Honestly, I don’t even know why I bother picking up the American Classifieds anymore. The only job listings I see (locally) in there anymore are construction/skilled labor related or highly specialized jobs that require multiple degrees and X-amount of years experiance. Case in point: listings for respiratory therapy technician jobs. And yet, every Thursday, without fail, I stop and pick up a copy and tear through it hoping to find something better paying, something I’d enjoy, something that would let me put my degree to use.

All to no avail.

It’s very depressing.

You know what else is depressing? Having to type on a keyboard with a key that isn’t working right. The “P” key on my laptop’s keyboard is wonky now and not working right. So as I type and I get to a word that needs that letter my flow totally slows down and I have really smash the key down to make sure it registers it. Can you get keys on a laptop fixed? Gosh I hope so! Alas, that is something that will have to wait until…..er….payday after next?

Haha, talk about a weird and random blog title, right? It actually makes total sense since I’ve got a little moose with a jolly Christmas bell tied around his neck staring at me right now.

Say what?

Here I am at the 24hr lab/laundry on campus at NMSU and I’ve met another eccentric person here. I’m thinking this is the place to meet all the weirdos. Or at least the people that remind me of the folks I used to hang out with in high school at any rate.

I wish I brought my camera tonight so that I could take a picture of this little moose. Perhaps I should explain how I came to be babysitting a moose in the first place? That’s probably a good place to start.

So there is this guy here, who heard me watching Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail while browsing the net. Somehow this was a cue to him to come up and start talking to me like we’ve been friends all our lives. Guy even tried to help me fold my laundry when I took it out of the dryer! He left after a while and I breathed a sigh of relief. It was short lived. He returned with this little stuffed animal, a moose, which he gave a long rambling spiel about. In short, he found the moose abandoned in a coffee shop years ago, was going through abandonment issues after a bad breakup and felt sorry for it, so he kept it. Now, because the moose stays with him and only him, he was hoping he could leave it with me for a little while so I could keep it company and the moose could spend time with someone other then him.

I kid you not.

I meet the strangest people.

On the way back from ‘Cruces, I stopped off at the Pilot truckstop to get some gas (cheaper there then in Vado) and to get a refil for my 64oz cup from their fountain (they have shots so I was able to get Cherry Dr. Pepper! ) and while in the checkout line there was an incident with the older woman in front of me.

I’m not sure if she was just having a bad day, or she really is just a bitch, but after a while I realized that she wasn’t talking to the person standing kinda next to her (they were just looking at the newspapers near the checkout) and that she was actually talking to herself.

Any Harry Potter fans reading this? Remember Kreacher, the rude old house elf from the Black family’s house who muttered obscenities and curses to the people around him like they couldn’t hear him? Well that is exactly what this woman was doing! She was criticizing everything and everybody and it was like she thought no one could hear her doing it either.

At one point she was commenting on some girl’s outfit and how she looked like she wasn’t worth more then $2. I was just stunned. The girl she was commenting on turned to look at her and said “Excuse me?!” all shocked and outraged, then the old woman said something along the lines of “Hm, I didn’t say anything to you” and went back to mumbling to herself about the audacity of the “loose girl to speak to her as if she had the right”. It was just really bizarre to hear her doing that. She commented on how slovenly I was dressed, how tacky the store looked, how ugly the cashier was, how some of the men there were dressed – it was just so bizarre.

Apparently the girl who, to be honest, really did look slutty dressed in the blue jean shorts so short her butt cheeks were hanging out and the halter-top that barely kept her contained, decided she had enough and started muttering about the nerve of “wrinkled old hags” who were “beyond the aid of wrinkle removal creams” and “in need of plastic surgery” to comment on her appearance.

The whispered mumblings got pretty catty after that.

I probably should have been offended, but honestly, I just found the whole thing to be funny as hell. I was having a hard time not laughing at the crazy older lady as it was, but when the girl in front of her started in on it,well it was all I could do not to fall down laughing. The guys behind me thought it was a riot too.

Somehow our snickering seemed to offend both the old woman and the girl. That made it even funnier.

I was looking through the Sunday paper a little while ago, mostly checking out the Classifieds for any job postings I could submit myself to, and then browsing the grocery ads for good deals, when I came upon a notice that there was a career fair coming soon.

Even though I have yet to have any luck what-so-ever at a career fair, I still can’t help but get this childish excitement over it. It could possibly be because it has the word fair in it. More then likely though, the giddiness is a direct result of all the promotional items that various stands have and give out to everyone. I mean where as but at a career fair will you get free hand-held electric fans, pens on key chains, various LED lights (key chains, flashlights, plugins for car lighters, ect.) enough candy to convince you it’s Halloween, magnets, shot glasses, and all other matter of being? It’s like trick o treating for adults.

So even though I’ve never had much success at all when it comes to career fairs, somehow I never walk away feeling too down about the experience. Time to brush off that resume and make sure it’s all in tip-top shape!

