Hulu frozed on me so I kicked the shit out of my computer until it crashed and rebooted.
Right now I have the hiccups and it’s making me red-faced mad. I have a lot of anger for things beyond my control right now and it’s ulcer-ing me up. I actually have to stop this entry at the moment due to my hiccups or else I’ll break something. Okay so, where were we? Oh yes..
I can see it like skyrisers coming up over the horizon as you ramble down the highway. ‘Cept that never really happens in real life, just in the cartoons. A big change is bubbling up and something’s going to just explode. History’s been a little stagnant lately but if you dig a little deeper, you can start smelling some bad soup stewing under the surface. Bad? Eh, not really. Exciting’s the word. Yes, something that’ll come down like a hard rain on everybody and kind of wash down the cataracts that are fogging everything up. Life’s not worth pushing if you’re not running abouts with it, teetering the edge with spirit over caution.
Whoop, love-hate relationship with the West. I have the feeling like wet socks on a dry hike.
I’m listening to the ticking, real close. Something’s happening I’m sure. But I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve.
Circling the toilet drain that is my life. Presently.
Would it be clockwise or counter-clockwise?
The value of all that is good in America is depreciating; it’s never going to be what it is now. What I’m trying to say is tomorrow will be worst off than today, figuratively speaking. Money is always depreciating-never more bang for the buck; the bill is ill.
I’m stuck in all the worst ways possible. I’m stuck and slipping at the same time. No direction home, elevator’s going down. At least I’ve got my health, right? I see ten fingers, ten toes, a good solid body and all five sense intact.
Sorry Kerouac, Beat’s dead. At least for Charlie Chang.
Goodnight room. Goodnight moon. Goodnight Ben jumping overboard too soon.
You know how they always say you’ve got to study the past, learn from the past. That we’d be doomed to make the same mistakes and all that noise. Everyone loves reading up on history and those thick books. Makes you feel accomplished, like you’re a bit taller than everyone else, at least for a little while. Sure comes in handy when playing Trivial Pursuit.
But lately, I’ve been kind of tired of it. Now we’re a little nonplussed going “Hey now, aren’t we being just a tad irrational maybe ignorant?” Yeah sure, I guess. I’m just tired of hearing all the stories told like bickering grandparents recollecting faulty memory. Shit ain’t the same it use to, you know what I mean? The repercussions of history should be seen and felt in everything around us; that’s how we’re going to learn it and that’s how we’ll keep on keeping on.
I’m a very “present” guy. Throwbacks bug me. Thinking ahead pisses me off. I’m going to be spiraling this drain, paddling along singing.
I was looking through my old old old xanga and I felt a twinge of remorse. It was a nice joy to just go out and write about everything and anything; pouring everything out into a vessel. I’d like to clean a slate and start making thoughts again. I’m starting to get cabin fever and these thoughts are murderous. It’s best I give them a little room to roam, you know?
My plan for this summer was a bust, never really found myself again or wiped off my pallet. Hopefully a little spring cleaning will get that together again. Let’s see how I fare.
If you’re like me, then you have a compulsive habit to keep your home tidy and looking good. It’s become a tick for me to maintain my living quarters to look nice so I feel nice. Clutter wears me down and I like the feeling of a clean house.
Here are my three golden rules when it comes to any home. They’re very easy to follow and can make any room look impressive, especially if you live in tight areas.
Build Up To make your place appear larger, use less surface area and practice stacking among other things. This will maximize space use and you’ll feel more refreshed when you have more space to walk around in.
Boxes And Containers Partitioning your things can keep everything in order. Organize things in open shelves in boxes so that more can fit into a smaller space. This works for CDs, magazines, collections, pencils, etc..
Clear Surfaces Make it a habit to keep desktops, tabletops, whatever tops clear. It’s tempting to just stack stuff on top but it’ll give you a clean and uncluttered feeling when your space is empty. This helps to boost my productivity when I have a clean surface to work on.
Hopefully these pointers can help you around your place. They’re very cheap and simple ways to form excellent around-the-house habits.
As we grow deeper and deeper into the recession as a country, I see more and more people getting hit by the repercussions of the global financial disaster. In the face of this issue, I’ve compiled a few things that I’ve learned on a personal level to cope with such a problem.
We all have little dirty habits that are costing us as our money drip out of our accounts. I know we should be spending money to inject into the economy but let’s face it, every time we introduce a bailout, our tax dollars get abused. If we live in a broken system, why participate? Without sounding too anarchist, here are a few ways to “fix” yourselves before you “fix” the world.
1. Disable The Cable When it comes down to it, you don’t need that cable television in your home. Research shows that excess television results in depression which is more than enough reason to switch off the death tube. I don’t watch TV much anymore (maybe the news or certain sports) but I don’t have the urge to siphon off hours and hours to TV. If you must have your “quality programming”, go back to basic TV or watch your shows online. Most of your favorite shows can be viewed online with less commercials too. If you really need your sports live and they’re on cable channels, head over to a sports bar or, if you must, Applebee’s (ugh).
2. Tap That Drink that tap water. It’s free, it’s more regulated than bottled water, and it’s got a higher pH level than the stuff you buy off the shelf. Only one person from the FDA is required to inspect all of the bottled water filtering systems. Bottled water is MORE unregulated than tap water. But there’s something we’re not covering here…it’s fucking expensive when compared to tap (by the way, tap water’s pretty much FREE). If you didn’t catch the Penn & Teller Bullshit episode on water, there are millions of other sources out there to inform you.
