Codejnki's Blog

This blog is dead

2009-04-22T19:07:00.002-04:00

The blog in this physical location will soon be dead. In a few days a DNS entry will be made that will redirect the blog to the new location at www.codejnki.com.

For those of you who lurk in the feeds, you'll want to head over there and update your readers.

The Philosophy of the North American Slacker

2009-03-15T15:33:00.005-04:00

More than 10 years ago I formed an idea. An idea to create a branch of philosophy for the rest of us. That or just the name of something really really cool. I am proud to announce the creation of North American Slacker, the home for this idea. There will be blasts from the past and new writings that fit in to this new branch of thinking.

What does it mean for this site? Not exactly sure. But for now, enjoy.

Dazed

2009-02-12T17:54:00.001-05:00

I am feeling very dazed lately. I am not exactly sure why.

It probably has something to do with lack of sleep.

Interview Part 2 -- Electric Boogaloo

2009-02-12T08:55:00.012-05:00

A few weeks back Dolphyngyrl put a call out for people interested in doing a 5 question interview. I jumped at the chance to bust out my writing chops and gave her this little nugget of a post. Well in all sense of fairness I decided I need to send her five questions of her own to answer. Lets say it took her a tad longer to get these back to me. But here they are:

1. What was it like learning you were going to be a mother for the first time?

Ah, see. I had my kids when I was young and stupid. I'd wanted babies for as long as I could remember. So I was happy, sure, and scared, too. I don't think I was smart enough to be as scared as I should have been. I remember everyone telling me that they just wanted the baby to be healthy. And a girl. I wanted a boy. :)

But I didn't have any of that happy pregnancy glow thing everyone talks about. I didn't feel particularly connected to that alien growing in my belly. There wasn't that whole "the heavens parted and angels were singing and OMG I'm pregnant?" thing.

2. As a bureaucrat is the role of the bureaucracy to sustain the bureaucracy?

Ah, that depends on what your role in the bureaucracy is. Personally, no. My role is to protect the citizens of California from people with professional licenses who feel that the law doesn't apply to them. Or people without professional licenses who think it's ok to go ahead and practice, anyway. There's a part of me that feels very "caveat emptor", and that consumers need to be aware of what they're getting and who is providing the service and make sure to do their homework. I mean, there's this whole "personal responsibility" thing, right? But then I hear stories about the guy who was killed by an unlicensed chiropractor who was giving "adjustments" in his damn garage, or the state inspector who walked in on an in-progress breast augmentation in a BEAUTY SALON. You and I might look at that sort of thing and wonder why the hell anyone was stupid enough to allow themselves to undergo such a thing, but people do it ALL THE TIME. I don't know if it's because people, in general, just don't think about these things, or if it's because of the particular makeup of the California citizenry. In California, we have a LOT of people who weren't born in America. A lot of them don't speak English that well. Maybe in the "old country" there were no specific requirements as to who could work in certain professions, and maybe there were no licensing agencies. Maybe they don't know that you get a boob job from a plastic surgeon, generally in a hospital, and not as part of a hair-nails-tanning-tits special. Just because I know these things doesn't mean John Q. Public on the street knows them.

3. Have you ever considered looking for work outside of California?

A couple of times, yes, I've half assed looked at other states. The main issue right now is SweetPea's family. She's basically the only one taking care of her grandparents, so it's not like we can move any time soon. Of course, there's also that minor issue of the father of my children, but I think he's run plumb out of voting power as to where we live.

Also, though, I have a personal need to be near the ocean. We're about two hours away now, and I can't imagine being farther away than that. Which rules out, what, 80% of the country?

In a few years, though, we might look and see what other options there are, and if there isn't somewhere that we might enjoy more.

4. What was your first tattoo?

The big ass kanji on my left thight. Getting it left me with a relatively unrealistic sense of what getting a tattoo would be like. It was almost completely painless, and my biggest issue was that I was BORED. When I got my cherries, I was a little surprised by how much more it hurt. Word to the wise: tattooing over bone hurts A LOT. Tattooing the soft, fleshy parts? Not so much.

5. Cold beer or drink with an umbrella?

Almost exclusively a cold beer. Generally speaking, diet Coke is about as sweet as I like my drinks. Occassionally I venture more into "cocktail" territory, but it really depends on my mood, where we're at and what we're having (if anything).

Basically speaking, if you want to get me a drink and aren't sure what I want, get me a beer. But not just any beer. Look for Widmer Bros. Heffeiweissen, Fat Tire Ale or Guiness. If they don't have any of those, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is ok, too, and just about everywhere here has that.

Citi Mortgage

2009-02-04T18:54:00.000-05:00

So the Citi mortgage postings have been quite popular. Next week I'll post a final wrap up of everything.

Those 25 random things

2009-02-04T18:38:00.004-05:00

So the latest Internet meme out there is the posting of 25 random things about you on Facebook. Well, if I have my Facebook notes application set up right, then I can post them here and then they will auto post over there. Isn't technology grand?

*Warning* content filter will be off an may contain vulgarity, blasphemy, insults, and other such comments you've come to expect from me.

I am the oldest of 4 children. There are 11 years between my youngest brother and I. He just joined the Army. I really don't know much about him. My guess is he'll be in Afghanistan by the end of Summer.
I am an atheist. Although raised Methodist I came to the conclusion one day that I did not need an omnipresent, omnipotent, invisible being to exist in the universe in order to feel at peace with myself.
I have a degree in philosophy, which I lay blame for #2 on.
I was married for three years. Come May I will have been divorced for 2.
My girlfriend and I have a cat that will vocally respond to the phrase "Whatchu talkin about Willis."
I have played guitar since the 10th grade.
I am now better at Guitar Hero than I am my guitar.
I was born in California and moved to Michigan in 2001.
I've seen almost every Stanley Kubrick film except for Full Metal Jacket. But I have sat through all of Barry Lyndon.
I am not a Democrat. I am a liberal progressive. The difference is I have a spine and am willing to stand up for the things I say I believe in.
I have a gigantic crush on Rachel Maddow. I think it was the Rhodes Scholarship.
I met my girlfriend through an online dating website. I am not ashamed to admit it.
I am a dyslexic and a horrible speller.
There is a short circuit in my auditory short term memory. You can tell me three items. If you tell me a fourth I'll forget one of the other three. If you hand me a list of ten items I can read it once and probably remember them all.
My house is furnished from IKEA.
If given the chance I'd move out of the country without thinking twice about it.
Every job I've held has had something to do with the fact that I'm "good with computers".
I am 6'2" and weigh 160lbs.
Unless prompted I might go days without eating.
I've been a fan of Doctor Who since before I can remember. Till this last season. I am nearly ready to write it off.
I brew beer.
If you take 2005 and 2006 and put them together, I spent more nights in a hotel room than I did sleeping at home.
Mythbusters and Aqua Teen Hunger Force are the two TV shows you can count on me watching.
I can't think of a better life theme song than "Get Over It" by OkGo.
I am an NPR nerd.

And there you have it.