Ever been to a career fair yourself? Do you enjoy them for the most part or not in the least?

I can’t help but wonder if I really am the “insensitive bitch” that some people seem to think I am.

I can’t remember if I posted about it here on my blog, but a while back my mom was let go from her job for [essentially] attending a seminar that she needed but that her office wouldn’t pay for. It caused a whole lot of drama and then a few weeks after the incident she was let go for supposedly stealing clients from the bookkeeping/tax preparation office she worked at. Considering the fact that the “manager” there actually does this all the time, and that my mom had never done this to begin with, well it left a bitter taste in the mouths of those who knew what had happened.

My mother gave them nearly ten years of devoted service, working at reduced pay because supposedly they couldn’t afford to give her a raise, putting up with the bitchiest attitudes I have ever seen, and for what? Honestly though, I thought it was for the best. She could get a chance to really put her skills to work and leave the stress and headache from that office behind her.

Yesterday though my mom got some interesting news. One of the local businesses that is a client with my mom’s old workplace went in to pick up their payroll from them only to find the office closed with a sign saying that they were closed due to a death in the family. Talk about unprofessional! You do the books and payroll for several different businesses and just because there was a death in your family you shut everything down and give no notice? Hell, not everyone that works there is related to the family that owns it anyway. There were quite a few people upset, needless to say. One of whom tracked down my mom’s new office through mutual acquaintances and brought their payroll to her to do for them. Now that was hysterical.

After hearing about it though my mom was curious as to who had passed away and called to ask me to see if I could find it online. Turns out it was the owner and my mom’s old boss who passed away. She had apparently been sick (cancer I think) and passed away on Saturday. My mom was all teary-eyed when I relayed this information to her and commented on how she would have liked to talk to her one last time because she was “such a wonderful person”. She then seemed puzzled as to why I didn’t sound affected about her death.

Seriously, the woman was a bitch, plain and simple. I don’t see why I need to shed tears over her death. I don’t even understand how my mother could still think kindly of her after the shit they put her through. That’s not to say I’m glad she’s dead or anything like that, I just don’t, for lack of a better word, care. I honestly didn’t feel anything upon hearing she was dead, sort of like how when you glance at the obituaries in the paper, see no one there you know (hopefully), and then move on. Honestly, it was like seeing a stranger there, I didn’t really feel anything.

But apparently I’m being a bad person for not mourning her passing. My mom also wanted to attend the service for her and give her condolences to the family. She was apparently all set to go and was digging through her closet, pulling out the odd bits of clothes in there in order to find something that would look appropriate for a funeral. Apparently, aside from a pair of black tuxedo pants and a dark gray blouse, most of her clothes (though professional) are far too cheerful for a funeral. Thankfully a few of her friends talked her out of that. I can just imagine how that would have turned out had she gone.

My mom, too nice for her own good.

For some reason quite a few of my friends have been turning to me for help with their taxes, most of whom have generated some sort of income through the internet. I find this kind of funny since I’m not an accountant (although my mother is and I have some experience as well) and I don’t trust myself to do my taxes myself and instead allow someone else to do them so any mistakes can be caught quickly. However, since the recurring question that I am asked is about possible business expenses, I thought I’d write a quick (but hopefully helpful) post to give others some help in getting their expenses for the 2009 year in order, and to make keeping track of expenses in the years to come easier as well.

When it comes down to business expenses, it’s important to remember that just because you could take it as an expense doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. I’ve seen some other posts around on blogs where folks recommend their readers take XYZ as an expense without explaining that said expense likely wouldn’t be applicable to them, or explaining the stipulations that go with that expense. I cringe when I see those posts and read comments from readers exclaiming how they’re going to take those expenses too. I can’t help but get visions of auditors cackling madly and rubbing their hands together. If you don’t have any need of project management software don’t go and buy it and then take it as expense because a fellow blogger said you could. I’ve sat in on auditors going through client’s books before, believe me, they will find the frivolous expenses and if you can’t prove that you use them, they will be removed. Don’t hand them [IRS] a ripe chance to slap you with penalties and fees on a silver platter folks, instead CYA.

That said, below is a list of common business expenses one could take if their business/source of income is generated through the internet and is blog/website related. Bloggers, Ad-users (ie: Adsense), writers, and graphic and/or web designers will likely find these most helpful:

WEB SERVICES – In order to keep your site up and running you have to have it hosted, and more like than not, you have a domain (or more) as well. Whether your site serves as your portfolio or hosts ads that you earn revenue from, it’s an integral part of how you earn that income and is an expense you need to be keeping track of.
Examples: Hosting, Domain Purchases/Renewals, File Storage, ect.

ADVERTISING – In order to generate or up your revenue you have to get yourself out there and get yourself known. Advertising is a trying but much needed expense for everyone.
Examples: Items purchased for giveaways/contests, ads, paid for graphics for advertising (say you pay a G.A. to make you some banners and headers), business cards, printing fliers.

