I was quite worried that I might be forced into getting a new car sooner than I expected. But it looks like I can wait a bit more. My really old car passed the smog check today. When I got my last smog check, 2 years ago, the technician guy told me that my car barely passed. So I was all geared up for the possibility of emptying my saving for the new car, which would really suck because I don't have enough in there. Plus, I'll need half of the saving for next semester tuition.

Fixing it wasn't an option I wanted to consider since the market value for it is around $500. I might be able to get the state to fund the repair expenses, but that's a lot of red tape to go through. I could retire it and get up to $1000 (although I doubt they'll pay more than market value) to apply toward the new car. However, since I only have 2 weeks before the renewal is due, that would make for some very rushed shopping trips.

Not that I don't need a new car soon, I'm always worried that mine might just die at any moment and leaving me stranded. At least I have some time to save up for it now. I think the oil change right before the smog check helped. Spent a total of $73 on that car today, plus another $56 for the registration fee. Good thing I have around $900 in my expense account for it. When I compare the value of the car to the cost of maintaining it and the cost of insurance, it seems so ridiculous.

I just received my result for a state job examination that I took some time ago. I didn't give it much though because beside the actual test, some people can have career credits and veteran points added to boost up their score. I had none since my current job is neither a state job nor related to the position they are hiring and obviously I'm not a veteran. Also, only the top three will be considered. So this is a big surprise.

Career credits = 0
Veteran points = 0
Final Score = 95
Rank 1

I don't remember if there were 100 questions or not, but what the heck. This is the best new I've had, especially given my current situation. Now to wait for that interview call and let hope I don't screw up like so many times before.

Btw, if you're interested in trying for CA state jobs, here is the place for them.

It was the right thing to do. Plus, I was getting sick of all the nasty rumors. It was one thing when they whispered behind my back, but having it said straight to my face is a bit much for me to handle. Still, I feel like I've lost something precious.

Ever since I finished the finals...yesterday, I've been in a state of euphoria, completely ignoring the research paper that is due tomorrow morning. Ten more percents and one more all nighter to go through before I can relax.

I like it better, and do better, when the class grade is made up of a couple major exams and projects instead of the constant flow of small 1% or 2% assignments, that take as much effort as a 10% assignment. Those things kill me. A little slack here and there, and those % are gone. The constant state of work is really depressing too. I know some people prefer them over the major exams because they can use them to pull their grade up but those are just so wearing.

This is the second week I wasted precious time procrastinating instead of working on my projects. Everything else just seems so much more interesting when I have to sit down and prepare to tackle a task. The annoying thing is that the moment my task is finished, all those distractions lose their luster. Garg! If I was in charge of someone who is prone to bad habits like mine, I would have smack them black and blue. Now if only I can inspire that motivation in myself.

Finance wise, this is the time when I should start putting my money into the market; after all, it finally dropped like I anticipated. Unfortunately, I got no moola. Nada, nothing. I had to shell out the big bucks for two classes this summers as well as super expensive books. So now, I'm broke. I'm still quite incensed that just one book cost a whopping $180. Didn't have time to order online either, since I managed to snag two very dedicated professors who believe in cramming the entire 16 weeks of work, not just lessons, into the short 6 summer weeks. Just 2 more weeks and some major projects to go.

Oh yeah, the cost of DSL shot up like mad. Just a couple of months before my contract expired, the price was down to like $15, yet by the time it expired, the price had went up to $23. And that was for new customers only, mine was over $30. I called in and negotiated with them and they offered their competitor's promotional price, which was $25, in exchange for another year. So in addition to paying double for gas, I have to pay extra for DSL too.

Two months of incorrect billing and three broken promises of correction are more than enough for me to cancel my subscription. Having nice CSR is not enough, those CSR must also do what they said they did. It's a big contrast with T-Mobile where the CSR said they've made the change and it showed up minutes later instead of the expected 48hrs. Then again, the customer service at T-Mobile is the reason why my whole family is with them even though we barely use our cellphones.

