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Archive for the ‘Random Entries’ Category
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
He’s back, once again! Today is Saint Patrick’s Day and I’m glad to welcome back JerseySmarts.com’s resident poetic, Joseph P. Martino of Millburn, NJ. This time around, Mr. Martino brings us some verse regarding Ireland and Her People. Enjoy!
Ireland and Her People
SAINT PATRICK’S DAY
Land of pristine lakes, Verdant valleys and pastoral country side.
Sea swept coastlines, cliffs that climb up and skyward from the ocean waves.
Sun that warms both heart and summer air, casting long
Shadows upon the mist that lingers in the sweet meadow.
Music that delights the ear, while settings one’s heart a-flutter.
“Danny Boy” not just a song, but a nations “anthem”
Brilliant minds, scholars, poets, playwright, authors and men of letters.
Great universities and halls of higher learning.
Great statesman and parliamentarians.
St. Patrick her holy patron.
The harsh famines that gave way to the tidal wave of immigration that never diminished the Irish sprint and gift of laughter of her great
People who contributed resource and talent to their newly adopted home-lands.
Wow! Thanks again to Joseph P. Martino of Millburn, NJ for his great poetry!
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Saturday, March 13th, 2010
This entry is powered by my BlackBerry Tour 9630… Because there’s no electricity in my place and this is bullshit!
Okay, everyone knows that all of a sudden we went from a deep, frozen winter season to a sloppy, gross wet season, but come on! How is there a damn monsoon hitting Tinton Falls two weeks after a massive blizzard?! What is going on?!
And I’m sorry, but in 2010 there is no excuse for power outages in high tech areas like the northeast United States. Put the friggin’ power lines underground already and get on with it!
So that’s what I’m doing today. On a day when I have way too much shit to do to be sitting around in the dark, I’m sitting around in the dark. This is crap. Someone put the damn lights on already!
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Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Even though we’re only at the midway point of this week, I think that I’ve had a very productive past couple of days – so far… Today, I was forced to work from home (like I really had to have my arm twisted!) because I had the Glass Doctor people come to my home and replace the windshield on my car. In terms of productivity, not only was the windshield replaced, but before the Glass Doctor guy came over I had a chance to clean out the glove compartment, trunk, and back seat of my car. This clean out is a part of the de-cluttering process that I’m trying to go through right now.
For example, aside from throwing out a lot of garbage that was accumulating in the car, I was able to take some t-shirts that I had been piling up in the trunk. The t-shirts were piling up there because I honestly had no where else to put them! Anyway, as I write this post the t-shirts are all out of the dryer after having been washed earlier today. Some of them are on the “charity” pile and some other ones are on the “keep these” pile. By the way, the “charity” pile of clothes is getting bigger and bigger!
Professionally, I’ve advanced nearly every deal that I’m working on which is definitely a function of the fact that this week is spring break for my undergraduate students and thus they aren’t around for me to have to teach.
I’ve been moving a bunch of my online projects forward, which I’m always happy about. As a part of this process, I’ve been able to detach some folks from Usable Web Solutions, LLC (i.e. let them know that they need to find a new “web guy”) and I’ve been able to send payment letters to other clients.
On a more personal level, I ran out of one of my prescriptions the other day and I managed to get it refilled (even though there were no more refills left) through the services offered by my pharmacy. This was a much easier process than I imagined it would be and I’m extremely happy that this worked out so easily. You know how much of a pain in the ass it can be to work around the pharmacy and the doctor’s office beating each other up… No thank you.
Oh, and after my car had the windshield replaced earlier today, I took it over to the inspection station and it passed inspection. So… I won’t be going back there for at least two more years, thankfully!
I also spent some time today doing some short-term (two month) financial planning to address some upcoming expenses that I have to deal with. Among these expenses are paying for the windshield replacement, paying for a flight to Nashville in April, and paying for my 2010 membership to the local CSA farm. By my calculations, I’ll be able to continue my $1,000+ biweekly payments on my one student loan and pay for all of these other items in full by April 15th.
And speaking of April 15th, I spent a few minutes today finalizing my taxes so I think that they’re ready to finally send into the IRS. I should be getting a decent return back this year, although still below what H&R Block suggests are the averages for people of my age and income level (not fair!).
As you can see, I’ve been pretty busy. However, before this coming Monday hits, I have to complete a grant application for a client that I’m working with on the side; begin, write, edit, and finalize a 10 page paper and presentation package for the class that I’m taking; prepare lesson plans for my class for the coming week; go to Pennsylvania for a wake this weekend; and review some material for the foundation where I serve as a Trustee.
All in a weekend’s work!
The biggest pain in the ass in the next few days will be going to the doctor this Friday. The doctor is going to be upset with me because I was supposed to lose ten pounds since the last time I saw him (early November 2009) and, instead, I think that I’ll either break even or maybe gain 3 – 5 pounds. Not good. However, I don’t have too much time to worry about that until after next Monday – which is good since that’s probably when my blood test results will be coming in.
Lots to do in the next few days. Don’t be surprised if I miss a day here and there updating the blog. Thanks!
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Friday, March 5th, 2010
For the past two days I’ve been talking about de-cluttering, cleaning out, making more space, and getting rid of things that I no longer use. Well, the other night after I wrote the first entry in this little series I actually went under my bed and pulled out both of the plastic containers with the old clothes in them. As if that wasn’t scary enough, I pulled all of the clothes on hangers (i.e. t-shirts, button down shirts, and polo shirts) out of my closet and threw them on my bed.
It was a complete disaster.