SOFTWARE – It actually never ceases to amaze me how many people will shell out large amounts of cash to get the latest versions of their favorite software and then completely forget (or just don’t realize) that it can be taken as a business expense as well. If you purchase software that is going to be used for your site then it is a prime expense to take. Other software that can be taken as an expense are programs that help maintain your computer, because let’s face it, without your computer you’re sunk. Basically, if it’s a program that helps or enables you to make money it is an expense.
Examples: FTP programs, graphic programs like Adobe Photoshop, Dragon Naturally Speaking, website builders, Microsoft Office, virus protection, registry repairers, adware and malware protection, ect.

INTERNET & PHONE SERVICE – Let’s face it, if you didn’t have the internet you wouldn’t be able to get your work done. This is a very important expense. But it’s a tricky expense to take too. What I’ve seen a lot of bloggers fail to mention (and even some tax preparers too) is that unless the internet is solely for business purposes (and very occasionally personal) you should not be taking the entire bill as a business expense. The same goes for your phone bill as well. If you have a separate phone line or ISP for business purposes, then you can take those bills in full. If your phone and internet is split between personal and business then you can only take a percentage of the bill for business. Sit down and calculate how much of your bill is used for personal and how much is used for business, then take that percentage for the total cost of bill for the year and you have your expense. I recommend sitting down with a tax preparer and working this out together.
Examples: phone bills, internet bills, cable

ELECTRONICS/TECHNOLOGY – Because, let’s face it, without your computer and various pieces of tech, you’d be sunk. While people are quick to remember that desktops and laptops are expenses, they tend to forget there are smaller items that are integral to their business as well. From new mice, to printers, faxes, and even PDAs – these are items you use to get your work done and can cost a pretty penny to boot. Don’t forget these! Bloggers, it is important to note that content is key, if you use a digital camera to take pictures and use those in posts then the camera is a business expense, don’t let others tell you otherwise.
Examples: Printers, computers, CPUs, mice, speakers, digital cameras, microphones, laptops, laptop battery chargers, usb cords, thumb drives, laptop batteries, cooling pads, tablets

ELECTRICITY – Yes, it is important that you have electricity running in order to turn on your devices and get some work done. So of course this is an obvious expense to take. Here’s the thing people seem to forget to mention, like the telephone and internet, you need to prove that the electricity bill you’re deducting is a business expense. If you have your own little office somewhere and pay a separate electricity bill to power it, then you’re good to go. But if, like most, you’re working from home then there are a few more steps you need to do. First you need to establish an office space where you do the majority of your work from, then you need to take the dimensions of this space down. From there you can calculate the percentage of the electricity that is used to “power” your office. Different states also have different stipulations with regards to this, I strongly recommend you sit down with a tax preparer and work this out together.

REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE – Let’s say that despite having the latest in virus protection your computer still managed to get a trojan and it went balls up. Hey, it happens to everyone. Or maybe you just had an accident and the laptop took an unfortunate tumble. Getting your computer back up and running is no doubt a priority and no doubt it’s gonna cost you. Luckily, the money you shell out on getting it repaired (or just recovering files from an otherwise unsalvageable piece of…tech) can be deducted as a business expense too. Likewise, the same can be said for other electronic devices you might use in conjunction with your business, say cameras, PDA’s, phones, ect. At least there’s a bright side to that otherwise bad day.
Examples: computer repair, maintenance, data recovery, ect.

MILEAGE & GAS – If your business has you taking trips to pick up supplies, visit clients, or running other errands you should be keeping a mileage log and recording it all down. Even if only a small percentage of the mileage on your car is business related, every little bit helps! A good mileage log consists of the following for each entry: Date, Mileage Start, Mileage Stop, Destination/Purpose, and it should be noted whether the trip was business or personal. For personal entries it is not required that you mark down the destination and purpose. For business entries you had better fill out the entry in its entirety. You can also keep gas receipts and deduct that instead. The rule is one or the other, not both, however, and unless you do a hell of a lot of driving for your business I recommend going the mileage route. Otherwise you’re stuck calculating just how much of the gas you purchased really was used for business purposes, and even then, you need to keep the mileage log. Again, things can vary state to state so talk this over with your tax preparer!
Examples of business “trips”: buying supplies, dropping off electronic devices for repairs, meeting new clients, driving around to gather photos for blog posts (content!), utilizing hotspots to do work in lieu of home/office, driving to seminars (for those who attend conferences and seminars like BlogHer), ect.

STATIONARY – Probably the easiest expense to get and also the most over looked too. If you’re jotting things down with pens, using stick notes to remind you of important business-related events, keeping track of important dates and deadlines in a calender then you’re purchasing these things and should be deducting them as business expenses. Don’t just shrug your shoulders toss that receipt away, these expenses may be small in comparison to others, but they are expenses and they add up.
Examples: note pads, stickies, pens, markers, calenders, printing paper, white out, tape (tape dispensers) staples and staplers, ect.

