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Ok…

Friday, November 19th, 2010

So things between Sean and I have gone down hill and we’ve decided to take a break to figure things out. I don’t know what the next couple of weeks are going to bring. Its either going to be a situation of both of us wanting to move on with our lives individually or move ahead with eachother. Its really up in the air right now but its equally painful for both of us. Im hopeful that things will work out but who knows what the universe has in store for us.

There’s alot that I’ve needed to work on for quite some time now and I believe this is the opportunity I need to begin getting myself in order. I need to get everything figured out with finances and school. I also need to figure out what path im even on in my life and which obstacles are in my way so I conquer them.  I would have liked to do everything with Sean by my side but I also need to be on my own for a while as this is something I haven’t done for the last ten years of my life. Im 26, working a dead end job and trying my hardest to accomplish my goals interally even though I have no physical or emotional strength to deal with it all at this moment in time. I can day dream all I want but the act of accomplishing is more rewarding. So I guess its time to truly see what I’m capable of.

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Ugh n Stuff

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

I finally got rid of the tooth that was bothering me for the past couple of weeks.  I have to say it’s been an absolute blessing to know that the amount of pain I was experiencing has now gone away.  My issue is the fact that my mouth is really sore but I know in the long run it’ll work out for the best.  If you’ve been following me for a while you’d know that no matter how much time I spend in the chair, my issues just will not go away.  I’m to a point that I’m hoping to win the lotto so I can have every single one of them pulled and I can just replace them all with dental implants that can be easily fixed with a cap as soon as something breaks.  Either way I’m uncomfortable right now but I know it’ll subside over time and that’s just something to look forward to.

As far as the past week is concerned, a few interesting things have sprung up.  A girl was abducted a few blocks away from me on Monday.  While I was in a drug-induced coma I woke up to see the helicopters flying over head with the spot lights blasting the wooded areas around my house.  At first, I honestly thought that I was hallucinating because of the combination of sedation and vicodin in my system but that really wasn’t the case, it actually happened.  The girl was returned home a few hours after all of the activity sprung up which is good to know but I think she’ll make a better choice of boyfriends in the future considering her boyfriend and one of his friends were the two to actually play this out.   It really makes me question the relationships that some people have when you get to a point where you’re abducted by your OWN boyfriend.  I’m sorry it happened to her but I’m sure it’ll smarten him up a bit considering he seemed like a total low-life anyway.  They setup central command in the lot right next to my house so we all had a pretty good look at what was going on.j

In GOOD news, my boss had her baby.  She’s been uncomfortable for a while so a major congrats to her on the birth of her son.

Sean is in Manhattan today working for some guy, getting computers setup and whatnot.  I’m amused by the fact that he’s dealing with all of the snow that Long Island was supposed to get and it looks like the rain is holding on really well so hopefully we don’t wind up getting any snow.  I’m so sick of it, and I really miss sunshine, can’t wait for that to show up.

I’ve been spending all of my free time submitting my resume to numerous different companies.  It’s to a point where I don’t even know where half of them are located or what the job entails but anything is better than where I am and of course that’s all that matters to me right now.

I’m trying to figure out how to get some kind of photo and html program onto my Netbook without crashing it.  Considering it’s build specifically for internet and file storage, I’m afraid of adding too much shit to it.  I do still have my other laptop but I have a lot of work to do on it before I can get it up to the speed that it was in the past.  I can’t wait until I figure something out considering I’m sick of working with free premade templates when it comes to my own shit.  My portfolio is really out of date, a few projects have completely been overlooked and there’s just a lot of general maintenance that needs to take place before I can be happy with my internet footprint again.

In any event, I still have another half hour on my lunch break and I fully intend to enjoy it by doing absolutely nothing.  I’d love to be outside having a cigarette right now but it’s freaking POURING and just a crappy situation all together.

I think I’m going to call up the high school and see if they were able to locate my records.  It’s been a few weeks and I honestly am getting sick of waiting.

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The Weekly BS

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

So I’ve wanted to actually post something for the past couple of days but things have been kind of hectic and I haven’t been able to sit down and accomplish anything. Since I’m on my lunch break and it’s a really nasty day outside I decided to stay at my desk and actually get it done.  So yay for having a 10+ day break between things.

