have some sort of contact card to give to people you meet in case you’d like to keep in touch. Even if they don’t keep the card itself because they input the information into their preferred electronic device like FB does, they will have gotten your information. That’s the idea, anyway.
I’m so of the electronic age that I’ve just gotten by exchanging phone numbers via email or inputting a phone number on the spot and calling the other person so they can save my phone number. Who hasn’t done that? That’s just not good enough for professional purposes, though, it’s just too informal for certain contacts.
Ordering cards had been on my list of things to do anyway, so what was I waiting for? I hopped on the computer that same night and took a quick Twitter poll about whether or not Vistaprint was any good. My main concern was that the cardstock would be some cheap shoddy material, but …. (thanks @gingercorsair and @punchdebt!)
It seemed worth the gamble so I clicked through the Vistaprint options and ordered a set of 250 business cards with blank backs ($1.99) instead of their printed logo, 21-day slow shipping ($5.67) and matte finish (free) for less than $8.
My other options were Uprinting.com and @TheyCallMeCheap recommended that I try Moo which I’d never heard of before. If I didn’t like the cards Vistaprint produced, I would try Moo next.
The cards were ordered on the 18th and delivered on the 27th – less than 2 weeks! That’s pretty good for someone who neurotically tracks shipping as soon as an order is placed.
The cardstock is average and acceptable for my purposes – they’re not flimsy but they’re not the super thick 100-lb weight premium paper that could inflict a life-threatening paper cut either. Best we keep it that way.
December 3, 2009
Little Miss Moneybags
tagged me forever ago and it’s taken this long to come up with seven things I haven’t already shared. And then Rina of Gotta Little Space
tagged me, too, but you’ll forgive me if I don’t double up on the work.
The Rules:
1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.
What you shouldn’t know about me:
1. I want food I don’t already have. There’s a sweet spot between wanting and having a snack in which it’s delicious, but it’s a very small window. This is how Oreos last as long as they do in my house. It’s also why I don’t buy potato chips. I’d never finish the bag before it went stale.
2. I’m a one-trip shopper: Everything has to be unloaded from the car in one go. Once I’m in the house, I’m not coming back out. [Except when it’s nearly impossible but it’s always too late to change my mind. Like the one time I bought 20 pounds of pork ribs and 20 pounds of chicken. In hindsight, that was just flat out dumb.]
3. I just yelled “LIFESTYLE INFLATION!!” at a 19-year-old contemplating an iPhone vs. Palm.
4. I’m related to crazy people who think that ionized water is a cure-all. This makes me sad. Then kind of mad.
5. In my head, dresses should always be step-in-able. That over-the-head business just doesn’t jive with me. Also, when tailored to fit and both zippers and buttons are involved, I often have trouble getting dressed.
6. It seems like the above incompetency should be mentioned to all mothers who ask me to babysit their darlings. It frequently isn’t.
7. But I still do remarkably well babysitting the under-3 age group. Performance drops slightly around bedtime prep, but the number of diapers I’ve changed should more than offset that loss.
Alright darlins, please tag yourselves because you’re going to hurt my feelings if you don’t follow through and I’m going to hurt yours if I didn’t pick you. And let me know so I can link back to you! 🙂
November 3, 2009
I got a free Nintendo DS Lite (2nd gen)!! A friend bought himself a brand new DS, we were chatting about the pricematch he got on it thanks to his new Google phone the other day, and out of the blue, he offered to mail his old one to me. It’s darling. White, shiny, little, probably fits in a jacket pocket.
This pretty much requires that I spend money. Oops. I won’t be rushing out to buy everything immediately because I didn’t budget anything for fun accessories and don’t have time to play it anyway but this is the wish list:
First, a screen protector: The Hori Protector runs about $10.
Second, a protective skin: Perhaps Depths by Lawrence Yang?
Loose Leaf by Derek Prospero?
Sugar Head In The Sky by Brandi Milne?
The Enamored Whale by Alberto Cerriteno?
Third, A Game! I have no idea what game I want yet. I’m just pretty much elated to have a little gaming device of my very own for the first time. We shared a Gameboy when I was a kid, but all the games were pretty much my brother’s, so I played on sufferance.
I liked Professor Layton when I tried it on one friend’s DS, was completely bored by Cooking Mama when I tried it on another. Should I go with a puzzle game? I hear there’s a form of Bejeweled coming out sometime, or perhaps an RPG? The World Ends with You could keep me occupied for-ev-er. Ooh or! I could maybe get My Japanese Coach!
Whatever I choose, it’ll have to wait until I’ve saved up enough Swagbucks to redeem for Amazon gift certificates. And I only have 89 SB right now so… this could be a while. S’ok, I’m happy enough for now. 🙂
October 20, 2009
I’d love it if you guys voted for my bag in Well-Heeled’s blog contest. No pressure. 🙂 But it would sure go a long way to funding Christmas shopping this year since my gift fund is sort of … depleted.