OFFICE SUPPLIES – Like stationary, these items also get over looked and shrugged off unless they’re some of the bigger items (like desks). Lets face it folks, you need these supplies to get your work done and maintain your “office”. Don’t forget them!
Examples: desks, office chairs, air cans, screen wipes, desk polish, book cases and shelves, mouse pads, burnable CD and DVDs, USB and thumb drives, business card holders, pen holders, ect.

RESOURCES & EDUCATION – And here is yet another expense that get over looked a lot. Are you attending a seminar or convention in order to pick up some tips and tricks from others successful in your field? Maybe you’ve purchased some books and manuals to help better your own skills (WordPress for Dummies anyone?), hell, maybe you’re taking a class on MYSQL and PHP to get a leg up. Well guess what, those are out of pocket expenses you should be deducting. Classes fall under “furthering education” as do manuals, books, seminars, and conventions that teach you anything that will help your business stay current and succeed.
Examples: books, manuals, convention/seminar fees, classes

FOOD & DINNING – If you’re meeting with clients over breakfast/lunch/dinner, sitting down to a meal out somewhere with an advisor, or taking a meal at a seminar, you better be keeping those receipts. You should also be keeping a meals and entertainment log too. For each entry you should mark down the date, who you ate with (if applicable), a quick notation as to why this meal was business-related (were you paying for your own meal at a Blog Her convention or eating out with a new client?), and the amount spent. You can only take 50% of meals (sadly) but something is better then nothing. Keep those receipts!
Examples: meals with clients, convention meals, ect.

OFFICE FOOD – This is a tricky one, and one I tend to avoid taking for the most part myself. If you have an actual office space that is separate (not attached to your home) and clients who can come in to speak with you, then you might have a candy dish sitting around, perhaps you even keep coffee and tea stocked just for your clients or for those nights you’re working late into the night. In those instances, items such as the aforementioned might be taken as an “office expense” and you may take the full amount. If you have an office in your home or a designated space, regardless of whether or not clients come in and the snacks are for them, you should be taking this expense under dinning and only taking 50% of the amount. Why? Because your “office” is part of your home and snacks are eaten in your home regularly. You cannot rightfully “prove” that those snacks were solely for business purposes and if you are audited you can bet you will not be allowed that expense in full. Even then, despite what other bloggers seem to be encouraging, this is a very iffy expense and I don’t recommend taking it. Remember, the burden of proof is on the tax payer.
Examples: candy (for candy dishes), coffee, tea, small snacks

Things to Keep In Mind!

Some other things that you should keep in mind, when it comes to expenses, is that having logs (whether they’re required or nor) are very helpful and will help you track (and justify) expenses should you ever be audited. Keep you receipts! If you’re claiming an expense you better have a receipt for it, whether it’s an invoice printed from the computer, bank/credit card statement, an email, or receipt form a register – keep it. While keeping the original receipts is all well and good, the fact is, receipts fade with time. Especially those printed on thermal paper. For this reason you should always make photo copies of your receipts. Thermal receipts can fade away to nothing in months, and if you’re audited a year or two down the road, chances are most of your receipts will be faded. In those instances, if you do not have proof of the expense you will not be able to take the expense which will obviously result in your tax return being rendered incorrect.

Auditors are people too, and they’ve got heavy workloads with defensive and argumentative people to deal with. If you ever get audited, do not make their jobs harder by handing them a large box filled with tax returns, receipts, and other odds and ends tossed together and expect them to solve it. Keep your information neat and together. Your tax return should retain all the relevant information for that year including W2′s and 1099′s and be stored in a file folder nice and neat with your expenses and logs in a separate but included file. Expenses should all be photocopied and stored in a folder that is for that tax year’s expenses only. Included should be any logs that you might have that explain the expenses, such as a Meals & Entertainment Log, Mileage Log, and so forth. It’s also helpful if you highlight the portions of an invoice or receipt that contain the items that were purchased as an expense or contain the total amount if the entire invoice was a business expense. Some invoices are confusing or hard to understand, help your auditor out and make things easier for them. Not only will things go smoother, but they’ll be in a better mood for it and will be more understanding and likely to assist you.

It’s Monday, which means the start of a new week of littering the town with my resume in the hopes that I can find a job to pay the bills. At this point finding a place where I can actually put my degree to use has become a secondary objective. Sad really.

I’m almost tempted to try and go back to school and see if I can’t earn a degree in a field where there are some job opportunities. If I went that route though I’d prefer to get an online degree as schooling via internet would give me a better chance to work during the day. Online universities do make that easier. I’ve even been checking out online schools like WGU (which TIME Magazine calls “The Best Relatively Cheap University You’ve Never Heard Of”). There are a number of scholarships listed right on the school’s website that can help make it more affordable and a number of worthwhile programs in their colleges.

But to be honest, I somehow think going back to school is going to be the answer to my problem. The fact is, I’ve just got to be patient and keep trying until I get what I want. Right? Right.

