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Category Archives: Whatever Else

Really, cash for clunkers? I understand that at the current economic condition, many of us are tightening our belts, and we are hoping something “too good to be true” to come knocking on our door. But this does really seem “too good to be true,” especially since we’re just putting our country into even more debt. With all the crisis around, hunger, war, povery, financial crimes, etc., is our answer to go out and buy a new car?

Now that the government decided to bail more people out, and increase the budget, let’s see if we see if we get the same population of people in mortgage debt to now get into auto debt. Isn’t this the same thing? Helping those who “can’t” afford to, a way to “almost afford to?”

Hundreds of thousands of people were laid-off this week.  I found myself being swallowed in the latest unwanted trends and forced to hit the curb trying to find another way to make a living.  Although I understand the business sense behind the decision, it still sucks…

So I’ve compiled a list of odd ball things that I’ve learned about myself and about being laid-off in general.

  1. Even though it tastes better, home brewed coffee isn’t free. Even the worst tasting things taste a lot better when they’re free.
  2. When my dog follows me when I get home from work, it’s cute.  When it’s the entire day, not so cute.
  3. I always thought nap time was hard to deal with at work. MUCH harder when your bed is in the room next to you.
  4. You find it more difficult to talk yourself out of opening a bottle of wine at 10am.
  5. You’re depressed when you realize sports aren’t on during the day.
  6. You respond to email immediately versus putting them on a “to be answered later when you feel like it” list.
  7. Getting dressed up means brushing your teeth.
  8. You start to notice small things around the house. Like furniture you had no idea you owned.
  9. When your wife gives you that rare look, she’s not wanting a quickie.  She just needs you to move to the other side of the couch so she could finish cleaning around you.
  10. You start to make money saving excuses, like not changing clothes to save on the water bill from doing laundry or eating all the food in the fridge so it doesn’t have to work so hard keeping it all cold.

In all seriousness, losing your job isn’t funny.  THANKFULLY I quickly found another position at BMC Software.  It was offered to me on the last day of my curent job.  It REALLY works out since I’ve been trying to find a way into that company since we decided to come to Houston in 2001.  When we look at everything now, I’m kind of coming out of this with a bonus and an extended vacation. So I can’t complain.

Something like 598,000 were laid off in January.  I’m just glad I didn’t have to meet those people in a parking lot somewhere.  That could have been one hell of a traffic jam to the unemployment office.

The statistics are scary.  Having such a lifestyle change is never easy for whatever level your position is.  Nobody seems safe and nobody is prepared.  If you happen to be in the same boat, I wish you the best and hope you have a similar outcome as myself and find something just as quick.

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This morning, we all got to go downtown to watch Lindsee race in the EP5K marathon.  She finished with a time of 46 minutes and 49 seconds along with her friend Jennifer.  She had an average pace of 15 minutes and 04 seconds per mile.

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As you can see, both Josh and Lauren couldn’t be happier to be up at 4:30am to see their mama “race bad guys” as Josh put it.  Although Josh wasn’t too happy that she didn’t come in first, he was still proud of her regardless.  We had a sign we made for Josh to hold as his mama crossed the finish line.  He complained that it was too heavy, which is Josh code for “I don’t feel like it.”  Luckily he changed his mind and was proud to watch his mama run past us.

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We also had two friends that were running in the full marathon.  Jennifer Montestanto who finished the 26.2 miles in 4:44:20 and Robert Gutierrez who finished in 4:37:32.  Congratulations to both of them for running such a great race!

It was a really great day to run!  Cold enough to keep the runners cool and have Laurens hair stick straight up (like we need help with that), but still warm enough to make Josh sweat (which he can do during a blizzard).

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We’d also like to thank everyone who contributed to Lindsee’s fundraiser.  She managed to raise $300 for Bo’s Place, her chosen charity for the race.

The whole weekend turned out to be “race weekend” as we spent a large part of yesterday downtown getting Lindsee’s race packet an spending some time at Discovery Park.  For those of you who don’t know about the park, it’s a new style park in the heart of downtown Houston that has a really cool playground, restaurants, large fields to play in, large crowds, smell of fog, unsupervised kids, and a temporary ice rink that had about 2 inches of water currently sitting on top of it (damn that Houston weather!).  Josh’s favorite part of the park?  The big hill he can run down.  Although Lauren loved watching him run up and down the big hill.

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Lindsee will be running in another 5K race in about 2 months and we look forward to seeing her race in that one as well.  For those of you who are not aware yet, Lauren gets baptized on February 8th and we’ll be having a brunch to celebreate afterwards at our house.  If you are able to attend, please let Lindsee or I know so we can expect you.  I hope you all are well and congrats to all the people who were in the race.

From time to time, I have found it of great value to share and embrace other start-ups and ingenius business ideas.  With that being said, I have come across a fabulous team from Australia that is making waves on their side of the world with a new business venture that I am sure will be successful.  We have offered to trade blogs with the hopes of reaching untapped markets and otherwise hard to reach audiences.  Please take a few moments to read about BizCover.com and their great business model. Read More »

I’ve been playing with my Android G1 since the day it came out. I consider myself pretty tech savvy.  With all of the many applications that have been coming out, I’ve tried about 65% of those.  Some just look bad, some get really awful reveiws, and some I just have no interest in. For the G1 newbies, I would like to offer my advice on some essential applications that are a must have. Read More »

Ok I admit I’m a tech gadget nerd, just like 3/4’s of the population right now. Once I got my Google Android phone, I’m SO happy I never bought into the iPhone hype. I’m an accountant, and I use a lot of email, blogging, web surfing, Twitter, Facebook, Brightkite, etc. With that being said, I NEED A KEYBOARD! Luckily I already had TMobile, so the switch happened with ease. It has some pretty great applications, and shows a bright future with more coming out each day. I was a little surprised at the popularity of Geocaching. I didn’t get it at first, but it seems like it’s a tech version of Hide & Seek. Not my thing, but neither is the activity on the Two Girls & One Cup video, and that was an internet sensation. Still shivering after that thought… Read More »

Posted on my Flickr account

http://www.flickr.com/photos/budsblogsite/sets/72157605991323541/

Bought these from Crave Cupcakes over in the Galleria area.  Maybe it’s the beginning of my mid-life crisis?!

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Sittin at Pappasito

Sittin at Pappasito,
originally uploaded by budsblogsite.
Showing a friend of mind the basics of blogging, flickr, twitter, and brightkite.

t-mobile-wing2.jpg I’ve been struggling this week with having to lose my Blackberry. Although I LOVE playing with new devices, I haven’t really been a Windows Mobile fan. Currently at work, we are partnered with Microsoft, so all of our mobile devices must have the Windows Mobile platform. I get that it’s better structured with our networks, cost components are better, etc. Read More »

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