Inspection’s over. Just met with my realtor to submit what we want done in order of importance to the seller’s realtor (who was at the inspection and despite her age, pretty easy on the eyes). So I’ll have more details as work begins and things start getting done. My realtor said the inspector accepted credit cards but he didn’t. I don’t carry cash or checks so I had to go driving around, wasting time and gas to find an atm. Went to a Chevron but theirs was out of order. Went to a Shell but they didn’t have one. Traffic was shit since it was rush hour so I dipped into a hotel. They had one. Withdrawal limit was $200 per transaction and I needed $250. Fuck! Plus they charged a $3.30 fee per transaction. I was cool with that cuz my bank refunds me those fees immediately. I got back to them since they were waiting at the house and neither had change to give me back my $10. So the inspector’s gonna mail me a check along with the inspection papers. What a fuckin’ day.

My plan was to go see Slumdog afterwards. If not for the atm hunt, I woulda made it in time. It started at 12:40p at the Regal Cinemas in Winter Park. I got to the theater about 5 minutes after thanks to the delay. I wasn’t disappointed. The movie was everything I was expecting from Danny Boyle. For the last answer in the movie, I thought it was C, not A, so I thought he got the answer wrong. Turns out he was right. I’m not too fond of letting the protagonist win it all but since fulfilling one’s destiny is the main theme of the movie, I accepted it. Boyle really knows how to end a movie, I’ll give him that. He’s a genius when it comes to that and I can finally admit that he’s my favorite director. Never could’ve narrowed it down to one person before but now I can. After the final emotional scene, there was a dance number that kinda took away from it. Maybe they could’ve saved that for after all the credits rather than blending with them. But still, damn good movie. There was about 20 or so people in the theater with me. And yes, I paid for the flick!

After that, I peeped a new Publix next door. An Albertsons had shut down to make way for it. It was nothing special except there was a lot of GreenWise shelf space. I was better off going to the bigger Publix in Baldwin Park. They have everything. This one didn’t have that much. I like grocery shopping in different places cuz no one store has everything. Gotta mix it up to get the variety.

I started my new schedule this week so finally I can get on a regular sleep pattern. I might have figured something out for my January dates problem. The Wrestler is available for dl right now but I wanna pay for it. I’m hoping it’ll be released in more than just one theater over a longer period than just one day. That means I can still see it on a day off and go see my wrestling. Estelle is performing in Jacksonville a few days after her Orlando date and I’ll be off that day. But J-ville is 2 hours away. Not sure if I wanna see her that bad but I got plenty of time to decide. Plus I just found out the new dates that ROH will be back in Orlando (February). Both wrestling dates are on a Saturday and I really don’t wanna swallow up 2 personal days that early in the year. So I’ll either have to decide which one I’ll do or I just might have to end up using 2 paid days (which I really don’t wanna do). Nobody’s gonna switch schedules with me and my job doesn’t have unpaid time. Dammit, dammit, dammit!

Just downloaded and watched the movie Blindness. I like Julianne Moore and she usually picks good roles but she made a mistake with this movie. It was horrible. Nice theme that should’ve went an intelligent, sci-fi route but since it’s based off a book, no chance of that happening. It was absurd and unrealistic. Not even gonna bother explaining it. The movie totally sucked mainly due to the writing. It was just bad. Don’t waste your time or money on it. I seriously doubt if the world went blind that it’d fall into mass chaos and disorder as portrayed here. And shouldn’t a person with sight have an advantage over blind people? So many faults with this movie. Casshern’s wife had nice legs though.

Decided to upgrade to AAA Premier just for the extra protection. Fortunately, I haven’t had a need for their roadside assistance over the past few years cuz I barely drive my car since I work a few blocks away from where I live. I mainly use them for discount tickets and shit. But rollin’ in a hooptie several years ago taught me just how valuable a AAA membership is. I won’t even begin to tell those horror stories cuz they are NOT good memories! I got the medical rider too. It don’t cost much more and the peace of mind is what it’s really all about. The card ain’t that flashy and the car stickers ain’t either. They stick on the outside rather than the inside like the Plus stickers and they’re pretty big (about as big as the palm of your hand and I have big hands) so a vandal will know to move on to the next car.

That’s what AAA wants them to do. Steal my fucking car and AAA pays good bread for info leading to an arrest and these are hard times. The fucked up part is that Premier memberships are just that: premier, and costs a little more. Meaning a person with that membership level most likely has some expendable income. So what’s a criminal to do? Bypass your ride for the unprotected car or jack your shit with the hopes that it’ll lead to a bigger stash? Hmmm…maybe I should rethink this Premier shit…not! Another thing is that maybe there’s a AAA theft ring that specializes in only stealing AAA protected cars. You got the thieves and the people that report them. The reporters get the reward money and distribute it and it’s on to the next car to repeat the process. Hey, could happen.

