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!

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!

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!

And while hitting $90 thousand in outstanding student loan debt is a big accomplishment, I find myself focusing in on defining the next big milestone in my repayment plan. Sure, the obvious choice is to hit $80 thousand outstanding (and I project that I should be there around July 1st), but there has to be something in between – and I think I know what it is.

I now owe a little more than $35 thousand on my NJHESAA loan. I think a nice interim “big milestone” will be when I bring that particular loan below $30 thousand. According to my projections, I may hit that particular milestone around May 15th, but that depends on a lot of different things falling into place.

So, today I celebrate getting the student loan debt down to $90 thousand. Here’s hoping that we have an entry about me reaching $89 thousand before the end of the month!

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. I currently owe $90 thousand, which breaks down to $35 thousand owed to the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority and $55 thousand owed to the United States Department of Education. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.

Oh, this is going to be one of those longer entries that deals with a personal story from my past which I think you might find entertaining. So sit back and relax and read a little bit of my history…

Before I get started with my story, I thought that I would let you know how this memory was dug out of the recesses of my mind. The other day the New York Times published an article that talked about how high school guidance counselors are receiving failing grades from their students. The article says:

Most people who graduated from high school in the last dozen years believe that their guidance counselors provided little meaningful advice about college or careers, a new study has found. And many said the best advice on their futures came from teachers.

“Most young adults who go on to college believe that the advice of their high school guidance counselors was inadequate and often impersonal and perfunctory,” according to the study by Public Agenda, a nonprofit research organization.

I just fall into that category of people who have graduated high school in the last twelve years. And I can safely say that my high school guidance counselor strongly falls into the category of someone who never gave me “meaningful advice about college or careers.” She definitely “was inadequate and often impersonal and perfunctory.” Frankly, she absolutely sucked at her job and I hope that she didn’t do to other students what she did to me.

Intrigued yet? Read on!

Let me set the stage. I was always an outstanding student. I swept the eighth grade graduation winning almost every academic award that Mount Arlington Public School offered including the Academic Excellence award. It was the same story in high school, where I routinely received straight A’s in honors and advanced placement classes. On top of being a great student, I was a highly involved student, too. I was Vice-President of my Freshman class and then President of my class through Junior year when I became the President of the Student Council for my Senior year. I was a varsity starter on the football, wrestling, and spring track teams and captain of the wrestling team in my Senior year. I was the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association scholar athlete of the year my Senior year in high school. I was in a bunch of honor societies including the National Honor Society. I even wrote for the school newspaper!

Needless to say, I was clearly a highly involved student – and not just “involved” with bullshit clubs that had two or three members. I was one of the leaders in my high school of approximately 1800 students.

So we’ve set the stage.

When a kid like me is getting ready to start applying to colleges, he obviously gets offers from all over the place. Now, I could go into how we were bombarded at my house with letters and packages from colleges who wanted me to apply, but that would detract from the story about how inept my old guidance counselor was during my senior year. So we’ll focus on a few schools – Muhlenberg College, Bloomsburg University, Harvard University, Princeton University, Rutgers University, and Monmouth University. Why focus on just these schools? Because these are the ones that I applied to when I was in high school.

In truth, I really wanted to go to Muhlenberg College because my football coach had worked out an arrangement for me to get, essentially, a free ride at the school where I would be playing football and possibly even wrestling in the off season. That’s what I wanted to do and I was glad that an arrangement was being worked out – I even remember meeting with the Muhlenberg College coaches on one of their visits to Roxbury High School my Senior year. In fact, I only applied to the other schools just because I wanted to see what the responses were (although I did apply to Monmouth University because they were also recruiting me to play football – which is a story for another time).

Like any overachieving student, I prepared all of my college applications well in advance of their due dates and brought them to my guidance counselor at Roxbury High School at the beginning of October in my Senior year (this would be October 1998). The reason I had to bring them to my guidance counselor was so she could attach my official transcript and get them out during the early admission period. Roxbury High School also had a service where they sent the entire application package out on behalf of the students, which was great! So, I brought my applications to the guidance counselor, she told me they would be sent off by the end of the week, and that was the end of that process. She also mentioned that sometimes colleges take weeks or even months to get back to the applicants, so I should sit tight for a while.

And I sat tight…

My senior year of football was incredible. We were going at a million miles an hour and we wound up winning the first state championship in Roxbury High School history which was major news in our town. From that victory I went on to become the captain of the wrestling team and I even won one of the winter tournaments that the wrestling team went to each year. I was pretty packed with things going on and while the college letters continued to come in, they eventually stopped coming in altogether at some time in January 1999. I thought this was weird so I asked my guidance counselor what was going on and I also brought up that I hadn’t heard from any of the schools that had I applied to yet. She told me that the applications were sent and that she would follow up with the colleges to see if they had accepted me yet.

My guidance counselor never got back to me with an update.

