October 8, 2009
Sooo I think I’ve rounded up all the extant parts and widgets (widgets?? It’s a whole different language going on here.) Yes, Blogger switched to New Blogger or some sort of thing forever ago, but like New Coke, I thought it’d go away soon enough. Or at least by the time I was ready to take on another template change.
I sure was wrong, but in the flush of new-cold delirium, it seemed like a worthwhile endeavor since I was stuck cooped up in the house anyway.
Uh yeah. Not really. Turns out that you have to upgrade from Classic Blogger, add these newfangled widgets, replace the HTML template with the right one, save that, go back and re-add those widgets because the first time around you forgot to save it, save, then find out you added the wrong template that has text screaming from one end of the screen to the other right over the sidebar.
Oh wait. Start over. Replace the HTML template. Save. Edit widgets. Save. Realize that you’re now missing Adsense and can’t add it because javascript in the HTML? Doesn’t. Show. UP.
*sigh*
Annnyway. It took a good long while, but between that and watching listening to old episodes of Reba, we might be all set around here?
Many many thanks to fantastic FB who did all the designing, colors, more designing, tweaks and twitches needed to make this happen! You wouldn’t believe the amount of work she had to do, between rewriting crap code, tailoring things for New Blogger who is unbelievably picky, and still making things pretty.
*dusting hands*
Whatcha think?
September 26, 2009
Posting here has fallen off for a number of reasons and it’s frustrating because I feel like nothing’s getting done. Now that’s a weird way to look at it. You’d think blogging would get in the way of accomplishing stuff, not facilitate it. Anyhow, like MoneyMateKate, things on the financial front are relatively stagnant. Medical matters have kept me away from home, supporting one sick friend + family after another these two weeks. It must have been three weeks ago that I twittered about my friend’s husband hospitalization in a diabetic coma. She’s been leaning on me pretty heavily since then for company as well as emotional support.
There are tons of things that need doing, I just don’t wanna. Heck, I don’t even want to write this post because that means I’ll feel guilty and have to get going and take care of them. 🙂
Pack your bags, we’re going on a guilt trip!
School started three or four days ago. 1. I still don’t have my books. I should have ordered them three weeks ago to save on shipping. I even made up a spreadsheet comparing costs of Amazon.com vs. Chegg.com vs. library (availability) vs. paperbackswap.com (availability). Too bad the actual ordering didn’t happen, now Chegg will take 4-7 business days to deliver the books. What is this, college all over again??
2. I’m still perusing the syllabi and wondering if perhaps I was too ambitious taking two classes to start. That right there sounds like a pansy talkin’.
3. Quizzes. Ugh. There’s a practice test posted right now. Ugh.
On the bright side, I’m really glad that I paid the extra money and signed up for online courses this quarter. This whole situation would have been impossible if I’d moved to the LA area and taken classes on campus.
Work. I volunteered to intern with this fella who can teach me Photoshop and InDesign a couple days a week, but that’s been utterly derailed because of the family stuff. Not much I can do there because I have to actually be there in the office to learn and work. He knows what’s going on, though.
I was also offered a possible internship opportunity with a financial services firm if I like my finance classes. Again, demands on my time need to be prioritized.
Travel. Dragging my feet on scheduling any travel because even though I really want to be away from home, travel itself is getting old. You know the restless out-of-place sort of feeling when you’re ready to be back in your comfy spot? I’ve got that.
Plus, I’d like to use American Airlines miles but booking through their site’s just a pain.
Anyhow, the takeaway message today is that you can’t get anywhere until you get started. And I’m going to get started now. Have a great rest of Saturday!
September 25, 2009
For the first time in years, I got birthday money! Yay! My cousin claims it’s from my aunt, but I suspect they colluded because cousin is younger than I and there’s an unspoken rule that money only flows down the age stream. Also my unemployment status probably has something to do with it.
This happy circumstance was marred by the discovery that my dad has been hiding over $500 in traffic fines from me.
Injured pride is one thing. Making foolish short term decisions that have negative long term consequences to protect that pride is another entirely and I can’t tolerate it anymore. I’m not one to talk back to my parents, I believe in maintaining a respectful, adult relationship, but darned if I let him get away with this lightly. I resent the fact that I have to lecture him for lying to me. If he’d just been honest with me in the first place, we’d be a team, not this unnatural reversal of parent-child roles.
It’s less that I’m now out another unbudgeted $500, and more that I was raised never to lie and yet here I am, 27 years old and unable to trust my own father. I have to weigh the likelihood that he’s just covering up another wrong. Is this what having bad kids is like??? What would you do if you could no longer trust your parent(s)? Or your entire family? Never in my life have I wanted to run away more.