The card has a simple black and grey color scheme and the stickers are black and white and neither is all that visually appealing but that’s just my opinion. Times are so hard that AAA doesn’t wanna foot the bill for some color ink and dye? The base and Plus membership cards look much better. But I do like that they refer to me as ‘Mr.’ on the card now as opposed to before. I guess that’s as prestigious as it’s gonna get. Still left out my middle initial as always though. Bastards. But I ain’t sweatin’ that. Since us Premier members get our own service number, I wonder what would happen if I broke down right next to a base and/or Plus member and we all called at the same time. Who gets through quicker? Who gets service dispatched faster? Anyone with some time on their hands and is willing to put AAA to the test, I’d love to hear the results. And while you’re at it, you could test their response time versus Allstate Motor Club too.

Believe it or not, for the christmas that just passed, I was gonna give a one day freeview of all my secure content (minus the porn) but remembered that I didn’t purchase enough bandwidth to cover such a thing. I’m fine for the rest of the month but if I’d have done that, it would’ve been for nothing since I know I would’ve exceeded my allotment and visitors would see the ‘bandwidth exceeded’ message again making the effort pointless. I don’t know, maybe I’ll try to do something similar for the site’s 4 year anniversary (next May). We’ll see.

I bought an Aunt Jemima sausage, eggs, and hash brown breakfast and on the box there’s 2 sausages but inside there was only one. I eat their meals all the time and they’ve made some mistakes in the past and they corrected them by giving me free meal coupons. I still buy their shit though cuz given the amount of their food I’ve eaten and still eat, a packaging error here and there is fine. It ain’t like they forget to include something often, just a few times over the past several years. Nothing significant enough for them to lose my business. Shit happens. I peeped the package for a phone number and there was none. I peeped their site. No number. I peeped Pinnacle Foods site and did a Google search. Still no number. I guess the changeover from Swanson eliminated that. Used to be I’d ring ‘em up, tell ‘em the prob, give ‘em the info they needed off the box, and my coupons were on the way. Now you gotta fill out a form online and explain your prob. That’s a little impersonal to me cuz my experience is that businesses don’t pay as much attention to their emails as they do their phone calls and even then they don’t keep up with them shits like they should.

I know I ain’t alone on this. I’m pretty damn sure, at the very least, one of you reading this has emailed a business and got no response of any kind ever. Pretty damn sure one of you has called a biz and left a message and the exact same damn thing happened. What the fuck is these people’s prob? Our biz ain’t important to them? They short staffed? They don’t want our biz or our money? They don’t care? I may be one of the few who thinks this way but if a motherfucker is calling my biz, that call gets more or equal priority as the motherfucker standing in front of me. If they send an email, im, text, or fax or whatever, they all get the same treatment as the phone call. I can see and hear the customer right in front of me. I know where they’re coming from and what they want. The people you don’t see who want something from you is who you should be concerned about. You don’t know who they are, what they look like, what they want, how much of it they want, how much they wanna spend, etc…Could be one person calling for a larger party. Could be a huge sale if their needs are met in an expedient manner. You see what I’m saying? Too many businesses are unprofessional these days.

Call a biz and the phone just rings and rings. Not even a voice prompt letting you know they’re closed or what their hours are. No voice mail. A contact form on their site requiring minimal info or the site is all jacked up and don’t work right and isn’t updated and no confirmation email sent back to you to let you know they got the email when you press ‘submit’ or ‘send.’ You know what I’m talkin’ about. I’ll give Aunt Jemima some props, I did get a confirmation email and I do appreciate that. I can keep that for my records and go back to it if the amount of time they specify that they’ll get back to me passes. Let me say this as plainly and simply as possible, and this is something I learned only a few months ago: if a business wants your money then they’ll make it as easy as possible for you to give it to them. And it’s just that fucking simple. You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get the level of goods and services you know you deserve. Always remember, you’re the one with the money. You’re the one in control. They need you more than you need them. And with shit the way it is now, with businesses struggling for customers, you have more power than you can imagine. If one company ain’t givin’ you what you want the way you want it, there’s plenty more out there that’d be more than happy to.

Not much of shit on the tv front. I’m mainly watching documentaries now, like Banned from the Bible and next week’s Seven Deadly Sins (I’ll just catch the marathon next Sunday rather than watch them day to day). I don’t believe in god at all but I’ll be the first one to admit that as a work of fiction, the bible and all of its canon is pretty interesting stuff. I’ve learned that the antichrist will unite the world under one government and the false prophet beast will do the same for religion. These are signs of the end of the world. And what’s wrong with that? When I saw that on tv, I was like, “So that’s it, huh?” Meant to me that all these competing religions don’t wanna fall into obscurity so when theirs doesn’t exist anymore, it really would be the end of their world. Where I stand isn’t a secret to anyone. I want one world government. A true united nations. Like a coalition. One law that applies everywhere. One world currency. One world culture. One world language. True unification, true paradise, true utopia. And the only way to achieve it is to unite as one.

