Number Crunching 153

Quicken Cash Flow = 614.79
STEF Total = 363.69

March Budget Meeting

Reconciling Quicken with bank statements: Done.
Reconciling last month’s budget: Okay, back to acknowledging where I did good and bad.

• Problem categories:
  • Bank charges is the worst because I wasn’t keeping a good enough eye on the balances.
  • Eating Out had way too much money spent in it mainly because I do not want to face my kitchen.


• Did-good-with categories:I don’t see anything that qualifies as “good” spending for the month of March.


• Verdict:Stop giving the bank so much money and restrict how much eating out I’m doing.


• Leftover amount = -35.06

Creating next month’s budget: Done. It’s going to be a tight month as I try to scale to live under my two paychecks.
How much cash can I have: 39.00 and that’s essential shopping and fun money. Planning meals is going to be fun this month.
Automatic payments: Everything has been set up and the bills have been divided into what falls under which paycheck.
Reviewing short-term savings goals: Still trying to reach the STEF goal mark. I ended up having to use a good chunk of what I had put back to plug the hole I had at the beginning of the month, but I’m hoping I can put it back with each paycheck.
Update NetworthIQ statements:

Update NCN Savings Chart:

Overview and plans:

1. Update the Bills List with all current accounts and passwords. Found out that Chase Student Loans, Nationstar, Mozy.com, and Netflix are not on it.


2. Tweak the NetworthIQ Jan. and Feb. statements once I have verified the balances for
   • Sallie Mae
   • Chase Student Loans
   • Republic Finance
   Citifinancial
   • Nationstar Mortgage


3. Change Federal tax withholding amount in Quicken.


4. Handover the budgeted contributions for Linda’s retirement party


5. Move cap and gown savings to where I can’t spend it.


6. For the love of all that is holy, FINISH DOING TAXES


7. Try out cooking for the month

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The BookWorm

Hot Bod Countdown 0.5

This week isn’t a full week, which is why I given this post 0.5 title. The first full week will have three extra days in it.

Thursday’s workout: I did everything but push-ups, because I forgot to do them at 4am.
2 Sun Salutations
30 ab crunches
15 leg raises
Shoulder exercises – 5 lbs. weight
20 Dumbbell rows
40 Hanging arm circles
20 Extended arm circles
20 Dumbbell press
20 Dumbbell flies

Saturday’s workout didn’t happen as fast as I thought it would. I’ll admit I’ve been avoiding my front porch since November and Mom put some of her store furniture on it. Well, my weight set is getting rusty and a bird built a nest in a box of my exercise supplies. So I took measurements to see where I can move the weight bench.



I still have two craft hobbies to go through in the living room, papers I was storing in the back bedroom, and my hurricane supply box. But I can say that the majority of what is staying in there is already in their just needing a few finishing touches (I’m going to hang Captain Kate’s weapons on the walls for example). The measurements work, so now I have to move all of it.




It fits better than I thought it would. Now the bucket of weights ended up in the hall right outside the room, but only because I wanted to be able to walk in the back room.

I figured out my max. weights for lifting and calculated my workout weights.

Hanging arm circles Max weight = 15 lbs, Workout weight = 10 lbs.
Extended arm circles Max. weight = 10 lbs, Workout weight = 5 lbs.
Dumbbell rows Max. weight = 15 lbs, Workout weight = 10 lbs.
Dumbbell flies Max weight = 15 lbs, Workout weight = 10 lbs.
Dumbbell press Max weight = 15 lbs, Workout weight = 10 lbs.
Bench press Max weight = 40 lbs, Workout weight = 30 lbs.
Squats Max weight = 40 lbs, Workout weight = 30 lbs.
Leg extensions = 50 lbs, Workout weight = 37.5 lbs.

Do three sets of ten repetitions. Barbell = 15 lbs. Dumbbell = 5 lbs.

What might be useful is buying two pairs of dumbbells that are already set at 5 lbs. and 10 lbs., because I don’t have enough small weights to make a balanced pair.