The months kept going by and I never heard from any of the colleges. Finally, at some point at the end of March 1999 I went in to my guidance counselor’s office and asked her what I should do. She said that she would follow up with the colleges and get back to me (sound familiar?). At this point, I began to get the impression that she was incompetent and that something must be up. I should also comment that I had been keeping my Mom apprised of the situation the entire time…

About two weeks after I went to see my guidance counselor (we’re in the middle of April 1999 at this point), I was called to her office where she told me that I had to sign some paperwork. I signed the paperwork and nonchalantly asked her what it was for. She said that it was for my transcripts to be attached to my applications so they could be sent out.

You guys putting the pieces together here? Can you see what happened here yet? If not, let me make it very clear for you…

My guidance counselor received my college applications in October 1998 and did not send them to the colleges until April 1999!

This idiot finally got around to sending out my college applications half a year after I gave them to her in the first place and months after she had already told me that the applications were sent out! My reaction at the time was, “WHAT?!”

I almost immediately knew that my chances at getting that free ride/double sport package at Muhlenburg College were gone. However, at the time I couldn’t comprehend how this woman even had a job bad of a position my guidance counselor put me in…but my Mom knew what this woman did to me. And Mom took action!

I went home and told my Mom what my guidance counselor told me and, from what I remember, all Hell broke loose! My Mom may need to refresh my memory on what happened next, but she either physically went to the high school or called the high school and went ape shit on this idiot guidance counselor. Like most Moms, my Mom is good at going crazy when other people’s incompetence negatively affects her children. Hey – you don’t mess with someone’s kids, you know? As I recall, I’m pretty sure my Mom threatened this woman with lawsuits and possibly with some physical damage (my Mom doesn’t take any shit from any one – she’ll smack a bitch if the situation calls for it).

From what I remember, after Hurricane Mom dealt with my guidance counselor I was called back into the useless counselor’s office and the woman promised me that she would be calling each college personally to admit that she made a major mistake and that my applications shouldn’t be viewed negatively because of her incompetence. She was also going to try to get me the dual sport package back at Muhlenburg College as well as the various scholarship money that I was eligible for given the fact that I was averaging a perfect 4.0 on a 4.0 GPA basis.

Well, Muhlenburg wasn’t interested so that whole package was gone. Rutgers said that they were interested, but that I was past some deadline for certain types of financial aid and that I’d have to pay most of the tuition. Bloomsburg said that they would take me, but only if I was in their History program (which I didn’t want to be in at all). Harvard never responded. And Princeton said they would be interested, but that they couldn’t offer a financial aid package and that I would have to be in an academic program that I didn’t want to be in (I don’t remember which one it was – something with science, I think). The only one who accepted me on the spot and offered multiple thousands of dollars in scholarship funds was Monmouth University. I accepted the Monmouth University offer and that was the end of my dealings with my completely incompetent high school guidance counselor.

My Mom thought that I had a legitimate lawsuit against the high school and the guidance counselor and I agreed (she probably still thinks I have a legitimate lawsuit). In fact, I think that the incompetence of the woman who was my guidance counselor cut short what was an otherwise meteoric academic rise for me throughout my younger years. I mean look – I was on a roll! And I was going along at the speed of light until I hit the brick wall that was the incompetence of my high school guidance counselor.

Looking back, I was pretty aggravated at how this whole thing went down. At the time, I really wanted to play football in college and I thought that with my grades and extracurricular involvement that I should be qualifying to go to school for free (and I still believe that I should have gotten a free ride in college). Granted, I did have an opportunity to play football at Monmouth University, but it didn’t work out – which, again, is an entry for another time (which most of you will find pretty interesting).

However, I’ve learned many things from my experience with my inept guidance counselor. First, I’ve learned the ins and outs of the entire college admissions process. This is something that no one in my family really knew inside and out prior to me going to college and this fiasco with my guidance counselor. Second, I learned that most high school guidance counselors cannot be trusted to be effective at their jobs (also proven by the New York Times article linked above). And third, I learned that when it comes time for my kids, my nieces, and my nephews (when they’re all born) to apply to college that I would like to take an active role in their application process so that they aren’t screwed over by their guidance counselors like my counselor screwed me over.

I wonder how many other students were academically harmed by this woman’s inability to perform the basic functions of her job. I wonder why she was able to keep that job for so long. I wonder how many students could have gone to Ivy League schools if this woman knew how to do her job correctly. Isn’t it amazing to consider how many lives one person’s incompetence has either ruined or negatively affected?

To end on a good note, though, the other day I went to my old high school’s website and the incompetent moron who served as my guidance counselor is no longer employed by Roxbury High School. Thank God no one else has to suffer getting their legs cut out from underneath them because of that horrible, miserable woman.

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…

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.

While I managed to get my financial situation under control without the help of GRS, I do like heading over there every once in a while to see what the authors are posting about. Most of the time I find a string of entries that date back a few years as they chronicle how the authors attacked a particular situation and how/if they managed to win the battle. The other day I went over to their site and the first entry on the page had to do with “stuff.” You know what stuff is – it’s all of your crap. The stuff laying around your house, the stuff sitting in storage, the clothes in your closet that you never wear, the DVDs near your entertainment center that you’ve never watched, the books that you purchased and never opened…

You get the point.