I should feel a little guilty

2009-02-02T10:38:00.002-05:00

Once I had reached five (5) years on the job I started earning three weeks of vacation per year. My vacation days reset every April on my hire date anniversary. So far for the 2008 year I've taken four days total. Which means that I'm staring at eleven (11) days of vacation that I need to use.

So this year I decided to repeat last year's little experiment and take consecutive Monday's off. I now have scheduled 10 Mondays and 1 Friday off for the next 11 weeks. Today is week number one. What am I going to do? Well not sure. It is a quarter to eleven right now, I'm still in my robe, and I have yet to beat Grand Theft Auto 4 which I bought a year ago (I've restarted it a few times for various reasons, the most recent because PS3 finally introduced XBOX style achievements).

But in the interest of furthering scientific research, I have placed a cat underneath an IKEA bag to test it's intelligence. It has been 5 min. Draw your own conclusions.

Fail me three times -- Citi Mortgage Continues

2009-01-31T12:43:00.008-05:00

It is time for a third entry in to our continuing series on the failings of CitiMortgage. If you are new to this series I will direct your attention to the previous postings here and here. The entire saga began back in the fall when I decided to start budgeting my life appropriately and pay all of my major bills in installments every two weeks on my pay day. There are many great advantages to this, some of them being:

Automatic payments set up through my bank's FREE online bill pay service.
With 26 paychecks in a year that works to a 13th yearly payment on large things such as the house and the car. This helps to bring the balances down faster.
My money is being budgeted far better than it was previously.

I started all of this up in early November. In early December I received my monthly statement from ~~Shity~~ Citi telling me that I had not made my full payment when in fact they actually received three half payments (a payment and a half for those of us who went to public schools) between billing periods.

So I did what any normal person would. I called the customer service 800 line. As I have previously mentioned I try to be very polite to phone bank customer service reps, given my previous work experience. Now my original call to the phone bank wasn't that bad. The rep realized what I was trying to do, opened up a case to get it sorted out, and bid me a good night. I thought that at this point things were sorted out. I was wrong.

The next month I got a statement that again stated that I had not paid in full, and was now accumulating late charges. Frustrated I called customer service again. This time the person on the phone suggested that I sign up for their BiWeekly Advantage plan.

I have received the latest reply from Citi's customer support group. Let's take a look and see what we've got:

Thank you for your inquiry. To answer your first question, CitiMortgage would credit any additional funds received toward the principal balance of your loan if it were current. However, CitiMortgage does reserve the option to apply any excess funds toward any outstanding fees before crediting additional principal payments. And in our prior email, we explained that your credit could be affected if you sent payments less than the total amount due.

CitiMortgage does not offer a biweekly program; however, they do reccommend The BiWeekly Advantage Plan to their customers. When you enroll in The BiWeekly Advantage Plan, you are buying a service from FNC Insurance Agency (FNCIA), an affiliate of CitiMortgage and member of Citi. The one-time enrollment fee of $375.00 and the $1.50
transaction fee help to offset the costs of administering the Plan for an extended period of time. The Plan's program fees are comparable to other similar programs available.

CitiMortgage cannot credit funds less than the total amount due toward your loan, per your original loan documents. And, although The BiWeekly Advantage Plan and similar programs draft on a biweekly, weekly, or semi-monthly basis, they all remit full payments to CitiMortgage. The funds drafted by The BiWeekly Advantage Paln are held in a non-interest bearing Citibank account until they are credited to your loan.

I hope I was able to answer your questions. Should you have additional questions regarding the Plan, please feel free to contact FNC Insurance Agency at 1-800-955-6060†, option 3. Our Plan Specialists are available to assist you from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday. You may also visit us on the Internet at www.citimortgage.com/biweeklyadvantatge.

Sincerely,
Vickie Murphy
Plan Specialist

Interesting, we actually have a name. Well at least I am starting to get further up the chain on this issue. Let's break this down, because there are few great nuggets of information in this.

you are buying a service from FNC Insurance Agency (FNCIA), an affiliate of CitiMortgage and member of Citi.

Wait, so I would have to pay Citi in order to pay Citi? I think we are stepping in to recursion here.

The one-time enrollment fee of $375.00 and the $1.50 transaction fee

Whoa there buddy, the original customer service rep said the enrollment fee was only $300. In the past few days it has gone up by $75? And where did this $1.50 transaction fee come from. The person I spoke to on the phone never said anything about a transaction fee. Then again I cut her off from speaking the moment she mentioned the enrollment fee so she never really got a chance to tell me about the transaction fee. So let's do the math here. (For those of us who went to public school this is a word problem.)

I want to pay my mortgage off early. It is currently a 30 year loan and bi-weekly payments could potentially cut the length of the loan down to 26 years. I get paid 26 times a year. If I make a payment every two weeks through the BiWeekly advantage program, how much money will Citi have made in fees from me? Be sure to show your work.

$375 + ((26 * $1.50)*26) = $1371

Yes boys and girls, provided Citi never increases the fee (cause that never happens) Citi wants me to pay them an additional $1300 or more simply................to pay them. Huh?

per your original loan documents

Basically it is a cop out. They know they could do exactly what I am asking, they simply don't want to. And because they don't want to, they put it buried in to the one of the 5 bazillion documents I signed at closing to make sure I don't do it. Maybe I should go back and re-read every page I signed just to make sure I didn't sign away my kidneys.

So this calls for another letter back to Citi. At least now I have a name to go with this whole situation:

To Vicki Murphy,

Vicky,

I do appreciate your answers regarding the BiWeekly Advantage plan. I unfortunately will not be participating in the program as I do not actually see an advantage. According to your previous e-mail, if I was to enroll in the program I would effectively be paying Citi an additional $1300 or more over the life of my loan for a service that my bank currently offers me for free.

I have instead opted to open a high yield checking account at my bank and will be transferring funds to that account to make my payments. This will hopefully result in both the loan being paid down sooner (which was my original intent) and that I will earn interest as opposed to paying additional fees.

I would encourage Citi management to review this plan and change their policies regarding how payments are made to accounts. Charging customers additional fees to simply process a payment is no way to build goodwill with your customer base.

Please verify for me that the late charges incurred have been credited off of my account.

But you know what, that just isn't quite enough satisfaction for me. I also opted to send my Congressman a letter as well:

Mr. Peters,

I have recently become aware of Citi Mortgage's BiWeekly Advantage program where they charge customers for the "connivance" of making bi-weekly mortgage payments.

Citi refuses to allow me to send payments to them bi-weekly and instead requires that I use a fee based service that is a subsidiary of Citi Group to accomplish this.

Many people try to make bi-weekly payments on their mortgages to speed pay down. The effect can shorten a 30 year loan by up to seven years.

Citi's "BiWeekly Advantage" though has no advantage for their customers. Instead they charge a $375 enrollment fee and a $1.50 transaction fee every time they draft from my checking account.

Since this program is run by another subsidiary of Citi Group this is clearly a program designed to collect fees from customers and recoup money they would lose in interest by me paying down my loan.

