Tag: money

Web Host Upgrade?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Ok I got this email today from my web host that they are going to start charging me $3 more per month but the good news is that I’m also getting 3GB more too.  So I guess that’s not bad.  If I paid for a year up front I could get a discount so I’d really only have to pay $1 more each month but I really don’t have the money to put towards a whole year up front.  That’s ok, it’s still worth it to pay for my own domain rather than just use a blog site like Xanga, MySpace, Blogger, Yahoo 360° or whatever other blogging sites are out there.

At least with my own website I can give people a website address that they can go to that is short like xanapus.com.  Most of the people who I played EQ with would know exactly where to go because they know that name.  It would be easier to find me on the internet just by looking up my character name.  If you do a google search for the name Xanapus there are 2,860,000 results. I get around lol.

Game Stop

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PSPLeave a comment

I haven’t been able to get to Game Stop yet to use my $25 gift card that I got from e-rewards because we haven’t gone to the mall yet.  I don’t want to make a special trip just for this.

I went to Game Stops website to check what they have and to see if it’s in stock or not but I’m sure by the time I get there those games won’t be there anymore.  So… I guess I have to just wait until we get there to see what they have.

I would like Untold Legends (1 of the 2) or Ratchet and Clank.  That game has a Daxter look to it, graphics wise that is.  I do plan on buying used though because it doesn’t matter to me if it’s new or used, they don’t get scratched up like a regular CD or DVD does.

I was hoping that they would have either the GPS or the Camera available by the time I got this but even if it was available I don’t have the money to cover the rest of the cost of it.  At least with used games I can get a couple, or a few depending on the cost.  And if it goes over by a couple of dollars I can certainly cover that.  I wouldn’t ever buy a movie only because I would probably only watch it once, there are only so many movies I’d watch over and over again.

Obama Stimulus

On By Michel McDonaldIn PoliticalLeave a comment

FOREX-Dollar boosted by Obama stimulus, ECB rate cut view

“U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, seeking as much as $310 billion in tax cuts, is proposing that about 40 percent of the package worth up to $775 billion be in the form of tax breaks.”

Barack Obama is looking to give the American people another stimulus package but not the way Bush did in 2008.  Instead this will be in the form of a tax break.  How does this work exactly?  If you are a regular low/middle class citizen working in fast food, grocery, retail, furniture sales etc. and you already have money taken out of your checks every week to pay taxes, how will this work?  Especially if every year you get money back from your taxes.

I can remember when I turned 18 I had to start filing my taxes and at tax season my sister took me to H&R Block and they did my taxes with my pay stubs and I usually got a few hundred dollars back.  This was in the 80’s though.  I can remember when I was 23 and went to H&R Block they said I owed $50.  I was really looking forward to getting some money because I was broke by that point.  I asked why I owed because they took taxes out of EVERY paycheck and they said it had to do with George Bush Sr., whatever he did to taxes in the early 90’s.  Although, I seem to recall that Clinton was president when this happened in 1994.

Anyway, if someone is on SSI, do they get a check at tax season or do they just have to deal with getting nothing?  I guess we will all find out in a few months.

Day Without A Gay

On By Michel McDonaldIn Gay, Gay RightsLeave a comment

Today is Day Without A Gay day.  That means that all the gay people are “supposed” to call in sick (or gay) and not work today and not even spend any money today as a form of protest because of Prop 8.

I don’t really have to go to a job every day so that isn’t a problem for me but I do support this protest.  For example, I barely have any food in the pantry and fridge but I will eat tuna and egg salad sandwiches for lunch and dinner if that means I am helping out.

10 Speed

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I decided last night that instead of getting my bike fixed right away or when I get money I want to go to the thrift store where we saw that 10 speed road bike for $20 and see if they still have it.  I’ve wanted to have 2 bikes at the house so if Darrin ever decides he wants to go bike riding for weight loss then we can go together.

I also wanted a 10 speed road bike because that’s what the majority of the people are riding on the bike trail.  I think that a 10 speed is a lot faster because it’s lighter and it will give me less pain in my legs, I think.

