FREE BLOG

This post is absolutely free! I’m sure there were a lot of other people today that made you pay for their services. Take comfort in knowing there are some people left in this world that know when and what to give.

Take for instance an Australian sounding guy I heard on the radio. He made billions and now he wants to teach you to do the same by listening to his free tape. Yeah, a free tape! Cassette, VHS, I don’t know. I’m glad he didn’t waste his time digitizing anything. That’s more time he can spend revealing his money making secrets, which must obviously be connected to the tape player market.

Then there was some kind of college advertising, It was Diver’s Institute, Bryman, or something like that (BTW, in case you came upon this article through a search of ‘Bryman’, RUN! Not from me, but from the school, it’s a scam school that will accept anyone, real employers don’t take students from that school seriously, all you will get is debt. Go to a community college. ) which told me I could get a free brochure or something similar. Wow, free information about the school! …wait, I don’t remember EVER having to pay for school information.

After that ad I was told to call a number to get a free computer. So the tape and brochure were lame deals, but a free computer! Just sign up for a no-name ISP at $40/month for 3 years, and endure the ad-ware actually built into the system, and you got yourself a…uhh…hmm, no mention of its processor or RAM…you have yourself a running computer.

Well, I’d write more, but I got a check for $8.50 from my credit card company that I’m going to cash. Take that you no good freebies! At least my CC company knows how to give. The $8.50 will come in handy when I’m billed the $16.95/month for the program that I'll be enrolled in for cashing the check.

I Can't Afford to be Thin

I’m going to post this while it is still relevant…

NOTE: Yes, I’m complaining about something petty. I should be thankful for the problems I have.

My wardrobe is about 5 years old. A few tops or bottoms make it in or out, but I would say the average age of any article is 5, with a standard deviation of .4. There are various reasons it’s so old. I’ve been in school for a while so I don’t have a new one in the budget. I generally take care of my clothes and buy quality so that they last. I like to dress simple and traditional, which translates to ‘I don’t really have any fashion sense’. Then, I don’t care for fads so sometimes it’s slim pickins’ when it comes to shopping, unless the fad just so happens to match my preferences.

However, recently (recent = 1 year) I’ve become extremely bored with my wardrobe. The ritual now is to spend 30 minutes a day trying out different combinations, and then to not be pleased. Usually I just end up wearing what I finally convinced myself to wear the day before, hoping I don’t see the same client as the day before. I do that until the outfit begins to smell, stain, or unthread. Also, the 30 minutes I spend redressing in front of the mirror is the same 30 minutes I have allotted myself to get to my appointments. So, this is a serious problem.

Keeping in mind the shopping problems mentioned earlier, my inability to create a new wardrobe is either completely my fault or is exacerbated by the lack of reasonably priced, quality clothing for young adults in size 2 (I can pull a 1 at some places, but the truth is that’s size inflation. Are you going to shop where you are a 4 or a 6?). I told you it’s petty. There are worse things and I don’t mean to lessen the plight of those who struggle with their weight (I myself was once 30 pounds heavier); but seriously, go to a shop, any shop, cheap or refined, you’re not going find anything cute in size 2 or less that is not geared to a teenager or worth its material. Here is my experience:

Boutiques - Out of my price range. I CAN occasionally 
find cute clothes here, but I don’t make enough in a 
week to afford to breathe on them.

Mall stores/Department stores - Two problems here.
    1.)  I fit in teenage clothing (they haven’t given 
    up on America) but I don’t want to look like a 
    teenager.  I don’t want to look 30 either, but a 30 
    year old trying to look like a 15 year old is an 
    even sadder sight.
    2.) The rest of the clothing retailers figure if you 
    aren’t a teenager then you you can't be anything 
    lower than a size 4 because that is the closest size 
    I can find. Not that size 4 isn't small, but it still 
    looks like a clown costume on me.  The United States 
    is 2/3 overweight, so I have two theories:  
      A.) Clothing manufacturer’s follow the population 
      trend and make 2/3 of the clothing in large sizes. 
      They just don’t know their market, because 
      obviously the same proportion is not buying the 
      clothing and they are wasting material.  That 
      explains the plethora of larger sizes in 
      clearance racks (additionally there are usually 
      plenty of purple, polka–dotted orange concoctions 
      in size 2).   
      B.) More thin women shop at malls/departments 
      stores than less-than-thin women.  Manufactures 
      make bank off the stick ladies by limiting the 
      supply. They are always sold at the top price.
      Sounds snobby, but based on my inability to find 
      anything decent and affordable, I’m going with 
      theory B.