Since the last time I posted a few things have happened but nothing overly interesting. For the superbowl I headed down to New Jersey for the day and while the day itself was relatively enjoyable the ride home was absolute agony. For some reason, out of absolutely no where, my tooth began to bother me so much so that I wound up screaming in pain for the bulk of the ride home. I have a broken wisdom tooth on my upper right side and I believe the nerve is now exposed so it’s been causing a problem over the course of the past week or so. After over a week of dealing with it I decided to call up my dental surgeon and book an appointment to have it removed. At this point it’s causing so much of an issue, physically, that it’s not worth trying to save the tooth at all. So on Monday I’m going to leave work early and head over there to get it extracted. The upside is I’ll get a prescription of antibiotics to start clearing up the issues with another tooth. I’m going to be enrolling in EDP Dental. It’s a $99 a year policy and the two dentists that I would prefer to use are both covered under this plan. The only thing I’m trying to work out is whether or not I need to have existing dental insurance because EDP is NOT an insurance policy, it’s a discount dental plan. If I don’t need regular insurance it will certainly work out pretty well for me. My surgeon is right at the top of the list for coverage which is great considering it’s going to cost me about $700 out of pocket to get my tooth removed considering I need to be sedated and they’re going to run a full work-up of xrays as well. So that gets that accomplished.

I’ve basically already spent my tax returns even though I haven’t filed them yet. The cost for extraction is going to be covered by my father until I get my check, plus I owe him money from this weekend considering Bella had to make an emergency visit to the vet as there was A LOT of blood in her urine. She’s on a heavy dosage of antibiotics for the next couple of weeks until that’s cleared up. So figure I’m instantly handing him $1,000 when the check clears. I’ll also be using the rest to completely pay off one of my credit cards. From there I’m taking another financial route that I’m hoping is going to help me out over time. I’m pretty much done with HSBC and I’ve decided to consolidate my loan through Wachovia. I still have another $7,000 to pay off on my loan and about $2,000 for my credit card through HSBC, so I’m going to Wachovia to request a personal loan for upwords of $20,000 so I can pay off all of my debt and use the rest of the money on a car. I found a car for $11,000 with only 20k miles on it and while it’s not the Chevy Equinox that I’d absolutely love to own, it’s the 09 Chevy Cobalt, it’s close to my house, it’s got a very clean interior and absolutely no external damage. Power everything, anti-theft, the bells and whistles. Of course I would be happier if there was a sunroof but at this point, considering Sean’s car has slowly been on the verge of death for quite some time – a course of action needs to be made and damn it I’m making it.

Having to only pay the loan and car insurance (which can just fall under general liability as I won’t have a lean on the car since I’m paying cash) I should hopefully be able to save some money during the month in order to accomplish more important things in life – like attempting to ENJOY life for a change.

In two days it marks the one year anniversary of Lucy’s death and I have to say that the past year has not been a good one – AT ALL. I miss her terribly and still haven’t fully dealt with it considering the series of events that happened around the same time of her passing. I don’t know if I’m now rebelling against everything but I’m taking the bull by the horns and changing my life for my better. Having to deal with all of the issues going on with school has pissed me off on a daily basis, but I’m going to do everything I can in order to get that taken care of. Once I enroll in school I’ll hope that financial aid and student loans will assist me in working towards the degree that I deserve. Being in the design industry for the past 12 years has taught me alot about running my business and the overall wants and needs of people. While I haven’t actively been into it for quite some time, due to my work schedule, that doesn’t mean I don’t still have the drive. I want to say that Lucy is the one giving me this determination. She was always my muse in life, and the fighting force behind my straight-forward way of living. I believe that she’s giving me the drive and determination to reassure me that she’s still around and will help me in death the way she helped me in life.

I do believe in ghosts, and I also believe in angels. When it comes to her there is no difference between the two.

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Rollin’ Rollin’

Monday, February 1st, 2010

It’s been a pretty productive evening for me. I’ve just ordered two skins from DecalGirl.com, one for my new laptop and the other for my iPod. I picked up the “Drama” skin for my laptop and “Her Abstraction” for the iPod. I also did some shopping on Amazon and picked up a new protective sleeve for the laptop as well. My laptop bag is WAY too big and I wanted to be sure that this new computer has absolutely no dents, dings, scratches or smudges.

Yes, I’m one of those anal retentive people that likes to keep everything nice and clean. Granted, you couldn’t really tell that by looking at my room right now but it’s hard to keep things in ship-shape condition when you have two people living in a small room. It’s been my goal, for quite some time, to get myself motivated enough to do some cleaning but that just never seems to happen for me. It’s really just the matter of straightening everything up, it’s just a lot to organize and I don’t personally own enough containers and a label maker in order to get the job done to the degree I’m interested in.