So here goes another day pounding the pavement. Wish me luck!

Ever since my laptop crashed a few months ago I’ve been very careful about keeping my files backed up, software up to date, and regular scans. I’ve got my most important files, like my 10GB of music, 300 fonts, some important software I can’t just “download”, and dozens of adobe brushes kept backed up on a flash drive. Multiple flashdrives actually. But now I’m thinking that might not be such a good idea.

My music collection is so large that I have to back it up on multiple flash drives as the price of a 10GB+ flash drive is beyond obscene. My fonts also take up a large chuck of storage space as well and that’s not even mentioning all of the other files I’d like to back up regularly on separate locations but I am currently unable to do so.

I’ve decided an external hard drive would be the route to go, but I’m not sure what brand is really reliable when it comes to these things. I thought about getting one on Black Friday but surprisingly enough there weren’t too many good deals on them.

Any suggestions for a reliable brand for an external hard drive and a reasonable price range for them?

I got back from theater a little while ago. My mother and I went to see Michael Jackson’s This Is It which is a video biography that contains footage of the rehearsals for MJ’s This Is It tour as well as interviews from dancers, producers, and musicians who were involved in its production.

To be honest I didn’t know what to expect from this movie. I had heard that initially they had planned to release this as a straight-to-dvd documentary so I was curious as to how this would play out exactly. I have to say I was very impressed. They did an awesome job of capturing MJ’s onstage energy, showing the rehearsals and mock-ups to give you an idea of how everything would have come together on tour, and they even featured full performances of some of MJ’s more memorable songs as well as the new video footage that would have been displayed during the tour. Frankly I thought it was awesome seeing MJ like this.

I was also impressed with the audience in the theater. No talking during the show, no cellphones blaring, people walking in front or standing up. Everyone was so respectful – I’ve never seen that in a theater before! And when MJ was performing on the screen you could hear others in the audience singing along. Yes, I was singing and crying right along with them.

When “Man in the Mirror” was being performed a good majority of the audience members whipped out cellphones and opened them up to wave them in lieu of lighters. I thought that was one of the most beautiful things I’d even seen. Men and women , ages ranging from ten to sixty, all together in celebrating the life of a wonderful and inspirational man. All Michael Jackson fans need to see this, definitely.

After we left the theater we went to Wal-Mart to get a little shopping done and out of the way while there were no crowds. Somehow even in the middle of the night Wal-Mart remains an exhausting place to be. I want to curl up in bed and go to sleep now but I have to finish cleaning up the kitchen (which I put off) because I won’t have any time to do it tomorrow until late in the day. I need to dig some stuff out of storage and put other things away. I have to borrow a dollie first though (they’re also called industrial hand wheels) to make moving the big plastic storage bins easier. Ah, long day tomorrow.

Things aren’t exactly looking up right now for my mother. First and foremost her hours have been drastically reduced. By this I mean that the office does not open until 8am and closes at 3pm, assuming she has work to keep her busy. If she’s finished with her clients for the day, which she usually is by noon, then it’s out the door. Because of the economy a lot of her clients, who were small business owners, had to close their doors. Hence her workload was drastically reduced. To survive she began hunting for clients some of which came to accounting office she works for, most though did not like the idea of going to Las Cruces when they are situated elsewhere, thought their fees were atrocious, and various other reasons. These clients she took on the side and handles on her own. This is how she has been able to substantiate her income (by finding work elsewhere) when she’s been sent home early for lack of work (for shame being caught up with all of your client’s books!) and her cut hours.

Even then it’s barely been enough to get buy right now let alone continue her education. Yes, despite her wishes of going back to school to receive a Masters in Accounting and Business and to pick up a Bachelor’s in Computers, she’s had to put it off due to lack of funds. A pity too as she was progressing nicely. Unfortunately her boss found out that she [my mother] has been maintaining her own clients and was quite livid and demanded that she cease and desist. Her boss’ harped on about loyalty to the company and so forth; nevermind the fact that her boss does this as well.

For people like my mother, an Online master degree is the ideal route to go as it will allow her to further her education while at the same time continuing her career. She’s taken numerous online courses before in her college career so pursuing her Masters degree and her Bachelors in Computers shouldn’t be that difficult for her. I’ve been enlisted to assist her in locating a reputable establishment; as there are sadly quite a few papermill scams out there. I’ve found that Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington boasts an online masters degree program. This is wonderful news as not many top ranked schools are offering online programs and Gonzaga University is ranked one of the nation’s best universities by The Princeton Review and Forbes Magazine.

The downside, however, is the fact that they do not offer any of the programs she is interested in further pursuing. I would like to see such an accredited school offer a more thorough selection of programs. After all, Gonzaga University claims that they believe online programs allow experienced professionals the chance to further their educations, something they may not otherwise be able to do due to professional or personal commitments. If the school truly believes this then they need to broaden their offerings.

