Mishmash Musings

It sometimes bothers me that I’ve never had a job where I can actually put my business degree to good use. When I go through these phases, I start checking out various online job boards to see what kinds of positions are available and how much money I could potentially be making if I wanted to get back into the business world.

Today as I was searching through one of the major boards, I noticed that several companies are now requiring pre-employment DNA testing. I’ve never heard about that before and can’t quite figure out why employers would insist on this. It didn’t seem like this kind of testing had anything to do with the job itself, so that’s why I’m a bit puzzled about the requirement. Maybe the tests are for insurance purposes?

If any of you guys have an idea of why some employers now want to perform DNA testing on job candidates, please let me know. I’d love to get an answer to this one!

I haven’t posted an update about my orthodontic adventures lately, so I thought this might be a good time to do it. I just had another appointment yesterday, during which I paid the balance of bill. Now all I have to do is continue paying for each office visit for the remainder of my treatment. It’s a relief to have my Balance Owed amount read $0.00 for a change!!

Anyway, while I was in the chair, the ortho said my teeth were moving along right on course. I’ve been using an expander appliance that fits against the roof of my mouth to help move my molars back, one side at a time. The left side of my mouth is now done, which means it’s time to change things over to the right side. In order to do that, my ortho has to rework the expander and place hooks (for the power chains) over on the right side. That means for the next 10 days, I am appliance free! It’s such a relief not to have that stupid thing in my mouth right now! It makes eating, brushing, and talking a total luxury!!

I’m going to enjoy this time while I can because when the appliance goes back in, it’s there for another 8 months or so .

If you’re like a majority of consumers these days, then you typically research a product online before going to a local store to make the purchase. This is especially true when it comes to big-ticket items such as vehicles, appliances, or LCD flat-panel television sets. That’s why it makes sense to do your initial research on a website that can lead provide both product reviews and information about local retailers that carry what you’re interested in.

Krillion is one such website, and I have to admit that I really like this concept. For example, say you want to research new Maytag refrigerators to replace your old one. Well, instead of browsing through a bunch of different sites to get relevant information, you’d just go to krillion.com for product photos, features, reviews, and a list of local retailers.

Very convenient, and very much appreciated by shoppers everywhere!

For the most part, I absolutely love working from home and don’t want ever want to go back to an office job again. But if I had to list one drawback, it would be that I miss the companionship that usually goes along with working on location. Some of my best friends today are women I met at work years ago, and I miss having the opportunity to keep meeting new people.

That’s one of the reasons I decided to check out a website called FriendFinder today. As the name implies, FriendFinder is a place where men and women can go in order to connect with people of similar interests, either for dating or simply to expand their circle of friends.

Since I’m married, I’m of course interested in the latter option. So I signed up for a free account, filled out a very basic profile, and ran a search for other women near my hometown. I received 28 results, and I’m not even in a big city! Best of all, the results were all relevant and led me to people who are looking for friends to go shopping or to the movies with. That’s exactly what I want, so I might just get in touch with a couple of these women in the near future.

I have to say that I was impressed with how easy it was to use FriendFinder.com. I was able to enter several parameters to narrow down my search (including age, location, gender, etc.) so I didn’t have to sift through hundreds of results. Plus, I was happy to see that the site is very active. Even though this is a workday, there were more than 200 people in the chat room when I logged in!

Overall, I’m pretty excited about the possibility of meeting new people through FriendFinder. I think it’s easier to strike up a relationship online first and get to know each other (at least a little bit) before actually meeting in person. I’m much more comfortable doing things this way, and as long as I check the person out as thoroughly as possible and meet in a public setting the first time, I shouldn’t have any problems.

If you’re looking for friendship or more, then I recommend checking out FriendFinder.com today!

For some reason, my house seems to be located in a construction hot zone. Every single summer for the past five years, there’s been a major construction project within earshot of my open windows. That means I have to listen to the pounding of jackhammers, the grinding of truck gears, and all sorts of other noises all. day. long. It also means that I can’t take a nap because of all this ruckus, so my whole schedule is thrown for a loop. Gah! I am not a happy camper these days!!

When I was growing up, my grandfather tried to get me interested in coin collecting. I know a lot of people enjoy this hobby, but it wasn’t very exciting to me as a kid so I didn’t want to get involved. My grandfather then took the same offer to all of my cousins until Matt finally accepted.

Then, when my grandfather passed on about five years ago, he left his entire collection of silver coins to Matt. Matt had the lot appraised and found out that it was worth more than $15,000, so I guess the joke was on the rest of us!

Now I’m thinking it might be smart to start a collection of my own. I’ve heard that silver coins are a good investment because of the way they hold their value and even tend to appreciate in value over the years (my grandfather’s collection is a testament to that!). Even if I just start off small and buy a few coins now and then whenever I have extra money, I’ll eventually accumulate a decent collection, and that would be something nice to leave to my son.

I’m going to the library this weekend, so while I’m there I’ll try to check out some books about how to get started in coin collecting!

I’ve been a real slacker recently when it comes to reading. I used to read only classics, the kind you’d have to plow through in a college lit course or something. But now I’m only reading the lightweight stuff because I’d rather use my reading time as an escape than have to spend it thinking and analyzing.

Right now I’ve got some Michael Connelly books lined up. I read The Lincoln Lawyer last summer, and was pretty entertained by it, so I decided to give Connelly’s other works a try. Apparently, he’s got a whole series of books starring a Hollywood Homicide detective named Harry Bosch. I’m starting at the beginning, with The Black Echo (written back in 1992).