Since Citi is the number #1 receiver of TARP funds (currently $50 Billion) I feel that this is is something that congress should investigate.

I have chronicled my on going dealings with Citi regarding this matter at my own website: http://blog.codejnki.com.

I myself have not signed up for this program, but fact that this program exists infuriates me and I feel that it is completely unethical.

I would appreciate any help or advice in this matter.

Read that little section again. I'll wait.

Did you see that bit where Citi is the #1 receiver of TARP funds? Yes we've given this incompetent group of idiots fifty billion dollars because they don't know how to make sound financial decisions. And they have the audacity to tell me I can't pay them?

Folks, this is the reason why the economy is in the tank. Because of geniuses like the guys who run Citi, hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs. The banks are not winning any friends nor are they solidifying any of the arguments for helping them.

If a bank is "too big to fail" then it is "too big to exist".

Good luck, we're going to need it.

CitiMortgage continues to Fail

2009-01-28T18:29:00.004-05:00

After being confronted with the "option" of paying a $300 enrollment fee for the convince of paying half my house payment every two weeks I sent a rather terse (and maybe inebriated) e-mail to CitiMortgage concerning their BiWeekly Advantage program.

Looking around the net it appears that I am not the only one who has come to this conclusion. The good thing is that I never agreed to sign up for it.

Today I received an e-mail response from Citi:

Please understand that CitiMortgage is unable to recognize funds as a payment for your mortgage loan that are less than the scheduled amount due. In accordance with your loan documents, your payment is due in full once each month. The principal and interest portion of your payment is based on a monthly amortization and cannot be applied in two installments.

In the future, if partial/installment funds are received, they will be applied to one of the following: (1) applied to outstanding fees and then to the principal balance, if your loan is contractually current (2) placed in an unapplied (holding) account associated with your loan until the balance of the payment is received if your loan is contractually delinquent. Please note that late charges may be assessed or adverse reporting to the credit bureaus could result since your payment will not be applied.

If you need further assistance regarding your mortgage account, our Automated Account Information Line is accessible 24 hours a day at 1-800-283-7918*. Customer Service Associates are also available at this number Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m., and Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., ET and Sunday from 12:00 p.m., to 11:00 p.m., ET. When you contact us, please refer to your mortgage account number.

Thank you.

I was floored. A canned e-mail. They didn't even have the balls to send a semi-human interaction e-mail. This simply called for another e-mail through their contact us link on their website:

I have some further questions regarding the inability to process a Bi-Weekly payments.

If I was to send my payment in full with an extra $25 where would that $25 be applied by default?

Did the person who responded to my previous request actually threaten to ruin my credit if I sent you MORE money than you are asking for?

What exactly does the $300 enrollment fee cover?

Who gets to keep the interest earned on the bi-weekly drafts prior to the payment being applied to an account? Is it split 50/50 between Citi and the third party or is there some other arrangement?

If you are capable of processing bi-weekly payments sent from the third party, why are you unwilling to process the payments sent directly from me?

But let us take a few moments and take a look at a choice phrase from that canned response shall we?

"Please note that late charges may be assessed or adverse reporting to the credit bureaus could result since your payment will not be applied."

That's right, Citimortgage company threatened to report me to the credit bureaus for what amounts to me paying them more money? Could it possibly be that this is actually something to my benefit and not to theirs?

This saga has not concluded. If I do not get a favorable resolution I may be forced to set up an auto payment equal to 1/20th of my payment sent out every weekday. I'd like to see what their billing software does with that one.

Featured Interview

2009-01-28T09:45:00.007-05:00

I was featured in an interview over here.

CitiMortgage FAIL

2009-01-27T18:40:00.008-05:00

CitiMortgage doesn't like my money. I send them an auto-payment every other Friday for the house. Their payment software can't seem to handle it. I was told about the "BiWeekly Advantage" plan that would offer me that service. I simply needed to call the 800 number and set it up.

I'm not going to go in to any more detail. Rather, I'll let you read the e-mail I sent to customer service. You may infer from there.
-------------------
I am appalled at the notion of a $300 enrollment fee for the BiWeekly Advantage plan. I am being told that Citi is incapable of accepting a partial payment on a bi-weekly schedule.

I find this a rather large gap in your payment processing services.

I simply would like to send a payment every other Friday, the same date as I get paid, to make all of our lives easier.

I do not feel that this warrants a third party to make drafts against my checking account, nor a $300 fee to start such a service.

Please explain in technical detail why this is not a possibility. I am a database programmer and am curious as to why this functionality was not included in your payment processing software.

Thank you

Do I need to pay for my commercialism?

2008-12-15T07:11:00.000-05:00

I've been a subscriber to XM radio now for just over two years. I can't say that I listened to too many stations on it. I think I had a grand total of 10 stations pre-set on my radio that I would occasionally flip between, and one of them being the Detroit weather and traffic channel. This fall though when Sirius and XM merged, XM radio seemed to get the short end of the deal.

There were two stations that I primarily listened to, Ethel and Lucy (part of XM's alternative trio of Fred , Ethel , and Lucy ). Ethel played the current alternative rotation from today's bands. Lucy played the "golden age" of alternative "from the time your first girlfriend dumped you, till your first wife divorced you." Basically very late 80's up till about a year old. The station was great. It had no DJ's, just occasional bumps that were hilarious. All in all Lucy was the station I listened to the most and it sounded as if someone had stuck my iPod on shuffle and let it rip.

That is till about a month ago when Lucy ceased to be, and Lithium set it's fat ass on my radio dial. While Lucy played a vast assortment of music from my most impressionable era, Lithium seems to think that the only bands ever involved in the alternative music scene are Nirvana (2 songs), Pearl Jam (3 songs), Bush (entire catalog), and Silverchair (1 song). This last band is the reason why yesterday I called and canceled my subscription.

Silverchair is famous for being a group of tweeners from Australia back in the 90's who came to prominence with an album called Frogstomp which (if memory serves me correctly) included a song about having sex with your grandmother. Let us just say that I am not a fan of Silverchair. Personally I rank them one rung below Bush on the hate scale. And for those of you who know me, you know why I hate Bush.

So yesterday I decided to go do a quick beer run. I get in the car and Silverchair is playing on the former Lucy. Like instinct I switch over to the former Ethel, only to find Silverchair playing.

At that point I was through. I do not need to pay $12.95 a month so that a band I can't stand listening to can play at the exact same time on the two main stations I listen to.

I got home and called up customer service, because in this great age you can sign up for service on the web, you just can't cancel it. I navigate through the menus and get to my customer support representative. I tell him that I wish to cancel my account. And like the good customer service rep that he is, he asks why. So I told him:

"I don't like the new music line up."
"You say you don't like the new music line up."
"Yes, you got rid of the two stations I listened to and I don't like the replacements."