I called my old high school today to request my transcripts so I could get things squared away with Phoenix, since I waited 8 years to get back into school they’ve had to go to the archives. The lady I’ve been speaking with is very helpful and seems happy to help as well. Hopefully this will get me back on track considering the hiccup I’ve had to deal with over the course of the past couple of weeks.

FYI to anyone even remotely considering picking up ANY kind of degree from Stratford Career Institute (scitraining.org) or Penn Foster (pennfoster.edu). These are both BULL SHIT schools and any degree that they provide to you can not be used to further your education ANYWHERE ELSE. Prime example – My sister recieved her high school diploma from Penn Foster and while they claim to offer associates degrees after high school, their diploma is not valid to ANY OTHER SCHOOL ON THE PLANET EXCEPT FOR PENN FOSTER! The exact same thing is going on with my diploma AND certifications recieved from Stratford. So I’m trying to get everything squared away with my physical high school here in town to see what I can do to get the transcripts and call it a day. I may wind up having to go back to complete like one course but for the most part I don’t see that as being much of a problem at all considering I’m motivated as all holy hell to have that Bachelors.

In any event, it’s getting to be that time when I’m sick of looking at a monitor considering I’ve been looking at a computer since 9:30 this morning at work. I also have to consider that this one is much smaller than the one I get to use at work (20+ inch wide screen set on the maximum resolution available), needless to say my eyes are SPENT.

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Almost there!

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

I have to say that it’s been a pretty productive week for me. I’m surprised at how much has been accomplished and how absolutely nothing has gone wrong. As you know, on Sunday I got all of the FAFSA stuff taken care of and on Monday I submitted a request to speak with a representative at Phoenix. By Tuesday evening I was on the phone with Dan S., and I have to say he’s answered every single one of my questions and addressed every single one of my concerns. As of right now I’m about 78% complete with my application. There’s the matter of asking a few questions in regard to previous schools and finances that I need to get in touch with my representative about but for the most part everything should be squared away by Monday afternoon. Since I’m unable to get in touch with him during the day I’ve had to stay in contact with him through Email as I can not access any Educational websites through the servers at work (stupid blocks on just about EVERYTHING!). Either way it will all work out for the best and that’s all I care about right now.

So school is pretty much squared away, Sean is doing well with multiple clients right now and I’ve managed to complete all make-up time on the two days that I missed last week and right now I’m only 2 hours short of doing that and I know I’ll breeze through that by the time I punch out on Sunday. I know Sunday is going to be pretty busy because I’m going to go back for a few weeks through archived emails and make sure everything was handled and with the new system we use at work it’s really more of an “easier said than done” kind of thing considering it takes an average of 30+ seconds to search for a file in the system and I know there’s about 2000 or so claims to go through. This should certainly be interesting.

Tonight I’m hopefully getting out of here at a reasonable hour so I can get some light packing done. I’m going to be staying at my aunts tonight and then tomorrow it is my ultimate goal to clear out my bedroom and give it the deep-down clean that it’s needed for a few weeks now. I can only deal with the chaos for so much longer and considering I received my course breakdown last night I’m going to need to do a major overhaul on the room so I have an area where I can fully concentrate on everything.

I’m working on getting myself a smaller laptop to use temporarily so I can get a decent amount of homework done while I’m on my 1-hour break at work. I refuse to pick up a netbook because I’m sure that with some of my courses I’m going to have to load something off of a disk and as far as the design aspect of things are concerned I’m still going to use the Mac that I have at home so I’ve been poking around TigerDirect for a small laptop but the prices really aren’t that great. I will consider looking into one at Microcenter only because the bulk of them are on sale right now AND I have about $125 worth of gift certificates that can be used towards it and with the sales, rebates, coupons and gift certificates – I think I can get a half-way decent one that one cost me very much money at all.

:: crosses fingers ::

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FAFSA Submitted

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

I meant to do it much, much sooner but it’s been one hell of a year so-far. I’ve finally gotten my FAFSA submitted so I can work on getting myself enrolled into the University of Phoenix. It took about 15 minutes to do, and the bulk of it was spent trying to figure out what my damn PIN was considering I’d already attempted to apply in April 2008 but by then I’d LONG passed the deadline. Hopefully my doing it towards the beginning of the year will have a decent turn around.