It’s already October! I can’t believe I only have one gift, and that’s practically a cheat because those comic books are purchased in July every year.
Has anyone started making their gift lists yet? Their wish lists? Anything?
October 17, 2009
But guys…. you should really see it. I went to the Cal-UCLA game today, wore flats that are now officially dead to me, and now my pinky toe (the worst casualty of many) has become a blister. That’s it. It’s like I’ve got a blister with a toenail for a toe now. It’s so gross. And I have other blisters to watch, too.
Oh but that’s not the only reason I’m sharing it with you. I was scolded for wearing my flats with a tank top and shorts. I was told it was a “faux pas.” It’s in quotes because I think it’s preposterous. You can wear flats with shorts, right? Have I lost my mind? Was that pre-heat stroke wardrobing?
October 15, 2009
You have made too many invalid entries. Your account has been locked and can no longer be accessed. Please contact us at (304) 480-7711.
The log in process:
1. Remember if your account number begins with a letter or a number. Frantically look it up in email archives, hope hope hope …. (Is it too much to ask for the option of naming your account instead of using the numbers?)
2. Remember that idiotic string of numbers, letters, and symbols they forced you to concoct.
3. Fail three times, get the hint, fail once more before succeeding.
4. Answer three of eight security questions listed. Oh wait, remember WHICH three you answered in the first place when you set up the account three years ago. Answer just those three. If you can’t recall which three they were, then you can answer every single question there. If you can’t remember the answers, or figure out what you used as placeholders when you got bored during account set-up, do not proceed to step 5.
5. I didn’t proceed to step five, so I don’t know when the secret access decoder ring card comes into play anymore.
*sigh*
The only nice thing about getting locked out is when you call the number listed above and they’re busy, they’ll take a message and call you back. Now the nice man at the Treasury Department who called back to answer my question and unlocked my account has the information he needs to steal my identity and blackmail me at the same time. Score!
PostScript: Seeing “Untd St Govt” on the caller I.D. can startle you even if you haven’t done anything wrong. When you haven’t done anything, I mean, when.
October 14, 2009
Firstly, the county of San Diego can go fly a kite.
During the funeral weekend, we had to use the toll road a few times but each time, the toll booth read a bit fat $0.00. I thought it was a little suspect, but could never get a good photo of the booth when we were passing by.
Sure enough, this week’s mailbag brought proof that I was right, that was a timebomb waiting to go off: three Notices of Toll Evasions! Um, what evasion, people??
There was never an attendent or any other cars on that road so we couldn’t see if the booth was active, if it was out of service, or what the situation was. There wasn’t even a phone number posted on the booth for roadside assistance/questions/etc. Call me crazy, but if you tell me that the price is zero dollars, zero cents, that’s exactly what I’m going to pay ya! Not any of this extra $50 per incident nonsense….
A request… no, wait, three requests for administrative review will be in tomorrow’s mail. Wish me luck, guys, I’m not going to fork over nearly $200 for what amounts to a county-enriching fee-trap without at least a strong argument.
Secondly, the state of California can go fly another kite.
I was honest on my last claim form stating that I had started classes during the time period in question, noting that the classes were online only, and what do they do?
A) Send me a notice of a telephone interview scheduled for 3 weeks from now,
B) paperwork to “verify” my “eligibility for training benefits,” a list of questions that I could easily answer on paper stating that no, my classwork does not interfere with my job search,
and C) No Check.
Oh and there’s icing on this cake: they refuse to answer the phone. Really. The recording says “We’re currently receiving too many calls to answer,” sends you through a Mephistophelian maze of phone options, and then hangs up on you! Way to not even TRY.
Dude. Also, way to punish the populace: hound them for pursuing other options in case sitting around on UI doing nothing but fruitlessly job-hunting seemed kind of useless. We should sit tight, surf the ‘net, and hope that Big Brother provides, hm? Obey precisely or else BB will yank the funding?
I didn’t ask for you to pay for my schooling and I’ll adhere to the “regular unemployment provisions,” so couldn’t you make this another form letter that I can fill out so that I have some income for the next four weeks? I’ll survive, though my cash cushion will be more than a little devastated by this sudden drawdown, but can you imagine someone relying on each check for that month’s bills? I would be thoroughly freaked out.
*sigh* I guess I wouldn’t normally be so put out but … oh heck, of course I would be! It doesn’t matter how much I’m bringing in (or not, at this point) – money has just been flying out the door these past few months. The only thing to do after sending off my objections to the first problem, and preparing to deal with the second problem, is wait and see. In the meantime, it’s absolutely infuriating.