There’s also a great documentary on water called FLOW if you want to check it out. Oh yeah, you’ll be helping the environment out in the long run ’cause it requires twice the amount of water in a bottle to make that bottle of water and plastic can carry BPA which can give you breast/testicular cancers and yada yada yada. A lot to sacrifice for “taste”.
3. Nifty Thrifty Relinquish all your stigmas about thrift shopping and all the “nasty” things that may come with it. You aren’t wearing dead people’s clothes, there aren’t any lice in your pants, you can’t get AIDs from those shoes. Make less of an impact on the world and buy used; it’s going to a good cause! Just make sure you check for buttons, zippers, stains, and broken seams. While you’re at it, pick up some tailoring skills to help alter your clothes.
4. Beat The Meat What I mean is, cut down on your meat consumption. Not only do you eat a little healthier, meat’s pretty expensive. Do it with small steps like cutting out meat on Fridays. You can then move on to weekends and such. Humans were never meant to eat as much meat as we do today and it’s giving us all sorts of health problems. Read about some of it here though there are some graphic images.
5. Year-Round Sale When you do have to buy “stuff”, buy only when there’s a coupon or if it’s on sale. I only buy books at Borders when I get a coupon and if you subscribe to them, you usually get a 25% off or more coupon every 2 weeks. Try CouponMom and create a separate e-mail to hold all of your coupons. Also, pick out the coupons in your Sunday newspaper and get a hold of your local supermarket’s savings flyer.It’s amazing how much you can save this way.
6. In Home Dining For the average college student/ young adult, the number of times we eat out is terrifying. I assure you that if you logged the amount of times you eat out and the amount of money you spend in the month, you’ll think twice next time you go out for burgers with your buddies. If you create a menu, do your groceries (smart shopping), and save your leftovers, you’ll get by a lot easier. For those of you living at home, you’ve got free food at home. Eat it. It’ll make your mama happy. Speaking of logging…
7. Mint.com I was recently introduced to this site by Tida. It’s a pretty super site where you can add your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, investments, CDs, etc. and what it basically does is to log everything for you. It compiles everything you’ve spent and organizes them for you to see. You can then make goals and certain caps on your expenses to meet financial goals and keep your money from slipping. You can also set up alerts via e-mail or text messages and can fine tune them to be sent weekly or monthly. Don’t take my word for it, head over to give it a check. I highly recommend it.
8. Climate Control Cut off your central heating/cooling system and close the vents. Bear through the weather a little bit without the inefficient central air systems. Instead, use fans/space heaters and smart “window tactics” to maximize your temperature control.
9. Phantom Punch Most people don’t realize that most of your appliances continue to suck up energy even when they’re plugged in. You can greatly reduce your energy bill by identifying these “vampires” and unplug them regularly. You can also purchase a surge protector so that you can switch off and disrupt the flow of electricity to the appliances that way. Standby electricity can account for 7-25% of your energy bill and emits pollution as a by product.
If you have other tips and points that you want to share, feel free to drop a comment. If you have any arguments with these points, don’t be shy. Happy savings.
It may not exactly feel like winter as we approach February but I assure you, it will get colder….right? Well in the case of cold weather, here are a few tips to stay warm without blasting that heater or burning a few smoky logs.
1. Trading Spaces Space Heaters can generate a lot of heat without working up your entire circular heating system. Scour the electronic sections at your local thrift stores. I was fortunate enough to find a rather large heater for only $15.
2. Beam Me Up Switch your ceiling fan “up”. If you have any of these lying around the house, there should be a tiny switch on the fan to change he direction of the blades. In doing this, the fan will pull up and help circulate hot air.
3. Backdraft Completely shut your windows and doors. Then, seal every crack or exposed areas. roll up and stitch together old rugs or towels to work as a draft blocker at the bottom of doors. And always, close all doors in your house (including bathroom doors, etc.).
4. Happy Feet Wear slippers or socks indoors. Basically, dress warm but comfortably. If you don’t have company over, drape yourself in a blanket or wear a robe with sweats. If you keep your feet and your head covered, your body will warm up drastically.
5. Comfort Foods Eat and drink hot. Try as often to eat hot meals (usually soup based) or spicy meals. Drink hot tea or hot cocoa, whatever suits your fancy.
6. Let The Sun Shine In Open your blinds and let the sun in. Those UV rays can work magic when it comes to heating your place up in a jiffy. Keep your windows shut but make sure you can let in as much sun as possible.
7. Cuddle. It works; body heat is probably the most effecient heater available to you. If you’re not comfortable with cuddling, just sit closer to people.
These small adjustments can save you an entire season’s worth of bills even if we do live in sunny California. We can afford to live a little more frugal seeing that we are in a midst of an energy crisis (and a hundred other crisis).
Okay I swear I’ll stop creating blogs after this. Promise.
The reason for the change was that I was sick of switching around from wordpress to blogger constantly. I like the look and feel of wordpress better so I decided to just have two blogs here and the interface allows me to switch between the two breezily. So, sorry about the confusion and I hope you’ll subscribe to this one.
This will still remain my advice/cool tidbits blog and I’ll try my best to update. I have a bunch of stuff to blog about, I just have to overcome my laziness.
If you’re like me, then you have a compulsive habit to keep your home tidy and looking good. It’s become a tick for me to maintain my living quarters to look nice so I feel nice. Clutter wears me down and I like the feeling of a clean house.
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