And immediately, without missing a beat, direct from the customer service play book:

"Well sir, I am sorry to hear that you don't like the replacement channels. We are supposed to be getting some of the channels back at the first of the year, we don't know which ones just yet, but at the first of the year some of them will be coming back. What if I was to give you one free month so that you can get to the new year and see if the channels you like come back. And then if you still don't like it the you can call us back and cancel then."

"I don't think you understand, I've stopped listening to the service." (Which is essentially true. I've been on a strict NPR diet since the summer and only used the XM radio on the weekends if I went places.) "And today when I got in the car to listen to the service, you had a band I can't stand playing on the two stations I listen to at the exact same time."

Now wait for it.

"Well sir I am very sorry that you are feeling upset about the current music mix on the service, what if I was to give you two free months so that you can see what the new stations are."

I was waiting for the two free months. You are trained during the customer service inductee seminars that you are allowed to give two free months to any customer who calls you with no questions asked. No management approval, no supervisory sign off, basically if you call up any monthly billed service to bitch and complain, you'll get two free months. The idea behind the two free months is that most people are calling up because they are pissed off right this second. If we give them two free months they will eventually forget why they called up in the first place, and resume using the service in a day or two, and will resume paying for it once the two free months is up.

There are of course some people who simply call up repeatedly knowing they can get two free months. During my time in the trenches I once started talking a guy in to canceling his account because in the preceding eight months he had only paid for two of them. "Sir I see by your records here that in the eight months that you've been a subscriber, you've had six months worth of credits issued to your account due to service interruptions. If I was you I would seriously consider just canceling our service if you are that unhappy with it." It was at this moment that I pulled up his usage and saw that he was at least a 10 hour a day user. "I also see that you do use the internet service quite a lot. Maybe you should look at finding more reliable service since you do seem to use it quite a lot." It was at this moment that the caller realized that I wasn't going to be giving him two free months and instantly started to back pedal on all the issues he was currently experiencing. I documented up his account that he was essentially a freeloader and that no more credits were to be issued. My hope is that any rep who handled him after me would take the same approach I did.

Back to our regularly scheduled rant.

Anyway my XM Radio rep had pulled out the requite two free months card and I wasn't biting. I told him that I wanted to cancel and that maybe if I see that the lineup has changed next year I'll start it back up.

"Sir, for our information, if there was one thing that we could have done to keep you as a subscriber what would it have been?"

"You should have left the radio stations I liked alone."

A few moments of furious typing away by the rep later and I was hurried off to an automated customer service satisfaction survey where I indicated (on a scale of 1-5) that I was very unlikely to recommend XM Radio to someone in the future.

Yes, I hate Silverchair and Bush that much.

Change is in the air

2008-11-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

Well I changed the layout of the blog. I am not exactly sure why. It just felt like the right thing to do. I'm getting out of a red mood and more in to a blue mood. Depression is not setting in, rather just the color schemes needed changing.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I'll be spending the day with my girlfriend's family. My family on the other hand is mostly home in California. My sister is heading home with her SO in tow. But my little brother is spending this Thanksgiving in Arizona. This summer he enlisted in the army and graduated boot camp at the end of October. They moved him to Fort Huachuca where he is going to be trained in some sort of "skill". He called me the other day and was basically thrilled that they had allowed him to have his PSP back. What scares me the most is that our government has seemed fit to entrust a firearm in the hands of my youngest brother. If you knew him, you'd be scared too.

The economy is still tanking if you hadn't noticed yet. Thought I'd just mention that.

I've been playing a lot of Fable 2 lately. Probably a tad more than I ought to.

Beyond that, things are slow. Life is good.

I am ready to retire.

Iz Kan Maked A Blog Post

2008-11-09T13:55:00.000-05:00

My girlfriend recently challenged me to take part in NaBloPoMo after listening to me whine that I don't write enough any more. Well I didn't sign up. Looking at my work schedule I knew there was simply no way that I could keep up a work schedule, blog, and devote the required number of hours needed to completing Guitar Hero World Tour (on hard, wearing a bathrobe by the way).

So anyway I was feeling like a lazy ass for not joining the daily blog posting, that is, till she wasn't able to make it past about day five. Now I don't feel so bad.

Anyway, on to other things besides gloating.

The truth is that the housing crisis in America has hit me. Dial the way back machine to 2003. Prior to my ex-wife and I getting married we refinanced the house she owned to help pay down some debt, get a lower interest rate, and have some extra cash to pay for the wedding. In 2005 we had a line on a very good deal for the purchase of a Victorian in town and decided to put an offer in. With the housing market starting to slow we knew we would be unable to sell our first house. So we decided to rent the house out. A young family moved in and we were able to cover the mortgage payment from their rent and things were good.

In 2006/2007 when my wife and I divorced she got the Victorian, I got the rental. At the time, this seemed like a halfway decent deal. At the same time I also relocated to the east side of the state, starting my live over again for the third time. In the mean time the renters continued to live in the house.

Fast forward to late October 2008. I received a phone call from my renter telling me they are leaving with about 2 days notice and they are behind on rent by three weeks. I make my way down to the rental and get a look at what is a very disgusting mess. After a near two week ordeal just trying to get the keys back I am now in a serious bind. With just some rough estimates the house is going to require over $5000 worth of repairs in new flooring and paint. The house is also now worth almost half of what it was worth back in 2003. To say that I am upside down on this house is now a complete understatement.

So here is where I sit. I don't really have the money to fix the house and make house payments. If I don't fix the house I can't get renters. If I don't have a renter I can't make house payments. I think that right now I sit in the literal definition of a Catch-22.

So I have resigned myself to become another national economic statistic. My rental house is going to end up going back to the bank. I am going to keep making payments on the house as long as possible but the house is up for sale at a drastically reduced price. I am currently in negotiations with the bank to attempt to avoid foreclosure, but right now, in this economic climate, I do not see that as being a reality.

Unlike many of the people who are going through foreclosure I feel like I did things exactly right. There is no funky strange loan on this house. It is a straightforward starter home that we chose to rent out and up on. Thousands of people have done this. It just didn't work out for me.

California should ban marriage all together

2008-11-05T18:00:00.000-05:00

Today is a sad day in my home state of California. On the same night that our nation proved we could move past hundreds of years of racism by electing Barack Obama president, California took one giant step backwards in to the bigotry corner. With the passage of California Proposition 8 , the state's population took a look at one whole segment of the population and said "You aren't good enough."

The residents of California, where many of my friends and much of my family still lives, should be ashamed. The ability of people to vote out of fear and hatred to forcibly remove rights from people is simply unthinkable. If the "family values" group is really determined to "protect marriage" then they need to outlaw divorce, or better yet, marriage all together. To protect something completely, eliminate it completely.

