Archive for the ‘Daily’ Category

Still alive … I swear!

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

So I’ve been floating around the internet for the past couple of days and I’ve decided that if I can get myself on a set schedule I can figure out a way to add some blogging into my day so I can at least make it seem as though I own the websites that I’m still actively paying for.  I did come across a few templates that I’m interested in using, I really have no drive to create something from scratch but I could always recreate something I did in the past.  I did really like the CNN style template that was previously up here but considering I’m not really in the design world anymore and am more interested in blogging than anything, it make make more sense to just keep it simple and go from there.

I will be getting back into sponsored blogging, just to bring in some extra money.  I know I can bring in an extra $500 a month if I actively do it and while that’s no where near what I was making before, it’ll still give me some extra cash to get some bills paid off quicker.

As far as real-life is concerned I’ve been working a lot of overtime and Sean’s been putting in a lot of hours on his stuff so as a whole we’re bringing in around $5600 a month.  It’s getting everything taken care of but having the extra money to accomplish some things would be great.  For me it means a new car, for Sean it means fixing his car and possibly purchasing another laptop being as mine is coming up on the four year mark and slowly beginning to die.  It’s not surprising considering how I abused the crap out of it over the years with Photoshop, Dreamweaver and iTunes constantly running. I will be purchasing a Macbook Pro and I know I’m going to need to save up about $3000 to get the one that I want.

So yea, expect a few more frequent updates out of me over the course of the next couple of days.  I haven’t decided which one I’m going to turn into my primary blog but I’m sure with everything going on in my life right now I’ll have more than enough to talk about anyway.

Getting there…

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

I renewed this domain, even though I hardly use it the $9 a year to maintain it s fine by me. I couldn’t give up this domain no matter how much I really thought about it. There have been domains that I’ve lost interest in completely and just let it die – I can’t bring myself to do that here.

I still haven’t started on the new template for this site so I’m going to ask something of any visitor that’s still floating around… If you happen to come across a free theme that blends well with the technology/business kind of a theme – please feel free to comment and send me a link towards it. Hell, if I like it enough I’ll even list you in the credits. I don’t have the time to float around blogs or template sites to see what’s “in” right now. I have to say I’m really out of the loop with A LOT of things. Anyone interested in helping me get back into it?

Where are you?

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

OK… so I haven’t kept up with things the way I’ve intended to but that’s due to the fact that lately I’m working six days a week and I’m just too tired to blog.  I have a lot of plans for this site, I just haven’t gotten around to doing them yet.  I haven’t read up on any new technology, I don’t have any ideas for new business techniques and I haven’t got the time to really sit down and write either.  I randomly jot a few ideas down but unfortunately that paperwork gets lost with the stacks of everything else that I’m working on.

As far as the web hosting is concerned, I’ve completely handed that over to Sean (lepslair.com) so any questions you can take it up with him.  As far as my design business goes, I want to get to work on my portfolio and I know I need to update my resume quite a bit so we’ll see what happens in upcoming weeks.

I won’t have another day off from work until Sunday.  Last week I worked 7 days straight and I’ve gotta say it’s killing me.  I’ve been so tired lately it’s unreal so catching up on any missed sleep has been the first priority.

What’s to come?  I want to setup a new theme and begin posting here again.  For now I think it’s going to be a few random personal updates from time to time until I can get back into the swing of things.  School is coming up too and I know for sure that it’s going to take its toll on me once that happens.

So I guess we’ll see what the future holds.

It’s been fun…

Monday, July 14th, 2008

I’m still visiting family, an issue with our car left us up here a little longer than we’d originally planned.  It isn’t too bad though, my father enjoys having me here, I’ve been in touch with a lot of friends and family over the course of the last few weeks so it’s been nice to catch up on things.  I’ve spent a lot of time with Lucy, I met up with Colin and his new baby boy (too damn cute).  I’m itching to get in touch with my friend Pat but he’s currently on tour and hasn’t really been in town.  His band, Stealing Jane, is doing very well right now.

I’m actively searching for a job up here.  I love Delaware but New York is really the place for me.  I was born here, raised here, and have so many things going on up here that I really don’t want to leave.  I truly appreciate everything that I have in Delaware, it’s just not “home” for me.  So I’ve gone through every job related website; Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder, SnagAJob, Craigslist – you name it, I’ve been to it.  I’ve put in applications for companies located everywhere from New York City to very fart out East on Long Island.  I haven’t gotten any phone calls yet, but I’m hoping to hear something soon.

I have some pretty big plans, but they all require a very solid income.  In order to live in New York (in your own apartment, utilities, food, whatever) you need to make at least $40,000 a year to have some kind of a savings account being maintained as well.  I’m not really too keen on living paycheck to paycheck so making anything from $40,000 a year, and up, is the route that I’m looking to take.

