Money

Ugh… please tell me you’re sick of the two party system. My wish for the New Year would be for people to open their eyes and look outside a two-party system that has sucked the marrow from our country’s life. I haven’t even started, and I already have digressed. Anyway… today, the buzz around town is the Democratic response to the Republican (apparent) repeal of the Affordable Care Act. I’ve not been a supporter of the ACA, and when I wrote about this back in 2010, I never imagined the costs would be even worse than I had projected. ...

I’ve owned a few Fords in my life — from the ’78 Ford Bronco to my current 2003 Ford Expedition. Today, my truck crossed 200,000 miles. I’m not one overly attached to my truck. I love it, don’t get me wrong. It’s very comfortable, drives well, and the air works great. This being said, if you asked me my favorite vehicle I’ve owned… I’d be at a loss. I just don’t get emotional about vehicles. I did love my Bronco, and I have great memories with “her.” From taking the top off and driving to Fort Lauderdale beach to off-roading with a variety of people (including my Mom) throughout South Florida. Great truck. ...

You may not have known… I love watches. Since I was a little kid, I’ve loved having different watches and have amassed quite the collection. Now, this isn’t a collector’s collection — this is a collection of watches that Fred wanted. Sure, I have some nice ones here and there (my parents brought me back a Cartier from a trip once) but most are important because of their story. I have a great blue-faced Citizen watch I bought when Peter got married… I have the watch my Aunts had given to Uncle Harry… and recently I bought the watch I’ve always wanted. ...

So, while I was discussing pricing regarding a Kamailio support request, the potential client responded with: we got an Indian company they just asked $10/hr and they have good experience in this field So, I’m definitely not billing at $10/hour. A good Kamailio tech with experience will be almost 20x that price. So who really wins on this type of pricing competition? Granted this potential client threw down the gauntlet with an extremely low price — there’s no real way to respond on my end (other than the good, fast, cheap diagram)....

Here’s the back-story: Before we married, Yeni bought her first car. An exciting time for Yeni, having just moved to the US, buying her first car was a pretty big deal. She chose a Nissan Versa, in bright blue, which was promptly named Bluecito. It’s a little car, but it’s a fun little car. Drives well, fun to drive, and surprisingly roomy for a small car. After bringing Yeni (and Bluecito) down to Florida, the Mrs. decided that my truck was to stay in the driveway and the Nissan Versa would be living in the garage. The car is now 5 years old with 50k miles. And now for the rest of the story… ...

Besides writing about Perl, phones, geek items, and rants… I help my beautiful wife with our bakery business. She’s an amazing cake artist… but this isn’t about Yeni… and I told you that to tell you this… The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place. People will take advantage of anyone. Since we opened the bakery, we’ve received tremendous amounts of donation requests (some legit, many not so much) and about once every two weeks or so a flat out attempt to hustle some money. ...

Looks like my silver dollar collection came in handy. 🙂

More importantly, how many people did you share this with?

So, yesterday I got my electricity bill and it was a little over 180 bucks. It’s Gainesville and hot, so I expected a decently high electricity bill. Add air conditioning with more cooking (and a bunch of hot showers) and $180 is expected. Of course, my real electricity bill is $150. There was $30 in taxes. ...

So, today at work I got a call on my cell from a blocked number. I normally don’t answer blocked numbers, but for some reason I did. Anyway, text-to-speech engine identifies itself as Florida First Credit Union and that my credit card was suspended. I hung up. I honestly assumed this was a legit call. You see, I recently changed my cell phone to AT&T and get a few calls a week for the former owner. Then, about an hour or so later, Yeni gets a call on her cell from 377-372-5939. She didn’t recognize the number (and also gets a few wrong numbers) and handed me the phone. ...