January is shaping up to be a pretty slow month, as far as I can tell. Finances should be in order, current projects will be done, football will be ending/over, the weather will be miserable, and the holidays will be gone so I’ll be looking to spend more free time around the house gaming, reading, and webworking. To combine two of those, I think I’m going to see if I can finish my ColdFusion Certification Study Guide by the end of January and take the exam sometime in February or March. I get a bonus at work, which would be cool, but it would be pretty nice to have that on my resume. So, bust out the pens, pencils, paper, monitors and such. Hopefully the gaming doesn’t distract me too much.
Rumor is: Aaron’s going to have an Xbox 360 after Christmas.
With that in mind, I think it’s a good time to look into getting a new TV. Mario brought his Wii to work last week and it’s a blast. If you can, acquire one now. Both of these systems have games that are high def ready, so I’ve been looking at LCD HDTVs. Some of the refurbs I’ve been looking at are pretty reasonably priced, and I think that will only get better after the Christmas season. So, in January, I think I’m going to try to pick up a steal on a TV… I don’t really need a tv lift to pop it out of a dresser or anything, but it will look nice to have a couple TVs in the house…
Now, about that furniture…
Mostly, this is a blog that I’m getting paid for, but for some reason I really do like WaMu (formerly Washington Mutual, I think… right?) It’s supposed to be an opinion about WaMu checking accounts, but I think that it’s fair to say that I value the company and I don’t have a checking account with them. I could start one, apparently for as low as $1, so maybe I will. I don’t have any problems with Chase, I guess. I mean, I can’t really get shitty because I made an irresponsible decision or two and there were some overdrafts. But, Chase isn’t so bad, I guess. I can access my account online, my direct deposit is set up to deposit into that account, the customer service reps have been nice enough, but if I was in the market, I’d give WaMu a shot. I’d still like to find a checking account that has a decent interest rate, if any. So, although I can’t give a truly valid opinion of WaMu’s checking account, the way they handle my credit card is respectable, so I’m not gonna complain and I’d give them a thumbs up.
checking accounts
The mane was getting unruly, so I had to trim it back. It was awfully bushy and pretty gross, but it continued because I was mostly afraid of cutting it too much and having to go back to where it was. I’m trying to grow it out a bit, hopefully nearish the length of Milo Ventimiglia’s hair in season 1 of Heroes as Peter Petrelli. I think I’m still about an inch away, and I do need to figure out how this matte of thick hair is going to handle any sort of styling. This is quasi-gay, yes, I understand, but it’s kinda schweet to change one’s image and see how people view you differently based on your haircut. Anyhow, I think by Christmas it will be the length I want. Maybe for New Year’s I’ll cut it all off… Or I’ll just enjoy my flowing locks.
life insurance quote
This word doesn’t actually exist in the english language as far as I can see (Yahoo! search brings up pretty meager results), but I think I know some people who ’suffer’ from it, myself included. On the upside, at its best, hyperawareness is an uncanny knowledge of your surroundings, the environment, the place, the people, everything. On the downside, it borders paranoia, with unnecessary fears of those same components of your surroundings. One time it’s really prevalent is when I’m driving… I check my mirrors and far ahead of me constantly and I’m always evaluating what I would do in any given situation. Is that guy coming up behind me in the SUV going to pass on the right and get stuck behind that station wagon a quarter mile ahead or is he going to swerve in front of me at the last minute, trying not to slow down?
If a guy robbed this liquor store right now, what direction would I try to go? Should I run for the door and duck behind a shelf down an aisle?
This could lead to a ton of unnecessary stress, but I think I’ve got it in check just to try to keep my survivability up for now. I really would like to learn how to hone it and make it more useful, but more effective… as I write this, I think of The Bourne Identity when he screams, “why do I need to know this!?” Watch it.
ceiling lighting
Wednesday before I went up to Ashland for Thanksgiving, on the way home from work, Ali and I were waiting at the light at Olentangy River Rd and E Dublin-Granville Rd when Mangesh Filpilwar, a visitor from India, decided that stopping at a red light wasn’t really in his cards. As I began to accelerate when the light turned green, I noticed a flicker of headlight out of the corner of my eye and Ali screamed, “OH SHIT!” as she leaned against the passenger door hoping to get as far away as possible and thinking to herself, “fuck carpooling…”
I slammed on the brakes, but it just wasn’t enough, and Mangesh’s Avis Rental Hyundai Sonata glanced off the front bumper of my car, ripping off the emblem and the license plate, crumpling part of the hood, and leaving heavy scuff marks on the bumper.
We exchanged insurance information, the police came, he was charged with running a red light (thanks to a wonderful man who came back to give his testimony as a witness), and we carried on back home. I have now filed two insurance claims with progressive in the last 3 months. They’re nice people, but this is ridiculous. I’ll keep you updated as I progress through this experience.
Van Halen tour
We went to Noodles & Co. for lunch yesterday and I saw a license plate that said SLWDWN. For whatever reason, I really appreciated that. It’s a good message, it’s not really self-involved and it was on a nice car. I’ve thought about getting vanity plates on my car before, but I’ve never really been sure what I would get. What sort of message are you trying to convey? Should it be your name? Should it be your car’s name? (Does your car have a name?) I tend to mock people who have vanity plates because it’s something like AY PAPI or HOTCHIK… So annoying.
BRANMAN is funny and there have been other ones that I can appreciate, i.e. the S10VAN. But, I would say, by and large, vanity plates are lame. Any ideas?
mailboxes
The last week was wonderful to relax from some stressful weeks of work. But, I’ve finished up a few projects and I think the paychecks should, hopefully, be coming in within the next couple weeks. Just in time for Christmas shopping. “Hooray!” says the family. I think in the next week, I’ll probably get back on the horse and get some additional stuff done and maybe work on some personal projects. I really need to start planning and building the rebuild of this site and the new meetrusshall.com site for my portfolio and such.
drug rehab
Aaron finally moved in, so I don’t have the place to myself anymore. But, I think this is good and I think it should work out pretty well–will be nice to have someone help take care of leftovers and around to decimate video games with. I still miss Juddly for that, but I don’t think Aaron will pass out drunk in the middle of the game randomly while holding the controller. Besides, Aaron’s gonna be kind of a celebrity in the near future, so maybe we can score free stuff somewhere. *evil grin*
fiber cable