It’s been a while for me. I’m not sure why I keep this blog around. I think once the domain expires again I won’t renew it.
I’m back now to say that I’ve picked up a new challenge. My boyfriend and I agreed to not dine out for a week. We spend so much money on restaurants and fast food, it’s just silly. I went grocery shopping yesterday to stock up, so let the challenge begin.
In reference to this post, I’ve cancelled my policy (*huuuuuge sigh*) and started a new one with Progressive. It’s $20 more per month, but it includes more, like a friendly website. The ease of it is already making me ok with the raise in the monthly bill.
When I called to cancel the ASI policy the agent (had to go through an agent to get the policy, not directly through the company) told me she agrees that they’re a bunch of bastards. She said they’re a huge hassle to deal with, and their website is useless. It was nice to hear some confirmation on that.
I updated the sidebar to reflect the current resolution progress. The biggest challenge will be the beer list, which I honestly don’t think I’ll meet by Labor Day. I’m 32% done with the book challenge but I think I can manage to make up the rest..somehow.. Books are easier than beer.
I did some spring cleaning a while back and got rid of a ton of stuff I didn’t need or want anymore. I still have some things I wasn’t able to sell and I’ll probably just donate them.
I’m still working on the wardrobe. Clothes are expensive.
I haven’t been documenting it, but I gave up candy/sugary foods about 3 weeks ago. In fact, 3 weeks today I think. I was having Skittles or something every day, and it was rotting my teeth. I substituted Welch’s fruit snacks for gummy bears since they have less calories and sugar content. Funny thing is that doctor says I gained 6 lbs since I started. Bullshit! I call shenanigans and blame the doctor’s scale, which is not the same scale that I use in the gym.
The spring semester ended for me yesterday, so after work I celebrated with a couple of beers. I finally added something new to my 101 beers list. The Sterkens White was pretty good, actually. The Hue (Vietnamese beer) grew on me but at first I didn’t care for it.
57 to go. It’ll be tough. I don’t think I’ll make it before Labor Day… Maybe. I don’t drink much.
I’m griping about my insurance company (American Service Insurance) and documenting the events that unfold. It’s gonna get long and boring.
(more…)
It’s been all over the news. Time Warner Cable is planning (threatening?) to place caps on the amount of bandwidth customers can consume before incurring additional charges. The city where I live has been targeted, and like so many other I’m unhappy about it. Unhappy doesn’t cut it but I’m trying to be nice.
Various websites have sprung up to protest the cap, and it’s my pissed-off-customer-duty to share them:
http://stopthecap.com/
http://stoptwc.info/
http://www.petitiononline.com/nocap/petition.html
There are tons of articles and news snippets floating around about it.
Most of my internet usage is the usual email, news, social sites.. But thanks to Hulu and network stations offering TV shows online I’ve been entertained in other ways. If I was to stop the (perfectly legal) viewing of TV shows online I would still be stuck having to watch the (mandatory) streaming videos for some classes I’m taking now and in the future. Is Time Warner going to go easy on me because it’s for my education? No, of course not.
I’ve already cancelled service with Time Warner once this year because of their incompetent tech support. I switched to AT&T for a month only to find that they are surprisingly WORSE than Time Warner. I didn’t realize that was even possible. (Note: TWC’s billing support has always been a fairly pleasant experience, it’s only the tech support that I find useless and frustrating.) I’m not going to go back to AT&T when the tiers come, because I’ve heard rumors that they’re soon to follow. More than likely I’ll just say to hell with it all, none of them get my money. I’ll battle the crowds at school to watch my videos on (sigh) VHS in the library during business hours (believe me, it will be a huge pain in the ass).
But consider this: What are businesses who offer WiFi going to do? Free WiFi will be a thing of the not-so-distant past. What about iPod touch and iPhone users who enjoy wireless connections across the city?
It will be a huge impact.
I really hate Time Warner.
Last night the boyfriend and I went to see a play, which he described as a Greek tragedy that he needed to watch for extra credit in his mythology class. It was called “Iphigenia Crash Lands Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart (A Rave Fable)”. Maybe I should’ve been able to tell from the title that it would be a little..different.
It was at the Salvage Vanguard Theater, off Manor Rd. I’d never been there. I’d never heard of it either. I liked right away that they had recyclable tickets that they called our “boarding passes” and sold Lone Star out of a mini fridge.
Right about 8pm a sparkly drag queen with a cheerleader’s megaphone hopped onto the counter and started telling people with boarding passes 1-30 to follow him to the back door (at this he turn around and showed us his ass and raised his eyebrows suggestively). We formed a line and went outside, and the dude ran to the bus stop and said “OH MY GOD We gotta catch the bus we’s goin to IHOP y’all.” I was giggling. Some people were obviously confused and he said “I’m just kidding, assholes, now follow me.” I loved this guy. He was hilarious. So we followed him around to the back of the building, the whole while he made comments like “Hurry up ya fuckin’ assholes!” and “It’s a dark alley all y’all assholes stay away from me!” At the door he took all our tickets and with each person he’d find something about them and say “Fierce ____.” Guy with a bowling pin on his shirt got “Fierce bowling pin” and girl with a necklace got “fierce pearl necklace” and when we walked up he said “fierce couple holding hands (y’all will be separated by the end of the night)” with a wink that made everyone laugh.