I’m about three-quarters of the way through it already, and think it’s fairly good. I mean, it’ll never become a classic or anything like that, but it’s easy enough to read and it’s interesting, so I’ll definitely be continuing with the series!

You probably already know that The Police reunion tour is one of the hottest concert tickets of the summer. That should come as no surprise, since The Police are one of the most successful rock bands in history. They’ve been around for 30 years (has it really been that long?) and are celebrating that milestone by touring North America and Europe. The tour began in Vancouver, BC on May 27, and will wrap up on November 17 in Atlanta, with numerous shows in between. Chances are the band is coming to a major city near you, so check out the dates and go see them if you can!

One fun way you can keep up with the band’s latest movements on tour, watch cool videos, download ringtones, enter a contest to win tickets to their New York show at Madison Square Garden, or even listen to select tracks from the new Police CD that was released on June 5 is to use the all-purpose banner linked to the image at the bottom of this post. Just click on the image and then roll your mouse over the banner on the next page until the list of options pops up (give it a few seconds). You’ll then be able to make your selections from there. You can even send the banner to a friend, so go ahead and do that if you have any Police fans in mind.

Also, I want to remind you that you get a free vintage Police poster when you buy the 2-CD compilation containing some of their biggest hits, which is definitely an awesome incentive for fans. I’m going to be ordering a bunch of CDs and DVDs soon, and you can bet I’ll have the new Police CD on my list of things to buy. One look at all the great songs on the track list is all it took to convince me I need to have it… check it out for yourself; I’m sure you’ll agree with me!

Please click on this to go and view an awesome banner where you can watch The Police’s videos, listen to tracks from The Police’s new 2 cd hits collection, enter to win a trip to NYC to see The Police in concert and even view details about their current world tour.

If you’re one of those people who can’t seem to get enough of Paris Hilton, you might want to cancel your subscription to US Weekly. I just read an article revealing that US has decided to stop covering the hotel heiress for the foreseeable future.

A spokesperson for the magazine said they believe most people are just sick of Hilton and they won’t include her in any issues unless she does something substantial, like have a baby or something. US Weekly doesn’t believe this move will be detrimental to sales, but won’t go so far as to say it will have the opposite effect (i.e. improving sales).

Personally, I think US Weekly is doing a good thing by taking a stand on Paris Hilton. She doesn’t do anything! She’s just famous for being famous, and frankly, the whole thing has been played out for a long time now. Plus, all other media outlets cover Paris, so this is a good way for US weekly to separate themselves.

US is one of my favorite mags, and I’ll continue to buy it no matter what!

I just read about a cool new summer photo contest sponsored by WeNeedaVacation.com. In case you’re not familiar with the site, WeNeedaVacation.com matches up vacationers with homeowners who want to rent out their property. So for example, if you were interested a Martha’s Vineyard vacation rental for your next getaway, you’d check out WeNeedaVacation.com to see all the properties available for rent in that locale.

Anyway, back to the contest: WeNeedaVacation.com has put out a call for photos that truly capture the “spirit of vacation.” That line is open to your own interpretation, so you can submit any kind of photo that you think best fits the description. It could be a picture of your kids building a sandcastle on the beach, a group of your friends enjoying a day on the links, or you and your significant other sipping tropical drinks in front of the perfect sunset.

Once you decide on a photo, go ahead and submit it to WeNeedaVacation.com. If your photo gets accepted into the contest, they will donate $5 to the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. Then, the WeNeedaVacation.com staff will choose 10 or more finalists, and voting for the grand prize will be opened up to vacationers, homeowners, and website visitors.

At the end of it all, a lucky winner will walk away with a $1,000 credit towards their next WeNeedaVacation.com rental! Important restrictions do apply, so please visit the site to read the complete contest rules in detail.

Good luck to all entrants, and I can’t wait to see who wins this one!

I usually hate housework and put it off as long as possible. There are a couple of things that I have to do on a daily basis, like vacuuming (my Beagle sheds like crazy, so this is a must) and the dishes, but I tend to let everything else slide.

Well, for the past couple of weeks, I have been totally staying on top of the housework and doing all chores almost every single day! We’re talking toilets, floors, tub… I’m cleaning everything two, three, four times per week!

I think I’m doing this because my writing gigs have slowed for the summer and I haven’t had to go into my office job very much this month, so I’ve got a lot of extra time on my hands. I can’t just sit around on my butt all day long, so I’m channeling my energy into cleaning.

Whatever the reason, I have to say that I love the results! It’s so much easier to maintain a clean house by doing a little bit every day than to let things pile up and tackle huge projects once in a while.

I hope I can stick to this routine!!

When I worked in the corporate world, it was part of my job to attend various trade shows in order to keep up with the latest trends in the automotive industry. I didn’t have to sit at a booth or anything like that; instead, I got to walk around the convention center and take a look at everyone else’s booths.

Although walking around all day like that got to be pretty tedious, there were some perks involved. For instance, I was entitled to free meals and got to stay at nice hotels. In addition, I always received tons of imprinted promotional products from the booths I stopped by, so I could count on leaving with armfuls of cool, useful items like hats, calendars, pens, cups, t-shirts, keychains, lanyards, tote bags, umbrellas, and just about anything else you could think of.

And these aren’t cheapo products either. I think they must have come from a site like Gimmees.com or something because they really were top-quality items, and Gimmees.com has a reputation for delivering only the best. I have actually checked out the Gimmees.com site myself on a couple of occasions, and was impressed by both the sheer number of promotional products available for custom imprinting, and by the low minimums and great prices.

In fact, I’ve got a couple of different ventures that I want to promote this year, and I think I’ll be using Gimmees.com when the time comes!