Mishmash Musings

I’m not much of a college basketball fan, so I never get swept up into the whole March Madness thing. But I do have to say that I’m very impressed with the way CBS Sports/Sportsline.com is streaming live games on the Internet — for free!

Normally, people would have to pay a premium price for live streaming sports (think of NFL GamePass, ESPN’s now-defunct college football GamePlan, MLB video, etc.), so I’m definitely surprised that Sportsline didn’t try to capitalize on that trend. I’m not sure why the videos are free; maybe a big corporate sponsor (Coke Zero seems to be all over the pages over there) paid or everything.

Also, I heard that the free streaming March Madness videos are available all over the world, with no blackouts whatsoever. This is another first, as usually only residents of the U.S. and Canada can enjoy these things.

Anyway, I headed over to Sportsline.com to check out a few of the NCAA tournament games and see how the whole thing worked.

First, there was something called a VIP Pass that viewers could have pre-registered for that allows them to start watching games without “waiting in line”. I didn’t have that, so I was part of the “General Admission” area, which said I was number 122 in line. But in 20 seconds that changed to 52, and then I immediately “got in” after that, so I’m not sure what that was all about.

After getting in, I had to sit through a short Coke Zero commercial, then the current scoreboard for the day’s NCAA March Madness games showed up. I was able to select any game I wanted, launch a video player, and check out the action.

I must say that everything worked very smoothly. The picture was crisp, there was no stuttering or lost action while waiting for the video stream to buffer, and the audio was clear.

All of this without so much as having to register with my name and email address. I just went there and started watching!

So to CBS Sports and Sportsline.com, I have to say kudos for a brilliant setup. If I were a college basketball fan, I would be in heaven!

On one of my many web wanderings today, I came across a brand-new hip hop website that looks pretty cool. It’s called RapArtists.com, and looks to be a pretty good resource for information about everything related to hip hop. For example, you can read the biography of your favorite rap artist, view photo galleries, find out what the top-selling hip hop albums in the country are, get the inside scoop on upcoming CD releases, and interact with other hip hop fans on the message boards.

RapArtists.com has a nice, clean layout, making it easy to navigate through the different pages to find exactly what you want. I’m sure that as more content gets added and more people find out about the site, RapArtists.com will become one of the top online destinations for hip hop fans.

Check it out today and spread the word!

I just realized that I haven’t posted about my consulting job in a while, so this update is long overdue.

I’m happy to report that things haven’t been too terribly taxing on the work front in recent months. I’ve just been putting in the minimum number of office hours to fulfill my obligations, and haven’t had to do anything outside of my job description. It’s funny that I’m happy about the way things should be, isn’t it? I mean, why is it such a surprise that things are going smoothly?

Well, actually, there have been a few annoyances lately, but nothing major. One of the things I have to do is observe new-hires in action and then write detailed evaluations about their performance. The idea is to help get employees up to speed as quickly as possible by nipping bad habits in the bud.

Anyway, I had a lot of trouble communicating with one of our latest hires. This young woman is a total Nervous Nellie type to begin with, and she practically went off the deep end when she learned I’d be observing her. The first two times I tried to do it, she begged off, asking me to show her how it’s done instead. I felt bad for her, so I complied.

The third time I went in for her, she finally let me do my job — except she then made herself unavailable to sit down with me and go over the evaluation. I tried phoning and emailing her for four straight days (no exaggeration) before I got a response. She just wouldn’t call me back! WTF was that all about?

And then to make matters worse, she made an appointment to go over my notes by phone — and then completely blew me off, again refusing to answer her phone or call me back.

It’s too bad I don’t have the power to fire people, because I wouldn’t have hesitated in this case. I can’t believe how totally unprofessional she has been… I have a bad feeling about this employee, so I hope my boss doesn’t invest too much time/money in her!

Although my finances are significantly better today than they were 10 years ago, I can still clearly remember what it was like to have thousands of dollars in credit card debt and no way to pay it off. Even though I was working full-time, I was only bringing home about $350 a week after taxes. Between rent, groceries, gasoline, utilities, and incidental expenses, there wasn’t much money left over to put towards my credit card bills. I was paying the minimum $20 per month, which of course didn’t even make a dent in my total balance.