Walmart, etc -  Yes, I’ve even tried there.  Even worse 
than the malls.  Anything else I say about this experience 
will be offensive.    

Now, I write this while eating chocolate chips. I was going to make cookies and was only going to take a handful, but I am pretty much at mid-bag right now. Looks like no cookies for my student, and a problem solved for Carrie.

February is too short

I haven’t written anything for February yet. I want to keep my resolution of writing in this at least once a month {reads note passed to me that says my resolution was to write once a week…looks around, crumples up note}, to entertain and inform my friends. I have much to write about. I want to complain about poor clothes size selection in stores for size 2 and under, but I keep gaining weight, so it probably won’t be issue in a couple of months. I want to expose a lousy school and its ilk but I’m waiting until I absolutely don’t need them for any type of reference. And then I want to write about something I can’t even give you a clue as to what it is about. I want to talk about the presidential races, but I am so uninformed it’s pitiful. But just FYI, I’m thinking Giuliani, he’s the most moderate of both bunches. I’ll probably vote Libertarian anyway, so this topic may be moot as well.

Instead I’m just going to complain about Window’s Live Mail. It’s in beta, so I should have known better, but if you're the type that reads and sends email, you should stay away from it. Most of the time I get the “Loading Your Messages…” message, along with a colorful little rotating circle to make me think it actually is loading my messages. “Just one more rotation and my messages will appear” is a thought I often have, alas, never realized. Now, I’ve come to hate the little circle; I’ve projected my frustration upon it and feel it’s the only thing preventing me from getting my mail.

I shouldn’t blame the circle. It may be a result of some interaction between my internet setting and WLM, or perhaps WLM and Internet Explorer (it screws up differently when I use Firefox) or WLM, IE, and Vista, or maybe WLM interacting with anything. Sorry, I’m getting mad at WLM again. The real reason I shouldn’t complain is that I can change back to the old version at anytime, but I am too lazy to do so.

Now that I have finished that, here is a brief update on my life:
- Still living in Seattle
- Still in school learning to program(now with Java)
- Still with the same dude I’ve been with for 3 years
- Still cant drive well. I scraped the left front end of my newly repaired car
by driving alongside a pole
- Speaking of driving, I got out of my ticket for getting into the accident. I
just have to pay the court $100 and they will drop the charges. I know, in
some countries that is called bribery.

Stayed tuned for more excitement in March!

RIP "Runway"

Runway is the name of my Computer. It was a Gateway laptop with a fan so loud I always thought I was next to an airport runway. Pictures of Runway to follow. It's hard drive began failing around December of 2004, but lasted until January 2007. Runway also suffered from an LCD screen crack in the Summer of 2006, but appeared to work well with an external monitor. Runway was a trooper.

Runway
[picture here when I get a chance]
May 2005 - January 2007

Happy New Year!!!

Sorry, I'm a little late in the celebration. I was greeted with a stomach virus for the new year. So I spent my new year groaning and making frequent trips to the bathroom, just like all the drunks.

I am now enjoying my time back in freezing Seattle. We got yet another ice storm and the city had to shut down again due to the icy roads. I tried making it up an icy road yesterday and rolled back down. Although "rolled" doesn't quite capture my terror as I realized I had no control. Luckily, my car made an almost perfect 180 and I headed down.

I'm going to be different and try to gain weight for my New Year's Resolution. Given my SAD and lack of self control (I made ice cream today, despite the cold) I should have no problem keeping with this the entire year.

Now for the resolution to break, I'm going to write something in my Blog once a week.