I’m putting in an application with Human Resources at the local hospital.  My father works there ,most of my family is employed there, and my Mom worked there for many years so they kind of know us.  I’ve also put in applications at a few different companies around here, mainly part-time kind of BS work but that would give me enough money so I can put some into a car.  I believe I’ll be moving first and then Sean is going to come up later on.  With this, I’m going to need my own means of transportation and with car insurance, and car payments, plus my other bills I figure about $700 a month in bills going out to cover everything.  A part time job of about $200 a week should be able to cover that.  After that, I can still push the applications to higher paying jobs and continue with part-time work on the weekends so I can bring in some extra money to handle food and making sure Bella is OK with her vet checkups and food as well.

It’s a big deal, a very big deal.  I’ll stay with my father until I can handle being out on my own.  After that I’m really not sure of what I’ll need to do to maintain it after the 40-hour work week but damn am I going to give it all I’ve got.  I put it many applications down in Delaware, for jobs all over Sussex County but I’ve been unable to hear anything, even for the stupid $7 an hour part-time retail work.  It’s pretty damn annoying.

In any event, I need to float around on some sites and put in some more applications.

: crosses fingers :

Budgets & Money

Friday, April 11th, 2008

For some reason I was really itching to get out of here last night. Sean and I had spent most of the afternoon in the local libraries in search for information on grant writing. Thankfully when I came home a letter from Dick put me in the right direction. The Rehoboth Library really had nothing that I needed. The Lewes one didn’t either. They told me that the books I was looking for were up in Dover and the rest were on the Deltech Georgetown campus. I really didn’t want to travel that far so I wound up heading over to Atlantic Books and picked up a book that’s a complete guide to grants. It not only gives me a simple breakdown of everything I’m going to need to do but it also gave me a few samples so I can understand what I’m going to need to have listed, and how to go about grouping it together properly. The problem for me isn’t FINDING the grant resources, I’ve found a program that gives me thousands of listings for places to apply to, the issue was the actual write-up. While the Internet is typically a great resource for things, every “How to write a grant” website that I came across told me that I needed to purchase their eBook or the sites linked me to other sites that just kept sending me in circles. Either way I have the book I need and a few emails from Dick explaining how to go about every aspect of it so I’m sure over the course of the next couple of weeks I’ll have my formal write-up and then have the ability to start submitting to different companies.

On our way home we stopped at the market and picked up some things for dinner. I was really insistant that we BBQ last night considering it was the first nice 70°F day that we’d had in a while. So burgers and dogs were really the only menu items last night but that’s OK because there’s plenty left over to do it again tonight if we really wanted to.

After dinner I had the urge to get out of the house and something was pulling me in the direction of Dollar Tree. I knew that we needed a few house-hold items but I was shocked to find out that everything I needed was on sale. Yes, the dollar store was having a sale. The thing I like about Dollar Tree is the fact that it’s a TRUE dollar store. No matter what you pick up it’s only going to be a buck. And thanks to no sales-tax in Delaware, if you get 13 items you pay $13 dollars.

I went in for the basics, carpet fresh, toilet cleaner, air freshner, tissues, and a few odds and ends to complete my need to redecorate the bedroom. I was shocked to find out that almost everything I wanted was 2 for $1. So the simple break down went like this:

2 carpet fresh – $1
2 tissues – $1
2 air freshners – $1
2 bowl cleaners – $1
2 mirrors – $2
1 lotion – $1
Total: $8

How awesome is that?

I then took a trip over to Walmart, unfortunately the dollar store was out of a few items that I needed. There were also some decent sales going on so I picked up the items I couldn’t get at the dollar store, all of which were on sale for a whopping $1! I also loaded up on a few odds and ends for Sean to get by, that gave me another $10 worth of items.

I came home with about 10 bags filled to the rim and only spent $18. If that’s not shopping on a budget, I don’t know what is.

Skimping & Saving

Thursday, April 10th, 2008

With a very small balance in my bank account I’ve been taking my limited resources and still managing to maintain a clean environment.  I’m to the point where I’m low on supplies such as bleach, toilet bowl cleaners, sponges, detergent, fabric softener and other basic supplies.  So what do you do?  Go to Walmart and hope to bring home the cheapest items on the shelf just to get the job done?  NO! – You go to the local Dollar Tree and pick up all of your supplies for $1 a piece.  The reason I love this store is everything is actually a dollar.  It’s not like the $0.99 cent stores that you walk into where the only thing that’s $0.99 is a piece of candy.  No, you can pick up everything from cleaning supplies to school supplies and purchase these items in bulk for the wonderful price of $1 OR 10 for $1.  That’s $0.10c a piece, how could you NOT love that?

So in order for me to completely clean the house all week long it’s costing me exactly $10 every two weeks.  Every other Monday I head down and pick up some bleach, sponges (10pk), laundry detergent, fabric softener sheets (50 pack), toilet drop-ins, air freshener spray, the air freshener gel and maybe a candle or two just to keep things smelling clean and fresh.  Let’s not forget the ever-so-important paper towels and tissues.  So yes, it’s shopping on a budget that’s keeping me up to speed on cleaning the house without breaking the bank.