Which is why I am proposing the following. I will donate $50 to any and all of the following ballot proposals in the state of California. Since the passage of proposition 8 is a clear violation of equal protection statues, then that means the rest of the bill of rights and societal norms are up for grabs now. So, let's get to mending:

Ban on marriage outright. We all know that 100% of divorces are caused by marriage. Eliminate marriage then the divorce problem in this nation is solved.
Tax exempt status for churches removed. The first amendment to the US constitution expressly forbids a state sponsored religion. Yet a tax exempt status for religious groups is obviously sponsoring them. In addition, religious groups that have chosen to interject their beliefs in to secular society need to have their tax exempt status removed.
100% complete ban on guns. Since the passage of proposition 8 has made the Fourteenth Amendment null and void, I am proposing we make the Second Amendment null and void to. (For those of you who don't remember high school civics, the 14th amendment is the equal protection clause, the one that ironically lead to Obama getting elected last night).
Reversal of proposition 8. Nuf said.
Forced sterilization of all heterosexuals. (Now I'm just on a roll).

The rules for getting a proposition on the ballot in California is drop dead easy. For $200 and between 440,000 and 700,000 signatures you too can have your very own ballot initiative. With a state population of nearly 36.5 million people that works out to needing only 1.9% of the population signing your petition. This gets to the root problem of the initiative process in California. But that's a different rant.

So this is just my short list of new ballot proposals for the "great" state of California.

Feel free to add to this list as you see fit.

A great injustice was done. It needs to be righted.

Obama wins

2008-11-05T00:09:00.000-05:00

Barack Obama has won the election. 18 months in the making, and we are now finally over with the two-thousand and eight election cycle. Only 45 more days till the two-thousand and twelve election cycle starts.

Barack I congratulate you on your victory and give you permission to sleep in tomorrow. But the day after I fully expect you to make good on the promises and hope that you've inspired in to this country.

We have changed. We are moving forward.

I am happy.

Humanity Sucks

2008-10-24T09:49:00.000-04:00

Many of you might know by now that I have a rental house in Coldwater.
This last Friday I learned that my tenants had decided to leave.

This week I had an opportunity to get a look at the place so that I
could work towards finding a new renter.

The family that has lived in this house has live there for three years.

What on earth would possess someone to do the following?

Here are the pictures .

And for those of you who are wondering....yes, that is dog poop. Mass
quantities of poop.

Oh, and their names are Adam and Kristy Gallant.

SCOM: Citrix Managment Pack

2008-10-09T10:05:00.000-04:00

We utilize Citrix quite a bit, so one of our core monitoring interests in rolling out SCOM was to monitor our Citrix farm. I was pleased to find out that Citrix has a management pack. Too bad it is complete junk.

It never found our zone data collector and wanted to tell us every time printer defaults were used.

In the end I simply uninstalled it and am now using this as an opportunity to teach myself about monitor authoring.

SCOM: IIS Discovery Probe Module Failed Execution

2008-10-08T09:36:00.003-04:00

Currently I've got two servers that are triggering an alert IIS Discovery Probe Module Failed Execution.

The alert description reads:
Error doing IIS Discovery
Error: 0x80070002
Details: The system cannot find the file specified.
One or more workflows were affected by this.
Workflow name: Microsoft.Windows.InternetInformationServices.2003.DiscoverBase
Instance name: Microsoft.Windows.InternetInformationServices.2003.ServerRole
Instance ID: {8E5D6AC8-0000-3E92-F52B-EF14F7C330D7}
Management group: *removed*

So far I have not been successful in finding a resolution. I'm continuing to research.

SCOM: System Center Operations Manager

2008-10-08T09:32:00.000-04:00

I've recently started working getting Microsoft's System Center Operations Manager configured and running here at work. I figured that I should probably start commenting on what I'm doing, first so that I can keep track of things and secondly so that if anyone else comes across my stuff they can find it helpful.

10 Trillion in debt, and rising

2008-10-05T12:57:00.003-04:00

To anyone who reads this and is convinced that the republicans have your best economic interests at heart I would like to direct your attention to this little chart over at Z-facts. On Septbember 30th the national debt crossed the $10 Trillion mark. It is rising even faster.

Fact: The economy is in the tank.
Fact: The country is up to it's collective eyeballs in debt
Fact: Wall-Street never needed $700 Billion of our money. The Paulson plan was to scare us in to believing it was a good idea.

Do yourself a favor, do not vote against your best interests simply for stances on a few social issues that have zero impact on your life.

Fact: Gays have been able to legally marry in California since June, the world did not end.
Fact: The National debt is larger than the age of the universe.
Fact: To eliminate the debt taxes will have to increase. Suck it up, pay it, quit your bitching.

Vote for change.

The changing tide?

2008-10-01T11:32:00.001-04:00

According to Electoral-Vote.com the states of Florida, Virginia, and Ohio have all switched from weak Republican to a dead heat. This is good. This is very good.

Letter to my congressman

2008-09-29T13:32:00.001-04:00

Mr. Knollenberg, I am deeply troubled by the proposed bail out plan in front of congress. First I do not believe that such a bail out is warranted and secondly I do not believe that there has been enough time for our leaders and the public to debate the merits of such a plan. I feel that the American people are being held hostage by the financial sector that has made poor business decisions and are desperately looking for a way out of their situation. Every investor knows that there is no guarantee on an investment, and that an FDIC insured bank account is the only sure fire way to avoid losing money on an investment. I believe that the American economy is going to suffer a great blow no matter the outcome of this bail out package. This bail out pack includes zero provisions to prevent the situation we are in from happening again. This bail out in my view point is simply an attempt for the Wall Street investors to make a "run on the bank" before the American people have a chance to ask why. I urge you to please vote against this resolution.

Life, don't talk to me about life....ohhh I'm soooo depressed*

2008-09-14T22:58:00.002-04:00

*Marvin the Paranoid Android
Friday was my parents 37th wedding anniversary. Saturday would have been my fifth, that is had I made it to a fourth. From the National Center for Health Statistics the State of Michigan has a rate of 3.4 divorces per 1000 people as of the year 2004. The state of Nevada tops out the list with a rate of 6.4 per 1000 people and the state of Massachusetts seems to have the happiest couples with a rate of only 2.2. Now either those in the commonwealth are happier, or just more catholicy. Is catholicy a word?

I really don't want to harp on the fact that five years ago I got married and two years ago it fell completely apart. The problem is that it suddenly occured to me while I was out at dinner with friends. One particular friend picked up on it and it could have caused a kerfuffle. But true to her form she remained steadfast and offered the exact amount of comfort that was required, reinforcing my resolve to continue to pay fate a higher than normal wage than is expected.

So here's to the life that once was and is no more, looking out for the life that is yet to be. May it continue to surprise, amaze, and make one smile each day.

A strange mental funk as of late

2008-09-03T20:22:00.000-04:00

I have been in a strange mental funk as of late. I have been trying to organize my thoughts and work on some creative outlets but have continued to run full speed in to the wall of writers block that has surrounded my head for the better part of a decade. This may be the reason why when I started Nanowrimo I was only able to get a few thousand words down. And this was on a short story idea that has been with me since the Clinton administration.

So in the spirit of non-linear thinking here is a quick update on things that have been going on as of late.

Hobbies
2008 continues to be the year where I search for hobbies that require me to not be seated in front of a computer. Codenbrau is by far the most elaborate hobby I have got running so far. There are a few beers on deck for bottling and there are plans for a few new brews to be done.