I read through the author’s chain of entries on how he and his wife were trying to eliminate their useless stuff and increase their feeling of liberation in the process. I found this entry to be most interesting, because I could relate to portions of it such as:

When I go on vacation, I tend to overpack. I usually take a big suitcase crammed with extra clothing, electronic gadgets, and, most of all, books. I take lots of books. This time, despite being gone for three weeks, I limited myself to a single carry-on sized suitcase and one daypack. This seemed like a triumph, but after just a few days, I wished I had packed even less. Did I really need half a dozen personal finance books? Did I really need my laptop computer? Did I really need two sweaters? Though I didn’t take much, it still felt like too much Stuff.

More importantly, I discovered that I could live without. I lived without my books, without my comics, without my CD collection. I lived without my fancy digital SLR camera, or my Nintendo Wii, or my DVDs. This Stuff never entered my mind. I didn’t miss any of it. If I could live without these things for nearly a month — and feel liberated doing so — what might it be like to give up some of this Stuff permanently?

Have you ever done that? Have you ever packed so much stuff for a vacation or business trip that you have to pay the extra fees because your bag is too heavy? I do it on a regular basis and it’s not cheap. I have a business trip coming up one weekend in April and I’m going to attempt to get everything I need in a carry-on bag. The total trip will last only about 36 hours and of those 36 hours I’ll spend about 8 of them sleeping, 6 of them flying, 4 of them waiting in airports, and the rest of the time in meetings or in social situations with some of my colleagues. Why the heck do I need to pack a full bag of stuff for that type of whirlwind, quickie trip? Further, why should I have to pay the extra fee to Continental to bring luggage on the flight, period?!

I can relate to what the author writes in his entry quoted above. I’ve left my home for extended periods of time and specifically opted not to bring my laptop with me because I didn’t want the burden. And you know what? I felt that same feeling of liberation and it’s a great feeling. To a growing degree, I think that the folks in my generation are tethered to their gadgets, laptops, and internet connections. Lord knows that I need to be “hooked in” for my job and small business as well as my teaching gigs. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not fun.

To get back to the point, though, what this accumulation of “stuff” really boils down to is clutter. I began, slowly, de-cluttering my life a few years ago. I’m not sure if it has been raging success yet because my efforts to de-clutter really amount to not buying more stuff (which is actually a great strategy). Sure, I’ve donated some clothing and books to charities over the last few years, but I have so much more stuff that I should be getting rid of instead of sitting on. A few years ago I traded in about 50 of my DVDs because I never watched them – that was a good start. Over the last year I’ve been selling some textbooks on eBay that I will never use again; I’ve also been donating some of my older, insignificant books to a charity in Seattle. Those have both been double whammies on the positive chart because I’m bringing in new dollars with the eBay sales while getting a tax break with the donated books. Not bad.

Yet, I still have a closet full of clothes in which I only wear maybe 25% – 35% of the items that are actually in there. Granted, I bought a lot of these clothing items when I was 80 and 90 pounds lighter than I am now (when they actually fit), but that was a few years ago and now I’m stuck with a closet packed with clothing that I don’t wear because it doesn’t fit.

What’s a guy to do?

Well, I think that it might be time to start de-cluttering my stuff again. I have a bunch of clothing stuck under my bed in plastic totes. I might go through and donate some of those clothing items and replace them with some of the stuff in my closet that I don’t wear/can’t fit into any more. Hey, it’s a good way to get started de-cluttering again and I do believe that spring cleaning is right around the corner, right?

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Hey folks – if we can’t help each other out during our times of need, then who can we count on for help? If you are in the area and can spare the time and the blood (and I’m sure that many of you can spare both!), please make some time to attend the blood drive.

I took my blog off of a bunch of the networks for a bunch of reasons and I happened to keep a log of those reasons for those of you who are involved with blogs or who might have similar decisions to make.

BlogExplosion – Gone. The interface was not user friendly and I couldn’t figure out what benefit I was getting for being listed.

TopBlogArea – Updated the code. Since I updated the code, however, I rarely get ranked in the Top 100 sites in my category. I think they moved my site to somewhere new in their system. If I can’t fix this, I’ll probably just get rid of this link, too.

BlogCatalog – Updated the code.

BlogTopSites – Updated the code.

BlogHub – Gone. The user interface for this site was too simple and didn’t provide enough information about how I could integrate my blog with their services.

SpamPoison – Updated the code. I love this little button because it takes the spam bots and hurls them into a cycle where they, essentially, spam themselves. Serves them right!

Blogged – Updated the code. By far the best user interface, but extremely slow. These guys are linked up with Facebook, so that’s a benefit, too.

LoadedWeb – Updated the code. This is the easiest network to join and manage. I recommend it.

Truth Laid Bear – Gone. The user interface is excruciatingly slow. I initially updated the code, but ultimately removed it because of the slowness of the site.

BlogAnnounce – Gone. They wanted to try to get payments from the blog publishers or something like that…ha! Yeah right.

Anyway, I hope that some of the webmasters that float by JerseySmarts.com find this information useful.