Month: May 2014

May 30, 2014

Reflecting on the Wheel

Life is cyclical, coming back around to the same story we saw before.  I remember the time that my husband and I were so poor that we would sit in the dark, covered in blankets (because blankets were free and heat was not) and watch basic cable.  Eventually it got to where we had to move in with my parents because I barely made above minimum wage, his business wasn’t taking off, and our credit card debt was so bad that even making the minimum payment would cause us to still go over limit and result in more fees.

Now, granted this isn’t the same.  I’m making more than enough.  I can pay my bills… and our house payment is lower than our rent ever was.  So that time before isn’t truly a good example of life being cyclical.  I guess the similarity lies in how I feel.  The panic… the nervous energy.  I’m also frightened that this path will lead us to the same spot as before, but who knows where life will take you.  It’s a cheesy line but I love it: “If you want to make God laugh make plans.”

My husband told me he was shutting down his office.  At first I panicked, I assumed he meant his business, but that was me being over dramatic and jumping to conclusions.  What he meant when he said he was “shutting down his office” is exactly that.  Just goes to show how man to man, man to woman, what have you, people interpret words and sentences differently. 

Where I see him moving back into the home office is a good idea, at the same time I always have.  He wanted to be a legit business and I can’t blame him for that.  And working out of your home doesn’t have that same image as driving up to an office complex. 

In reality, none of this really affects me.  It is all reflection of where we have been, where we have gone, and where we will go next.  I worry that we may end up in the dark again, but, even if that were the case, I can at least make our house payment whether he has a job or not.  I do that now.  Well, as long as I have a job.

P.S. I have given myself a challenge to write something everyday during the month of June.

May 30, 2014

1 am woes

So it appears the husband and I are going through moments of transition when it comes to where we are in life.  For once both of us are content with each other and our family goals appear to almost be in sync.  So I have no complaints there.  It’s just him trying to decide where to go with a career.  He wants to take on the world and cannot decide what precisely he wants to do.  It’s feels odd me saying that.  I am the king of not making decisions.  Although, it seems recently I’m nothing but doing precisely that.  I now know where I want to go in terms of education, what schools I need to attend to reach it, and what my ultimate career is.  On top of that I’m working on my book to get that bitch published.  The clarity is amazing.  I just wish my husband could find it too.

May 8, 2014

This is Basically Me Standing on a Corner With a Sandwich Board…

For all intents and purposes this is a venting post over the most ridiculous of topics.  I hear and comprehend how crazy I sound.  I do.  But I need to put them out into the universe so that they no longer exist in my head.  I mean, isn’t that what a blog is for?

For the past year I have been up Microsoft’s ass.  Pretty much since I invested in their stock.  I switched my ipad to a surface, I exclusively use bing (even though honestly I think Google is better.  Their maps especially.), and the past couple months I’ve been wanting to switch to a windows phone.  Needless to say I have been obsessed.

I finally got the chance to get a windows phone, the nokia 1520.  I have had it for the past week and I like it but I’m not certain that I want to keep the phone. I’m pretty comfortable with the iPhone and I’m pretty deep in their ecosystem.  So it’s a big deal if I switch.  The phone and software has a few things I love (answering texts while driving over my Bluetooth is aMAHzing.) but I’m not sure I want to switch.  So I have been fighting to make a decision.  Do I go with the windows phone since I’m all about Microsoft or stick with what I know and am comfortable with?

Not only have I been contemplating my switch, almost a year ago I switched exclusively to Bing search engine.  For my job I have to do a number of searches daily.  And when Bing offers you redeemable points for every search you do why wouldn’t I? Up until a couple days ago I had accrued almost 700 points.  I was going for a month free of xbox live.  I love my xbox but I rarely, if ever, use it and getting a month of live would honestly be kind of pointless.  So instead of redeeming them for that I thought I would sit on them and when they offered up a contest for a free nokia phone or surface I would enter.  Then enters the 4G Surface into the picture.

They have an option to redeem 40 points (35 if you have a gold account, which I DID) for 10 entries for a chance to win a surface.  So seeing as how I had 700 points (approximately 20 purchases, equating to 200 entries in the contest) I seized the opportunity.  The first day they went in fine.  The second… with a little hiccup at the end, but the third day… Well my points went down to zero.  My account was no longer linked with bing.  What the heck was going on?

I contacted customer service and inquired to the change.  And as it turns out my account was terminated for violating one of their terms of service.  I reviewed the 6 noted and the only one I could be accused of was having a “bot” enter me into the contest. 

A bot is program that runs on your computer clicking links over and over again.  How I know this is an option is because I have a friend, Aaron Ranney, (if anyone doubts me with the “friend” excuse) that does this precise thing and has explained to me and my other friends in length at our Wednesday night dungeion and dragons game. (yeah, I’m nerd.  I get it.)

I am furious, irrationally so, at my termination.  Not only did I lose my points and my chance at winning a surface (which in reality, who’s gonna fucking bot to win a surface.  Seriously, good try Microsoft.  But you’re late to the game) but I was accused of cheating.  I don’t cheat! I HATE cheating.  I don’t see the point and it destroys my image. 

Because of this whole debacle I made the decision to just go back to my iphone and to ditch my Microsoft stock.  I feel ridiculous now.  Fuck that company.