*aggravated*
But you know. Birthday money. It’d cover the careless forgetting to pack funeral clothes thing, if I’d remembered to bring the gift card with me. As it is, I’m going to have to make an emergency trip to H&M for some suitable pants or a skirt because I was in a hurry to return with the family to the hospital. Also, I had no idea we’d be having the service within two days of his passing. So if I spend about $20, it’ll be cheaper than driving 4 hours round trip to pick up what I have at home. To make up for it, I’ll use the GC to pay the electric bill.
Forgot my pants, forgot my gift card, next thing you know, I’ll be forgetting my own head!
September 24, 2009
I’m back from the hospital for a day and just checking in.
My iPhone has let me keep up with those of you who have full feeds in Google Reader, but I hope everyone is doing well. Y’all are amusing on Twitter, so that helps me get through the days, too. Just wish I could click on all the links of the enabling shoppers out there to see what goodies you’re perusing. 🙂
My weekend visit doubled from the intended 2-3 days to a full 6 days at the request of the younger sib. Though a full 8 years younger than I, apparently my company was still of value and I could sense that the older sib and mother were both quietly hoping that I would stay and serve as sounding board for the youngster.
Holding a hospital vigil is terribly difficult on the spouse, but she’s a rock. An insanely strong, even-keeled, upbeat rock. It shouldn’t surprise me at all but it’s almost inhuman how strong this couple is: Mr. Dad is fighting so very hard, and Mrs. Mom, from beginning to end, is always able to bear the burden and her kids are free to make the choices that work best in their lives. She makes zero demands, just a few reasonable requests for changes of clothing and has maintained her sense of calm far better than any of us kids. Oddly enough, that frees us all to be as strong or weak as we need to be, and tears have flowed freely. No repression here, folks. Not really, anyway.
She’s only left the hospital three times since the hospitalization ten days ago, and that only to see to some crucial financial matters. It’s our responsibility to keep her company, make sure someone is always with Mr. Dad if she stepped away however briefly, cook dinner, do laundry, clean the home, and just support one another. It’s as guilt-free as you can get. They’re amazing. Can I grow up to be just like both of them, please?
As the “adopted” daughter, I took over the domestic chores. We’d be at the hospital all day and late into the night, and when we got home I’d cook dinner for the next day. That’s my ziti you see up there. I still have a nice little shiny spot on my thumb from accidentally pressing it against the 400 degree oven. Y’all don’t like war wounds so I won’t share a picture of that. 🙂 That’ll last my friend through the week, and I’ll come up with something else for the weekend.
My friend’s the oldest and so is, at times, a complete wreck when he feels the weight of his father’s passing the responsibility for the family to him and his sibs. He’s up to the task though, and knows that he has all kinds of support on the practical matters from me since the running joke is my love of all things financial makes me the father’s favorite son. It’s just heartbreaking because we still had so much to learn from his dad.
In the meantime, I’ve got to run a ton of errands and do something about my online classes. And then make the decision whether I should go back down to the hospital tomorrow, or if I should proceed with my travel plans that were made weeks ago. My heart and mind are going to be here, shouldn’t I be as well?
September 17, 2009
In a way, it’s good that I’ve done this before. The vigil, the family meetings, the doctors meetings, the family-doctor meetings. It means that I viscerally understand that there’s a good time and not so good time to have visitors.
Friend asked me to be on call for my visit, so I’ve obliged. The original plan was to be there first thing this morning and take care of household stuff like laundry and cooking and cleaning. Stuff that their mom would feel compelled to do. But it turns out that it’d be easier for them if I were to be coming late this evening or early tomorrow morning.
In the meantime, I’ve done my deed for the day and emergency babysat for a girlfriend whose back has been bothering her. The timing was perfect: my day was opened up just a few minutes before she needed me. Now she’s been to the doctor and back, tended to, and is resting.
Now I’ve got to rest up, and then pack. And also locate new, cheaper auto insurance. And perhaps renters’ insurance as well. It’s what he would expect.
September 14, 2009
Being self-motivated while “between opportunities” has unique challenges; it’s a bit more complicated when health issues get a vote in what you do each day. As some of you know, I’ve been raring to move out, move on, and make serious career changes. All the get-up-and-go in the world doesn’t offset the physical considerations of an immune disease, though, so once again, I’ve had to make compromises.
