Mishmash Musings

There’s no question that money is tight for a lot of folks these days. It seems that nearly every personal blog I read talks of that person’s struggles to buy groceries, gas, and other basics for their family, which is depressing to say the least. I’ve also been reading a lot of posts about money-saving tips and so forth, and have actually found a couple of useful ones.

For example, it’s natural that people would want to cut back on extras first when trying to save money, which includes things like going to the movies or renting DVDs. Folks need their entertainment, though, so there have been lots of message board discussions about watching free movies online.

Although I haven’t gone this route myself, there are actually a surprising number of sites to choose from. They all offer free movies online, usually via a streaming source, and include new releases (Dark Knight, Step Brothers, etc.). They’re probably pretty crappy quality though, so there’s definitely a downside to watching this way.

I highly doubt that sites offering free movies online are legal, though. Again, I’m not recommending anything, nor am I linking to any specific sites. Just putting this out there because downloading extends far beyond high school and college students these days!

High school seniors base their college application decisions on a number of factors, including, sometimes, how much of a party atmosphere there is at a particular school. That’s why the results of the Princeton Review survey of the Top Party Schools in the country is one of the most anxiously anticipated lists around.

This year, the University of Florida beat out last year’s champ West Virginia — and everyone else — as the top party school in the nation. School officials believe it has something to do with the fact that Florida’s athletic teams have won a couple of national championships recently, which of course leads to wild celebrations. But Florida students noted that it probably had more to do with the fact that the student body is around 51,000 — which means there’s always something going on.

Here’s a list of the Top 10 Party Schools for 2008:

1. University of Florida
2. University of Mississippi
3. Penn State University
4. West Virginia University
5. Ohio University
6. Randolph-Macon College (huh? never heard of it)
7. University of Georgia
8. University of Texas – Austin
9. UC – Santa Barbara
10. Florida State University

Football is my favorite sport by far, so now that training camps are underway across the country, all is right in my world again. Of course, the start of training camp always means that a bunch of players will be on the move, as some get cut, are released, or join other teams via free agency.

While most eyes are still on the Brett Favre saga, watching to see whether the former Packer great will go to the Jets or any other team, there are other players to consider. For example, I just read that today the New England Patriots signed running back LaMont Jordan, who was cut by the Raiders a couple days ago. Jordan was supposed to be the featured back in Oakland, and although he received plenty of carries, he never quite materialized into the star they expected him to be. Plus, he screwed my fantasy team on several occasions!

Anyway, it’s hard to imagine someone not being able to resurrect their career with the high-powered New England offense, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see Jordan make a solid contribution to the team this season.

This sounds like something out of The Godfather or The Sopranos, which is probably why the story is making such a big splash online. The daughter of Salvatore Toto Riina, a vicious Mafia godfather who has been behind bars in Italy since the mid-’90s, was married in Corelone, Italy on Wednesday. The bride was given away by her brother Giuseppe, one of the few family members not in jail right now.

The wedding received lots of attention from mainstream Italian and international media, but didn’t sit well with the families of victims of “the Beast,” as Salvatore Riina was known. One victim’s daughter expressed disbelief and outrage that Riina’s daughter and son-in-law didn’t try to distance themselves from the Beast, choosing instead to thank him.

Just how ruthless was the Beast while he was at the height of power? He was convicted of over 100 counts of murder, and is currently serving several life sentences in prison.

It looks like families in this area are still struggling to pay their mortgages every month, and are either moving to cheaper digs or are losing their homes to foreclosure. It’s getting to the point where I can barely go five or six blocks without seeing one of those big moving pods sitting in the street in front of a house with a “For Sale” sign planted in the lawn. It’s getting to be pretty depressing.

I don’t know how long it’s going to take the country to recover from this foreclosure mess, but I hope it’s not a long, drawn-out process. I miss the strong economy, I miss low prices, I miss the stability we once had… You can bet I won’t take those things for granted ever again!

I don’t know why this always happens to me. I have a consulting gig that I agreed to take on merely as a favor to a former boss of mine. I have no interest in working full-time outside my home at this point, so this gig seemed like a good one for me. It only required that I put in one or two office days per month, and that I spend time writing e-mails and company memos as necessary.

Recently, however, my boss has totally been taking advantage of me. He’s shorthanded right now, so he asked me to fill in for three weeks while he looked for a couple of new employees. Even though I hate working every day, I agreed to do it just to help out.

But now, my willingness to help is coming back to bite me, as my employer has extended my office time to six weeks. I can’t really say no, as it’s in my best interest to have this gig to fall back on should I ever need a full-time job.

But going from working 2 days per month to 20 is really taking its toll on me, as I’m completely running myself ragged. I barely have time to eat properly, I’m not getting stuff done around the house, and I’m not sleeping as much as I need to. I guess on the positive side, I can say that I’ve lost a couple of pounds without having to take any fat burners or supplements, but that’s really a small consolation these days.

Yes, I get paid above and beyond my contract for all of this extra time I’m putting in, but money’s not the point right now. There’s a reason I don’t want full-time work, and that reason is my son. It’s his summer vacation, so I wanted to spend a lot of time with him, but that’s not happening since I’m working so much. I feel guilty about it and feel bad that the boy has to go to a babysitter (albeit my mom) every single day.

Ugh. I don’t know what to do. I just wish my boss would get his act together and find new employees ASAP!

I read an interesting story yesterday about a salon in the DC area that has been using “garra rufa” carp, commonly called “doctor fish”, in order to give people pedicures. The fish nibble away at dead, flaking skin, and, according to salon owner John Ho, are more effective than using a razor for the procedure.

Ho charges customers $35 for 15 minutes or $50 for 30 minutes to soak their feet in a warm bath littered with the dead flesh-eating carp. Thus far, about 5,000 customers have tried the fish pedicure, and most apparently rave about the results.

At first, I thought the whole idea of a fish pedicure seemed a bit gross, but after reading more about it, I’d definitely be willing to try it if it were ever offered in my area. I have terribly rough feet, and would certainly benefit from a pedicure of any sort at this point! The fish pedicure looks interesting, and if it works, then all the better. If not, I’d still come away with a great conversation piece for my time and money!

(AP Photo)

I’m the kind of person who needs nearly complete silence when I sleep. The slightest noise disturbs me, and sets me up for a night of restless tossing and turning. So you can imagine how freakin’ annoyed I was last night to hear the shower faucets in the master bathroom dripping constantly. Ugh! It was pure torture having to listen to that drip, drip, drip into the wee hours of the morning, and to make matters worse, I didn’t have any earplugs on hand to block the noise out.

I finally gave up and went to sleep on the couch, even though we didn’t have the AC running downstairs. It’s a good thing I had the day off today, because I would have been completely grouchy and useless at work.

I’ve already put a call into a plumber, and he’ll be by on Wednesday to see what’s going on. Hopefully it’s just a minor problem with an easy (and cheap) fix!