For the first time in about 7 years, my portfolio is showing a positive gain.

I threw my back out on Thursday morning, so I've pretty much stayed at home since Friday morning, relegated to bed. Unfortunately, my WiFi is acting wonky, so I only had time to do the following:

• Watch this week's Lost.
• Read The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle.
• Read The Little Book That Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt.
• Watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force Vol. 1: Disc 2.
• Watch Negima: Magic 601
• Watch An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder Disc 2.
• Watch Touching the Void.
• Finish Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.

I wish I could have known I would throw my back out--then I'd have planned to have more stuff on the TiVo to kill time.

From Clark Howard's Show Notes:

The credit card industry was patting itself on the back when the new bankruptcy law it has been pushing for finally got passed recently. But the banks and credit card companies may soon regret what they wished for. The new bankruptcy law has gotten so much publicity that people are scared and they’re paying down their credit card bills at an unprecedented rate. People are realizing that there is no second chance with this new law. If you borrow a lot of money, you’re going to have to pay it back now. And people don’t like paying money back, so they’re being more careful with credit. MBNA, for example, has already had a decline in profits of 94 percent. Capital One has also seen its outstanding balances decline. As a result, these companies are going to flood your mailbox with solicitations for cards. It’s a move of desperation, and you don’t want to get involved. So, keep paying down your debts and let the credit cards reap what they sow.

Personal finance guru Suze Orman will be appearing at the Lenox Square Apple Store tonight at 7:00 pm. Anyone interested in going?

Things I picked up this weekend:

• Coupling Series 3 (with a $5 off Best Buy coupon)
• Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
  Koshun Takami's Battle Royale Vol 7
  Ken Akamatsu's A.I. Love You Vol 3
  Clamp's Cardcaptor Sakura Boxed Set (Vols 4, 5, and 6)
  Make It In Minutes (all under a "Buy 4 books get the 5th free" sale and another $5 Waldenbooks coupon)
• Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (with a 25% off Borders coupon).

Dear World: Please stop sending me coupons.

Read most of the manga Saturday night; I spent the majority of Sunday watching Coupling, knowing that Series 4 was beginning on BBC America, and found out that Richard Coyle (Jeff) left the cast of the show beginning Series 4. Quite disappointing.

* The title of this post is the catchphrase of dealnews.com, a site which lists all sorts of coupons, rebates, and sales on consumables (mostly consumer electronics and computer equipment).

Well, I figured there was a reason I was so lax in doing my taxes this year. I just threw all my information into the computer at TaxAct.com (which, for the other procrastinators in the house, is essentially free--if you go through them to file everything, you just pay about eight bucks, but I think you can just print everything out yourself and mail it in...).

I owe the Federal Government about 955 dollars.

Which is somewhat okay, because I have a sizable One-Dollar Refund from the state of Georgia.

*sigh*

In other news, I picked up a Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52 for half-price from the website--I figured I could use it for Photoshop as well as some of the occasional games that I play.

The only problem is that as soon as I plug it in, it causes Windows 2000 to BSOD. And it's not even the nice "Click here to kill this program" BSOD--I get a "KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED" issue, and the entire computer reboots. Thanks. That tells me so much...

Hopefully, I can get this stupid thing running.

I made the mistake of hooking up the PS2 and starting up Enter the Matrix last night around 7:45 or so. When I next looked at the clock, it was 10:15 or so. This recovering gaming junkie needs this addiction not.

Especially with the large number of things that I need to get done. I started the evening by trying to setup the SiPix Blink to take pictures of various Texas Hold'em hands for some LJ icons/mood icons, but the SiPix is a horrendous piece of shit when it comes to taking pictures indoors, even with direct lighting, so that was a wash.

