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Posts Tagged ‘Roommates’
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
Don’t you hate it when you go to the gym and there’s a guy on his cell phone the entire time talking too loud and making a gigantic scene? Ugh…those people are the worst. What’s their problem? Can’t they get off of the phone and pound out a workout?
I’m sorry.
I’m apologizing because I was that guy at the gym tonight.  Yes, I was the guy on the treadmill on his cell phone holding a conversation that had nothing to do with working out. As many of you know, I serve on the Board of Trustees for a national foundation. At some point around 7pm tonight, I got on a phone call with the Executive Director of our foundation. Since my back was hurting me this morning when I woke up, I had to go to the gym after work – and since I had that phone call scheduled, that meant that I couldn’t go to the gym until after the call.
But do you ever get on those calls where you just have to stay on the line because the discussion is so good that you need to explore it a little bit further? Well, our Executive Director and I had what I thought was an excellent conversation tonight about a variety of issues (some of which were eye-opening to me). But as the call went on I began to worry about getting my workout in. So I drove to the gym and sat in my car for another hour or so on the phone (one of my roommates actually arrived at the gym after me and left before me while I was taking the call).
Then when it got to be 9pm, I knew I had to get a workout in before I was too tired to do it. So I was that guy on the treadmill on his cell phone, but it was for a good reason. And now I will think twice about those other people who are on their cell phones. On the other hand, though, I was on an important phone call and I kept my voice down. Most of those other people get on their phones and start to talk way too loud and in an obnoxious tone!
By the way, tonight marks 18 days in a row that I’ve been to the gym. Pretty good for a guy who isn’t even on a diet and is just working out for the fun of it.
Posted in Gym Stories | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
Since November I’ve been playing in the stock market trying to hit some small jackpots in the “penny stock” department (penny stocks are those that trade for anywhere from a few pennies up through a few bucks). I’ve actually been doing pretty good except for losing a few bucks in an ill-timed investment in General Motors (thank you, GGL). Anyway, I thought I would give a brief update of where I’m at with my investing and which stocks seem to be “doing it” for me.
I made a few bucks buying Bank of America last week and Barnes and Noble in December and January, but the real winner for me has been Sirius XM satellite radio. I bought this stock (a LOT of this stock) when it was ranging between 11 cents and 16 cents. Less than 2,000 shares overall, but still a decent amount. Today the stock closed at 35.7 cents a share so I’m doubling some of my money and tripling some other money. My only regret with this stock is that I didn’t go “all in” when it hit 5 cents a few months ago. Just think, if you invested $1,000 in the stock when it was 5 cents, your share would be worth over $7,000 right now!
Anyway, no point in crying over spilled milk – especially when I’m still up 163% on my initial investment in the company! Ford has also been a winner for both me and one of my roommates who decided to invest in it. And Alcoa (an aluminum making company) has provided more than a 30% increase in the last week.
Now that I’ve dropped GM completely the only negative returns that I have in my portfolio are Martha Stewart Omnimedia and THQ, Inc. Omnimedia is the parent company for all of Martha Stewart’s various subsidiaries (and Emeril Lagasse, too). I think this stock is poised for major growth in the coming 12 – 18 months and buying it right now at $2.31 per share might pay big dividends in the future.
As for THQ, Inc., this is the video game company behind the wildly successful WCW/nWo and WWE video games. They also have the rights for Disney/Pixar video games, too. I think this is another company that has a good long-term earnings potential ahead of it and it’s one that I just bought heavily into (in my world, heavily is a hundred bucks or so!).
Just thought I’d share…and see if anyone has any decent stock tips out there!
Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances | No Comments »
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
Readers of this blog know that I’m not shy about my unabashed support of satellite radio company Sirius XM . I’m a shareholder and a long-term subscriber and I sing the praises of the company whenever I can. Hell, I even include direct links to their products in my blog entries as you can see! With all of the negative buzz surrounding the company from its constant attacks by the internet media, I thought I would relay a brief, positive story about the company.
On Monday of last week, my Sirius XM unit started showing a message saying, “Antenna Not Detected.” I hadn’t moved the unit or the antenna in many months so I wondered what the problem could possibly be. After some fiddling, the message went away and the unit worked fine. Then Tuesday came around and the message popped back up on the radio. I figured that some more fiddling would fix it – nope. I didn’t get mad, but I wondered what the issue was that was causing the problem.
