Maunderlust

Migration! I was loving RapidWeaver’s simplicity, but I couldn’t think of an easy way to fix the Internet Explorer problem. It turns out my webhost (dreamhost) offers a free WordPress install.

It was pretty easy to copy over all of my old entries from an RSS file. So now I expect I’ll be learning the ins and outs of WordPress for awhile before the site is really functional again.
Hooray for the internets!

[tags]WordPress, RapidWeaver, Internet Explorer, Dreamhost[/tags]

Woe woe woe. It seems that this site doesn’t play nice with Internet Explorer. It’s fine on both Safari and Firefox though. I’m debating what to do about that.

I suspect that the culprit may be the new Amazon scripts… but I’m not certain. I could find out easily enough, but right now I can’t be bothered.

[tags]Internet Explorer, Firefox, Amazon[/tags]

Just saw Sarah Silverman’s DVD Jesus is Magic. Sarah is way cute, for a girl.

Her comedy is primarily rooted in hy-larious topics like rape, AIDS, and the holocaust. One of my favorite jokes, “When God gives you AIDS, (and God does give you AIDS by the way)… make lemon-AIDS.” That should give you a sense of how she mashes up the adorable and the horrifying in her routine.

Unlike a lot of shock comedy, Sarah never comes across as angry. Her persona is always sunny and self-absorbed and ready to follow up a horribly racist comment with something even more awful… or with a song.

Yes, a song. The movie includes several musical numbers. The songs are good for the most part, but best of all is the signature visual direction and musical arrangement of Liam Lynch. Liam is way cute, for a boy.

You may remember him from the Sifl & Olly show on MTV, or from that United States of Whatever song a few years ago.

If you’re looking for a regular Liam Lynch fix, he’s doing an excellent video podcast that you can subscribe to on iTunes. The shows are robust, to say the least. You can also pick up Fake Songs where he does spot on interpretations of the likes of Bjork, David Bowie, and the Pixies.

Oh, but back to Sarah… yes. If you like being offended (and I do), you’ll have a great time with her.

Sarah Silverman – Jesus is Magic

[tags]Sarah Silverman, Liam Lynch, Jesus is Magic, Fake Songs, Lemon-AIDS[/tags]

Oprah’s Debt Diet! (Masticate!)

Step 4: Stop Spending.

Now why didn’t I think of that? Yes. It’s so clear, so simple. Stop spending.

I kid Oprah. This is actually pretty good advice. She has some specific recommendations, like only make one trip to the ATM each week, create specific funds for big expenses, and tell people about what you’re trying to do to rally support.

While this blog isn’t inteded to rally anyone to anything, I do hope that by forcing myself to disclose what I’m up to I will be more motivated to succeed.

Speaking of which… I have already cheated on the debt diet. I bought a Canon Digital Rebel Camera as a gift. This flies in the face of everything Oprah has been trying to teach me. But it had to be done, and thankfully I did it before moving on to step 4. I had no idea that I needed to stop spending in order to start saving. Seriously, no idea at all.

[tags]Oprah, Debt Reduction, Canon Rebel XTI[/tags]

You’ll notice a bunch of Amazon links popping up. Here’s why…

One of my Christmas gifts was the MacHeist bundle thing. It included the excellent RapidWeaver app, which I’m using to bang this site out. Another app was Delicious Library.

Delicious Library makes it a joy to scan and sort pretty much everything that you own into a comprehensive media database. You can use a webcam to scan the barcode on a game, movie, CD, book, or whatever. The app instantly retrieves all the relevant information about that product from the Amazon database. It then creates an image of the item and places it on a virtual shelf.

It may not sound all that exciting, but it’s remarkably fun.

Anyway, I was planning on using Delicious Library not only to organize my stuff, but also to prompt me to write about books, movies, and games on here. As I was writing the Karl Pilkington review, I went to create a link to Amazon.com, but then I remembered the affiliate program that Amazon has. Basically, if someone buys something through one of your links, you get a small percentage of the sale. So I signed up for that.

My thinking is, If I’m talking about something in a blog post and you want to buy it, cool – there it is. For those that aren’t interested, I’ll try to keep the links as unobtrusive as possible. That sounds reasonable, right?
[tag]Amazon Affiliate, MacHeist, Delicious Library, Karl Pilkington[/tag]

One of my Christmas gifts was Ricky Gervais Presents: The World of Karl Pilkington.

If you are unfamiliar with Karl’s singular outlook on the universe, I highly recommend downloading the three latest podcasts from either Guardian Unlimited or iTunes before they disappear on January 6th. Or, you could turn to Wikipedia for a crash course in all things Karl.

Karl’s impresario is Ricky Gervais of The Office and Extras fame. The genius of the Ricky Gervais Show typically comes not from the witty banter between Ricky and Steve Merchant, but rather from Karl’s totally befuddled counterpoint. As a wellspring of misinformation and uninformed conjecture, it is possible that the internet was invented for Karl, or he for it. Not since Cat Macros has their been a finer match of content and medium.

If you caught the first series of 12 podcasts, much of the material in the book will be familiar to you. Some of the stories, like the classic, “I could eat a knob at night” aren’t quite as funny on the page as they were on the pod. But others, like “What d’you mean about eyes facing forward” are just as absurd, if not more so, on paper. Rounding out the book are some genuinely cute illustrations by the man himself, and original excerpts from the now legendary diary.