I’m taking a break from floating around the internet in search of grant and scholarship information to kind of clear my head a bit. It really does turn into quite a job just trying to figure out a less expensive way to walk away with your Bachelors. It’s my ultimate goal to work towards a Masters degree but for now I’ll get the Bachelors taken care of and maybe I’ll be lucky enough to get myself into a position where I can utilize what I already know, and be accepted without the degree with the understanding that I’m currently working towards one. It’s really annoying when you go in for an interview and you’re rejected on the spot due to a lack of degree when the person giving the interview doesn’t even have one themselves! The standards of people these days really has gotten to the point of being totally obnoxious. Considering the economy is as screwed up as it is, you would think that people would be more understanding to the fact that not everyone can afford to go after the minimum of a Bachelors as noted on numerous applications as a requirement. I personally think if you have 12 years of experience, that well exceeds a Masters and that should just be good enough.

But anyway, it’s been one hell of a week. I stayed home for two days due to a few medical issues and for some reason I just couldn’t really get into the flow of production for Thursday and Friday so I honestly just feel like I’m lagging. I’ve noticed that I’ve been sleeping a lot lately too. While I do know that sleep is really good for you, when you’re trying to not be a lazy ass and be more productive with your time – the fact that I’ve popped in a DVD and just lay down in bed has really proven that I’m that lazy ass of the day. Hell, Sean did more today than I did and he just sat at the computer for the past 10 hours or so. Granted, he was working, but he got up long enough to cash a check at the bank and do the dishes to get the sink cleared out. I think all I’ve really done is had a couple of cigs and got through the first two disks of the “Are you being served?” box set that Sean bought me for Christmas. hah.

In any event, it’s knocking on 11:30, I didn’t feel like plugging in my laptop so of course that pesky “Low Battery” message keeps flashing across the screen. I think it’s time to shut down and go back to doing nothing. I’m gonna have to organize the crap out of all of my new bookmarks first though. I found some really cool information, most of which was in the middle of applying for things so I’ll come up with a bunch of links at some point in case anyone else is interested.

Also – At some point when I’ve got some spare time I do intend to get back into the wonderful world of sponsored blogging again. It’s not going to be to the extreme that it was in the past, but every little bit helps when you need it.

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In a nutshell…

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

It’s been a while since I was able to really sit down and think about an entry to post here. Unfortunately there isn’t a lot going on in my life that’s really “news worthy”.

I guess it’d be easier to go in “list mode”.

  • New Template – I haven’t sat down and worked on anything personal since April. Luckily I came across a similar template and was instantly inspired, so here it is.
  • College Woe’s – My FAFSA is completed, I’ve been working with Admissions at the University of Phoenix and I hope to be enrolled very soon.
  • Work – I’ve had a steady flow of work for the past couple of weeks, it’s brought in enough money where I can insure that everyone’s birthday is taken care of. Dad’s turning 60, Mo is going to be 22, and Karen recently had her birthday as well. So it’s safe to say that come July 1st, I’ll be officially tapped out. I’m still working from home. Recent interviews have proven to be a waste of my time. I’ve submitted my application to god knows how many companies and when I do get call backs they’ll look at my portfolio, say I’m great, and then go with someone who has a Bachelors in something completely different. How come 10 years of experience in internet/media for a web design position is trumped by someone with a bachelors in science? :: confused ::
  • Canceled Plans – Sean and I decided to cancel our plans for our anniversary. Money is tight and even though everything is complimentary (room, food) we can’t afford to go up to Atlantic City. So I think we’re going to head down to Ocean City and have dinner then relax on the boardwalk. It’s not the most extravagant of plans but we’re living within our means.
  • Moving – I’m in the process of moving to a new data center. I was able to get half of the accounts moved over and now I’m patiently waiting on the other half. I absolutely loathe the company I was previously with and while I adore Tony as a person, and a hard worker, the company who’s filling out his paychecks is run by a bunch of useless fucks. So this move should void all of the downtime issues, run-time issues, and that stupid “page cannot be displayed” issue connected with WordPress installations that was written off as “Natural”. It’s not natural, your fucking data center can’t handle a simple freaking script! ::end rant::

So yea, that’s the last month in a nut-shell. Boring eh?

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Time for a change…

Friday, March 28th, 2008

Since I spent so much time trying to get acidgloss.net back up and running, I decided that a little theme alteration was needed here. As far as I’m concerned, March is over. There are only a few days left and I already show my Irish pride with a tattoo so having the theme up for as long as I did, just proved I’m not into it anymore. I was also getting sick of the green. It reminds me of something I don’t have, money.

Today I was accepted for a contract/freelance position and once I can get all of the paperwork sent back, I hope to be able to get the ball rolling. I’m also still patiently waiting to hear something from the Interview last week. I assume it’s going to take a few weeks and that’s fine, it’s more the waiting that’s getting to me than the actual choice they make. I just want to know – you know?