Politics and religion are what keeps everything divided. Why does the world have to end when anyone with a brain can see that true prosperity can only happen when we all share the same belief? Not saying that people won’t have their individuality and that there won’t be subcultures cuz there certainly will be. And that’s what makes the world great. But wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just pack up your shit and just go to, let’s say, Italy whenever you want? Wouldn’t it be nice if the currency you use now would be just as accepted in Chile as anyplace else on Earth? Wouldn’t it be nice to travel anywhere on the planet and be able to communicate without language barriers? To be able to have the same access to media and entertainment produced in one place and enjoy it just as much as the people of that homeland? Wouldn’t these examples be a wonderful thing to enjoy in the generations to come? I think so and I believe that it could happen in my lifetime and that’s what keeps me going. I’ve got many, many decades of life left if I stay on track (excluding the obvious that I could die at any millisecond). I’d love to see these things become a reality. And they could. Nothing is impossible.

Punisher War Zone was a complete flop. Who didn’t see that coming? Until these idiots start making realistic comic book movies, they’ll just keep on flopping. The Dark Knight set the bar high and hopefully that’s the bar that studios aspire to reach or exceed. Other than Slumdog, the only movie I’m looking forward to is The Wrestler. I really and truly hope I’m not disappointed. Last thing I wanna see is a stereotype movie. I’ve heard this movie shows the industry authentically for what it really is and doesn’t treat it or the fans like morons. That’s good. It’s gonna be playing here on 1/16/2009. The next day there’s an indy show in town. A few days later is the Estelle concert. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Kinda doubt anyone would switch shifts with me for those days since I work graveyard now. And I only got so many personal days to use in a year. Goddammit!!! Why they gotta put so much good shit so close to each other? Fuck!

The theme park plan this year is to do all the Disney parks and that means buying a non-expiring hopper ticket that includes the 4 parks, the water parks, and the smaller venues like DisneyQuest and Wide World of Sports. That ticket, via Florida resident discount from AAA, is gonna cost a little over 2 c-notes which is pretty damn cheap. Then there’s Adventure Island and Cirque du Soleil. Pretty ambitious but at least the hopper ticket doesn’t expire so it can be done. I called Universal about the Blue Man Group since AAA has $44 tix (a damn good deal) and they told me the show is pretty much the same every time. It doesn’t change. That’s why I’m opting in for Cirque this year. Just waiting on a good deal to come through.

Tomorrow morn is a big day: 4-point home inspection. I’m gonna be there with my realtor for the whole duration to see what the inspector sees, taking notes, and gaining knowledge. My (hopefully future) home was built in 1959 but is very well taken care of. There are 3 fruit trees, a regular tree in the front yard and a big bush too. If everything checks out, I want ‘em all removed. I don’t wanna rake no leaves and I don’t want places for criminals to hide. Oh, you better believe that’s how smart criminals get in your house. Just hide out in the bushes, you open your door or window or garage, they slip in non-forcefully since no one can see ‘em and it’s a done deal. Rape or kill your ass or beat the shit out of you or sodomize you or rob your house with ease. It ain’t rocket science. That’s just one reason I don’t want landscaping in my yard. The other is that I plan on expanding the home and don’t want no trees and shit in my way. But all that vision won’t mean jack if the home don’t pass inspection.

The seller accepted the contract offer so now it’s pending meaning no one else can try to buy it. I put down half of my down payment ($500) to take it off the market and to qualify for the down payment assistance. I’m using the Orange County SHIP program and my house qualifies for 30 gs but the house has to be outside of city limits and has to have had at least 5 gs worth of what they call ‘substantial rehab’ meaning the seller has to have verifiably spent that amount making repairs, upgrades, or whatever to the home itself. There’s other shit necessary to qualify for that but that’s just the basics. In my case, visually, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the house since it was being regularly maintained while it was on the market.

It had some really old fashioned space heaters embedded in the living area walls and bathrooms. And the kitchen was cramped but nothing that wasn’t livable or couldn’t be fixed later when I apply my vision to the home. The electrical outlets weren’t grounded either so I’m thinking that’s gonna be one of the things the inspector may see and recommend having wire work done in addition to replacing the outlets. The a/c is new as well as the bathrooms and some of the plumbing. So really, if it turns out the wire work is the only thing that really needs immediate attention, that’d leave funds for other things like new windows, flooring, etc. As long as it totals up to 5 gs. The roof looked good but you never know. The only thing eating me up is that he’ll find something so bad that the house isn’t worth moving into or buying or that whatever it may be will swallow up the whole 5 gs. I’m just hoping everything checks out beneath the surface cuz everything on the surface is all good already and can become even better.

If all goes well, I’ll be paying a mortgage of 35 gs, probably around a 5% interest rate (maybe just a little tiny bit more), and taxes of about $220 a year. I have no idea what the insurance will be yet. The seller agreed to give me a 1 year home warranty which was awesome. Plus all the appliances were included (oven, fridge, w/d) and those were all practically new. The bathrooms were redone and are pretty new too. There’s windows on every corner of the house which has more than adequate square footage and a big yard. Clean and quiet area, quick and easy access to everything, nice front view, and plenty of room for all my shit. I’m still debating on whether to rent the extra room out. As cheap as the house is, it wouldn’t be necessary but hey, the quicker it’s paid off, the better. It’ll turn out to be a pretty sweet deal if things go the way I hope they go. I’ll chime in here with the results.