We followed him inside to the “theater” which was just a small room with what would’ve been a stage if we weren’t all sitting all over it. The rules were “sit where you fuckin’ want, dance when you fuckin’ want, party with who you fuckin’ want. If you don’t like where you’re sitting, fuckin’ move. If you don’t like who you’re dancing with, fuckin’ move. If you don’t like who you’re partying with, well don’t come cryin’ to me cause that’s y’all’s drama.” The actors were dancing, there were strobe lights and a DJ up top spinning DNB. Our almighty drag queen leader provided us with cocktails (plastic cups full of skittles) which he’d “slaved over all day”.
The play itself was more modernized (hard to guess it would be, I know) and easier to follow for me. They had a fantastic use of video and I was incredibly impressed with it. To supplement the acting they’d play pre-recorded videos like news broadcasts and things.. and the actors would sometimes go out of sight and be filmed live doing their parts. The way the cameras would flicker and zoom really lent a horror-film effect that was actually quite creepy. The guy who played Achilles looked like Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy but with more meat on him. The man who played the General and Iphigenia’s father also played one of the factory ‘girls’ so he was dressed in makeup and slutty clothes and danced and it was good times.
I took a couple of pictures and video but since it was so dark they don’t show off how awesome it was. I uploaded two videos to youtube, the first is one I took for a friend to gove her a little taste of how Austin rolls. The second is what was going on when we walked in and were sitting down. It’s pretty indicative of what happened through the rest of the play so I didn’t bother uploading the rest.
So how have I done on my resolutions so far? I’m on my 5th of 50 books. I have sort of made a hobby out of text messaging and I also picked up scrapbooking (just started, hardly counts). Haven’t touched the beer challenge yet, since I’m back in school. Still taking a daily photo (posted at shuttercal.com, it’s a neat site). I sold a bunch of M*A*S*H seasons on DVD and I’m planning to sell a couple of seasons of House as well.
No new recipes, in fact I’ve slowed down on cooking and seem to be in fact devolving. All I have at home is breakfast material but I’m always at a loss for dinner ideas. Tonight I fed myself on pringles, corn nuts, and vending machine cookies. Lovely.
I’ve spent more lately, though I suppose it’s semi-wisely. After I bought the car (smart move) I’ve spent a bit on clothes trying to improve my closet situation (also a resolution) and I bought the wonderful boyfriend an iPod touch for Valentine’s Day. There are things I would like but I have this awful buyer’s remorse before I even buy anything so it keeps me in line. Usually. I did buy a new cell phone the other day, but that’s also smart because I hate my current phone, it’s dying, and.. well it just is.
School is a new hobby. Has to be. I read and read and read and read. And then test on it. So far so good, took my first Anthro test and it was easy as pie. Course I only got an 80, but that’s just a lack of trying because I didn’t think I’d need to know those stupid details. Now that I know I do need to know those stupid details, I’ll be sure to pay more attention to them. Still, 80 ain’t bad. History test on Wednesday followed by math test on Friday. Next semester will be more math and some nice and easy physical education of some kind. Yoga? Kickboxing?
I am well. That is all.
The last time I paid a company to prepare my taxes it cost me $50. This afternoon I stopped by Jackson Hewitt and was charged $360! If I had refused to pay it and file there, I would have still been charged the $69.99 per 30 minute consultation fee. That’s $140 an hour these people are being paid, and the lady wasn’t even sure what she was doing was right! Since she was uncertain the consultation took well over thirty minutes, so I would have been charged at least $100 anyway. I probably should have paid it and left, and finished my taxes for $15 online with TurboTax.
I’ve written a letter to the corporate office (after four phone calls attempting to retrieve the address from customer service, I eventually found it online myself) but I anticipate being completely ignored.
Today I am 25 years old (yesterday in part of the world). I don’t feel any different. Not that I ever do on birthdays.
I do, however, regret getting my nails done. Sure they look good but it’s a pain in the ass to type, text, and write. School starts Tuesday. Damn it. Have to deal I guess.
I did get new clothes though. That’s part of my resolution to overhaul my wardrobe. I picked up two pairs of jeans and 3 new shirts, and I’m going to write a lovely letter about the sales girl at the store because she was fabulous.
Dinner with friends tonight. All I wanted for my birthday was to be surrounded by friends and family. Already I’ve gotten much more than that, both in form of gift and in affection. My adorable boyfriend got me some really pretty locally made stained glass. My friend Tara got me the first Twilight book and a gift card to my favorite restaurant (where we’re going tonight). My friend Abby got me two books and a junk food bouquet. I feel so lucky to be me.
So today I’m wearing my birthday shirt. It’s appropriate.