I used to lie awake at night worrying about my financial situation. Creditors were hounding me at home and at work, and I was scared to pick up my mail because of all the letters I was getting from collection agencies. I really saw no way out.

Finally, I just couldn’t take the constant worrying anymore, so I decided to talk to a credit counselor to see what could be done about my bills. I wasn’t looking to file for bankruptcy or skip out on my obligations; I wanted a legitimate way to get out of debt.

During my free consultation, the credit counselor told me that a debt consolidation loan would likely be my best bet. I could get a loan to pay off my high interest credit card bills, and have a much more manageable monthly payment instead. After giving it a lot of thought, I decided to go for it.

It turns out that debt consolidation was the right move for me. It took years of hard work and financial discipline, but I eventually got back on my feet again. I’m proud to say that I’m still debt free to this day.

If you’re tired of constantly worrying about your finances, I recommend checking out the resources at DebtConsolidation.com today. That site offers a wide range of services — including debt analysis, credit repair, mortgage refinancing, and bankruptcy advice — that are designed to help you get out of debt once and for all.

Their services look very similar to the one that I used years ago, so I think they’re worth a try. And believe me when I say that you’ll rest easier when you no longer have all that debt hanging over your head all the time!

I was pretty athletic when I was younger, and played just about all the sports that were available at my high school. However, there are still plenty of sports out there that I’ve never tried at all. In fact, I don’t even know the basic rules to some of the ones that I’m about to list. (And just for the record: it was actually kind of hard for me to come up with five of these!)

1. Rugby (it looks way too violent for my tastes)
2. Cricket (I have seen highlights of this on the news, but can’t for the life of me figure out how it’s played)
3. Archery (I’ve never so much as held a real bow or arrow in my hands)
4. Curling (a few friends are into this; I don’t get it)
5. Squash (I know this is very trendy right now, but I’ve never played it)

When I was in college, my roommate went on a cruise to Alaska and Russia with her family. When she returned, she had such breathtaking photos of her experience that I promised myself I would visit Glacier Bay myself someday.

Well, I was just checking around for a Glacier Bay cruise today to see how much these things cost, and I was surprised to see that Carnival goes there. I always thought carnival cruises only went to warm places like the Bahamas, Bermuda, or Mexico, but that’s not the case.

I was also surprised to see how affordable a 7-day Glacier Bay cruise would be. Yes, it’s significantly more expensive than a standard vacation since airfare is not included in the price, but it’s definitely within range.

My goal now is to get our family there within the next five years. It would be a dream vacation for sure!

I was skimming the Oddly Enough section of Reuters.com today when I came across this story about a lost engagement ring. Apparently a Londoner named Lefkos Hajji was planning to propose to his girlfriend by hiding a $12,000 diamond engagement ring inside a helium balloon. He wanted to give his girlfriend a pin so “she could pop the balloon [and find the ring] as he popped the question.”

But the balloon got swept away in a gust of wind as Hajji left the store, prompting a two-hour chase. Hajji finally just gave up in defeat.

When he told his girlfriend what happened, her reaction was simply incredible. She was livid, and said that she wasn’t going to speak to him until he got her a new ring.

Um, are you kidding me? Does that show how much of a bitch she is, or what. Hajji should look upon this accident as a blessing in disguise, as it gives him a sense of what the girlfriend’s true colors are. She’s clearly more concerned about the ring than what it symbolizes. He should dump her before it’s too late!

I mentioned last week that we’re trying to refine our budget to help free up money for a family vacation over the summer. Well, that’s proving to be much harder than I thought it would be, as there’s just not a lot of extra money to begin with.

We live comfortably and all that, but there’s a fine line between making it and struggling. For instance, if we had one more significant expense that we had to pay for, such as individual health insurance or an extra life insurance policy, we wouldn’t be able to make ends meet on our current income. I’d have to go back to work full-time or something.

Oh, well. Maybe a summer vacation just isn’t in the cards for this year.