I’ve been up since about 7am, so I’m basically vegging out on the couch at the moment. I’m too tired to move and hope to be able to crawl into bed soon. There are a few more things that I’m going to need to accomplish before that happens but it shouldn’t take me a lot of time.

The weather today was absolutely gorgeous! Sean and I spent some time down on the beach enjoying the 77°F (25°C) temperature.  While it was a pretty windy day, there was still an over-abundance of sunshine keeping us nice and toasty.  It took a while to get down there though, with such a hot day the beach was absolutely swamped.  I had to go over a few blocks to park because my usual side-street was packed to the max.  I was close to pulling into someone’s drive-way but I wasn’t going to take that route, I finally did get myself into a spot so that was good enough for me.

For a while I convinced myself that I’d be spending a lot of time at the beach this summer.  However, considering the way it was loaded today, and it’s not even summer yet, I think I’m going to setup a nice set of chairs in the backyard and tan that way.  It’s my hope to be working through the summer, so my weekends will be filled with downtime in the yard, that’s not such a bad plan as long as I maintain my regular weekend schedule, right?

Another goal for the summer is to pack enough cash away so I can get myself into school this Fall.  I know I’ve said this a lot but it’s a big goal of mine and at this point, nothing is going to stand in my way.  Maybe I’ll get lucky and I’ll get back to my $5k a month income and be able to accomplish it a lot sooner than I’d originally planned.  I can handle two full-time jobs, I have a laptop for the at-home stuff so that can come out to the yard with me!

Moving along…. After the beach we made a quick run to the grocery store, we were close to completely being out of food so we picked up the essentials and they’re going to have to last for a while.  I’m breaking my diet and going to live on pasta for the next couple of days, only because that’s all we can afford right now.  I don’t like being in a hole, but if $1200 a month wasn’t going out to bills it would be easier to maintain things.

In any event, it’s knocking on 11pm and my eyes are close to almost completely closed, time for bed!

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Weekly Wrap-up.

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

The carpet cleaning turned out very well.¬† At first we were a little apprehensive about having every carpeted room done in the same day but it worked out OK.¬† The bedroom is squeaky clean and the office couldn’t get much better than it currently is.¬† I was very surprised with the way the living room worked out.¬† All pet stains and most odors (thanks to their deodorizing treatment) are gone.¬† Of course we left the dogs out of the room for a while until things dried up.¬† Unfortunately Princess is still pooping on the floor but when you’re 10 years old and trained to do everything in-house, you just don’t know any better.¬† At least there hasn’t been any urine on the floor, that acid in urine really is what kills the carpet to begin with.¬† So either way it worked out well and it was nice to see what this carpet looked like in a “brand new” state.

Sean and I have done pretty good this week,¬† something has sparked in us that has brought us out of the fighting slump and closer together to the point that we’re constantly joking around with each other and there’s no major frustration between us.¬† It’s not that we were having “trouble”, it’s just that current situations have been taking their toll on us. Luckily we’re over it now and things are great.

I’ve been hitting the bricks for a job in the area, I believe I came across an absolutely perfect one today that I found while surfing the web.¬† Maybe something good will come from it.¬† My main concern is reaching my goals by the end of the year and I’m confident that’ll happen if I’m hired by this employer.¬† The loan will be paid off, a car will be purchased and maybe a shiny new apartment is in the mix as well.

While I’m itching to get back to school, I’m thinking of holding off until the end of the year.¬† Since I’m under 24 and not living at home, even though my father is no longer responsible for me financially, I’d have to include him on the financial aid forms, unless I go towards a bachelors degree.¬† Up until recently I’ve decided upon DeVry and since that’s an associates my financial aid would be based on his income and since he makes like $65,000 a year, I doubt I’d really get anything covered by FAFSA.¬† So I’ll look into other routes and hopefully something will spring up.¬† I do know that I can hold off for a while, getting bills in order is more important to me right now anyway.

With my downtime I’ve been floating around the different dealerships in the general area.¬† I’m giving myself a $10,000 max budget on a car because spending anything more than that just to get me back and forth from work would be completely absurd.¬† Naturally this means I’m looking into a used car but I also find no point in owning a brand new one either.¬† Anything I can get from a dealership down here will be covered under whatever Warranty they happen to have, and that’s all that’s important to me at this point in time.¬† I’m sticking to Chevy though, it’s kind of a family tradition.¬† My father has owned them for years (even though he currently has a Jeep), my sister has a Chevy, my mother, step-father and lord knows who else, even Sean has one.¬† So to stay with it I’ve been looking into the Malibu or the Cobalt.¬† I have to say that the 2008 Malibu is absolutely gorgeous, but the price tag isn’t that attractive to me at this point in time – heh.