I tried to self-diagnose the problem. On the one hand, I have a Sportster Replay, which is one the older, discontinued models and there was a chance that the unit was shot. On other other hand, though, I’ve only owned the radio for three years so for it to be busted after three years of use is unacceptable. I did some Googling and the information online wasn’t really clear about what the problem was (it could be the unit or it could be the satellite receiver or it could be something else – great). As it turns out, the satellite receiver was shot and I needed a new one, which was provided free of charge via a spare receiver that one of my roommates had (thank you!).
However, in the few days where I didn’t have Sirius XM I had to listen to terrestrial radio on my two-hour daily commutes plus my driving around town. It was mostly miserable. You really forget just how many commercials there are on terrestrial radio until you have prolonged exposure to the endless drones of car, lawyer, and doctor commercials. And they don’t stop. Two minutes goes by, three minutes, five minutes, seven minutes – sometimes even more! It was horrible.
To avoid the commercials on Howard Stern’s channels on Sirius XM, I flip to one of the music channels. Easy enough, right? Well, with terrestrial radio when the talk show hosts would hit their ten to fifteen minute non-live content breaks I was essentially screwed! First, I had to find a channel with music on it that I actually wanted to hear. Second, I had to hope that the channel came in clear (my commute takes me across state and I generally heard more static than anything else). What aggravation!
When one goes a few days without Sirius XM satellite radio, they begin to really appreciate how great of a service this really is for those who have long commutes. I’m so glad that Sirius XM exists because other than NJ 101.5 (when it’s not on another ridiculously long commercial break) there is absolutely nothing to listen to on terrestrial radio.
Posted in Entertainment | 3 Comments »
Sunday, January 11th, 2009
As many of you probably know, last summer I moved from Deal, New Jersey to Tinton Falls, New Jersey – both in Monmouth County. My roommates and I rented a gigantic U-Haul truck and loaded it up with our stuff to make a few trips back and forth between the old apartment and the new townhouse. I’m not sure if I went over it at this site or not, but I was so out of shape that after about an hour and a half of moving stuff, I had to call up some of the undergraduates in my fraternity to come over and do the moving for me! Hey, I paid those kids good money and they did an awesome job loading and unloading my stuff for me (and my roommates).
Which brings me to a website that I came across the other day called MoveMe.com. MoveMe.com helps people who are looking to rent or buy homes, move to a new home, or look for finance to take care of their homes. It is what you’d call a removal company – in other words, this is a company that will come to your place, prepare removal quotes to move you from one location to another, and then do the actual move for you. Talk about a service that I could have used over the summer! MoveMe.com provides a man and van power for your move – in other words, they’ll get you the manpower and the right vehicle to make your move a success!
Now, I should note that this service is for my readers based out of the United Kingdom so be aware of that as you consider whether or not you want to use this service. If you head over to the MoveMe.com site you’ll notice that there is a very intuitive interface. You enter your current postal code and which postal code that you’ll be moving to and then their internal engine does the rest for you. And bear in mind – this is a free removal quote for your consideration. I strongly suggest that, when you plan your move, if you’re over in the United Kingdom you consider using a service like MoveMe.com…and I say this as the voice of experience!
Now that I’ve found this site, I hope to find similar services in the United States. Lord knows that the next time I move, I’ll need a service like MoveMe.com to help me get the job done quickly, efficiently, and professionally!
Posted in Random Entries | No Comments »
Friday, December 19th, 2008
It never fails – there is a report on the news about a winter storm getting ready to hit New Jersey and this state loses its mind. I can understand if you’re up in Sussex, Warren, Morris, or any of the other northern counties. But if you’re in the most highly populated parts of Mercer, Monmouth, or Ocean counties, then you need to calm down. We never get blasted with huge amounts of snow and if we do, the snow melts relatively quickly.
I remember growing up in Morris County when we would get massive snow storms where you would be snowed in for a few days. Since I’ve been down in eastern Monmouth County (almost 10 years now) we’ve only been snowed in for a prolonged period of time once. Heck, they get more snow out in Las Vegas than we get in eastern Monmouth County! Okay, maybe that’s a stretch…
One of my roommates works for Wegmans grocery store and he was saying how people were stocking up on all different types of groceries yesterday in anticipation of the coming snow storm. What folly! Folks, we live in eastern Monmouth County – we’re too close to the shore to have any significant, long lasting snowfall. Plus, most of the population in this area drive gigantic sport utility vehicles so you shouldn’t have many problems getting stuck in the snow!
But anyway, everyone be prepared because here comes another “storm of the Century!” Or at least a dusting of snow that scares the locals once again…
Posted in The State of New Jersey, Winter & Christmas Time | No Comments »
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