Domestic Geek

I decided to not totally procrastinate and am in the process of doing this year's taxes (I'm updating TurboTax right now). This last year has been so screwed up for me financially that I didn't even want to consider tackling it early. I also misplaced the document I got from the State for my unemployment which I just found, so I guess we'll see here in a couple of hours if I owe again this year. I'm expecting that to be the case.

EDIT: Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Since I was overcharged taxes on my final paycheck at the job I was let go from, it covered any taxes I owed as a result of doing paid blogging. I would've gotten a small refund if not for the fact that I still owe the IRS money from last year. Oh, well. That's OK, at least I don't owe.

Is it wrong that I just visited the web site of the place I was let go from last July and am just a little happy that I discovered that they're producing even less magazines than they were at the time I left? I've even noticed that at least two franchisees are totally gone and those remaining have not built up any new areas (and a couple have even lost ground). The owner was all talk about how within a year he was going to have all these new franchises and x number of magazines and there would be double the design staff so that they would have to move into a bigger office. With all the similar publications I see come through where I work now, I knew they couldn't be faring that well, but I had no idea they were losing ground. I know the Karma police are going to get me for this, but I'm giddy with glee. I can just imagine how they're all still at each other's throats with so little to do. The process sucked at the time, but I am so glad I no longer work down there.

I'm no stranger to browser shortcuts. I've known for a long time in Firefox that you could type "imdb moviename" in the address bar and it would search imdb.com for that movie (or actor or whatever). The same applies with searching on Google.

Well, I was reading a site a couple of days ago called Learning Movable Type (because it's been awhile since I played with MT and wanted to refresh my memory) and came across the article about Firefox Shortcuts. Basically, you assign a keyword to a URL in your bookmarks and all you have to do it type that keyword in the address bar to get there. Just go to Bookmarks>Organize Bookmarks...Right click (or command click if you're using a lame apple one button mouse) on the link you want to add a shortcut to and select Properties. You'll see the following screen:


After you type in a short keyword and click OK, when you type that keyword in your address bar, you'll go to that URL. Cool, huh? Very useful for frequently visited sites such as my EE control panel. Typing a couple of letters sure is a lot quicker than arrowing through visited sites in the address bar or finding my bookmark in the bookmark toolbar.

Thirteen of My Favorite Comics

1. Foxtrot — Bill Amend's Fox family is the greatest creation ever. I think one of the things that makes me love it so are the inside computer jokes. Bill went into semi-retirement at the first of the year and only publishes the strip on Sundays now.
   
2. Funky Winkerbean — I loved this strip, especially the world's greatest band director, Mr. Harry L. Dinkle. It was really popular during the time I was studying music and in marching band, so again it's relevant humor to me.
   
3. Helen Sweetheart of the Internet — It's been well over a year since this strip went on sabbatical. Sadly, I don't think it's going to return. It's about a gorgeous, blond computer geek chick. I just love her attitude! There's a collection of Helen strips called Techies Unite still for sale used over at Amazon. I have to get it.
   
4. Joy of Tech — Another geeky cartoon. I love this one because it's more geared towards Apple/Macs, but there is other computer humor thrown in here and there.
   
5. Sherman's Lagoon — I love Sherman and all of the creatures in the lagoon. I'm a lot like Megan in the strip below. One of my favorite themes was when they were going to sell their island to Bill Gates. I'll have to see if I can find that comic. They were funny!
   
6. Garfield — Who wouldn't love a lasagna-eating, teddy bear loving, dog-booting cat?
   
7. Peanuts — A timeless classic. This strip reminds me of my childhood. I really liked the strips that had Schroeder on his toy piano.
   
8. Dilbert — You don't have to have a corporate job to appreciate the humor of Dilbert, but it sure helps!
   
9. Get Fuzzy — I get this one emailed to me everyday. A single advertising guy and his pets. I really feel sorry for the poor dog, Satchel. Bucky, the cat, is always so mean to him! Anyway, this one below is one of my favs since the author threw in a little Harry Potter.
   
10. Day by Day — I started reading this strip because I agree with a lot of the political message the author has. I really love the young tech guy, who happens to be black and a conservative. He battles quite often with the liberal woman. There are also a couple of 40-something engineers. Good stuff.
    
11. The Far Side — Once again, a strip that was very popular back in my college days. Even though the comic was retired it 1995, it is still everywhere. The humor is priceless and still gives me a good chuckle whenever I see it.
    *Here's a special one in honor of the upcoming Easter holiday!
    
12. Love is... — This one has been around as long as I can remember. I think my mom used to cut these out of the paper every day. I still think they're touching (although sometimes a little sappy!).
    
13. Ziggy — Even though this strip has been around forever, I still love it.
    

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Hey all! Sorry I've been MIA for a bit. Since I wrote my confessional last week, I've been really taking a good long hard look at my habits and why I'm doing them. When I catch myself doing something undesirable, I try to put something more productive in its place. One thing I must rid myself of is the mindless Internet surfing I've been doing. Since this all really got started back when I lost my job, it's been easy to tell myself that I need to stay online to find that job opening. Then I started doing paid blogging and I had to stay online to find the next good opp. Well, I have a full time job and I haven't had but 7 opps in the past 30 days, so I can't use those for justifications for my actions anymore. So in it's place I put the excuse that I had to help get everyone's alexa scores up. Here I go, justifying again. I never gave hoot about PR, alexa or technorati scores before, why now? It certainly isn't that have decent scores already in those areas has brought me more money making opportunities. So, the solution has been to not spend so much of my precious time in front of this computer or if I do, I go to sites for tutorials and stuff so I'm actually increasing knowledge instead of just wasting time.

Saturday was a bad night here in the old mobile home park. When I got home from work on Friday, a whole bunch of people were at the neighbors (whom I detest) helping them move! I was so happy. I had been getting clues that they would be leaving, but no real proof. These people have been a thorn in my side since the day they moved in — loud Mexican polka music, neglecting their dog, kids screaming on trampolines, no respect for anyone, etc. I think the woman was also running an illegal day care. Well, except for a little bit on Saturday to get some more stuff, I thought I had seen the last of them. Well, when I went to go to bed about 12:30 Sat/Sun, it sounded like a party going on over there. Loud music, tons of people, a dozen or so cars in the street, some of them drag racing. Wow, I was not happy. Marcus looked out the door and said he thought they were moving the last of their stuff. Then it got ugly: hooting, screaming, yelling, windows breaking, general mayhem. I got afraid and called the cops. By the time I had hung up with the 911 dispatcher, everyone there had jumped in cars and took off, leaving every light on in the place and the front door open. The next morning, there were definitely broken out windows. When the people looking after the park in the owner's absence came by, they told us the neighbors had been evicted and when they looked in the front door, they place was totally trashed. Like I said, no respect. Since the owners were suing these people for back payments and now he can't resell this one right away, I'm waiting for him to take it out on the residents by upping our lot rents.

One final thing and then I have to get ready for work. My allergies are kicking my butt this year. I've felt so shitty the last two days. Once again, NyQuil could've been my friends had it still a decongestant as an ingredient. The runny nose is so bad it made my nose bleed overnight. Eww. This is not cool.