Things have settled down a bit on my end. I just got a job promotion which pays a lot more money and I’ve been in training over these last couple weeks. This is my last training week and then I’ll switch over to my regular schedule and have a bit more stability. I was working early mornings, 10-hour days, 3 days off. Then 8-hour afternoon shift and starting tomorrow graveyard shift. All that moving around fucked up my sleep pattern but next week I’ll be straight again. 8-hour days, 2 straight days off. You might think that graveyard is a real bitch but not really. It’s not hardcore graveyard, like starting at midnight and working into the morn. My shift is cool cuz by the time I get off is when I’d usually go to sleep anyway.

Haven’t heard back from Google about the Ads Quality Rater job. I’ve heard it could take upwards of a month to hear back from them and of course it’s the holidays. Could take longer. But if I don’t hear from them at all, no big deal. At least I tried. It’s pretty good timing right now. My plan was to get my income up and I’ve done that quicker than I thought. I actually did find a really nice house and submitted an offer on Monday. But, of course, it’s the fucking holidays and I might not hear shit back from them till either Friday or sometime next week. I guess the timing ain’t so good after all.

I looked at dozens of homes, losing plenty of sleep and free time because of it. I checked the mls, hud, and got auto-emails from my realtor. Lots of ‘price reduced’ alerts. And that’s good cuz a lot of homes I saw online were overpriced. Some I saw in person were too but one could tell that those houses were neglected. Some realtor notes say ‘a little tlc’ is needed or ‘sweat equity.’ Bullshit. Some of those fucking homes needed an extreme makeover. They were just busted as fuck. Looked nice on the outside. Nice neighborhood and all that. But once you step inside, it’s a fucking wreck. And the asking prices are just ridiculous. My realtor says the market will bring the prices down and I truly believe that.

If one is inclined to put in the work to bring some of these homes back to their original condition, hey, go for it. Now’s the time. I wouldn’t say flip the motherfucker cuz that shit is what helped fuck up the market. I would say if you got time and money and know where you wanna live, then this is the right time to buy. You can get a fixer upper or something move-in ready that you can turn into your own vision over time. That’s what I’m gonna do. My original plan was to get a 3 or 4br home and rent the rooms to help pay it off. But the house I found is just the right size for me and me alone and I can easily afford it. It’s been taken care of and is in the right location. And once paid, I have room to expand upon the vision that I have for it (enclosed garage, backyard pool, screened porch, and other things). It’s perfect for me. I just really hope the deal falls through.

This is what I mean by perfect timing. Out of all the homes I peeped, I found this diamond in the rough. I just got my promotion and raise and have more raises coming over the next several months. If the deal closes soon, I can qualify for down payment assistance and get $30,000 off the listing price of the home. I can claim Homestead Exemption, and take advantage of the $7500 available from the Foreclosure Prevention Act. Taxes for the home are less than $220 a year believe it or not. The location is central to everything in Orlando and is perfect. It’s just the right size (and location) to turn it into a nice vacation pad if I decide to rent it out later when I get my 2nd home later on in life. It’s affordable to the point where I’ll have it paid off in less than 5 years (probably 3 or 4 if I’m being realistic) and I’ll be able to save money and pay off my student loans and be 100% debt free in that same amount of time. Currently, I usually bike to work cuz it’s right down the street. This home is right off of 3 main highways and city streets around it have no traffic so it’s mainly highway miles to work which would be about 11 miles away once I moved. That means none of that stop-and-go bullshit. A straight shot to and from work.

Nothing but advantages here. Plus the home has built-in equity considering its location, upgrades that have already been done, and the purchase price is cheap. For me, it’s a win-win and I really hope it all works out. Don’t be one of these fuckbags that’s swallowing homes for the purpose of flipping. There’s more than plenty of homes out there for everyone. If your money, job history, income, and credit is on point, you should be in a position similar to mine, depending on where you live of course. I love where I live and will love where I plan on moving to even more. 3 major malls within a one mile driving radius. 2 Wal-Mart supercenters and a Super Target. World class restaurants and retail within walking distance. I could go on and on. I’m not bragging, I’m just letting you know what’s out there and what you should be looking for when moving. Orlando provides plenty of opportunity so your situation will differ from mine.

If this house doesn’t work, there’s 2 more on my list. One is lakefront, which is a dream and I can expand it to match my vision, and the other is a gigantic 2-story home with a pool which is the easiest to match to my vision. Prob with those two is the location and cost. They’re affordable but why take on more debt than necessary when something better is out there? It’d be easier to live on my own within my means than take on tenants and the headaches that come with them. I’m as happy as can be right now. Only thing I’m waiting for is to start my new sched and get into a regular sleep pattern. Then I can start doing work on the site again and updating and posting.

I peeped a KB Toy store to see what deals they had since they’re closing and there were none. As expected. They were overpriced and inventory was undesirable so it’s no surprise to me they’re going under. I stopped doing toy runs there months ago. Their video game selection was mostly PS2. I suppose the higher end games were swallowed up quick. Even still, they were charging 10 bucks for PS2 games that no one gives a shit about which is ridiculous. Name games, yeah. Shit titles like ‘the best of Sega Genesis,’ fuck no. That’s what emulators are for. Plus I still got my old system and those games are dirt cheap. See ya, KB. You won’t be missed. It’s simple business, people. What’s going on now is good for everyone. Sure, people are losing their jobs and shit but the garbage companies are falling away and the companies that know what the fuck they’re doing and providing goods and services that people actually need are still alive. All this stuff is a good thing in the long run.