I finally went to get the front tooth that snapped into two a few months back extracted earlier today(it broke underneath the gum so it didn't fall out, but did cause an infection). I'm a bit shock at how big a hole it left, but at least the flipper/partial denture thing covered it nicely. All in all, I'm out of about $210 in co-pay, which is still much less than the co-pay for the suggested procedure of extraction, flipper, grafting and implant. The implant alone could cost up to $3k and my yearly coverage at 75% is only $2k. Not to mention I'll need someone to waste a day taking care of me while I get knocked out for the procedure. All of that aside, I can't eat any solid food today since I'm not suppose to chew, so now I'm very, very hungry.

I've just watch this story on the local news and it really makes my blood boil. Unlike rent on apartment, which fluctuates with the market price, rent on mobile home park keeps on rising without ever falling. What this company did is unconscionable. With that rent, no one would bother renting that space in the first place. This company knows that people have a vested interest in their home, they can't just give up at the drop of a hat and move, so they decided to milk them for all they're worth. If you live in this area, read the story and make sure to vote no on Proposition 98.

I'm starting to detest pulling all nighters. At least next week is spring break, which means I can complete the finals for one school with out worrying about the classes in the other school. Oh wait, I still have to work on projects. Bleh!

Too much work, too much school, too much of everything and not enough caffeine. Must remember that work equal money, must love work. Also, must stop eating...so much and double the exercise regiment. Urgh, so fat.

The state finally processed my tax return and in two weeks, I can expect a refund of a whopping $6, yippie.

While I'm at it, I'm also hating the fed right now. My interest income has been cut in half thank to them. When that stimulus check come, I'm going to bank it to make up for the missing interest, take that.

Spent way to much time reading the newspaper lately, following the democrat campaign coverage in particular, and I must say, I'm starting to dislike Obama. What's with the press donning on kid gloves when it comes to him? And why the f*** is every criticism thrown at him intentionally or not, got turn into some racism issue? It's freaking hypocritical for someone to claim that they're proud of who they are, yet when other people point out the same thing it's racism. Like when they went on and on about that darkened picture. He's a black man and proud of it, but if you make his skin darker than what it is then it's racism because you're pointing out that he's black. Oh and let ignore his half whiteness completely since it's so inconvenient.

And why is everyone buying into the "bold, hope and change" when his senate record indicated that he couldn't take a stand and make a damn decision? When that important bill is put on his desk, as a president he'll vote present so he can get a leverage with the majority. Yup, that sure inspires a lot of confident. From what I've observed, the whole media is very much the old boy club and is refusing to recognize a woman on equal ground. Obama is not required to form an opinion on matters involving other people or to clear up any misconception about him, but his opponent must be an expert on his personal life and is required to repudiate any insinuation that he is not who he displayed to the world. Not to mention the cult-like attitude his fanatic followers displayed.

There is no way I'm voting for someone who is too busy trying to get his next job to actually do his current job. Hey boss, since I'm applying for a much better job with nothing but potential as credential, you wouldn't mind that I'm using up all my working hours to prepare for that job would you, I mean it's not like I actually did any work before? So now it's no longer Hilary or Obama, but maybe Hilary(since she went so negative and couldn't handle her campaign) or McCain. I actually like McCain and am quite disappointed that he is running with the corrupted Republican party. I'm going to register myself as an Independent next time so I won't feel this inexplicable party loyalty.

Whew, that woke me up.

I think this qualifies for automatic rejection. In the past two days, I've sent my resume, which also contained a cover letter that I wrote specifically for this one advertisement, to a few of the prospective jobs that are perfect for me.

I didn't know until I read the email that the career center sent to me, regarding the critique of my resume and it showed a line all in CAPS that the CV wasn't critiqued. I was a bit puzzled at first until I doubled checked my resume. Since I used OpenOffice to write it, I had to convert it to PDF to send it to people and I completely forgot that I included the CV in there for convenience. Man, talk about job search blunder.