Several years ago there was a developer in the El Paso, TX area who attempted to fill up an arroyo and sold homes there. When we had our “monsoon” season it flooded and many houses were damaged. Home owners were very…upset…as you can imagine. The developer clearly forgot to mention some things before selling those homes.

Likewise, I think the developer selling manufactured homes up in Vado, NM forgot to mention a few things as well. There are three houses there that are just about completed. In reality there should have been a fourth one, one that was completely finished and it looked like the family was even ready to move in as well.

So what happened to that fourth house I mentioned? Oh, nothing much. It just burned down to the ground one night. Yup, nothing but a soot covered stain was all that was left of it the next day. This was about a month ago. The other night as I drove by on the way to the interstate I couldn’t help but notice the graffiti that had popped up on the houses being built, the walls surrounding the development, and even on the tools. I’d like to say that I was surprised, but in honesty, after seeing them tag a poor defenseless tree, concrete ditch, and water pump, I’m not that surprised. There’s also a couple of semis that run deliveries to and from the dairy that have been tagged as well.

I really doubt the developer mentioned the possibility of gang bangers tagging up their property (or burning it to the ground) when they sold these spots.

If you were in the home owners positions, what would you do? Would you continue to build there or would you look elsewhere? What might you do to ensure your home was protected if you decided to stay?

Something of interest happened today. One of the businesses at the office complex where my mother’s office is was doing some moving in. I think they might have been doing some upgrades to their hardware, but I’m not certain. What I am certain of is that the technician in charge of setting up their computers must be a royal fucking idiot and a lucky one at that.

I sincerely wish I had thought to bring my camera because you had to see it to believe it. The guy left the back doors of his van unlocked and wide open in the parking lot. It was after six o’clock, so you know that most of the folks had gone home for the day. As such, no one was going to be looking out their office windows and noticing anyone messing with his stuff. Walking past, I could see boxes of brand new netbooks/laptops (however you prefer to call them) and some brand new computer towers in boxes as well. Not to mention, his own laptop was open, on, and sitting on a stack of boxes outside the van.

Now sure, hardly anyone was around, but the street wasn’t exactly dead you know. Not to mention, the office he was working at was in the back and out of view of the parking lot.

What kind of moron goes off and leaves expensive tech out in the open like that? Might as well have posted a sign that read: “Free to good home” or something.

Honestly, I kinda drooled when I looked at those towers and lappytops. Hey, if my mother got a new tower I could have mine back and my lack of internet access at home troubles would all be over. Alas, I have an annoying voice in my head that tends to give me an earful if I dare to cross a line. As such, I kept walking.

I can’t help but wonder if anybody ended up jacking anything though and if this is the first time the idiot has done something like that. The van had that green emblem on it that Office Max (or was it Staples?) uses for their install team. Makes me leery of trusting them with my computer troubles when it comes to installation and repair.

My grandfather got an interesting letter in the mail today. It’s from an agency called Comerica Financial Inc. Apparently he “won” a sweepstakes and they have been attempting to contact and distribute the winnings to him and he has not responded to the previous attempts. He says that, yes, he has received letters from them before.

Here’s the letter in it’s entirety, personal information has been censored, of course.

Comerica Financial Inc.
555 Middle Dyke Road #5 Parkville, N.S. b5P 1J9

Dear XXXX XXXXXXXX,
We are please to inform you that you are one of the winners in the second category of the USA Mega (under the international sweepstake) Draw held on MARCH 3RD, 2009.
The entry slip with serial number ######## attached to your name matched the first five lucky winning numbers ##-##-##-##-## and subsequently won US $350,000.00 (Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars).

Comerica Financial Inc has been assigned by the international sweepstakes organization to inform the winners and pay them off their winnings. Paymen will be made by a certified check, which will be delivered by our special courier company. Enclosed is a check in the amount of US $4,500.,, which is provided to you to help you for a tax exemption form that is payable to your tax agent.

You are advised to contact your claims agent Danna Alvrez @ 1-778-316-2841 Monday-Friday: 7am – 5pm & Saturday: 7am-2pm to start your claiming process and to activate your check.

Note: Please do not act on this notice until you contact your claims agent to avoid casses of misappropriation and mishandling of prize money.

Tax Agent: Cynthia Garcia
Address: 170-14th, New York, NY 13021
Tax Amount: $3,500.00 US Dollars
Payment Method: Money Gram

My grandfather is only slightly leery of this letter and he keeps oogling the check. In short, he’s pretty certain it’s legit. Frankly I think this is an elaborate scam. The fact that a google search reveals nothing, at all, about this “Comerica Financial Inc” seems proof enough to me. There are some companies and listing with “Comerica” in it, but no company by the name of Comerica Financial Inc. and certainly not of the companies I found listed had the same logo as used on the letter. Sounds like a dummy-corporation to me.

Also, there is no return address on the envelope that this letter came in and it has a pre-paid postage on it from Canada. The check is made out to my grandfather by, McAfee(R). Yeah, the virus protection company. Address on the check is: McAfee, Inc. 5000 Headquarters Driver Plano, TX 73045.