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say the donation model will be the saving grace of the entertainment industry. What I mean is that I rarely pay for music cuz so much of it is garbage. But when I find a gem, like Estelle’s latest release, I feel inclined to slide them a few bills for the good effort and to show appreciation. I sampled the product and I liked it so I’m willing to pay to show some gratitude rather than pay and be disappointed which happens far too often. She’s gonna be in concert here next month and I’m even considering going to the concert. I wouldn’t have paid for the cd or digital downloads. Therefore, I wouldn’t even consider going to see her perform. But since the album was available for free, I sampled it, liked it, and now she has a new fan that’s willing to spend money on her.

I’m sure most of you have heard that the RIAA has stopped their lawsuit campaign cuz it failed miserably and was too costly to them. Who didn’t see that coming? I myself have come under scrutiny from a business due to my file-sharing. That would be Zooskool/Kinkcafe run by Adam Kingdom. He issued a cease-and-desist and I complied out of respect to him protecting his copyrighted material. I said I was gonna discuss it here in my last post but reached out to the zoo community instead. I posted the email here and it was a pretty good discussion.

The movie ‘Pineapple’ that I’ve had posted here is reupped and working fine now thanks to a member comment. So for all of you that signed up to see that movie, you can check it out and watch it properly. Everything is in-sync now. At the same time, for the amount of people that requested to view it and only one person has told me that it was fucked up, and I’ve kept that movie up for many months due to its popularity…that either means it just got corrupted or literally thousands of you just didn’t give a shit to communicate it to me. Yet you requested to view that movie specifically. For now, I’m gonna assume that the file just got corrupted and hold my tongue.

Getting back to the donation model, I’ve been taking advantage of the better fansub groups and getting some great anime that would otherwise be unavailable to me. And I’m enjoying the ones I’m watching and plan to donate a little somethin’ somethin’ if all checks out well over the long haul. Right now, I’m peeping Hokuto no Ken. It’ll probably be a while before I start streaming those here since I’m still downloading all the eps (already peeped the subbed movie). But is it right to donate to the subbers and the original artists get nothing? I think so since the original works simply aren’t available at all for purchase and/or aren’t translated for this market. The quality fansubbers deserve a little cheddar for their time and effort in my opinion. And I link to them when I stream their content. Good work deserves credit.

I exceeded my bandwidth earlier this week. This month has been busier than others recently and I wasn’t paying attention. That prob is taken care of though. Had to pay for some extra bandwidth to cover the rest of this month. No biggie. I’m gonna cut this article short cuz I got things to do. Just had some time on my hands today and decided to pass an update to all of you. Next up for me is getting accustomed to my regular schedule, closing on this house, moving (which’ll be a pain in the ass), and updating the site. My Following the Syllabus material won’t be ready for another 2 months so no rush there. So you won’t see many Main Page updates from me cuz I really got nothin’ goin’ on other than those things. The only site updates will be behind the scenes and the New Media every week for the foreseeable future until I get settled into all this newness going on in my life.

Nothing as in anything exciting. I’m pretty much done going out for the year. Got nothing planned and don’t plan on having anything planned. I’m still in the homebuying phase and need all my money for that. Hit a little snag cuz there was something on my credit report that I thought was taken care of but turns out it wasn’t so I spent a good chunk paying it off and now I’m waiting for the credit bureaus to show it as paid on my credit reports. I thought that was gonna take less than a week to take care of but my mortgage broker got sick over the Thanksgiving holidays and that resulted in a delay. And here’s the weekend and according to him, from the time he submits the new info (that I paid the debt) to the bureaus, it could take up to 72 hours. That clock started counting down yesterday. I’m factoring in business days and adding on a little time for it to seem realistic so it’ll be about the middle of next week before I get my final approved loan numbers from my lender. Only then can I start diving in headfirst into this homebuying experience.

It’s exciting but at the same time, when snags like this come up, it can be a pain in the ass. It’s a slow roll for me. If you know you’ve got all your shit straight, then you’re probably buying something right now if the economy hasn’t affected you adversely like most people. I’m one of those people who isn’t hurting right now. I chalk that up to good decision making and having some forward thinking. You gotta have a backup plan for a backup plan for a backup plan. You just have to cuz you see what happens if you don’t.

I’m writing this now cuz I just woke up from a nap after finishing up all my tv and other nagging stuff that was clogging up my time. I’m still keeping in touch with my broker and lender and looking at homes online and shit to be ready for that eventual day when I actually start going out to look at homes. All the reports of falling home prices are true. The majority of email alerts I get are ‘price reduced’ and ‘status change.’ Meaning people had their homes priced so high that no one was interested and lots of other homes have gone into foreclosure. How fucked up is it to have, let’s say, a 2 bedroom 2 bath older home for $90,000 when not even a little ways down the street there’s a 4 bedroom 2 bath newer home with a fucking pool and 2 car garage in just as good as or better of a neighborhood that may or may not require a little elbow grease for $70,000? Makes absolutely no fucking sense. I’m marveled at the deals that are out there right now but even more amazed at some of the prices people are asking.

