Quit Blowing The Damn Horn!

A tornado siren is across the street from my home. When we get some pretty bad weather it goes off alerting those outside to get inside and seek shelter. It has been going off for a few minutes now. I'm not certain why. The rain isn't too bad and a quick look at the weather radar indicates there is a nasty storm quite a bit to the south of here but it is heading straight east.

I thought Big City had upgraded the sirens to be more locational, but perhaps if you fire one up you have to fire all of them up. The sky is lighting up pretty frequently with lightning that jumps from cloud to cloud. It is very pretty and the weather people on TV are saying the storms are strong, but no indications of tornadoes. I hope the people to the south are okay, but seriously can someone just turn off the siren across the street?

The Blahs.

I swear I've been infected with a terminal case of the blahs. This is even worse than the typical Monday Blahs. Perhaps a good night's sleep will provide some relief.

Happy Birthday Chuck Norris.

Today is the 70th birthday of Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris is 70? No way! In typical Chuck Norris fashion I heard he roundhouse kicked his birthday into next year.

Thank You Sallie Mae.

Normally I would never, ever, EVER, utter those words, but this once I'm allowing it.

I installed TurboTax and started preparing my returns. I knew I wouldn't owe any money unlike last year. I really needed to have a good idea how much of a refund I would get back. Any refund is going towards the VISA bill I racked up during my multi-year job hunt. I'm at the point I can see the light at the end of credit card tunnel. If my refund can accelerate my debt relief by a few months it'll be worth it.

I place all my tax documents into a folder, but I didn't have anything from Sallie Mae concerning student loan interest. I ran the numbers I had and TurboTax said I had a good federal refund, but owed the state money. WTF! Is my home state taxing the hell out of me or is the W-4 situation all screwed up?

I went back to my inbox and rummaged through the old mail. I found the Sallie Mae envelope. Problem: it didn't say important tax information, but merely, "important information about your student loan." Hell that's usually something somebody wants to sell you so usually I confirm that's a sales pitch and then shred it.

There was how much student loan interest I paid. I plugged the numbers into TurboTax and suddenly life got really good. The proposed fed refund is now very sweet and the state owes me some pocket change now. How sweet is my refund now? The added numbers will allow me to pay off VISA an extra month early. The combined refund will take off an entire season. But for my student loans I could be officially debt free by the fall. I'm looking forward to that. A net worth of zero will be a good thing and be like my old pre-law school days of no debt. I miss those days.

Light at the end of the tunnel indeed. Who knew working on taxes could be a good thing.

Unemployment Is Going DOWN!

The Fabulously Gay Roommate found a job! He starts tomorrow. FGR is disappointed in that the job "is a lateral move" and very similar to his last job. I explained he's been unemployed for at least 6-7 months and he's really moving up in the world by simply having a job in his field. At worse he's holding steady and in this economy that is saying something.

Sometimes I wonder about his perspective on things. He seems rather disappointed.

In some ways I sympathize with him. I recall losing a job with one contract firm. A few months later another contract firm signed me up for the same position I was let go from, for worse hours and less money. I was happy for the money and the employment, but I knew I was going to loathe the situation. I don't know. My experience was a 3 month layoff in a mediocre economy. FGR has been out of work since June or July of last year in the worst economy since the Great Depression. Hell it took me 2 years to find work in MY NEW FIELD after I graduated!!! Perhaps he didn't hit near rock bottom like I did and doesn't realize how lucky he is. The young do lack experience.

Oh well. He'll figure it out eventually. Sometimes the only goal is to have a paycheck. In a year or two both of us can move up the job chain.

Now THAT Is Good Customer Service.

Customer service seems to be in decline these days. I ordered something online from a small speciality shop on Wednesday and it arrived on Thursday. I was shocked since it was free shipping and I figured I would get my order in 3 to 5 business days at the earliest. I didn't get a chance to unpack the big box until today. I ordered 11 items, but only had 10 things in the box along with a ton of those foam shipping peanuts.

I was about to shoot off an email asking to send my missing item for free or to give me a refund and there were 2 emails already waiting for me dated yesterday. One informed me the items was out of stock and couldn't be shipped so they were going to refund the cost to my credit card. The second email was a confirmation of the refund.

NICE!!!!

I think I may order from them in the future.

Winter Has Arrived With A Good Tailwind!

I don't know if it is actually snowing or if the wind is blowing what little snow there is around all over the place. When I see large flags flying straight I know there's a good wind blowing. The weather lady on TV is saying with the wind chill it could be in the negative teens tonight. NEGATIVE TEENS for a wind chill!!!!