Saturday Workout
Bench press = 30 reps.
Hanging arm circles = 30 reps.
Dumbbell rows = 30 reps.
Extended arm circles = 30 reps.
Weight plate press = 30 reps. Instead of wasting time switching the dumbbell weights, I just grabbed a 10 lbs. plate and did the workout with it.
Dumbbell flies = 30 reps.
Leg extensions = 30 reps.
Squats = 30 reps.
Ab crunches = 20 reps.
Leg raises = 20 reps.

And boy do I hurt today. Total points for the four days 52 out of a possible 66, I think that comes out to a C. Not bad for starting, since I came up more positive than I thought I would. I also found out that Fit Day’s freebie account now keeps track of measurements. This is a good thing since the last website I was using to track it died since I started and restarted this whole health odyssey.

3/25/2009 Starting weight = 199 (doctor’s office scale)
Week 0.5 Avg. Weight = 196.75 (home scale)

So onto the next week’s progress.

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The BookWorm

Number Crunching 152

Quicken Cash Flow = 1662.71
STEF Total = 363.69

Enter receipts into Quicken: Done.
Reconcile Quicken to online accounts: Done.
Add totals to spreadsheet: Done.
What did I accomplish during the week? Finances spun out of focus again for an entire month. It’s not an unreasonable schedule, but I hate doing it so much. Do I really prefer the build-up and the guilt that brings? Just when I was asking that, I ran across this in one of the blogs/news I follow.

My sense is when you get discouraged you lose momentum and may slip into patterns of procrastination which also take you farther away from your goal. For some insight on this, I turned to life and executive coach BrianWhetten. Brian shared: "We usually think that procrastination means we're lazy, unmotivated or unworthy. But that's rarely the case. Instead, it usually comes from an over-use of guilt and self-judgment. What do you tell yourself about your study habits? Do your thoughts include things like 'I should be more motivated', 'I have to stop procrastinating' or 'I blew it again'? Thoughts like this cause a burst of guilt and stress. Used on occasion they can push us forward, but when they become a habit, they quickly start to backfire. So instead of trying to "should" your way forward, start by writing down the judgments you've been making against yourself, and then check out www.thework.com as a powerful tool for releasing them." – “Searching For Motivation” by Christine Hassler

My life story feels like one big battle against procrastination, so I can agree I have a habit of trying to lay on the guilt and stress. I don’t want to deal with it, so I ignore it. But I know I’m ignoring it and in comes the guilt.

In an attempt to figure out what was wrong with finances at least, I applied the Feng Shui principle, which basically boils down to “internal life issues are reflected in the external environment at certain points.” The wealth and prosperity point in my house is in the back bedroom and I discovered I couldn’t get into the room because of everything crammed into it. So everything came out, good cleaning, everything got rearranged so I can actually use the space, and I added the weight bench so I have to look at the room at least once a week. And I’m not surprised that I suddenly have the oomph to finish the budget catch-up today. I need to find my health and creativity points next.

Plans for next week:

1. Update the Bills List with all current accounts and passwords. Found out that Chase Student Loans, Nationstar, Mozy.com, and Netflix are not on it.


2. Tweak the NetworthIQ Jan. and Feb. statements once I have verified the balances for
   • Sallie Mae
   • Chase Student Loans
   • Republic Finance
   Citifinancial
   • Nationstar Mortgage


3. Change Federal tax withholding amount in Quicken.

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The BookWorm

Hot Bod Countdown #0

Blood pressure = 109/84 – good
Cholesterol – good
Weight = 199 pounds – creeping up again
Fasting Blood Sugar = 127 – still on the borderline and creeping up

My endocrinologist wanted to put me on Byetta, which involves a very non-complicated injection of the prescription. And my phobia freaked out. “I don’t want you to think I’m forcing this on you,” he said, “I can tell by your face, you don’t like this. But your weight is creeping up and October’s blood sugar was 135 so your body is maintaining it at that level.”

“I haven’t been watching what I eat or exercising. Give me three months to get strict on that and then we’ll see if I need the Byetta.” He agreed so here I am, plotting how I am going to make these changes. The problem isn’t knowing what to do, the problem is doing it consistently enough to make a difference.

Current schedule has me down for exercising three days a week. Current exercise routine I came up with consists of: ab crunches, leg raises, arm exercises to strengthen my left shoulder, push ups, and as many Sun Salutations as I can do. Which would be great if I actually did any of it. Established pattern, moving on.