Word to the wise: know your competition. If your shit is overpriced, are you really surprised that no one has shown any interest? Even after slashing the price by $20,000? Why would I buy your piece of shit when there’s a better deal down the street? Helps to have a good realtor who has your best interests in mind too. Cut your losses and take what you can get. This ain’t the market to be playing games. That goes for you banks with homes in foreclosure and these short sales too. I see these shits sometimes and it’s a fucking joke to me. Most homes I’m looking at were built between 1960 and 2000. There’s some that are a few years older and some that are practically brand new in my price range (under 100 grand). There’s old ass homes built in the ‘20’s and shit going for over that. Old ass, dilapidated shits in garbage ass or rural ass neighborhoods and they want that much dough. These people are out of their fucking minds. Just get fucking real already. When you see homes that have been on the market for ages, you wanna keep that in mind.

My realtor informed me that if a home isn’t listed on the mls then that seller isn’t motivated cuz the mls is available nationally as opposed to a cat with only a ‘for sale’ sign in front of their yard who hopes he/she can sell it that way. Not saying it can’t happen, but it’ll be harder to do. I get my alerts and peep the mls and other sites daily, on my phone and at home. Lots of great deals out there but some are scams. Like just recently I saw a misprint on a classifieds site for a house that was clearly brand spanking new and had a price of $27,000. But visiting the realtor site, the price was over $200,000. Another home on a realtor site had no mls number and no address for the home. They wanted you to fill out a form or call them for info on the home. Fuck them. Then there’s eBay listings. Some good stuff there and the land deals are great but I ain’t down with bidding on a home. Plus a lot of the listings there are classifieds or want you to buy lists of foreclosed homes. You can get all that info for free. What I’m saying is to be careful. It’s a buyer’s market but it’s a scammers market too. And people are suckers and stupid as fuck and all you gotta do is look at the news and the economy for confirmation of that.

My bank recently lowered its apy from 6% to 4%. Kinda pisses me off cuz I’m trying to make my money grow. There’s banks out there still offering 6% yields and I know I’m gonna call a few to see if I can open an account with them. Just don’t like using up my time for that. And I gotta call and explain to them that I have a ChexSystems discrepancy. I can’t just fill out an app online cuz I know it’s gonna be rejected. So now I’ve got more wise words for you: not only should you stay on top of your credit, stay on top of your money and ChexSystems too. They offer a free annual report or if you’ve been turned down for an account opening or something, you can get a free report like that. Make sure you’re clean and clear and that your money is working for you at the highest rate possible. Whether it be cash back, dividends, or interest rates. That’s why competition is good. One company starts sucking, another company will swoop in with better deals and service to put them out of business and I got no prob with that. We’re the ones with the money. We tell them what to do, not the other way around.

Recently got some mail from Yahoo regarding their new all-stars program. Got some refrigerator magnets. Woop dee fuckin’ do. It was 100% free from them cuz I’m a so-called Yahoo power user so I took it. You can peep the envelope here and what it says on the address label here. They also sent me an email for a sneak peek at some new service they’re launching for Christmas called emoticarolers. Just click the link for more info on it. Not my thing but figured I’d share.

I must admit that life is good and getting better. I recently got a job promotion and that’s gonna be several bucks more than I’m making now. Perfect timing cuz I’m buying a house and have student loans and I want them both paid in full before I’m 40. And I ain’t even kidding around with you. I don’t wanna be in debt for the rest of my life like some people. The quicker I get it done, the better. Along with that, I applied for a job with Google as an Ads Quality Rater. I was waiting for that opportunity to reappear and it finally did so I went for it. Don’t know if I got it or if I’m gonna get it or if my resume was good enough for them or not but I still tried. It’d be a great opportunity to get my foot in the door with a company like that. It’s part time, temporary, and through a staffing agency but it’d still be some good experience and look nice on a resume. Plus I hear the pay is good. And the work is all from the comfort of your home.

So if I work out in my new job and I get that Google job and like them both, my plan to get my income up to fast track this home purchase will have been a success. Notice I said “my plan.” Remember I said before that it helps to have all these backup plans? I’m not just spitting bullshit at you. I practice what I preach. If I don’t get the Google job, then there’s a backup in place for that. It would be nice to have my regular job and work from home so that my time isn’t being wasted and I’m getting paid on top of that since I’m at my computer a lot anyway. I have a one year income plan in addition to my phase plan. Won’t get into all the details but you can see that I’ve planned at least a year ahead when it comes to my short term money goals and 7 years when it comes to my life goals. Trust me, it ain’t hard to do. Just be a person of your word and stick to it. Tell yourself you’re gonna do something, and then do it. Simple as that. You wouldn’t lie to someone else would you (that probably only applies to most, not all, of you)? Why lie to yourself? Yes, your life and lifestyle will change but the results will be obviously apparent. Sometimes you gotta please yourself before others.