I wonder just how many people have gotten taken in by this scam?

And I can’t help but question my grandfather’s state of mind for even believing this. I’m glad he showed it to me first before trying to cash it. -_-

I think that’s exactly what the Department of Transportation (DOT) thought when they posted these little signs below the posted speed limit on our street:

No, you are not seeing things. The signs below the speed limit signs really do read “Please Drive Slowly”. I honestly think the DOT is getting desperate here. I’ve never even seen signs saying that posted at crosswalks, school zones, or even hospital zones! Ever since I was a child, the posted speed limit on our street has been 35 miles per hour, not that anyone ever obeys the speed limit. Hell, not even the people who live on this street go the posted speed limit. Yes, I am part of that guilty party.

The fact is, it’s a straight shot with a curve at the end of the road and the street is indeed a shortcut and a great way to bypass the traffic on highway 28. So people will turn on this street and fly down here doing, usually 40 to 45mph. There are some that will go even faster, but the majority do 40 to 45. The street is a shortcut, that’s all there is to it. Even the State police and sheriffs fly down this street at excessive speeds.

So tell me, if law enforcement can’t be bothered to observe the posted limit, what hope does the DOT have of convincing everyone else to obey the speed limit? Hell, I’ve never even seen anyone get a ticket for speeding on this street.

Getting to work yesterday proved to be a bit of a chore. First I couldn’t find my house keys then when I finally get out on the road I am stuck behind this rude person who drives slow when I can’t pass than deliberately speeds up when I can pass. To make matters worse, when I got to Vado to get to the interstate I found my way barred by State Police and DOT (department of transportation).

Apparently, something had happened up on the interstate and they weren’t letting anyone pass, not even to go to the frontage road. I ended up having to back track to highway 48, from there I traveled to Berino and took a road that connected to the frontage that ran along I-10. I thought I was in the clear, just travel the frontage road until I get to the Anthony, NM exit and get on the interstate there. I thought wrong. Didn’t even travel thirty seconds on the frontage road before I had to slam my brakes on because traffic had come to a grinding stop. Looks like everyone else thought about going on the frontage as well; traffic had backed up from the Anthony, NM/Chaparral, NM (“The Gap”) exit.

The reason they hadn’t been letting anyone get on the frontage road in Vado was because they had closed down that section of the interstate and were forcing I-10 traffic onto the frontage road. Since the line was continuing to back up beyond the Berino exit and I had no intention of sitting there inching along every few minutes I and a few other vehicles decided to off-road a bit. There was a road up ahead, that no one but a few locals were daring to turn onto since it wasn’t marked, and instead of waiting patiently till we got to it, a few other drivers and myself drove through the weeds and bramble on the side of the road to get to it ASAP.

I honestly couldn’t remember where it dumped me out, but after a while I was very glad I took it. Turned out it eventually dumped me onto the road that runs by the newly built Pic Quick out in Anthony – boy is that franchise taking over New Mexico, there’s like seven in Las Cruces alone – and that road connects to the street leading to freeway entrance. No problems getting on the freeway there, so glad too, because the detour cost me thirty minutes.

I vowed to watch the news that evening at 10pm to see what had caused the closure and I honestly wish I didn’t. The news was completely and utterly depressing. The death toll in Juarez, Mexico continues to rise, with over 300 homicides (read: executions), and despite the heavy military presence now the death tolls still rise and citizens honestly expect things to get worse before it gets better. I’ve known about the murders happening in Juarez for a while now, kind of hard to ignore since it is the city bordering the city I work in, but hearing about it and seeing bodies covered by tarps in the streets on the news makes it much worse.

On top of that, I found out that the reason that I-10 was closed down was because state police were investigating an accident that occurred near the Anthony, NM exit. I remember seeing the flashing lights from where I was driving, but I didn’t stay stuck in the parking lot of a frontage road, so I can’t describe what it looked like. According to the Sun News and Channel 7 news, at about 12:40 p.m., a woman driving a GMC Envoy SUV headed West on Interstate 10 tried to make a u-turn by driving onto the median and merging into the traffic on I-10 East. The driver smashed head on into a man driving a Toyota Camry. The man died on the scene and the woman was taken to a hospital in El Paso, TX with serious injuries.

Then there was the story about another stabbing (or was it a shooting?) in the three block radius known as the Devil’s Triangle in El Paso, TX; some workers who were trapped in a collapsed shaft in Las Cruces, NM; and a teacher in trouble for cussing at stupid students. Oh, and let’s not forget that the ringleaders of a kidnapping ring were identified and also charged with a murder and there was an update on this woman who had a deadly standoff with officers when they tried to issue her a warrant. Seems like there is absolutely nothing but bad and horrible news these days.

Now I remember why I rarely watch the newscasts anymore. No news is definately good news.