When it’s too hot out, I just want to stay in a cool, slightly dark hole. With free wi-fi. Failing that, the library. When it cools down, I’m not as thrilled as I should be because the damp and chill get right into my bones. Still, it goes against the grain to let pain and grinding fatigue dictate my entire schedule, so I’m eating the ugliest frog today. For the next six hours, or as long as the energy lasts, this is the action plan.
We’ll start with discharging the internet obligations:
(while the laundry is in the wash)
1. Emails
2. Sign up for some courses online (anticipating huge reluctance here: it’s going to cost $1250 just for the classes.)
3. Finalizing a freelance contract.
All things I can do from the comfort of my desk, after which it’ll be on to the library to track down a textbook for that online class to save myself $26 (purchase) or $12 (renting from Chegg.com).
AND to make sure I don’t lose track of time again – every day feels like Saturday now – I’ve created a Google Calendar. It’s a departure from my usual obsessive pen-and-paper planner but it’s free, it’s lightweight 😉 and it fits my newly evolving lifestyle.
Bonus tasks: pick up the dry cleaning, grocery shopping.
How’s that for a SMART goal?
September 12, 2009
These are permutations of this question: How do you help others help themselves? Turns out, the answer can be quite simple: identify the appropriate resources and let them help themselves.
With the wealth of information and financial knowledge available online, I don’t buy financial advice books. There are a few “classics” or commonly discussed books that are constantly referenced, but they’re available at the library or through Paperback Swap, so it seems pointless for me to pay money for basic financial wisdom.
(Ramit would dispute this vehemently. But that’s not the point. The point is here, I’m agreeing with his premise that sometimes you should spend money to save money. Point also made on Consumerism Commentary’s podcast. So I guess you could read his post, listen to his commentary and skip this post. But you shouldn’t! Embarassing story ensues.)
This (perpetual and time-consuming) willingness to root for information, however, isn’t for everyone.
For those who are only interested in avoiding the biggest potholes but don’t yet know how to identify them, the exhortations of an exasperated PF blogger to “know your budget, understand your spending, run your numbers!” just doesn’t translate as constructive advice.
To fill that need, those black and yellow Guides for Dummies are good resources. I spent last weekend previewing the Mortgage for Dummies book because as an English major, I was skeptical of what seemed to be the Cliff Notes to money. The alternative, if the book didn’t pass muster, was to go dredge up more mortgage advice links and posts which weren’t terribly appealing in the first place. Plan B wasn’t looking too hot.
Happily, I was impressed at the concise and engaging writing. It wasn’t just my natural nerdiness and affinity for the material, either. After a few chapters, my non-blogger friend was moved to ask me questions about concepts raised in the book! Normally, this friend’s eyes sort of glaze over a bit when I start in on my really involved financial diatribes. You know, the “I’m watching football lalalaaaaa” kind of look?
For the record: I got to explain why people pay for points when shopping for a loan. In some situations, if you’re staying in the house long enough that your total interest paid is less than without paying for points (after factoring in the point cost) it’s worth it. That summary is pretty ok, but my original example didn’t clear things up, so I explained how I used the concept in a totally wrong and financially detrimental way.
When I bought my car *cringe* I made just about every mistake. I did negotiate and worked with the Fleet salesman instead of the floor salesman but that was about the only thing I did right.
Sensing blood, they presented a “pay for percentage” situation that only a total newb would fall for, and I did. *more cringe* They offered to knock a full percentage point off my interest rate, financed through a credit union they worked with, if I would pay an additional $1000 for GAP insurance. Since the car purchase was under duress (see Mistake #7) I wasn’t prepared for the cash expenditure, thus, easily freaked out about the prospect of having to make up the difference between my drive off the lot value and appraised value if anything happened to the car early on.
They preyed on my ignorance and created fear of a situation that actually isn’t impossible to bear. (Which is, btw, how most of them sell extended warranties and such.)
I should have considered the time horizon. The loan was written for 60 months even though I had no intention of taking that long. On the other hand, with all the financial turmoil at home, I also didn’t know how long I’d stay in that loan. Predictions would have been wild guesses. I signed the paperwork, went home, and privately committed to paying $500/month instead of $370. It was PIF in 3 years – that reduced one percent was not worth it. I don’t have the paperwork anymore, but roughly speaking, because I was dumb enough to roll that 1k into the loan, I paid 1k for the privilege of saving about $200. Yay me!
Back to the point: it’s good to know that there are smarter folks than I out there writing guides to help those who just don’t have the time for this kind of obsession. Simple writing is often the smartest writing.
There’s something to be learned there.