House
I'm fully moved in to my house. And although I am currently sitting in a hotel room, I love the fact that I'm there and happy that I've done it.

Politics
The Democrats have had their convention, and I find my self inexplicably drawn to watching the Republican convention. The choice of Sarah Palin is an odd one. It speaks volumes to John McCain's decision making abilities. I can't quite decide though if it is more that he is bat-shit-crazy or going after the MILF hunter vote.

Extra-Curricular
The toast loving gal continues to amaze me.

OHHHHH Mittens has suddenly gotten up to speak.

Kwame Watch
I'm obsessed with Kwame Kilpatrick and his current troubles. I am not quite sure why. But man I keep reading about it.

Ok Mittens just said we needed to keep pornography out of our schools. Now I don't know about you, but if there had been more pornography in my school, I might have paid more attention. Man the Republican Party is the party of old white guys and beach blond bimbos. Dude he just said "weed whacker".

I think it is time now to click publish post and go do some reading.

Some times Google is a horrible thing to have

2008-08-17T12:18:00.002-04:00

The other day we were discussing old friends who had found us on MySpace or FaceBook or other social networking sites and how we were either glad that someone had found or more than often not found us. But it got me thinking about a couple of guys that I used to pal around with in elementary school and wondering what ever happened to them.

I started thinking about my friend Roger Hittle. Roger lived in the the same neighborhood as I did and we went to the same elementary school till sixth grade. Roger had cystic fibrosis a disease that attacks the lungs and pancreas. If you've never known someone with cystic fibrosis you need to know that a person with this disease has an inordinate amount of mucus that gets generated by the body and you are constantly coughing it up and feeling like you are on the edge of drowning.

As kids in the 3rd and 4th grade, I was one of the few people who actually called Roger a friend. Most kids at that age simply were mean and nasty and wanted nothing to do with that goofy looking kid. I thought was proud to call him one of my best friends.

I remember going over to his house, playing games, riding our bikes, sneaking a look at a dirty magazine, and just doing those things that boys will do at that age. Roger and I were in the same scout troop together and would share a tent when ever we went camping. Roger's dad who was in the army would get us MREs for us. For those few years he and I were nearly inseparable.

Roger was keenly aware of the statistics regarding his own life span, even at that age. At the age of nine he already knew that he had lived four years longer than doctors had told his parents to expect. With that fact burned in to his brain he lived each day to it's fullest. Never once dwelling on his own potential death, he made sure that he was happy.

Roger and his family moved out of the neighborhood the summer of sixth grade if I remember correctly. I think it was because they were renting the house they were living in and were able to buy a house in West Sacramento. I visited Roger once after he moved. I spent the night at his new house and I remember it fondly as it was the first time I saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. That was the last time I ever saw Roger. With the two of us living nearly 15 miles apart going to different schools we simply drifted, as friends will.

Years later, after I moved to Michigan I Google'd Roger and found an e-mail address for him. To my complete shock he was alive and well in Las Vegas. If you knew Roger, well, that was a perfect fit for him. We traded a few e-mails and even a phone call. But again, we drifted.

With the rise of the social networking sites I decided to see what Roger was up to. A search on both MySpace and FaceBook didn't turn up anything. Now though, a search on Google didn't reveal his e-mail address, it instead revealed this tribute video put together by his family. Roger passed away some time after he turned 30. 25 years longer than doctors had originally given him.

As I sit here trying to fight back the tears, I don't know what clever and witty thing to say other than I think that in the video, that's Roger and I swimming in the public pool together.

Roger, I'll miss you buddy.

They make you do the strangest things

2008-08-12T11:14:00.002-04:00

The girl likes toast. So I bought a toaster....

Bird

2008-07-30T21:16:00.000-04:00

There is this bird that has been sitting on my fence since I got home. It looks like a baby. I wonder if it is going to make it through the night.

I couldn't help myself

2008-07-19T17:55:00.002-04:00

I like the last one, so I did another one. I present Punk Track 2.

More music you say?

2008-07-19T13:48:00.000-04:00

Here is a little punk style track I just laid down, using the "Country 4" drum voice on my RP250. BPM = 160.

A little musical ditty

2008-07-15T21:59:00.002-04:00

Earlier this year I purchased for myself a DigiTech RP250 guitar effects processor. This effects processor is a great little thing to have and wasn't terribly expensive either. It's got two banks of pre-sets, one that is factory set, and the other is an exact duplicate but allows you to store on top of it. There is a built in guitar tuner, and a USB port to allow you to plug it in to your computer to both program and record out of. The last added feature (which is what sold me on it in the first place) is that it has a built in drum machine as well. There's over 60 drum styles with a variable beat per minute setting which gives you a ton of control over it.While I was living in the apartment though I never really got much chance to play with it for fear of really annoying the neighbors. Now that this is no longer a primary concern I've been having a great time using it.In fact, using Audacity I just recorded a little test track. I've done zero after processing to this and I think it came out fairly decent. It is by no means a masterpiece, I simply turned it on and started recording. But hey, give it a listen.

The Unpacking 2 -- Electric Boogaloo

2008-07-04T19:22:00.002-04:00

In celebration of July 4th, I've actually be quite productive rather than my expected ass sitting self.

First I walked down to the Clawson parade and checked it out. I actually managed to get a few pictures of Carl Levin our Senator. I thought that was pretty cool.

I then came home and pulled the 4 foot weeds that were surrounding the house out of the make shift planter. Now the yard doesn't look so much like a jungle.

My bathroom is now finally all put away. I can stop using the trial sized shampoo's from the hotels.

The computer desk is all set up and I'm typing this up while sitting at my desk.

And, in the Pièce de résistance, I set up my guitars and my amp. For the first time in over a decade I was able turn the amp up and just crunch away for a while. I even worked up a sweat in the process. Oh man that felt good.

The Unpacking

2008-06-30T20:33:00.002-04:00

The unpacking goes slowly. It's times like this where having someone around to help would be nice.

Big old procrastinating update

2008-06-29T17:09:00.003-04:00

I closed on my house on Wednesday. By Thursday evening I had all of my possessions sitting in one small corner of my basement. By Friday the old apartment was cleaned and empty. I am now a homeowner at the ripe old age of 31. Should I be feeling this smug? I think so.

My house is huge, or at least it is compared to the apartment. 200 sq feet in the old place, 1000 sq feet in the new place, and that doesn't even include the basement in to that figure. So everything I own currently fits in to one small section of the basement. But it has begun to creep out, as "stuff" tends to do. The place is really a disaster right now.

I've been procrastinating on doing any more work because I think I pulled a muscle at Ikea yesterday. See I had to do an emergency Ikea run yesterday because I went out Friday night with my buddy John. When I got home I realized there wasn't a single place to sit comfortably. In my apartment by bed doubled as a couch (ahh the magic of foutons) but now that I have a real bedroom it no longer acts in that particular fassion. So I purchased a couch and a real bedframe for my mattress. The fouton frame has been broken for a while and I kind of wanted to have something a bit more "grown up" than the college look I was sporting in the studio.

