The Raging Tech

Three Things #1

I heard a guy on the radio (WNOX - Knoxville’s Talker) say this morning that you should start your day off like it’s a blank slate, and think of three things for which you’re thankful. Apparently, it’s not just new-agey inspirational stuff, it’s psychologically good for you.

So here goes, three things (in no particular ranking order) for which I’m thankful:

1. My Family: I love my late father, mom, sister, both grandmas, cousins, aunts, uncles, and everyone who has helped me grow up to be who I am. They’ve supported and encouraged me in their different ways, and like any loving family, they’d do anything they could for my betterment. In fact, my mom and sister are coming up in September to help me paint and get new furniture.

2. My Friends: I’ve met a lot of people that have pretended to be my friend while it was convenient, but I’m so very thankful for the people that have shown me they love me by their words and their actions. The friends that give up their time, money, energy, strength, and anything else without hesitation for me, and know I’d do the same in any way possible. These are friends who have stuck by me through tough and good times, and rally behind me when I need strength.

3. My House: I never dreamed I’d own a home and have a mortgage at 25. It’s not terribly uncommon, I just didn’t think I’d be at a point where I could do it now. God is good, and his love endures forever! My house is in pretty good shape, and I have plans to rennovate over the years to come, and it may not be the house I live in forever. But for now, it’s mine, and that’s a huge accomplishment to me.

So I do feel a little better, and I’m sure there’s no “rules” to any of this, so I’m going to list a couple more in brief: I’m starting grad school, I have a wonderful girlfriend and even though she’s moving away I’ve enjoyed our time together so much, I’m employed full-time with a salary and benefits, I have a big screen TV and a nice car (half-way paid for!), my boss gave me a compliment this morning on an e-mail response I sent to a user, and I’ve got two adorable black kittens at home that play and explore and in general amuse me greatly. I have to scoop their poop up from a litter box, but that’s a small price to pay.

Liked this? Try it out yourself! Have some tips of your own on how to start off your day happy and healthy? Leave it in the comments!

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3.2

Tags: Gratitude, Health, Life, Thankful

I Has a House!

It’s funny how things all come together at one time. I updated briefly earlier to say that I got accepted officially into grad school, and now I’m updating to let everyone know that I closed on my house this morning.

There are potentially some issues with some encroaching property, because part of my deck (the rear steps) are semi on the neighbor’s property. The lawyer says that’s not really a big deal, and since I bought the house and it was already that way and the neighbors bought their house when it was already that way, they sort of waived their right to complain. He did offer up that I should get a survey done and have the property staked and flagged so that I know where the property boundaries are officially.

Another neat thing I found out at closing is that my first mortgage payment is due September 1st, so it’s almost like I get to live there for a month for free! I’m not going to go hog wild with the extra financial leeway next month, especially with gas costing what it is these days.

So, I have joined the ranks of the first-time home owners. I’m already scheming on what to do with the house now that I have free reign to change it as I see fit. Mom and my sister are coming up the first week in September to bring me my inheritance check and help me spend it on paint & supplies and then some new living room furniture. I’ve got to pay back some borrowed money I used for closing, pay off a credit card or two, and put the rest away for a “rainy day.”

That being said, some things I’d like to get, but may decide to wait on:

• Gas Grill
• Deck Furniture
• Area rugs
• Power Tools / lawn tools (new mower?)
• Dining Room Chairs
• iMac (maybe while the free iPod offer is still going on?)
• new speakers for living room TV setup
• Vinyl Siding for the house?
• Pressure washer / air compressor & tools
• Ramps & blocks for changing the oil in my car
• Pre-pay a WoW subscription for a year?
• Kitten care (Spay & Neuter, shots, pet carrier thingy, toys)
• Omaha Steaks
• Wall Art (probably some photography prints in nice frames)
• Some plants

If anybody has some useful (or practical) things I could do, let me know in the comments. I’m already setting aside some of the money to pay off debt, and I may put a little into an investment portfolio and play the stocks.