If you’ve heard the show, you already know the material. If you liked it enough to revisit it, the book is a remarkably analog way to do just that. If you haven’t been introduced to Karl Pilkington yet, the book is an entertaining read and a glimpse into the inner workings of well-meaning madness.

Ricky Gervais Presents: The World of Karl Pilkington

[tags]Karl Pilkington, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, The Office, Extras[/tags]

Oprah’s Debt Diet! (chomp)

Step 3: Learn to play the credit card game.

This portion of the debt diet begins with a grim admonition for those who have fallen into the trap of revolving credit. Pay the monthly minimum at your own peril!

I’m with you O. I looked into the snowball method of debt reduction, where you pay off the debts in order of smallest to largest irrespective of interest rate. This method sounded appealing because because snowball is a euphemism for a sex act, as well as the name of a well intentioned and much maligned imaginary pig.

Oprah suggests an elaborate calculus for divining the order in which debts should be paid off. The acronym is DOLP, which is not as catchy as Snowball. DOLP stands for Dead on Last Payment, and is gleaned my mixing your Swiss Latte Fund with bird entrails and the menses of an unshorn virgin. I’m going to forgo that and just stick with interest rate as my bellwether. Honestly, I don’t think my debt situation is complex enough to warrant an avian sacrifice.

As part of the debt diet, I’ve made an appointment on my google calendar to call the credit card company about reducing my interest rate. This is very difficult for me. I’m not confrontational by nature, and I hate asking for things. But Oprah commands it. So it must be done.

[tags]Oprah, Debt Reduction, Snowball, Google Calendar[/tags]

Oprah’s Debt Diet! (munch)

Step 2: Track your spending and find extra money to pay down debt.

For this part of the debt diet, Oprah keenly observes that you can find extra money to pay down debt by eliminating some of the little impulse purchases that you make every day. This is similar to the financial advice you’ll find on Feed the Pig, another debt reduction site.

So, do I feed the pig, or go on a debt diet? These messages are so mixed. Do I run to Oprah’s warm bosom, or the creepy snorting porcine gentleman?

I will go on the debt diet because the pig has really really irritating sound effects. They are nothing compared to the dulcet, smokey, tones of my Oprah’s melodious voice.

My Latte Factor looks like this:

Coffee/Tea – $4.00
Lunch @ work – $8.00
Vending Machine – $1.00

Total – $13.00/day
Month – $390
Year – $4680

Granted, that’s a ballpark daily figure, I haven’t actually done the form yet. But I suspect that if you were to average out a year’s spending, it’s about right. The yearly amount is pretty astonishing. If you want to try the calculator yourself, you can find it here: Oprah’s Feel-Bad-About-Your-Spending-Habits Calculator.

Over 30 years, Oprah tells me that my Latte Factor savings could add up to quite a lot:

So what does this mean for Operation Blue Hippo? Well, clearly I need to spend less on miscellaneous incidentals throughout the day.

OPERATION BLUE HIPPO – STEP 3: REDUCE DAILY SPENDING BY 50%

No, I’m not going cut out all lunches at work, or all coffee. That would just make me resent this whole endeavor. Instead, I’m going to try to cut down by half, which I think is doable. I’ll use my ATM statements to track how well I’m doing. I should be spending no more than $45 per week on sundries.

Wish me luck!
[tags]Oprah, Debt Reduction, Latte[/tags]

Is there anything that Oprah Winfrey can’t do? She’s the most incendiary thing to happen to literature since the library at Alexandria, she generously unleashed upon the world the wit and wisdom of Dr. Phillip McGraw, and she’s wrestled dangerous madmen only to emerge unscathed. She is more than every woman, she is every super woman. That includes Wonder Woman, She-Ra, and possibly Jem.

And wouldn’t you know it, her talents extend to financial advice too! That’s right, by way of LifeHacker, I’ve discovered…

THE OPRAH DEBT DIET (yum!)

STEP ONE: HOW MUCH DEBT DO YOU REALLY HAVE?

Part 1 – Figure out how much debt you’ve got

Way ahead of you Oprah. I’m using a slightly different tracking method than the big O reccomends, because I’d like to track my debt over time. I’ve set up a google spreadsheet to handle it.

Part 2 – Get your credit rating

Got it. Last check my FICO was 720. Not the best. But, not the worst either. There’s a lingering blight on there that will be with me for awhile.

Part 3 – Prioritize your debt

This one’s pretty easy for me. I don’t have a mortgage. My car is off the road since I don’t really need it. And, I ate all the children. So that means after rent and phone, I can prioritize credit cards and student loans by interest rate. So far so good.

Next OBH post, I’ll move on to Oprah’s latte factor. Sounds delicious!
[tags]Oprah, Debt Reduction, Google Spreadsheet[/tags]

I know I’m in the minority here, but I thoroughly enjoyed Final Fantasy X-2. Sure, the tone was a departure from the brooding teen angst of the main series. But still, I found the whole thing to be a refreshing side story, and a fun game. At any rate, by way of Kotaku, here’s a kind of brilliant collision of worlds.

Final Fantasy X-2

The Essential Dolly Parton
[tags]Final Fantasy X-2, Dolly Parton, YouTube[/tags]