I was without internet for nearly five days. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to make it. Well, without internet is a slight over exageration, I do have it on my phone, but it is kind of a pain when you want to do some serious procrastinating. I will post some pictures later once I start to get things all in order.

But for now, home ownership is such a fun thing :)

Don't like $4 gas?

2008-06-19T23:00:00.001-04:00

Funny, wrong, or rock?

2008-06-17T11:01:00.001-04:00

Ring of death (no I'm not getting married again)

2008-04-05T12:43:00.000-04:00

After two years of no problems with my Xbox 360, I thought that I had some how avoided the dreaded ring of death. This morning I turned on my console to grind away at some Guitar Hero 3, and WOAH!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I think right now the word "Fuck" has been uttered in my apartment at least three dozen times.

Nice thing is that Microsoft is sending me a shipping box and all I have to do is send it back to them. They will repair it and then send it back to me (hopefully the pull out the guts and give me a whole new one. But hey, it's all good.

Now though I do have a dilema, my 360 also served as my DVD player. Which to be honest is probably what it spent 50% of the time doing. I need a DVD player now obiously. I should go Blue-Ray (again obviously). So do I go stand-alone blue-ray, or PS3 which has the built in blue-ray. OH the decisions. Oh the dilema.

Crap, this is not what I had in mind today.

Something smells fishy.....

2008-03-17T12:01:00.002-04:00

Ever wonder why Eliot Spitzer seemed to be taken down so quickly while others such as David Vitter and Larry Craig seem to go unhindered? Well according to Greg Palast you simply need to follow the money.

The reader that reads itself

2008-03-12T21:18:00.000-04:00

I am fortunate to not need a screen reader, I do have to say that developments like this help break barriers of communication and information around the world. This totally rules.

Official Google Reader Blog: Reader and ARIA: A new way to read

Lunar eclipse

2008-02-20T22:49:00.000-05:00

I got some cool pictures of the lunar eclipse. Check them out.

Ohhhhh.......

2008-02-19T19:21:00.003-05:00

Why do you lurk my blog?
Oh, why do you lurk my blog?
Are you a jilted ex-lover?
Maybe a friend who doesn't comment enough.
Or maybe you are a gun toting redneck former co-worker who can't take a hint.

OHHHHHHH,
Why do you lurk my blog?

It's ALIVE!!!!!!

2008-02-18T18:19:00.000-05:00

Codenbrau is alive!!!!!

Vote for McCain

2008-02-11T18:08:00.001-05:00

The iTunes game

2008-02-09T15:17:00.000-05:00

Here is how the game is played. If you use iTunes open it up and go to the "Party Shuffle". Down in the bottom right hand corner click the "Refresh" button. List the first 4 songs it picks.

Ball And Chain by Social Distortion
Pure Morning by Placebo
Novocaine for the Soul by Eels
3 Strange Days by School of Fish

To my supporters

2008-02-05T22:58:00.000-05:00

Though I have yet to receive a single vote in this year's primary season I vow to continue on till election day in November.

The one issue candidate

2008-01-22T12:12:00.000-05:00

The man, is insane. He has a single issue. He is obsessed with it night and day. He can only think about terrorists.

When posed with a question about the economy.....

I present to you Rudy "9/11" Giuliani:

An Open Letter to MSNBC

2008-01-16T20:20:00.000-05:00

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to you today to voice my displeasure and regret at what has happened to the NBC News organization. For the past thirty-one years, I have considered myself a loyal NBC viewer -- of both your news and entertainment programs. I have always considered them to be of a higher quality than other television offerings. I grew up watching Tom Brokaw on the Nightly News and have always viewed him and the rest of the NBC News organization as some of the most professional journalists in the world. Last night, though, my entire view of your organization was turned on its head and will forever be tarnished. I am speaking, of course, of the decision to exclude Dennis Kucinich from the Nevada Democratic debate on January 15th, 2008 immediately followed by the miserable debate moderation by Brian Williams and Tim Russert.

By excluding Congressman Kucinich from the debate last night, NBC has chosen who our Democratic candidates are. Mr. Kucinich has had a long and distinguished political career that spans nearly my entire life. For nearly thirty years he has had a consistent message regarding his vision for making our country great, and therefore as a presidential candidate he deserves to have his message heard as part of the greater discourse on how the next four years of government will be ran. By excluding the congressman from the debate you are implicitly responsible for making his candidacy unfeasible -- which is obviously the exact reason you chose to exclude him. As a news organization, you enjoy ultimate protections under the First Amendment. But, with those protections comes a responsibility: to provide due diligence to your viewers and readers and to provide them with all the relevant information available on a subject. Excluding a candidate -- who is still on the ballot --from a debate does a disservice to the American population and tarnishes your reputation as an honest and reputable source of information.

Perhaps your news editors will rethink their decision of excluding Mr. Kucinich once they review the performances of Mr. Williams and Mr. Russert as debate moderators. For over twenty minutes, we as viewers were forced to watch two distinguished journalists attempt to start a petty squabble between Senators Obama and Clinton over the issues of race -- a topic that prior to the debate they had clearly stated was no longer open for conversation. Instead, Mr. Williams and Mr. Russert attempted to goad the candidates into a personal attack on one another, instead of asking substantive questions regarding, i.e.: the economy, the war, health care, corporate intrusion in the election process, the environment, eduction, President Bush's legacy, America's moral standing in the world, and a host of other topics.

The senseless barrage of questioning was only ended when a heckler from the audience clearly voiced to all your viewers his displeasure, and called for an end to the line of questioning. The priceless "deer-in-the-headlights" look on Tim Russert's face at that moment seemed to say to me that he had a number of follow-up questions regarding race and, quite possibly, a number of gender-related ones to keep us going through the first hour. I for one was pleased to see the questioning end and move on to the topics which our next president will actually be faced with.

Why were the news editors afraid to include Mr. Kucinich? Were they afraid that they would be interviewing three candidates who sound the same on all of the issues, only to be left with one candidate who would not only offer up a contrary point of view to the issues, but also be able to back it up by a voting record that he shows no regret for, unlike the others sharing the stage? By including him, maybe the debate last night would have been much more helpful to us in choosing a Democratic nominee. Instead, last night's debate only served to help mesh Senators Clinton, Edwards, and Obamas' messages together, into an amalgamation with no distinguishable differences between the three. Instead of choosing a presidential nominee and their message, we are left to only choose the face of our presidential nominee, and do we want it to be white or black, male or female? That choice is as exciting as choosing to have fries or onion rings at a fast food restaurant.

I feel that NBC News has lowered the standards of its journalism and interjected its corporate preferences into our election process -- something no respectable journalism organization should ever do. You have lost my respect as a news organization and only significant amends to your journalistic practices will prove that your organization takes its role in society seriously.

Sent to letters@msnbc.com and info@kucinich.us. Thanks to Meggi for the editing and cleanup help.