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2.5

Tags: Closing, New House, Updates

The New House, Hot Dog, and Chairman Meow

Weekend before last, I moved into my new house, about 20 minutes away from where I work. It’s a 30 minute drive in traffic now, though, because they closed off one lane on either side of the highway to install a concrete divider.

Everything has been crazy but amazingly smooth - I moved in, have been settling, and waiting on my closing date (this coming Monday, 3 days away!). They neglected to tell me I needed to have my home owner’s insurance ready by closing, so today I scrambled to get my insurance setup, and in the process am moving my auto insurance to the local office. Since the bank had e-mailed me a PDF of my appraisal, I just forwarded that on to the insurance company, and they got all the information they needed. I’m all set for Monday to close!

In related news, two days ago Kylara gave me two kittens that her cat had, and now they live at my house. I’ve named one Hot Dog (the girl, kind of adventurous and curious) and the other Chairman Meow (the boy, very quiet and stern, looks like he’s scowling at everyone all the time).

Here are photos of the house and my kittens:

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2.5

Tags: Bungalow, Chairman Meow, Hot Dog, House

Emmersive Sci-Fi Podcast “The Leviathan Chronicles”

The audio book has long been a literary tradition pretty much since the first years of audio recording. When radio became widespread, serial-format shows were often broadcast in the evenings after most American families had finished dinner and were settling down.

Now, we listen to broadcasts in all sorts of ways: iPods, streaming audio, the radio, satellite radio, or via a subscription online such as a podcast (which can in turn be played on an iPod or in iTunes or another audio player).

The serial-format radio drama still exists today! A neat one I recently discovered called “The Leviathan Chronicles” is divided up into chapters, available as episodes of a podcast online.

From what I can tell from the first chapter, it appears to be about a Chinese and an American sub that wind up in the same trench at the same time. An accidental firing sets off some sort of an energy pulse below the surface of the ocean. A year later, a government agent is called in to investigate what happened, because the signal from under the ocean was answered… from space.

So far, the presentation is pretty engaging. The background audio sounds like the ocean up against the outside of a sub wall, so you feel like you’re actually listening in inside a submarine. Also, instead of just a straight read-through, there are actors reading the lines of the characters, and a sexy female British voice reading the narration.

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3.4 (2 people)

Tags: iTunes, Leviathan Chronicles, Podcast, Sci-Fi

American Beer Giant Budweiser Bought By Belgium Company

Look, I’m not one to drink Budweiser unless there’s just nothing else around. It tastes like pisswater and makes you feel full and bloated. It’s generally not the smoothest thing in the world.

But this morning on both NPR and WNOX Knoxville’s Talker I heard that they were bought in an almost 50 billion dollar deal with InBev, a Belgium-owned beverage company that produces Stella Artois. InBev claims that none of the US breweries will be shut down, and St. Louis, Missouri will still be the headquarters of the North American region of the company.

The big debacle seems to be that Budweiser, or Anheuser-Busch, is perceived as an all-American beer and by selling out to a foreign company, they’re somehow letting America down. This is also on the brink of the news that the SABMiller Corporation and Molson Coors Brewing will be merging their two U.S. corporations. The man on the radio this morning made a good point though - it’s all about doing what’s best for the shareholders. At the end of the day, they don’t care what America thinks about the deal because they’ve already gone home with the big pay check.

Another caller on the WNOX show stated that Budweiser was America, like apple pie or baseball games or Chevy, or beatin’ your kids with a belt, or living in a trailer… you get the point. I think what everyone is missing is that nothing’s really going to change. If you like Budwieser beer, keep drinking it. It’s going to keep on tasting the same. At the end of the day, the brew is still made in America, still made by American people, and still keeps workers in jobs. The big difference is the profits all go to Belgium.

If that bothers you, then stop drinking it. Support local microbreweries by drinking their brews instead. They probably taste better anyway. Or try out Sam Adams - they have a huge selection of flavors to choose from, and they’re as American and patriotic as it gets for big beer business.

Rate this:

2.5

Tags: Anheiser-Busch, Anheuser-Busch, Belgium, Budweiser, InBev, Stella