I stopped at the dollar store on my way to work yesterday, hoping to find some yummy snacks to keep stocked in my bag, when I spied something that I had not seen before. Well, at least I had never seen it unless I was actually at a fast food joint. I’m talking about a bag of Onion Ring flavored snacks from Burger King:

The chips were located, as you might have guessed, in the chips aisle. I went ahead and picked up a bag to give them a try. Gotta admit, they tasted a heck of a lot better than I thought they would! As you can see in the picture, they’re smaller in size than Funyuns and have a more distinct ring shape. Kinda reminds me how of, as a kid, we would play with the onion rings from restaurants and pretend that they were engagement rings. Remember doing that? And the Bugles you could put on your fingers and pretend were very long and funky fingernails. Come on, surely I’m not the only kid that played with her food?

In any case, I think I prefer Burger King’s Onion Ring snacks to Funyuns simply because they have a stronger, but not too strong, onion taste. As a kid, Funyuns seemed seemed to have a stronger onion taste that has been diluted over time. I swear, now a days, Funyuns just doesn’t have much of an onion taste at all.

I wonder what else BK is going to start marketing. I remember seeing ads online for cologne from BK, now we have flavored snacks. I wonder what’s next? BK tv dinners?

Bleh. I’m glad that the job I currently have is allowing me to pay my bills, but really, I think I hate the job. It’s not that challenging for me and it’s almost as boring as sitting around and listening to those long and bland commercials on late night tv about term life insurance rates and various medical products whose side affects may include “vomiting, hair loss, nausea, rashes, blindness, and migraines”. I need something that challenges me! Okay sure, sometimes it can be difficult to get sales, but in truth, I still can’t bring myself to really give a damn about the job.

Does this make me a horrible person? I dunno, but my life seems to have come to a grinding halt and I’m stuck in the mud here. I’m sort of deathly afraid to step away from the secure right now to go on a limb for something new though. After all, while this job isn’t the best, it’s paying the bills. Which is ultimately better than trying to move elsewhere and look for better jobs that will actually challenge me.

Right?

Remember how I said I drove by a building everyday, but I didn’t know what it was? Well, I promised a picture of it, but the pictures I managed to get totally sucked because 1) I was going too fast and no one appreciated me slowing down either, 2) traffic kind of prevented clear shots. So in order to get a better image of the building, I opted to just take a quick video of it as I’m driving by. If you watch it I’m sure you can get an idea of what it looks like:

So what do you think it is? It’s pretty obvious that it’s not some sort of travel center or even an insurance office that offers up travel insurance or something of the sort.

I’m leaning towards mall or shopping center. If that is what it is, then dang, when the hell did that get built? You should see it at night, it looks pretty because there are walkways that are lit up too.

I feel like such an idiot, but every day as I drive to work, my gaze shifts to the right and I am tempted to take exit just to sate my curiosity.

I haven’t noted the exit, but just as you’re entering the El Paso city limits there is a whole bunch of brightly painted buildings that catch my eye. I’ve noted the billboard signs on the way there, nothing gives me a clue as to what it is. There are billboards for the recent election, upcoming concert events, and even Dansko shoes but nothing that tells me what it is.

I think it might be some sort of shopping mall, but that seems odd since I could have sworn El Paso only had three: Cielo Vista, Sunland Park, and Basset Place, which that place is obviously not. On top of that, before you get to the exit there is one of those brown little signs that you see dotting freeways, interstates, and highways, that tell you that there are historic sights, trails, or museums nearby. Specifically that sign says that there are museums ahead. But that building(s?) doesn’t seem like a museum.

What’s even more confusing is I could sworn there was nothing but factories out that way.

I’m going to take a picture of it today on my way to work, and when I get home, I’ll post it here on the blog. Maybe you guys can take a guess and tell me what you think it is. Since I’m off Saturday, I’m thinking of driving up there to see what exactly it is. I’d take a detour on my way to work to find out, but I don’t want to get turned around and loose precious time trying to get back on the freeway.

I swear, the entirety of the Sears website is completely drool-worthy. No matter what section I visit I keep on finding great deals. When it comes to appliances, my family has almost always gotten our appliances from Sears. The refrigerator, the toaster oven, the microwave – all of it came from Sears. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, the gas stove was even order from Sears as well. Of course, it’s way older than me though, so it could have very well been order from the Sears catalog to boot.

I was checking out the Sears website earlier in hopes of spying some nice sweaters, slacks, and blouses, to keep an eye out for when I go shopping during the Veterans Day Sale, and for some reason I remembered that we need to buy a new rice cooker and bread maker. I’m not really sure how my mind wandered, I think it’s because some of the sweaters looked Christmasy, which made me think of holidays and cooking. In any case, Sears apparently has a Cookware and Bakeware Sale going on right now too. Waffle makers, bread makers, even George Foreman grills all have slashed prices. Not to mention they even have a special going on from November 5th through November 8th where you can get an 8-pc roster set for $4.99 after a $10 mail-in rebate. That would make a nice gift for someone who likes to cook or who is starting off in a new place.