This space left blank for solidarity

2008-01-10T21:13:00.000-05:00

The polls were wrong????

2008-01-10T20:05:00.000-05:00

No, the polls were exactly right. Obama was going to get 37% of the vote, Hilary was going to get 30% of the vote, and 30% of the voters were undecided. Polling is a time honored, time tested method of predicting the future.

Wait now predicting the future? Yes predicting the future. Statistical analysis allows for a small sample to be taken and then information extrapolated from that. One of the foundations of science is statistical analysis because it is simply physically impossible to look at every single thing in the universe.

So what happened Tuesday night? Quite simple, the people of New Hampshire spoke, they didn't know what they were going to do till the morning they went in to the polls.

The pundits decided for them.

*I find it funny that the Google ad is an anti Obama add ;)

The politics of change

2008-01-08T19:28:00.001-05:00

It is about 30 minutes away from when I expect the New Hampshire primary results to be announced. By now we are all fairly certain that Barack Obama is going to win the primary for the Democrats. The question is why....

It all has to do with exactly what he is talking about...change.

The American people are longing for real change in this country. We have two candidates who are siding on the voices of change and one who is voicing on the side of the establishment. Obama and Edwards are quickly morphing in to the same candidate so why is Obama getting so many more votes than Edwards is? I'm going to say it, it's because he is black.

After years of not being listened to the American voting public is tired of being ignored. They are sending the message to not only the current president but to the rest of the world can't ignore. We are ready for a change. Yes we could vote for the white guy with the same message, but hey, it's just another white guy as the President of the United States. So instead we are going to pick the black guy because hey, we've never done that before.....

We want change....we are hungry for change.....

I will be voting for Dennis Kucinich because here in Michigan only Clinton, Kucinich, and Dodd are on the ballot (have to love primary politics) and well, with Dodd out....guess I need to go with who's left :)

Go register, go vote...you don't vote, you can't complain.

Christmas time

2007-12-08T12:10:00.001-05:00

I have managed to secure a $44 flight home to Sacramento for Christmas. I will be leaving Detroit the evening of the 24th and leaving Sacramento the morning of the 26th. This will be by far one of the fastest trips I have ever taken, but We'll all be there this year and it will be fun.

I probably won't have much time to do much hanging out with anyone. And that's sort of a bummer but I'll survive.

So quiet as of late...

2007-11-26T18:55:00.000-05:00

So I've been sort of quiet the last few weeks. Nothing terribly interesting has been going on. I've been toying with the idea of going to graduate school and getting an MBA. We'll see if I actually follow through with it.

I'm a little bored but surviving.

Film School

2007-11-07T23:13:00.000-05:00

When I was younger I wanted to go to film school. That dream just never quite materialized. I guess that I am making up for it now.

Oh no here he goes again

2007-11-07T07:14:00.001-05:00

Moving

2007-11-06T08:45:00.000-05:00

So in late December of 2006 I moved in to a very tiny studio apartment in downtown Royal Oak. One of the primary reasons for this apartment was the very close proximity to the downtown area. Walking distance. The rent that I am paying on this apartment is not for the mear 190sq feet that I live in, it is for the location.

Well I think that this apartment has out lived it's usefulness. While I've totally enjoyed it, and it has kept me sane by not allowing me to go overboard with crazieness, I think that it is time that I moved. I'm going to start looking in the Auburn Hills area for a nice small one bedroom apartment. It will give me nearly six hundred more square feet to live in, cost close to the same, and cut my commute nearly in half distance wise.

My lease is up December 31st/January 1st. So now is the right time to start looking.

He did NOT post a YouTube video!!!

2007-11-04T15:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, I did.

1163

2007-11-03T15:35:00.001-04:00

So in the effort of Patrick completing the "NaNoWriMo" I completed the first 1,163 word today. Here is my stats page in case you are interested.

NaNoWriMo

2007-11-02T20:57:00.001-04:00

National Novel Writing Month, or two friends who don't know each other telling me to "shit or get off the pot." I've signed up for National Novel Writing Month. Right now the site is increadibly slow so it may be a little difficult to pull up right at this second. But the idea is that over the course of November you will write a novel and at the same time network with other writers from your community.

I have basically had a chance to sign up and do nothing else. The site is completely down right now. I guess I'll work on it tomorrow then. I guess between now and then I need to come up with a novel idea for a novel (bad pun I know).

So ok, guess that's it for this moment. I'm heading out here in a little bit to go hang out for the night so I really won't get much writing done right now.

Parts is parts is parts

2007-11-01T16:47:00.000-04:00

I am sort of the unofficial inventory guru at work. Tomorrow we are doing an inventory at the building up in Oxford. I get to be there to be part of the "buy-off" team. Mainly that means I get to go around and be a hard ass and make sure people are counting properly :)

There isn't much else going on, only I've had two people tell me that I need to get involved in national novel writing month. I am thinking that might be a propper use for creativelychallenged.us. Take some of the various things I've written and get them up there and start to flush them out till they look good. We'll see.

Facebook

2007-10-30T20:25:00.000-04:00

Ok so an old buddy of mine from high school invited me to Facebook, something that I've been avoiding. I have a total distaste for MySpace and what it has done to web design, I'm afraid of what this will eventually end up looking like.

So far it is interesting. I've ran across a couple of old friends and so we'll see what happens.

Rebuild of the website

2007-10-27T23:35:00.000-04:00

So I've decided to rebuild my website a little. I'm using Blogger now to post most of my thoughts. You can get the main page over here at http://codejnki.blogspot.com. The feed is automatically set up here to be viewed.

Over to the right we've got a link to subscribe to that feed in your favorite news reader. Personally I like Google Reader. It is very slick and very portable, doesn't matter what computer you are using at that particular moment. Also you will see some Google ads off to the right as well. I'm trying it out to see if I can get a few pennies added to the coffers. I'm going to try and write and post more so hopefully I can make a buck.

Off to the left I've got links to other places on the web that I've got sites. I suddenly realized that I am a member of tons of social networking, blogging, photo journaling, etc sites. So it seemed easiest for me to post a listing of those sites over there. Also you'll see a slowly building collection of writings that I've done. Check those out.

So that's about it for now. I'm going to head on out now. Later.

My Birthday

2007-10-27T21:01:00.001-04:00

So yesterday the 26th was my 31st birthday. I can honestly say that I really am beginning to feel older now. I had a good time though. My friends threw a dinner party and then we all went out to Luna to do dancing.

The only sucky part of the whole thing was having to be in the office the next morning to print a mail merge. I would have rathered been sleeping. Oh well. Here is hoping that 31 turns out to be a better year than 30 was.

So a mobile post eh?

2007-10-26T10:52:00.001-04:00

So I've decided to try my hand at blogger and see how that goes. One
of the very cool things I can do is post via e-mail. WOO HOO.

Now I have even more of an excuse to use the crackberry.

--
Apathy would be my policy, if I cared.
http://www.codejnki.com

The requisite first post

2007-10-25T17:24:00.000-04:00

This is the requisite first post