Anyhoo, it’s about 1:30 and I need to get myself ready for bed.¬† Time to take a quick shower, brush my teeth and curl up in bed with any random book I pull off the shelves until I fall asleep.

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Busy with Resolutions?

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

I’ve been keeping myself busy to make up for the financial loss of the holiday season. I’ve gotten a lot of posting done, a lot of design work and even some personal things as well. I hope to be able to bring in the New Year with friends and family and not have to worry about any actual WORK until the 2nd or so. I’m heading up to New York this weekend and unfortunately got a phone call tonight that set me in a tail spin. My aunt was in a pretty bad car accident, her car is more than likely totaled. I did get in touch with her tonight though, she says that she’s fine, but she’s also a stubborn Irish woman so who knows if that’s actually the case. I know she’s a little sore from the accident but she’s assured me, a few times, that she’s absolutely fine with just a few bumps and bruises. I found out from my sister, she called me from work and told me I need to get back up to NY to see her, I’m thinking something is very wrong but a second phone call to verify information told me that I can wait until Saturday.

I went to the DMV yesterday to get my ID changed over, I’m officially a Delaware resident. I was apprehensive about surrendering my NY ID because I was unsure of the wait time for a new ID card. In NY you go through the motions and then you wait a few days and it shows up in the mail. In DE, however, the card is instantly given to you so I don’t have to worry about not having proper identification on me when I’m traveling this weekend. My next big task is to get a car and some insurance down here and the rest is cake. So that’s one goal for the year.

Another goal is heading back to school. I’ve decided on DeVry and luckily with my situation I’m eligable for full financial aid from 2-3 different resources. I just need to make sure to get all of the paperwork in around the first of the year. It’s only going to be an associates but it’ll carry over for when I’m going for my bachelors (maybe masters) somewhere down the road. So on top of an 8 hour work day, I’m adding a 3-4 hour school day. Then the other 12 hours can basically be spent relaxing and sleeping. Not too shabby – I know I can handle it.

On top of the first two goals, quitting smoking is certainly on the list this year. With a lack of health insurance and increasing lung issues, it’s time to stop beating the dead horse and moving on. I picked up “The Easy Way To Stop Smoking” because I’m a reader and figured a book could tell me more than those damn “Cold Turkey” techniques. I have to say that I can understand why so many people have read this book over the last 20 years. I completed it in about 3 hours and I’m confident that once I begin his methods I’ll succeed in quitting for good. Cold turkey and the patches and that horrible gum – none of it is worth it to me. You quit when YOU are ready to quit and you consider yourself a “Non Smoker” the second you extinguish your last cigarette. I’ll pick a day and then go from there. As of right now there’s a little too much stress in the air for me to pull this off completely. I know you’re sitting there like “Ha! Talk about another excuse” but that’s just how it is for me. I’ve got the little monster in my brain that won’t shut up and I’m going to have to slowly learn how to stop listening to him, that’s all.

And then of course there’s the weight-loss resolution that everyone has. The difference is I’m already ON a diet plan (and doing quite well, thank you) so it’s basically just keeping the concentration, continuing with my small-portion meals during the day and going on from there. Even Sean is going to get in on it with me, who knows – maybe by this summer we’ll spend more time at the beach than in the back yard – heh.

In any event, I hope everyone has a Happy New Year, I won’t be around until Tuesday afternoon so hopefully everyone has a fun weekend. Be safe!

Posted in Boyfriend, Daily, Delmarva, Dieting, Family, Friends, New York, School | 7 Comments »

Is it time for bed yet?

Thursday, August 2nd, 2007

It’s about 2:15am and it’s been a pretty busy day and I’m pooped because of it. I’ve almost completed the templates for Dick, I’m just waiting on a response from him about a few things. I’ve been battling it out with my server master in regards to Ranee and I’m close to completing another template to throw up on AGN Designs because a few things need to be changed out.

Rent’s been paid, bills are all taken care of and I’m shopping for a new cellphone. T-mobile has free Razr’s for those signing up with a new 2-year contract, I’m considering getting a family plan with Sean but not sure when, at the moment. I think the only reason they’re free is because Motorola is releasing R2 soon, it’s nice and all but I like the original – not too keen on what the new one has to offer.

I’m also working on getting the information together for grants/loans and other crap for Westwood so I can get that started. I’m just too busy with shit to really be able to sit down and concentrate on that at the moment.