Let’s change it up a bit. Make Saturday a day to work with weights. I love weight work and I love getting stronger.

Tuesday/Thursday

• ab crunches
• leg raises
• hanging arm circles
• extended arm circles
• dumbbell rows
• dumbbell press
• dumbbell flies
• push-ups
• Sun Salutations

Saturday

• ab crunches
• leg raises
• hanging arm circles
• extended arm circles
• dumbbell rows
• dumbbell press
• dumbbell flies
• bench press
• squats
• leg extensions

Eventually I want to add pull-ups, but I don’t have the equipment or the upper body strength to do them. The equipment issue I might be able to solve fairly quickly if Big Lots still has that bar that fits in a door frame in stock. I like the idea of putting weight work on Saturday, that way I don’t freak out with trying to squeeze correct form before work.

Part Two is diet. Watching carbs and sugar flew out the window months ago—I think about the same time I had a clean kitchen. So now’s probably the best time to take the plunge into Primal Living. I was being lazy and said I’d wait to start when Mark’s book came out, but now I don’t want to have to stick myself even every other day. It’s the perfect time for a clean start.

And I need to dig out the glucose monitor and use it daily. :p But if I’m tracking my weight daily, I need to track my fasting blood sugar too.

How I want to configure Joe’s Goals:

• +2 for all Tuesday/Thursday exercises
• +4 for all Saturday exercises
• -6 if carb intakes is over 20% daily
• +1 for weighing in daily
• -1 for missing daily weigh in
• +1 for measuring fasting glucose daily
• -1 for missing measuring daily fasting glucose

That is a potential 90 points a week.

Current statistics:

• Height = 62.25 in. / 158.1 cm
• Weight = 199 lbs.
• Neck = 38 cm
• Bust = 119.7 cm
• Waist = 104.8 cm
• Hips = 120.6 cm
• Right thigh = 65.2 cm
• Right calf = 40.0 cm
• Right upper arm = 30.9 cm
• Right lower arm = 26.6 cm

My ultimate goal weight is 120 lbs, so I’m 79 pounds above that and 61 pounds above 140 lbs. (a weight I’d be happy to see). Healthy weight loss is about a pound a week, so 80 weeks should see me at 120, 65 weeks should see me at 140. Three months equals 12 weeks equals 12 pounds of weight loss.

Calendar and goal weights:

• 12 weeks = June 21 = 187
• 24 weeks = Sept 13 = 175 lbs
• 36 weeks = Dec 6 = 163 lbs
• 48 weeks = Feb 28, 2010 = 151 lbs
• 60 weeks = May 23 = 139 lbs
• 72 weeks = Aug 15 = 127
• 80 weeks = Oct. 10 = 119 lbs
• 84 weeks = Nov 7 = 115 lbs (I doubt I see that amount of weight loss)

Rewards for meeting goals: My first idea was to pay myself a dollar for each positive goal point I made a week but I don’t think my budge could take a potential $90 a week hit. A better idea is to schedule out the fun stuff I want to do this summer and then assign the points I should have reached by doing everything in order to do it. I really like this idea.

• DragonBall Z = April 8 = 180 points
• Wolverine = May 1 = 450 points
• Star Trek = May 8 = 540 points
• Angels and Demons = May 15 = 630 points
• Terminator: Salvation = May 22 = 720 points
• Land of the Lost = June 5 = 900 points
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen = June 24 = 1170 points
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince = July 17 = 1440 points
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra = August 7 = 1710 points

That gets me through the summer at least. Treating myself to some new clothes and exercise equipment would be nice and I need the clothes, but might be best to tie those treats to pounds loss. I’d hate to buy something and then it not fit.

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The BookWorm

Words epic!FAIL

I finished Battlestar Galactica 45 minutes ago. Still reeling from it. If only one of my projects ever turns out half as epic as that did, I will consider myself blessed.

I do have to add, perfect ending for Tory. Also makes me curious about the other crap she's pulled in the 2000 years. Galen wasn't buying her moves when she first tried them, and then his laugh when Anders revealed they had been an item.

And I can't participate by listening to anyone's discussion because the computer still has no sound. I haven't tested that out fully, but the theory I'm leaning toward is I need a new soundcard. So now I'm off to play with TiddlyWiki some more as I start to wind down from the high.