I still want to fix the handlebars on my mountain bike but just when I get the money that’s all.  I don’t want to fix it myself because I really don’t know what I’m doing.  You gotta take the rubber grips off of the handlebars first and I just don’t want to do that because they have the roadmaster logo on them.  I also would like to just bring it in to the bike store so they can look at it to make sure everything is in good condition.

My mountain bike can keep the lock on it and the lights with the generator because I might want to ride that to the store (when it’s fixed) at night and I’ll need the lights and the lock.  But I will transfer the computer over to the 10 speed and the frame bag.  The frame bag really doesn’t work in the mountain bike because the frame is too small for a frame bag.  I was barely able to keep my water bottle on it because with the bag there the water bottle was sticking out and I’ve been terrified that it would eventually pop out into traffic.

I’m actually looking forward to getting a 10 speed road bike because I think it would be easier to ride and I think I would go a lot faster which would mean that I would burn much more calories.  If I went faster I could probably ride the 18 miles in a lot shorter period of time and burn a ton of calories in the process.  And rest less.  Yes, I’m very excited about this.

Bike Lights

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

When I was 16 my parents bought me a bicycle so I can get to work a lot easier and they won’t have to drive me.  The bike was a cruiser bike and since I would be riding at night I would need lights and all I can remember is that I thought my step-dad was so cheap by buying me the kind with a generator.  I didn’t need batteries because it generated light as I rode.  However, if you think about it, this is probably a very good idea because batteries cost a lot of money.

If you buy lights that are rechargeable they are very expensive.  Yeah the lighting is a lot brighter and probably better but they cost a lot of money.  And I’m talking $200+.

I have been looking for this light with generator for a while and I can’t find it anywhere.  Bike Nashbar doesn’t have it, neither do any of the other well known online bike stores.  Target, Wal-Mart, sporting good stores, Sniders etc.  Nobody has it.

I found it on eBay for $49.  Wow.  What a deal.  I have to wait 2 weeks before I can buy it but I’m going to get it when I get some money.  Here is a picture.

I don’t plan on riding at night unless I need something from the store and I need to get there fast but what I do plan on doing is riding early in the morning.  I’m talking 5am early.  Yeah at 6am it’s still dark but there are cars out on the road that early.  I’d rather get out at 5am.  This way I can get in as much bike time as I can without any traffic and any pedestrians.  I want to get my exercise in without any dangers of getting hit by a car hehe.  I haven’t been on the streets in over a decade and I’ve already made a couple of mistakes and I need to relearn the rules of the road before I go back out there with the cars.  I think getting to where I need to would be a lot faster with no traffic too.

PlayStation Store

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PSPLeave a comment

Wow I just read on the PlayStation Blog that the PlayStation Portable is going to get a firmware upgrade to 5.0 which will allow you to go to the PlayStation Store using the PSP to buy and download games, demos, wallpaper, themes etc.  All you have to do is sign in to your account and they keep your credit card info so you just buy something and you don’t need to worry about entering your credit card info.  Which is actually dangerous unless you have a very good password with at least 20 digits with random letters, numbers and symbols.

Ok so I just went to the PlayStation Store website and it says that the website is going to be down until late October cause they are totally redesigning the website so you can download to your PSP or PS3.  How will they make any money if their website isn’t operational for 2 weeks?  LOL.

Wow I just read the full blog and they are also adding a full keyboard for texting instead of like a phone.  That’s pretty cool and I can’t wait for that.  It will make texting on the PSP much easier I think.  They are also adding a sleep timer that can be used for playing music on the PSP.  I am not quite sure what that means, maybe if you set it for 1 hour then in 1 hour the PSP goes into sleep mode so you don’t waste your battery.  Like if you must have music on when you go to bed.  I actually like that idea because I do like to hear music when I go to sleep but don’t want it to run all night.