Think of life like a wet pussy, hard nipples, or a boner. Something or someone has aroused you. Most people will act upon that arousal and try to (non-forcefully) get whoever it is turning them on in the sack to make that arousal go away. Let’s say you fail but you’re still aroused. Now you’re stuck with that arousal and can’t stop thinking about it. It’s always there. Lingering. Consuming you. Stopping you from living your life the way you want. You wake up horny, at work horny, in the shower horny, you can’t sleep cuz you’re horny. Your nips are always poking out through your dress or shirt. There’s always a lump in front of your pants and it’s not cuz your package is abnormally huge when it’s soft. The arousal has become a setback cuz you just can’t get over that hump. It’s a hurdle. Some people can’t get over it and just live with it. You know, those psychos that keep hitting on you, always asking you out, staring at you, getting you gifts and shit you don’t want or need. Those people have serious probs and it shows. They can’t move forward in a positive manner.

Then there’s people like me who know how to literally take care of themselves. When I get to that point where I’m about to explode from dsb (deadly semen build-up), I do what needs to be done to take back control. When there’s not a willing female around, a guy has to do what a guy has to do. I’ll jack my dick multiple times in a day if need be till I’m calmed down. At least I can admit it. And when my scrotum is finally empty, I can resume my life normally cuz the frustration is gone for the time being. And I know women who will use their fingers and toys to end their frustration because they know they have to if they want to get on with their life. You can let life beat you or you can beat life. Your choice.

I still have my stories that I need to convert to pdf to submit for copyright. Should be doing that in the coming days. It’ll be 3 more and that’ll complete all the stories for crw4122. Still haven’t gone live with Dodo yet. I’m in the getting feedback phase right now. Just wanting to know what people who’ve taken the time to read it and who care to give me a critique have on their minds regarding the story. I posted it on some forums that I’m already a part of but those aren’t really writing specific boards. I know I’ll have to dig around for some relevant sites to post to if I want a good amount of feedback but that’ll come in the next few weeks. I’ll post the pdf of Dodo by then while I’m waiting for the copyrights to finalize on the other stories. Once they’re all ready, I’ll write the accompanying articles. Right now, just Dodo as text is available for reading; no write up. It’s not live yet but they all will be in due time.

I encourage horror fans to watch Dead Set. I have the first 2 of 5 eps posted in the secure area. I love tv and admittedly there isn’t much to get excited about these days but this is a really stand out show. Very high quality in every sense. It’s a breath of fresh air and the best show since Traveler and Day Break in my opinion. It helps to have a familiarity with the tv show Big Brother to get through the first ep. In my case, once I started watching it, I couldn’t stop. I held off on downloading the first ep cuz of negative comments that I now know were just ignorance and stupidity. I was hooked and immediately downloaded the remaining eps and sat down and watched the whole thing all the way through. To me, it’s that good. I highly recommend it. Very highly.

The Spider-man stream ends this week and next week I’ll start streaming the japanese Transformers eps, starting with the Headmasters. I won’t make them available for download though. Just streaming. I also have to add a few sites to the Favorite Sites section. Don’t know when I’ll get around to that. Should be sooner rather than later. And if I keep my time managed well, I can start moving the Exclusive Videos to the categories where they belong and adding the absent vids. And that’s about all that’s going on with me. I’ll have another article in the Video Articles section in a few days. It’ll be interesting stuff.

And those things are actually one thing. Emptying out my dvr is what I’m doing. It got to the point where I couldn’t fit anything else on it and I mostly record in SLP quality (which is still very high quality) and have 80 gigs to spare. When a hard drive that size starts getting filled up, it’s time to hunker down and start watching tv. I don’t feel forced to do it cuz I love tv. But I got other things I need to do and having that backlog was the easiest thing to get done and out of the way. I even cut some shows from my sched cuz they just weren’t cutting the mustard anymore. With my current busy schedule, I ain’t got time for bullshit so now I watch only the most entertaining and interesting shows that suit my tastes.

I mentioned before that I had to convert Transformers: Headmasters to prep it for conversion and streaming. Not anymore. I found a better, more reliably translated version than the one I had before. And it’s in .avi format making for a quick and easy conversion. Still haven’t decided if I’m going to make them available for download yet but we’ll see what the response is for the first 2 eps and I’ll make my decision from there.

Didn’t make the $10 tariff with DepositFiles cuz my math was skewed and by the time I figured it out, it was too late to recover. Fuck! At least they gave me a free month of Gold membership for my troubles.

Anyone ever watch Operation Repo on truTV? The first ep I watched was months ago and I loved it. Then it was off the air for a while. So I did my research into the show and lots of people were saying it was fake but it looked real enough to me and it was on truTV which prides itself on real deal shit. So just recently it’s came back on the air and they ran a disclaimer before an ep that said it was all reenactments. So I looked at it differently. I liked what was going on but I started seeing the fakeness in it rather than just letting it entertain me. Then I did more research and found out it is indeed “fake” so to speak. They’re even making a movie based on the damn show/concept. I got played for a sucker but not anymore. That show is off my schedule.