It’s great having a pretty heavy work-flow coming in. I’m under a new contract and have like three templates pending for just basic blog work that shouldn’t take me THAT long, I just need to schedule myself. It’s the 2nd and I still haven’t gotten around to changing calendars around.

It’s supposed to be pretty hot this week and I’m someone who absolutely hates hot weather so I may wind up spending more time inside than I’d really like. I like having the ability to go relax outside for a little while and get some fresh air. In Delaware, however, there’s something known as a “State Smell” and the running joke with residents is you can tell what county your in based on the smell in the air. So since I’m surrounded by farms it’s kind of hard to relax in the heat. And even though placement of the house is in my favor during the day, when the sun starts to set it drops down head-on with the porch and that’s an instant heat box. Just not fun at all.

In any event, I considered this my ‘break’ for the evening so I need to get back to work.

[edit] You people seriously need to spend less time coming up with bull-shit stories and more time looking into a real life. I have not been sued, threatened or even contacted by TGO in regards to anything going on with Ranee’s site being suspended. No lawyers are throwing paperwork in my face, no local police departments are telling me to shut anything down and I have not spoken to, or plan on speaking to TGO about this. The reports did not come from him and while private information has been listed on the site he hasn’t said BOO to me about it. The issue at this point is between Ranee, Me and my server master. Step away from the freaking computer and leave things alone and next time you start sending off stupid emails at least have your damn facts straight.

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Posted in AGn Designs, Delmarva, School, Work | 1 Comment »

I’ve finally made my decision.

Wednesday, July 25th, 2007

So after finally getting a chance to talk to Adam, I’m confident that I’m making a good decision about school. I’ve decided upon Westwood Online. In total it’s probably going to run me in the $60,000 range but at the same time (after talking to Sean and working with his knowledge of financial aid and grants) I’m also confident that financial aid and grants offered through the school and other outside resources that I’ve been provided with will more than likely cover about half of the full tuition. So instead of hoping to get a $65,000 loan (I’m factoring in supplies here) I’ll only have to look into about $25,000-$30,000 which isn’t as bad as I originally thought it was.

I did some playing around with numbers and noticed that if I keep on the path I’m on, I’ll be bringing in about $45,000 a year and that’s just good enough for me. If I put the bulk of it into savings I should have the loan paid off before I even graduate and then I don’t have to worry about an excess interest payments.

I was considering taking the Web Design & Multimedia course but after talking to Sean I’m not too sure because he told me about how his step mother made some pretty decent money working only 4 hours a day at $80 an hour doing graphics design. Westwood also offers a Graphics Design & Multimedia course.

Adam explained to me that even with his Bachelors I still know more about actual web design than he does. After a quick look at the over-view of the course I found out that it’s all basic introduction based courses and there really is nothing new that I’ll be learning through that course. So now I believe I’m just going to go straight for the graphics design course. It’s all still in the same price range and I’ll be able to utilize the upcoming iMac purchase I’ll be making.

I’ve been talking quite a bit about that on AGn Designs lately but I’ve decided to take about $1600 and get a 20″ iMac that’s fully loaded, to my specifications naturally. I don’t have to worry about any excess crap. But I could also take the route of taking out a loan for school and take $3,000 of that and throw some major components into the larger 24″ iMac that, as of right now, is base-priced in the $2,000 range.

So here’s where I ask you to help me out. Should I wait for the loan or should I just get it now?

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Posted in AGn Designs, Boyfriend, Discussion, Gadgets, School | 1 Comment »

Private Education Loans

Saturday, July 21st, 2007

During my continuing search of getting back into school I’ve come across many websites for loans and just other college related resources in general and none of them have really helped me out. Today, for example, I came across a website that offers Private Education Loans to students attending schools basically all over the country but what is really digging at me is the fact that even newer resources aren’t working with internet related schools. I know that there are full fledged colleges out there that offer an online way of taking the classes, there are also quite a few out there who are complete frauds, something I found out the hard way.

I did find a school of interest, I’m doing some more research on it though, unfortunately the entire tuition cost is going to run me in the $50,000 range. I’m completely eligable for a loan, don’t get me wrong, but most of the companies I’ve came across won’t bother to give me one because they feel internet related schools are a risky thing to invest any kind of money in. There are also a few where the loans never actually enrolled the student into school, the school ‘lost’ the check even though it was cashed. I can understand the loan offices not wanting to lose their money but why can’t they just take a chance on someone who’s got a full time job and still wants to get back into school to get her bachelors?