My only issue is with the toilet drop-ins.  They aren’t the name brand, you lift the lid off the back of the bowl and drop in the little blue disk.  Unfortunately it doesn’t hold up as well as they’re supposed to and the one I recently purchased wound up exploding in the bowl.  Not to the point that it like blew pieces all over the place, it just happened to break down in huge chunks instead of slowly getting smaller and the turn out is bits and pieces of this blue solution shooting out whenever you flush the toilet.  There are sections of blue that are now so stuck that I can’t even get to them to remove them so we’ve been flushing the toilet a little bit more just to loosen things up.  I figure if I throw another one in there it’ll move things along and hopefully put things back in less – odd – order.  The one in there is still doing it’s job properly, I still clean the bowl every three days, it’s just a pain in the butt having to get myself in there to try to dig out the piece that’s still causing all of the trouble – you know?

Eventually it will completely dissolve and I’ll be able to finally get rid of the ugly blue section that it’s leaving but for now it’s no big deal.

What a day!

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

I was really productive today, so much so that I’m anticipating hopping into bed and drifting off to sleep.  There is still a lot to accomplish before that happens though and damn I’m really enjoying having so much to do.

For starters, I have two job interviews lined up for Friday.  One for a full-time IT position with a local company at 9am and another one is a part-time retail position at a local store on the boardwalk at 1pm.  Based on what I’ve heard of the company looking for the IT position, it’s safe to say I’ll be pulling in some pretty good money.  They’ve won numerous awards in their field and are the #1 company in the state when it comes to product sales, that really does seem like a great place to be to me.  The other position will be more of a weekend filler so that I can still get down to the beach and enjoy the sun and maybe my parking will even be validated.

The only thing I’m worried about is whether or not working 60 hours a week will be the right route to take.  At the same time, however, I have a loan, credit cards and numerous other bills that require monthly payments so I’m really not going to question my abilities right now.  Yes, I’m going to be very tired but it’ll be worth it in the end.

I accomplished a lot of cleaning today, all windows were washed, all rooms were vacuumed, kitchen was cleaned and the only thing left is to tidy up the bathroom and the rest is cake.  I’ll do that tomorrow though, I need to bleach everything and that’s not something to smell when you’re trying to sleep – you know?

I’m nervous about Friday, this is probably why I’m in a cleaning mode to keep my mind off the “What If’s?” that are floating around in my head right now.  At the same time, the house looks good so what’s the downside?

I’ve also been keeping myself busy in Photoshop CS3 and Dreamweaver.  I’m working on the final touches of the new template, I’ve also had a spark of genious with my April template on krissy.nu so that’s held my attention as well.  Eventually I’ll get around to completing a few project sites but for now, the few domains I update on, are good enough to keep me entertained.  They’re more work than their worth sometimes but that’s OK by me because it keeps me busy!

In any event, it’s knocking on 4am and I’m going to throw some final dishes in the dishwasher and head off to bed.  I’ll make it a point to say my lovely goodnights to everyone I’m chatting with on AIM, especially Jackie because I just adore her too much for words.  Then it’s time to shut down for the night.  With today being as busy as it was, I can only imagine what tomorrow will be like.  OY!

Productive Day

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

I’ve been pretty busy today.  I woke up and vacuumed in anticipation for house guests tonight, I found out that it’s been delayed an extra day so either way everything is nice and clean.  I floated around the house throwing out all of the garbage and straightening up.  I made dinner for Sean and I, I managed to get the yard straightened up a bit so I can head out there this weekend and get started on the Spring cleaning.  The shed we have was on the wrong side of the house so we moved it over to the other side, the same thing with the BBQ.  I don’t like standing on a grassy hill when I’m trying to cook.  I can’t tell you how many hot dogs I’ve lost thanks to the slope.  So now it’s closer to the drive way and I can roll things out when I need to.

I had the windows open all day today, it was such a gorgeous day I couldn’t stop myself from doing it.  Once the sun went down it got a little chilly so I went to close things down and realized the windows were filthy.  I pulled out the Windex and took care of that pretty quickly.  Now I’m relaxing and hoping to get some work done, this should be fun…. :sigh:

Another day…maybe I’ll make a dollar?

Monday, March 17th, 2008

So it’s about 2am and I’m still wide awake, okay so not WIDE awake but I’m certainly too strung-up to really lay down and relax in bed so I can fall asleep. I’m hoping to have a relatively easy night for however long I’m online for. I do hope to get these CSS issues figured out and while I’m in the midst of doing all of that – I’m going to have to get my butt in gear on writing up a cover letter and printing out my resume. I’m looking to take a little trip tomorrow so I can get my name out there some more with companies in the area looking for designers. I found this one position a few towns away (about a 10 minute drive, actually) that are looking for full-time web developers for on-going projects. This typically means that I’m updating pricing on their website, but a paycheck is a paycheck, you know?

Happy New Year!

Monday, December 31st, 2007

I’m just dropping by to wish everyone a Happy, Safe and Healthy New Year!

What are your resolutions this year?  Are they the common – lose weight, quit smoking – kind of resolutions or is it something unique?

Share it with me!

Happy New Year!