Month: February 2006

This is an EXCELLENT website sent in by Maren concerning bands backstage demands on tours.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/index.html

Man…I love a really scrumptious orange. You know those ones that just contain goodness? That’s what I’m having right now and the world can do me no wrong.

• I am digging the Earth right now. Why Earth? Because at 7:00 at night when I exited my class last night, I could still see some sunlight on the horizon. That’s mint baby. That puts tingles into people’s bodies and the thoughts of ladies in their bikinis.
• Test went decent last night. Harder than the first. But fair questions.
• Today marks the day that Apple will make some new product annoucements. Hopefully it doesn’t end up being the day the iBooks are released or else I’ll be calling up my sister to pick me up one. Turns out that she can get 18% off any Apple product through work. Where was she when I was buying my iPod?
• Mutual Funds are taking over my life right now. Instead of getting into the nitty gritty details, I think I’ll follow my wingman’s advice and start with ING Direct Mutual Funds. They don’t charge you anything and it’s not like I’m going to start with $10,000. More like $10. If anyone has some sage advice on mutual funds, drop me a line! I can’t say I know much, but would like to know more.
• Google has released a payment system via their DBase..aka, the Ebay killer. I predict in a few months we’ll be hearing a lot more about base.google.com
• This morning the clock was set for 6:10 but my body is wonky so it kept waking up every hour. Probably thought that the alarm wouldn’t go off. Curse you body! Why does that happen all the time? Same goes for if you have something important (like the first day of work)…you just can’t get to sleep.

Here’s some advice (I consider it good, but you be the judge) that will make you a happier person.

If you take public transit to work, you may be better off waking up 15 minutes earlier.

In theory, if you wake up 15 minutes earlier, you will make it to work 15 minutes earlier.

Depending on what time you catch the bus, this may not be the case.

I woke up 15 minutes earlier this morning and got here 1/2 hour earlier. It’s all about the system. Find out how long your bus takes at different intervals. Don’t trust the schedules during rush hour periods.

Another fine example is this: I usually catch the bus at 7:10. It gets me in at 8:00. One day I was late and I caught the bus at 7:20. I got in at 8:00. Therefore I could sleep in an extra ten minutes and arrive at the same time. I tried this same 7:20 bus a few times to see if it was a fluke and it was not. It’s all about the congestion in the morning. For some reason on my route, there are a lot more people getting on the bus at 7:10 than 7:20.

So take my advice either way you wish…if you like to sleep in, check out if any later buses get you there at the same time. If you like to waste as little time on the bus as possible, perhaps waking up a little earlier will help your quest.

So far, so good. Studying is going well. Not much to study considering I have only had two classes since the last test.

My Friday was an interesting one in that I just discovered some amazing financial knowledge.

As you may know, I took out some money from my RRSPs to purchase my house. Let’s say I took out $10,000 for the house. I would have 15 years to pay back that $10,000 in equal payments (aka, whatever is left over divided by 15).

I was under the assumption that I would have to pay back the $1000 before I could put anything into RRSPs that I could deduct from my taxes. So here I was thinking I would have to bust my ass to pay off the $10,000 so I could start back into contributing to my regular RRSPs.

Not so! Amelia filled me in on the secret that as long as I made the minimum payment every year, all the other cash I put into my RRSPs would be good to go!

This opened up a multitude of opportunities for me. Maren lent me The Wealthy Barber on Friday and I was done it by Saturday morning. That book opened up my eyes to A LOT of financial things that I didn’t think about. You should all go read it. It’s an easy read, 200 pages, and it will change your outlook on the future. I’m don’t think I went wrong in the finance area…I knew I was going to need some cash to buy a house and I did.

But now that I’m done that, I’m ready for the next step. Putting my cash into high interest accounts like mutual funds and whatnot.

The main message of The Wealthy Barber is to put your money in NOW. Not tomorrow, but now. Compound interest is your friend over time. Read the book.

Well, what can I say? The return to school sometimes dominates my life.

I have an essay to write (which I’ve slacked off all week on…actually, I shouldn’t say that…I only have 300 words left. That’s a ten minute job.), and an exam to study for ALL freakin’ weekend.

Do I regret my choice to return to school? Nah. It gives me more purpose! I feel that as living beings, we should be constantly learning and pushing ourselves…I was becoming a lethargic being who just existed and never bettered myself.

I will say this – going to school takes away from other things in life…I can’t seem to find a good time to go swimming anymore, hence my physical activity is at an all-time low (other than the times where I insult Vero on what she’s wearing and she chases me!) and of course, I don’t even have the time to help my friend Alex with some framing work in his house! That really bothers me considering I’ve always offered my aid and the ONE TIME he comes for it, I’m unavailable. Boo on me. Boo on school. He’s a good guy, he understands.

I predict that my weekend will consist of the following agenda:
– stocking up on sandwich meats so I don’t have to cook something major while studying. I am a sandwich freak. Hoagies-r-us. Or as Claude’s uncle will say “Hoagies-russ!”
– studying.

I am an awful studyier. I go hard for 20 minutes, take a break for 1/2 hour. I’ve realized that this is the way I do it. I can’t say it’s a bad thing since I’ve never failed (except for that Electronics I test in ’99. Curse you!)

So…I hope everyone has a good weekend. I heard there are waffles going on at Duncan’s place on Sunday morning. Go raid his palace of waffles.

I received an automated phone message at working asking for a woman who passed away three years ago.

I phoned the company to let them know that they must have not updated their files…

Anyhow…even though technology is great and all, automated phone messages are not really cool.

Granted, I’m sure if there was a human talking to me, it would have been the same deal.

At least it was me they called and not some family member.

Yesterday was Zelda’s 20th birthday! The Legend of Zelda was released on February 21, 1986. Granted, it was released in Japan on that date and the North Americans didn’t see it until the following year. But still!

I feel freakin’ old. This reminds me of last night’s conversation with Mom and how she wants new living room furniture and I was saying how they just bought that furniture but she said it was 20 years old! Gak. I cannot believe that.

So here’s another snapshot of the past – Zelda. I remember popping in the GOLD plated Nintendo game into the system and having the start screen pop up with its mysterious soundtrack. I must admit that I needed a few tips along the way to finish this game, but it was amazing nonetheless.

Zelda 2…meh, not so much.

Zelda: A Link to the Past – now THERE was a video game! My fave of the series (but sadly, I have only played those three)…it was like a souped-up version of the Nintendo version…better graphics, more items to collect, you name it, they had it!

I am hoping that I will begin my descent back into playing video games with my most recent download of Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time. I hear it’s the best one out there. In some ways, I don’t mind the fact that I’ve grown not to care for video games as much anymore…I enjoy that I go out and do things…but at the same time my inner self is screaming “Man, how could you NOT be interested in playing this game? This is Zelda!!!”

Please post any comments on your memories of only one of the cooler franchises Nintendo has to offer!