With so little daylight (it is the winter solstice today) and the cold temps I simply want to hibernate this time of year. Someone wake me up when spring arrives.

Let's Avoid The Icy Death Please.

Winter may start on Sunday but she has already arrived. Bad enough temps have been so cold the last week that my temperature gauge barely moves during the long commute from Big City to Small Town, but to have the entire road coated in a thin layer of ice is just too much. Given the number of accidents I saw and the times I saw some cars and trucks slip a bit I'm surprised my commute only took an additional 45 minutes. Sadly I'm not surprised by the number of idiots who decided to go nearly full speed. 4-wheel drive does not provide traction on ice people!

I hope I'm not as exhausted when I arrive at work tomorrow. I seriously needed a nap after keeping my car steady on today's drive home.

Random Thoughts

It was nice to have a 4 day holiday. Okay I worked 4 hours on Friday just to catch up on a few things. Key word sadly was 'few.' At least I got the files out of my inbox and got rid of a few things.

Winter has arrived. When you wake up to a half inch of snow today it is an easy conclusion to make. A shame it melted away by this evening.

How the hell is my checkbook off by around $500.00 after I've balanced it? I'll take a closer look at it during lunch tomorrow. Perhaps I added something when I should have subtracted, or transposed some numbers, but it balanced last month! My checkbook always used to balance, but the last few years it always seems like my checkbook is off by some pocket change every month. I'm convinced the bank has some program to randomly steal or deposit all the half penny transactions in a branch and play with my account. Give me a break, a personal checking account isn't that hard! You only deal with addition or subtraction.

For all the money I pay Sallie Mae couldn't they provide the envelopes to send in my student loan payments? My credit card companies and utilities send envelopes, so why not Sallie Mae?

The final episodes of Battlestar Galactica start January 16, 2009. It's about damned time! I really hope writing and stories pick up. Season 3 and Season 4 had some clunkers for stories. The Cylons may have had a plan, but I'm not sure the writers did.

Speaking of the SciFi Channel, why is SciFi canceling Stargate: Atlantis? I believe they're having the best ratings ever or pretty close and SciFi decides to can the show.

How did a pathetic San Francisco 49ers team gain 195 yards of offense, score a measly 10 points, allow the Buffalo Bills 350 yards of offense, and STILL WIN THE GAME? San Fran 10: Buffalo 3!

I would like to thank LSU for choking in the back half of the season. Your losses assured I would get 3rd place in my pool. I'm still mad Ball State was taken the pick before mine! 12-0 would be so convenient for my pool right now.

Thanksgiving leftovers are already in the tupperware for tomorrow. Cheap and yummy leftovers are good for lunch. I hope I can stand them until Wednesday since I have plenty.

The Big Pig In The Big Green Egg.

*Sunday afternoon, approximately 5:00 p.m.*

Me: Whoa! That's a lot of pork loin.

Cook: It's 9.4 lbs according to the label. I'm putting some hot peppers in the middle, some mustard, and wrapping some bacon around the whole thing.

Me: So really this is a pepper sandwich wrapped in pork. Is this even going to fit on the grill?

Cook: I have the large size of the Big Green Egg. Wrap the loin around itself and put it in the rack and it'll fit fine!

Me: That is a pretty large Green Egg.

Cook: Oh they have an extra-large one you can get.

Me: An extra large egg?!?!?! That must weight 100 lbs. You could probably fit the whole pig one of those monsters.

Cook: I'm willing to give it a shot.

I'm Feeling That Heart Attack Coming Now.

For all the screaming and moaning I realize that gas prices are the result of huge external forces that various groups have little control over. However, I just got my credit card bill in the mail and once again I'm in shock. For the second month in a row my gas receipts are more than my student loan payment!

I'm so glad prices are coming down, but I so need to get a job in Big City as soon as I can. I hope I can last another 18 months or so. Just need more experience before I can job hop.

We Need More Mr. Chapels In The World.

I'm at GeekFest for a few hours. I'm finding all sorts of interesting items. I get into one stall and see some interesting DVDs. One package had a personal fav of mine: Vengeance Unlimited. If you don't recall the series I don't blame you. It was a 1998 fan favorite for one season. Too bad more fans preferred Friends in that time slot. If you're familiar with The Equalizer it's the same basic idea. Michael Madsen is Mr. Chapel: a street smart righter of wrongs. If the legal system has screwed you over, don't worry because Mr. Chapel is on the case and will fix the problem. The characters, the writing, the story ideas, the haunting piano in the credits, the background soundtrack, were awesome.