Chips Birthday

On By Michel McDonaldIn BirthdaysLeave a comment

YAY Today is Chips birthday.  He turns 29 (hehe).  I don’t think he cares about his age but I’m just gonna leave it at 29.  Anybody who knows us knows the truth.  I gave him his present early and now I feel really bad that I did that but he wouldn’t stop shaking the box and it was glass with liquid inside it.  I don’t know if he broke one of them or if it came that way in shipping but one of them is broken.  When it’s your birthday and someone buys you something and says DON’T SHAKE IT!  You don’t shake it dammit.  Listen when you are told lol.  Sheesh.

You know those Galileo thermometers?  It’s like this tube with liquid and inside the liquid are these balls with liquid and each of the balls are a different color and the bottoms of the balls have like these little aluminum tags which have a temperature on them.  When it is cold the balls go up, when it’s hot the balls go down or vice versa I don’t know, and when it’s a nice temperature like in the 80’s 2 balls are up and 2 balls are down at the bottom.  Well, since one of the balls got broken and it had pink liquid inside it, the main tube water has a little pink inside it now instead of clear water and so it doesn’t give an accurate reading.  Instead all the balls are all the way up while the other one has 2 on top and 2 on bottom.  I decided to just keep the broken one in my room for decoration rather than function.

So I really feel bad that I gave it to him early and now he has no presents to open.  When I get some money I’m gonna buy him a lava lamp.  I love lava lamps and I think it would be really cool to look at in the living room near his TV.  This website has them for a reasonable price Cheap DJ Gear.  I don’t know what color I’m going to get him though.  Since they are fairly inexpensive I think I’m going to buy 2 of them because I love lava lamps.  My parents had one when I was a kid and I just loved watching it.  I’m going to have to find out which color he prefers.  The color doesn’t matter to me.  Although I wouldn’t mind red.  I love black but a black lava lamp just doesn’t appeal to me.

Dell DJ Battery Replacement

On By Michel McDonaldIn Gadgets, Music, Products I LikeLeave a comment

Darrin bought me a Dell DJ for Christmas 2004 and during 2005 I was listening to it all the time everyday, on the way to the gym or sitting at my desk or even while doing the dishes.  I was always listening to it.  But over time the battery would die sooner than it was supposed to.  Sometimes it would even freeze up and I had to just wait for it to start playing again.  I couldn’t turn it off or do anything.  I just had to wait for it.

The battery is supposed to last like 5 or 6 hours or something and over time the amount of time it actually played kept going down until eventually it only played for half hour.  Now when I unplug it, it just dies immediately and gives me a screen saying the battery is low.

I’ve treated that Dell DJ like a baby by never dropping it or losing it.  I’m a good nerd, I respect my electronics enough that I don’t get them broken or stolen.

I’ve called Dell that first year when the battery started dying and they wouldn’t help me even with my warranty.  I was too late in renewing my warranty and so when I called for help they said sorry you don’t have the right warranty for this.  I was like dude, I have a $318 paper weight now.  Thanks a lot.  They were like I know, I can understand how frustrating you are but we can’t help you.  I was like well can I just buy a new battery and ship it to you to replace it and they said yeah for like $75 or something like that.  I’ve never had the money to do that.

Every once in a while I do a search on the net for Dell DJ Batteries and I found a website that has them for $24.95 + shipping and it has the tools to do it yourself.  It says it takes a few min but a testimonial says 10 min.  I don’t care, I just want a new battery and $25 is not a bad deal.  I will have to wait until I get some money because I’m tapped lol.

Hometown Buffet

On By Michel McDonaldIn FoodLeave a comment

We love going to HomeTown Buffet and since it’s almost Chips birthday (September 23rd) I want to take him there for dinner.  I just signed up for their e-club so we both can get coupons for free meals lol.

When it’s your birthday they send you a coupon for a free meal so we’re going to take advantage of that.  Since I can’t afford to buy him a gift I’m giving him the gift of free food lol.  I’m not cheap, I just don’t have the money.  Besides I gave him an early birthday present already.  I wanted to save it for his birthday but I was too excited to give it to him lol.