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Posted in PPP, School | Comments Closed

Still searching high and low.

Wednesday, July 4th, 2007

It’s really to the point of just being too hard for me to come across an accredited distance learning school. I was set on AIU, considered Westwood and I’ve blogged about Capella University in the past but they, unfortunately, don’t offer me the courses that I’m interested in taking at the moment. The only thing close is a bachelors in Graphics and Multimedia but that’s not where I want to be. I want a web programming course, I just need someone who’s doing it at home to tell me if their school sucks or not but no one seems to know anything about it. I could still put everything on hold and just get my degree in medical billing and transcription, which down here would probably make me quite a bit of money considering in this complex alone 80% of the residents are all over the age of 60 so at least I know there’s a job base, I could just shoot down to Bebe Medical and apply but that doesn’t mean it’ll work out well for me.

My problem is that I’m still in a somewhat New York state of mind. While some people are looking at $30,000 for an entire college course (all semesters) as being rather expensive, compare it to the tens of thousands of dollars one would have to spend at a campus based college per semester if they went somewhere like CW Post. Sean attempted to go to CW Post but tuition was $17,000 per semester and then after that it was $400 per course, per semester. So figure he’s taking five courses, which is $19,000 per semester. He goes for his bachelors which is four semesters so that brings the total of a campus based degree up to a whopping $76,000. This is before you’re paying for room and board, before you’re factoring in the price of books and supplies, that could easily take what you thought was only going to be a $20,000 loan straight into the world of $100,000 loans and sooner or later, debt for the rest of your life. Now you see why I don’t want a campus based school.

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Posted in Annoyed, BLTV, School | Comments Closed

I could use a bit of help from you…

Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007

For a few months now I’ve been spending a lot of time looking into different schools. I’m interested in getting my Bachelors (or even Masters if possible) for Web Design/Development. Up until recently I was seriously considering AIU Online. A commenter (Thank you Scott) noted that I should float around RipOffReport.com and search for AIU. I come to find out that there are 70 some-odd strikes against them, and these are only documented ones on this site. I now know there are lawsuits pending against this company for fraud and teachers that couldn’t give a damn about the students they’re supposed to be helping.

AIU, up until yesterday, was the #1 school on my possibilities list. Now, thanks to ripoffreport.com, I’ve come to find out that my top FIVE schools are literally nothing more THAN a Rip Off. So this is where my visitors come in.

I know, through your blogs, that many of you have a degree of some sort a few of you have gotten them from internet based schools, like I’m looking to do. I’ve done a search on Google for internet based schools that offer Web Design / Web Programming but unfortunately all of these schools are on RipOffReport.com with absolutely horrible reviews, most of which include money fraud. One of the schools I was interested in has even claimed that they never received a certified cashiers check that was CASHED by their administration office. So naturally I’m stuck.

If you, or anyone you know, is currently going to an accredited university online and can steer me in the right direction of a school that isn’t going to screw me over, it would be greatly appreciated!

I’d really love to get my degree, I honestly don’t know where to turn and the only colleges around me are community colleges that can only offer me an associates degree in a field that has to do with computers, but is no where near where I need to be.

Google doesn’t help me, Yahoo doesn’t either – what do I do?

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Posted in Annoyed, School | 3 Comments »

Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

Monday, June 25th, 2007

I have a plan of action behind everything that’s been going on over the course of the last few weeks. I know for sure that I’m going to AIU Online to get my Bachelors, I also know that instead of spending $19,000 at AIU to get the Associates required for the Bachelors, I’m just going to go to Penn Foster so that’s all taken care of sooner than later. I know I need $850 a semester for Penn Foster and the AIU Online based schooling is going to cost me in the area of $32,000 – this is why you’ve seen me posting so frequently with paid posts. I have multiple domains running on paid posting now and hope to have a few more over the course of the next couple of months, once I can get those stats up at least. From there I’m also going to be continuing with design work, working on getting scholarships and then basically anything else I can get my hands on and place in the bank.

My question is for those whom have actually received scholarships, so listen up heh.

When you get a scholarship and the check is cashed and sitting in your bank account – is there a time limit that you have before the scholarship is null and void or could you leave it there until you have full funding ready for tuition? Say that you have a $15,000 scholarship, it’s rare – I know – but work with me here. You cash the check to your bank account and then you have it sitting there until you can get the remaining $17,000 balance towards the full tuition. Is there a set time frame for actually spending the money OR once it’s yours – it’s yours?

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Posted in Discussion, School | 2 Comments »

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