Of course because I loved the show it disappeared after one season.

I plop the DVD into the player and notice the menu is very plain. When I hit play the sound quality isn't good. You hear that old static that truly plagued video tapes all the time when the quality wasn't good. The I notice the station identifying bug in the lower right corner. Channel 5???? OMG this is some friggin' bootleg copy and not an actual studio release. I paid $35 for this! At least the commercials weren't recorded as well.

I'm disappointed by the mediocre quality and the fact the studio will likely never put out an official edition of Vegeance Unlimited. I'm disappointed by the fact I paid $35 for this. On the plus side I've already gone through the first 4 episodes and am still amazed the show is as good now as it was in my memories.

If a one season wonder like Firefly can be made into a well loved, seldom seen movie, why not Vengeance Unlimited?

"Every day when I wake up I try to imagine the kind of world I want to live in. I can actually picture it in my mind. It wouldn't be a paradise. There would still be traffic jams, and bad coffee, and award shows. But I tell you what there wouldn't be, nobody like you. The rich, arrogant, lying, selfish. Not one single one of you left on the face of the earth.

I don't just sit around dreaming about this. I work at it, I work very hard every day to make it real. In fact, I'm about 3 seconds away from making it happen."

-Mr. Chapel
Vengeance Unlimited

School Starts Tomorrow?!?!

Not for me thankfully, but for the local school systems. We're not even halfway though August and students are already reporting to classes starting tomorrow, Tuesday, or Wednesday.

The only reason they do this is to get ready for standardized testing. Indoctrinate the students for weeks just to improve the exams. I hate teaching for the test. Teach the students how to think through a problem will serve them better in the long run.

Oh well, when I was in school I was always in summer band so I never really had 3 months off anyway.

The Rules Of Life.

Just one question: can someone explain to me why as soon as I have some money in my checking account something happens that requires me to write a big check? On the plus side the car runs so much better now so it might be worth the expense, but that hurt my wallet big time!

Time For Some Campaignin'

They're at it again.

Break Out The Defibulators!

It finally happened. I've been trying to avoid it. I've lucked out a few weekends and find cheaper sources. This time I was SOL. I paid over $4.00/gallon for gasoline.

I'm glad I don't have an SUV, but I still burn 2.5 to 3 gallons a day just for my commute. I can only go 3 or 3.5 days without filling up. If we had a light rail system between Big City and Small Town I would get a rail pass in a heartbeat.

Speaking of heartbeats mine stopped when I realized I was going to pay $4.09/gallon!

Rain Rain Go Away!

I'm tired of heavy thunderstorms every few days. I'm tired of the occasional tornado. I'm tired of hearing about all the flooding. I'm tired of driving around Small Town and seeing the contents of an entire house on the curb. I'm tired of hearing about people that work with me who have lost everything. I'm tired of hearing about friends in other nearby small towns have flooding in their homes. I'm tired of driving in a storm so fierce I wonder if I should stop on the side of the road or continue on at 20 m.p.h. with my flashers on.

I love the stark beauty of a good storm, but enough is enough.

The Fraggles Are Coming! The Fraggles Are Coming!

Strangely enough during a long road trip Fraggle Rock did enter our conversation. I'm not sure I would go to a feature length movie full of the buggers though. If only I could dance my cares away. Life would be so much simpler.

Happy Halloween

I love Halloween. I like how it has become a more adult oriented holiday. I feel it taps into our childlike sense of make believe. Besides, the costumes are cool. I was a vampire this weekend. Always cool, except for when I almost trip over the cape. The cape is perfect for someone 6 feet tall. Otherwise I had to puff my shoulders to get the damn thing off the floor. I don't know how many times the cape was caught in a closing door. There's no feeling like being quickly choked by your own clothing.

Just an occupational hazzard I figure. I'll see about shortening the cape for next year.

Welcome To The Watcher's Counsel.

I needed a place I could think out loud. This blog will allow me to do that I hope. If you think you know the names of various things used here, don't complain stating I've misspelled them. This is partially an homage to several things I like, but I changed some spellings and concepts to suit my purposes. 'Counsel' is meant to advise, not a group. I am a single watcher as well, not a group of observers. I will have my observations here, but I intend to advise at times.

I hope you will enjoy. I hope you'll participate. Until the next time.