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The BookWorm

Number Crunching 151

Quicken Cash Flow = 1209.58
STEF Total = 1220.69

Enter receipts into Quicken: Done.
Reconcile Quicken to online accounts: Done.
Add totals to spreadsheet: Done.
What did I accomplish during the week? Nothing with finances.
Plans for next week:

• Need to change Federal tax withholding amount in Quicken.

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The BookWorm

MA Exam Part 1

I'm done, spent, wrung out. Faulkner is getting shelved and it'll be another decade before I crack open one of his books for pleasure reading. If anyone mentions Flowers in the Attic to me, I'll probably start blabbing about Sutpen and Quentin and Horace. No, I did not mention V.C. Andrews in my paper. I really kept it on a scholarly level. I just hope it is scholarly enough.

If I start sobbing in my cubicle, it's because my advisor told me it's not done and I have to do more. I'm waiting for his approval before the final, final turn in. And I will be lighting every candle in my house tonight and praying to every academic god I can find reference to that I pass and don't have to deal with Faulkner any more.

Next thing to figure out is how to read all the material for Part 2 of the MA Exam and stay sane.

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The BookWorm

Another Never-ending Cycle: Faulkner's Use of the Incest Taboo

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Number Crunching 150

Quicken Cash Flow = 576.61
STEF Total = 306.20

Enter receipts into Quicken: Done.
Reconcile Quicken to online accounts: Done.
Add totals to spreadsheet: Done.
What did I accomplish during the week? Nothing with finances.
Plans for next week:

• Need to change Federal tax withholding amount in Quicken.

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The BookWorm

Oops I got tagged

Well, in other news, I moved Merrilee's blog in Bloglines where I won't skip reading it for days on end.

The problem I have with memes and answering memes is they make me so self-conscious. I don't hide much, how can it possibly be interesting, I've complained about everything to everyone who reads the blog or as a blog post--what don't they know? Sometimes they just feel way too close to the chain emails to list all your favorites. I really avoid those. But I'm going to make a valiant effort to list seven unknown things about me, frankly because I felt guilty about missing it for so long.

1. I just tried to kill myself with the numerator stamp falling from the shelf above my head. All because time change has messed with my sleep and I get clumsy when I want a nap.

2. I have played so many tabletop RPGs I normally think of goofs like that in terms of "I failed my dexterity roll."

3. I'm writing this post instead of my paper that my Master's depends on. My only defense: I tried to write at work and my coworkers are distracting. They are not nearly as distracting for the fiction, so my conclusion is that I want to write the fiction and I am able to concentrate more on blocking them out. Instead of spending all my energy battling the ennui of that writing project. I like my intro so far, the idea feels pretty solid, I don't know if I will find outside sources, I just don't care about passing the damn thing.

4. I started doing fanmixes! Give me some comments on those, nobody else has seemed to notice them.

5. I went back to school because I had a fit of the grasses is greener on the other side. Now I wish I had at least picked a subject that wasn't so subjective. Accounting would've been a good choice, and work would have paid for some of it.

6. I made a word count goal for myself this year that I have yet to tally up any words for it. I have tallies, elsewhere, but I haven't filled out that big one for all the fiction I have wrote.

7. I had to start writing that paper in committee. Yes, I actually wrote down what the other voices inside my head were saying as I tried to make sense of the project. Now I feel like I have earned a pic badge I saw on someone's LiveJournal: "Writing: socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." I'll worry about the development if the voices tell me to go kill people or commit blood sacrifices.

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The BookWorm

Fanboy wailing, oh that's what that sound is

Shortpacked: The Worst Jobs in Hollywood

Come on, if you've seen Watchmen, you know that comic is so very true.

I guess I'll start there since it is just the most recent. Wow. Speechless, breathless, wonderful wow. Casting was superb, and it visually looks like Snyder has developed a way to keep the comic tone and iconic images without shooting a staged story panel. Though I found out my stomach appreciates the violence a little less realistic. Or in other words, I'm happy with breaking bones as long as they don't break through skin with blood. During the prison riot, I was actually glad to see some of the crooks decide to stay in the cells. I agree with a lot of the dumb criminals stereotypes, but come on they do have a healthy sense of self-preservation. And they kept all the favorite lines: "I'm not locked in here with you; you're locked in here with me!" "I'm used to going out at 3am and doing something stupid." And I am so going to buy the soundtrack. Whoever put that together was brilliant.