Also on my plate: Books I have to/should/have purchased to read:

• Positively Fifth Street
• Earnie's copy of Poker Nation
• Dumbing Down for the book club
• The Secret History
• Play Poker Like the Pros by Phil Hellmuth
• Girls' Poker Night
• China Boy
• The Rape of Nanking

Stuff I have to/should do:

• Find some way of getting those Texas Hold'Em hand pictures.
• Transcribe a bunch of Mandarin from Making Out in Chinese for taraljc.
• Hash out the plot/character problems in the Willow/Xander post-Chosen piece before July 15.
• Laundry.
• Dishes.
• Record and watch thirteen episodes of this season's Six Feet Under off of the TiVo for Jackie.
• Make the MP3 CD that I promised khubli a while ago.
• Fix the sound card problems with my mini-tower PC.
• Find some more ways of saving money before August 14.

I'd also like to say hey to the Fishes. :)

This Monster Cheeto can be yours for a mere five hundred dollars.

Did my taxes yesterday. I have to wait until my Roth IRA contribution makes it into my Roth account, but I'll file as soon as it's in there. I was and still am a bit uneasy about using TurboTax for the Web. Aside from the 45 dollars or so that I need to pay for filing, I'm quite used to TurboTax, but since their product activation controversy, I'm a bit wary of doing anything with Intuit. They say they're going to use a different product activation system next year. Hrmm... How about we stop assuming all of our customers are potential criminals?

The good news, however, is that I'll be getting some money back, which should offset the funds I used to refinance.
Current Mood: anxious

I spent about 30 MuVo's yesterday. Now all I have to do is tell Chase Manhattan to stop the auto-debit of my bank account. Here's hoping the new place has automatic funds transfers...

/me looking forward to paying about 300 dollars less a month for my mortgage...

( The Friday Five )
Current Mood: hungry

Well, I just signed about 40 pages worth of paperwork, reducing my monthly payments down to 880 something dollars instead of 1170 or so. Of course, I need to get a cashier's check for around three and a half large.

One added bonus: payments on the new loan begin April 1. So March's 1170 can go to paying a third of that cashier's check.

That and buying my frickin' dinner tonight...
Current Mood: relieved

The woman handling my refinancing called me earlier today, and told me that the underwriting department wanted page three of my bank statement. I bank at Wachovia (formerly First Union), and they basically send two sheets of paper with pages numbered "Page 1 of 3" and so on.

Now if you don't know, Page 3 is that total waste of paper that they include so people have some sort of example to balance their checkbook. I, being horrendously lazy, don't really balance my checkbook, and even if I did, I wouldn't need an extra sheet of paper to do so. I generally shred these things, despite their utter wastage of paper, because I, in my paranoia of identity theft, don't really want my checking account number getting out to the phantom strangers who could be dumpster diving in the Tuscany dumpster.

So at 2:00 or so today, I drove home and found my most recent checking account statement, drove back to work, and made copies to fax the useless shit to the underwriter.

Fast forward three hours. I just got off the phone with the fellow I thought was my condo contents insurance agent. Checking my cellphone voicemail, I discovered that a rep from the company which is doing my refinancing called and told me that this guy says that he's not providing me with insurance. I called him up and he told me that he sent me a letter a few months ago stating why my insurance was rejected.

Ok, does this seem odd to you? I never got a letter, my check cleared on October 29, 2002, and I haven't heard a peep from them.

Why the hell can't things ever be simple anymore?

Edit: my "agent" just called again, and he says that he's mistaken, and that I do have coverage under Farmers' Insurance, despite what he told the people who are doing my refinancing. WTF?
Current Mood: aggravated

You are orange. You are emotional. Outside, you are bitter and stubborn, inside you are hopeful, hoping someone will come save you from the bitterness of your own mind. You constantly feel the need to prove yourself, and you look up to those who can make their dreams happen. You are broken, but not beyond repair like maroon.

What inner color are you?

Quiz by Shirono

Hmm... So I guess I'm yellow on the outside and orange on the inside...

In an effort to get fit, I'm convinced that all of my friends need to pool their monies to buy me this. It's only 1500 dollars at the moment. There's another one on sale in case the bidding goes too high. And you're all welcome to use it at anytime (for a quarter a ride--hey, that's probably 75 cents cheaper than you'd find it anywhere else).
Current Mood: contemplative