Great. Gurren Lagaan is over with. I really enjoyed that anime. Highly recommended. The theme song is good too and very fitting. Listen to it all the time. I hear there’s a movie or two out there or coming down the pike but they’re nothing more than rehashes of the series. I searched for some high-quality toys online but there are none that suit my taste. Mostly Revoltech but those toys are just too small. Speaking of, I’m waiting for Masterpiece Thundercracker and Grimlock, and the red Alternity Optimus Prime. Those are my next toy purchases in the foreseeable future.

Just gotta kick back and wait to see what the next good televised anime are gonna be. Oh, I know, there’s plenty coming. Code Geass R2 is already airing but I don’t consider that to be great. There’s all this buzz about Claymore. I could dl all of those right now but I’ll wait to see how it’s presented dubbed. I did just dl Wings of Honneamise. Nope, I never saw it before, not even way back in the day. I have the subbed 720p version. I hope it’s as good as everyone has said. The only anime I’m really looking forward to is the new Jumpland DBZ movie. I can’t wait for that shit! I looked at the first ep of Descendants of Darkness after Gurren a couple weeks back but didn’t like it. Loved the theme by To Destination though. Got the whole Eden album (or maxi-single if you wanna call it that) and all 3 tracks on it are good.

Still haven’t bought any new comics so I can continue some of the storylines I’ve had to put to the side. Waiting for Thanksgiving and Christmas deals to come around. Same thing for my new wireless printer. I’d rather wait and save than be impulsive and spend more unnecessarily.

Hit up Aldi today. Plenty of hype surrounding those stores in the area. Ads galore talking about how smart shoppers shop there and shit. And they hooked me enough that I gave them a chance. I went there today and was thoroughly disappointed. The place is very small. And I mean very very small! Once you walk in, the back of the store is like, right there. You get shopping carts from outside and they’re chained together. You have to put in a quarter to unlock a cart and you get your money back when you leave. I don’t carry money so I just went in without one cuz it was a bad sign to me and I guessed right: I wasn’t gonna buy shit in this fucking place.

I went in thinking they had all this selection and shit but the carts were a bad omen. Walking in was a bad omen based on visuals. Most dry items are in bulk boxes stacked on top of each other. Mostly everything is generic and selection is limited. Prices are very low but fuck, ain’t shit worth buying if you really wanna check everything off on your list. I walked through and immediately realized the place was built with poor people in mind, not smart people. Smart people save and can afford to shop in a higher end store that will meet all of their grocery needs. Fuck Aldi. I’m telling you, I was really disappointed. I texted a friend and I told his ass Save-a-Lot is a better shopping experience and has more selection than this joint. If you’re broke and live paycheck to paycheck and on a shoestring budget and just need the essential foods, then have at it. This place is tailor-made and is directly targeted to you people regardless of their ads. I got in my car and went to Publix. Got everything I wanted too. Makes you wonder if this store concept is representative of German/European society or if this is how they feel about Americans to bring some shit like that over here?

Figured out another way to make a little more money. If you have a credit card with a higher or decent credit limit and they give you fee-free purchase checks, you can cash them for whatever amount you want that’s not gonna put you over the limit and deposit them into an interest bearing savings/reward checking account and earn additional interest on that amount. Then when your due date comes up to pay off the card balance, just use that same account you just deposited into and repeat process. But make sure to pay in full to avoid finance charges. Otherwise this whole process is worthless and pointless. You could call it escrowing. You’re taking money granted to you that otherwise would just sit and do nothing and putting it somewhere where it will earn interest albeit only for less than a month and then giving it back to them after you’ve made your money from it. But the more money in your interest bearing account, the more interest you earn. So every little bit helps.

After I get all this tv looked at, I’m gonna make Dodo available to the masses (forums I’m already a member of) for critiquing. Not that I’m gonna make any changes to it. I just want people’s reaction. I’ll also be asking for advice for ebook formats, other good related forums, conversion software, and stuff like that to get the ball rolling before I make it widely available. You could say I’m gonna do a soft opening for the story. When I gather all the info I need, I’ll go ahead and copyright the 3 remaining stories from crw4122 and wait for that process to finish. Then I’ll do the same for them and make them all widely available and start promoting them and writing related articles. I’m not gonna rush anything. I wanna do it right. And oh yeah, I got my copyright certificate for Dodo a week or so ago. So if you use the online copyright system, it really doesn’t take that long. Just 2 months from start to finish for me.

I’m fully immersed in the homebuying process now. Went to the first time homebuyer course to qualify for down payment assistance. Got a realtor. Going through the mortgage approval process now with my lender. My goal is to get a well-constructed place that I can afford and that will appreciate over time as well as in a nice area and a big enough place that is appealing enough to me over the next decade or so. Plus I wanna be able to save money along the way too rather than going broke trying to pay bills. So I’m not rushing that either. When I get my home, I have a plan and a backup to have it paid off before I’m 40. And I haven’t forgotten about the site. I’ll be making regular updates hopefully in the next few weeks to get things moved to where they need to be. So if you don’t see many updates here on the main page or elsewhere on the site, it’s cuz I’m too damn busy.