My goal was to separate the clothes that I haven’t worn in over two years from those that I wear on a regular basis or a semi-regular basis. Aside from the horrifying sight that was the heap of shirts on my bed, this was actually a very easy process because, well, when you don’t wear a shirt for over two years you know it!
While this was a good way to begin removing the excess clutter in my closet, the cleaning out process was also aggravating in many respects. Here are some of the reasons why the first phase of this clean out was annoying:
- Never Wore the Shirt. By far, the most aggravating part of the clean out process was looking at all of the shirts that I purchased and never even wore – not even once. I’m not talking about shirts that I picked up, wore out one night or wore to work one day, and then forgot about (skip down to the next category). No. I’m talking about the shirts that I purchased because they were on sale or they were buy 2, get 1 free or whatever and the never, ever wore them. Not only have these shirts created a bunch of wasted space in my closet and underneath my bed, but they’re also a great example of money that I completely wasted.
- Underutilized Shirts. This is similarly related to the previous point. While there were some shirts that I never wore, there were other ones that I remember wearing once or twice…and that’s it. Oh, and I’m not saying that I wore these shirts last week or the week before – some of these shirts haven’t been worn since I was in college. Once again – a complete waste of space and money. Damn it.
- The Frustration of Weight. If unused and underutilized shirts are in a sort of tie for the most aggravating part of this clean out process, then a seriously close second place would be looking at all of the shirts that I wore when I wasn’t as heavy. Talk about a downer. I dug out some t-shirts that I haven’t worn since about
6 years 90 pounds ago. Some people might suggest holding on to those shirts so that I have them for when I lose weight. Well, before the day comes where I start dropping weight in large quantities again, I have to figure out how to break the combined curse of my two hour commute and my diabetes medication. It ain’t easy, folks…in fact, it’s downright f’ing frustrating. Anyway, looking at all of my old clothes that I used to be able to fit into was aggravating.
- The “Good” Aggravation. I guess this final point is a bit of an oxymoron, but having all of these useless shirts laying around has me planning a trip to the local Monmouth County SPCA. I donate my old clothing to the MCSPCA because they sell the clothes and use the proceeds to help fund care for the animals. It’s a great program, actually. So I can live with the aggravation of having to drive over to the shelter because I know that the end result will be beneficial to someone’s future Fido or Kitty.
Now that the shirts have been cleaned out…my various collection of jeans are next. You want to talk about buying pieces of clothing and never wearing them? I have some pairs of jeans that still have the tags on them…
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Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Yesterday, I summed up my entry by saying that I could kick start my personal de-cluttering process with an early spring cleaning. Somewhere in my entry I also commented that one of the best ways to de-clutter your life is to not buy new things that you will not use in the first place! This brings me to a topic that I’ve wanted to cover on this blog for the last two weeks – the unbelievable reach of iTunes.
Hang in there, I can actually draw a correlation here and make this make sense!
Over the last few weeks I’ve been dabbling in this iTunes U and some of the more educational-focused podcasts offered on iTunes. By using some of the features on iTunes and more specifically iTunes U, I’ve been able to get the mental stimulation that I would normally reserve for reading books. Seriously! I downloaded a bunch of podcasts from a doctor who interviews other doctors at the University of Michigan and asks them about health questions that pertain to their fields of study. These people are experts in the topic and they give away free information about the disease or condition for free. How great is that?!
And with iTunes U I’ve been able to turn some of my daily commutes into mentally stimulating experiences as I listen to professors for Yale and Harvard Universities talk about topics that I’m interested in (business management, nonprofits, leadership, American Colonial History, writing, personal finance, etc). It’s absolutely wonderful if you’re an information junkie like I am!
With this comes the integration of other services into iTunes like Audible. I’ve downloaded a few audiobooks from a family account and I plan on listening to some of them in the next few weeks during my trips to and from work. Hey, we all know that I absolutely hate my commute so if I can turn it into something more than just mindless driving to and from Trenton, then I’d be happy to do so!
But to keep with the theme of the last few days – by utilizing electronic media more often I’ll be able to cut back on the amount of books that I buy. Now, I’d never give up books altogether because I’m one of these readers who thinks that there is something that you lose when you don’t have the actual book in your hand and the words in front of your face. However, if I can purchase a few less books each year by listening to a few audiobooks instead, then that only helps to reduce the overall amount of clutter in my home – and that’s not a bad thing at all.
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Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
You might be wondering why I duplicated the headline above. Well, take a look at the image below and tell me if you understand why I might have done that…
 Wait, what? Wait, what? As it turns out, a recent edition of Men’s Health magazine might have been a bit of a mistake. A bit of a mistake. Okay, I’ll stop that now. Turns out that Men’s Health magazine used almost the exact same cover for a recent edition as they used for their October 2007 edition. Talk about being in the bush leagues!
I don’t read these magazines because, well, they’re essentially the same article over and over again (as this mistake proves to us). I’m reminded of something that a friend of mine used to say when it came to recruiting new members for our fraternity. He used to go in and tell the prospective guys that if they didn’t know how to talk to girls before they joined the fraternity, then they wouldn’t know how to talk to them after they were done pledging. In other words, don’t think that by believing in a stereotype that certain things will come true.
I’m reminded of this statement because I think that there are people who buy into these magazines and the bullshit that they sell. Hopefully, people will see through the garbage that this particular magazine is selling and realize that they’re being sold rehashed crap over and over again. By the way, I found this article on Gawker.com so feel free to check it out over there (as well as the editor’s lame excuse for how this happened).
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