Now the rest of the post probably contains spoilers, though I'll try not to give too much away.

And yes, they changed the ending. I know for some fanboys (using the derogatory meaning of the term) that is the ultimate sin, but I think the movie ending made even more sense than the book. One: we don't have time in the movie to set up all the secondary characters and investigations that something big and bad is going to happen and cover our five main characters dealing with the death of the Comedian.

Two: The movie ending gives an extra wrinkle of foolproof-ness to Adrian's plan. Dr. Manhattan being the unpredictable wildcard has to be neutralized. If killing him didn't work, turning the entire world against him sounds like a reasonable alternative to me. Even if he hadn't decided to go play god in another part of the universe, he wouldn't have been able to stop Adrian publicly ever again.

Three: The theme didn't change. Nothing ever changes, human nature is what makes the world a rotten place, and all Adrian has probably accomplished is a delay is all still present. Though I wish they had kept in Dr. Manhattan telling him that and then leaving the atom bomb cloud in his globe as he departs. But I'm not so crazy to demand that my favorite panel must be in a film in order to call it good.

Coraline is drop-dead gorgeous and if you can stand to see it in 3D, it's used to give depth to the world and not so much thrusting things in your face. And the story is wonderful. I love Neil Gaiman's stuff for the simple fact that he layers in stuff that most people without a Liberal Arts degree wouldn't understand but if you do get it, it just adds another layer of texture to the world. And if it does go past your head, you really don't have to know it to get the story. Also, I think that movie is one of the few times I have felt justified in wanting to call Social Services on behalf of a fictional child.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li: what the hell happened to this movie in development? I'm putting all the blame on the writers, directors, and possible whoever was in charge of editing it. Yeah, there will be spoilers in this part.

Problem one: YOU KILLED BISON! You put in a cute little ad and a nod to go find Ryu next, but you killed off Bison. You put Charlie Nash in the movie (and yes, someone else had to remind me of the significance of that character) and you let him live and killed off Bison! I haven't decided if I should give out brownie points for making it the most hard-core Neal McDonough on-screen death or not.

Problem two: I can accept using a video game as the place to get characters and build the story up from there. But with the genre of the game and the movie, your audience is expecting fights. And then when you set up fights between two characters from the video game, we expect to see some major ass-whumping. The Vega/Chun-Li fight is an epic fail in this regard. And the only reason I can't see it getting more time is because of problem number three.

Problem three: The B-plot with Charlie Nash and the Bangkok cop; why the hell was that even in the movie? Seriously, we get cheated on Vega fight because you need to make a joke about gold handcuffs? All those scenes should have hit the cutting room floor leaving the storage container scene and maybe some of the so unhelpful guns at the end. And Nash should have died. I mean DUDE, you just let a seventeen-year-old girl see her father get killed brutally and didn't even try to turn her aside when you saw what was going to happen!

I totally want Rose to snap and go evil just because of that alone. Either that or Bison invested in cloning research. And Nash should have died.

Problem four: I'm not hating Neal for the Irish accent, he said repeatedly in interviews "they" wanted Bison to have an Irish accent, so he came up with a backstory reason for it. Epic fail on directing there. I figured based on the interview reasons that it was mostly leftover from his parents and then reinforced when he went back to Ireland. Parents died when Bison was infant; any accent should have been Bangkok-ish since he never left until in his late teens or early twenties! Yes, you do pick up local twang (some people more easily than others) but being back in Bangkok should have been bringing that out in his voice.

Yeah, they made the first Street Fighter movie look Oscar worthy. Ponder that one.

And of course I had to go fix it. You know how Clue gives you three endings. Well this is the ending I think they left out.

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The BookWorm

Number Crunching 149

Number Crunching 149
03/06/2009

Quicken Cash Flow = -61.14
STEF Total = 306.20

Enter receipts into Quicken: Done.
Reconcile Quicken to online accounts: Done.
Add totals to spreadsheet: Done.
What did I accomplish during the week? Not much with finances.

Read Free!
The BookWorm