Archive for July, 2011

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I Almost had a New Phone


31 Jul

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Posted in Budgeting, Finances, Technology | Comments Off

A little over a week ago, I dropped my phone in a puddle. Water damage is irreparable. New pone for me. Because I’m not even a year in to my contract, I wasn’t about to pay full price for a new phone. I bought a used on off of eBay- replacement phone for under $30 instead of $300.

Except, Sprint won’t allow me to have a BlackBerry without having a BlackBerry data plan- at $30/month. I didn’t pay that much for the phone, so… No.

So back on eBay. Another $20 for a non-smart phone.

Anyone want a used BlackBerry?

Movie Review: The A-Team


30 Jul

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Posted in Movies | 1 Comment »

Having just watched the same movie twice (Expendable and A-Team), Expendables was better.

They made some odd choices for The A-Team. I don’t know that I needed their origin story. I certainly didn’t need the first meeting story with BA and Murdock. If I can accept thatHannibaland Face already know each other, why can’t I accept that about the others?

And as for Face having the girl who got away, the one he wanted to get serious with, it ruins him. Face always cared about all the women, but I am anti him having a one true love.

Weddings & Money


29 Jul

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It is wedding season. Not just in real life, but over at Your Money as well, where a number of posters are engaged, getting married this year, or just going to weddings.

Active threads this week have included What is considered expensive for a wedding venue? (self explanatory), Wedding Debt? (a discussion about whether people would go in to debt for their wedding), Wedding UGHH (talk about how much to spend on wedding gifts), Our Wedding Gifts Breakdown (again, fairly self explanatory), and a Spin off of wedding gifts thread (about useless gifts, whether received at the wedding or otherwise).

Mumford & Sons and Flogging Molly


28 Jul

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We’ve really kind of fallen in love with Mumford & Sons. Given that we’re fans of folk and Irish music, it’s not really surprising. What is surprising to me is how much air play they’re getting on main stream radio and music television.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. They just don’t fit in the mold of most of what seems to be out there right now. Instead, they’re traditional.

Though it does amuse me that Pandora plays a lot of Mumford & Sons on my Flogging Molly station. Apparently Flogging Molly isn’t flagged as punk, only as Irish.

The Joy of Painting


27 Jul

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This may seem silly, but I love that The Best of The Joy of Painting still plays on our local public television station. There’s just something about Bob Ross’s voice that’s incredibly relaxing after a stressful day.

I can just lay back and watch him paint happy trees, or talk about how he always forgets to put chimneys on cabins and viewers write in to say the people in those cabins must be freezing. And it all seems so easy, like I could do it.

It was a zen experience when I was 15. 20 years later, it still is.

Movie Review: The Expendables


26 Jul

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Sylvester Stallone is completely to blame for The Expendables. He wrote, directed, and starred in the movie. And yes, it was just what you would expect from that statement- meaning it was good fun that I am glad I did not pay for in the theater.

The most amusing part of the movie was the scene that supposedly has Sly, Bruce Willis, andArnoldin it. I say supposedly because we were pretty certain that none of the men were ever in the same room for the shooting of the scene- unintentional comedy gold (that was maybe intentional, who knows.)

One for All and All for One


25 Jul

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There are a few upcoming movies that we will definitely see in the theater.  Coming soon is the new Conan, and then there’s John Carter of Mars (whenever it’s due out), and this weekend, we saw a preview for a new Three Musketeers movie. I MUST see this.

I love Three Musketeers movies, especially the ones that do not take themselves seriously. This new on has Orlando Bloom as a bad guy, zeppelin battles- that’s right, there are airships in the new Musketeers, and, as icing on the cake, Ray Stevenson (known to Rome fans as Titus Pullo) as Porthos.

Movie Review: Harry Potter 7b


24 Jul

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Saw Harry Potter 7b. The final movie does not stand on its own, but that is rather to be expected considering it’s based on the second half of a book. I have enjoyed the entire series and thought this was a fitting end.

Still, there were little things that got to me. Does being in Slytherin automatically make you an evil wizard? Why should all kids who got sorted into Slytherin be put in the dungeons, just because one of them said something? I really wish they’d had the line about grabbing Harry come from someone in a different house.

Growing my Blogs


23 Jul

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Decided this week to put more effort into increasing blog traffic on my pet and personal finance blogs.

For Life by Pets, I joined the Pet Blog Directory and started linking to some other pet-centric sites that I read. I’ve already gotten a comment from a new reader, so that’s rather gratifying.

Over at Baking the Budget, I joined the Yakezie Challenge. It’s a group of personal finance and lifestyle bloggers who provide support to each other. In order to become a full member, I have six months to greatly increase my traffic.

Some changes may be in the works.

Become Debt Free with the Women in Red


22 Jul

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Posted in Budgeting, Debt Reduction, Finances | Comments Off

I’ve mentioned the Women in Red message board here before, but I’m going to plug it again, as we’re trying to grow our membership. We used to have members directed to us via MSN and MP Dunleavy, but since we’ve had to move to a new site we don’t get a lot of new traffic.

Do you want to be debt free? Do you need motivation, maybe some help figuring out your personal strategy to achieve that goal? Head on over to the Women in Red (you don’t even have to be a woman) and put yourself on the path.

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