I just broke my front tooth. The gum around it has been hurting for the last few days but I just thought it was some sort of gum infection because I didn't brush carefully enough. So I've been flossing, brushing and hold mouthful of salt water to reduce the pain. It worked, but while I was eating a mango today, near the seed, I heard a snap and then intense pain.

It's still holding in there but it's definitely loose. I'll probably have to get a bridge or something. Damn, how am I going to show my face in public in the mean time? I have to work for the next six consecutive days too, dealing with customers .

February is a good month to me. In term of finance, this is a 3 paychecks month in addition to tax refund and deposit from book sold. I've also managed to cross off quite a number of entries on my to do list and got the ball rolling in my search for that 2nd job.

On the downside, I also set foot into a Goodwill store for the first time ever only to discover that I'm not a thrift store shopper. I might go to a bigger store for one more try but I won't pin my hope on it. The last store I went to, chosen because of its location--smack dab in the middle of an affluence neighborhood--in addition to positive feedbacks on the web, had nothing but crap. Not just crap, but expensive crap. It doesn't feel like a deal when the item is worn, came from places like Target and is listed at 1/2 to 2/3 the price of the main store clearance price. I could just browse the clearance racks and get something brand new.

I have no problem paying decent price for used stuff like furniture or car, but for something that is going to be next to my skin all day, the word used has an entirely different meaning. Furthermore, when the product is of low quality and is easily affordable when new, used should translate to 1/10 the price at most. I mean, the whole point of a used market is because the quality of the product ensures that it'll last and it's too expensive when new.

Then again, all these negativity probably stemmed from the fact that I recently cleaned out my closet and gave away nearly 80% of it. It made me realize exactly how much I've wasted on crap. I'm now leaned more toward high quality but expensive stuff. Which is why my wallet had been crying these past two months while I went about stimulating the economy.

Out of the three credit agencies, only Experian let me see my credit report when I requested it through Annualcreditreport.com. Two years ago, I had to file a complaint to get my reports from TransUnion and Equifax. They kept denying my attempts at viewing it online, citing that they were unable to verify personal information. Yet the personal information they had is exactly the same as the one I entered. Not only that, but after I received the reports, I was also given access to the copies online. After all that problems, I went to the trouble of purchasing a credit score from TransUnion to guarantee that I'll be able to view my report again, with the plan that I can purchase a credit score from Equifax this year to guarantee access also.

Well, they pull the same stunt again this year even after I logged into my account after going through annualcreditreport.com. I can purchase any of my information but I can't see it for free. I submitted my complain and I'll have to submit another one come June when I request my Equifax report.

Thought I could make use of this credit since I was a full time student for only one semester last year. But it turned out the 16 weeks do count as 5 months since they started at the end of a month and ended at the beginning of another. There goes the extra $200.

Instead of contributing directly into the fund, it would be better for me to contribute into a money market fund and then exchange for stock whenever I see fit. This way I can have my buy all and still get 4%+ without worrying about tax.

Historically, those who sent in their IRA contribution early in the year did better than those who DCA or sent in at the end of the year. I wanted to bite the bullet and put the fund in my saving account into the IRA, but with the state of the economy I expected the stock price to sink this year. After much debate, I decided to keep the current $100 biweekly and sent in the rest today. Price right now is almost equal to the beginning of last year so it's a good time to buy. Everything is getting too expensive, even retirement funding. Coming up with that extra $1,000 is really stretching my budget.

I haven't been listing my books in a while, mostly cause I'm too lazy. But this month I found myself a bit short of cash and decided to list some, well one for now. Turned out I forgot to transfer money from my computer fund to cover computer expenses.

I listed it at a few dollars higher than the lowest seller for the same condition and thought it was fine. Then some idiots came by and drastically undercut price by as much as $15. I'm laughing at them now with my extra money. Of course people are not going to think about buying books for next semester during christmas. Sorry to all the consumers out there, but I tend to think from the perspective of a business owner.

Speaking of Christmas, I finished shopping for gifts today. What? They won't sell the stuff I wanted until today and I don't like to buy substitute gifts. Spent a total of around $290, including gift for myself .

Year end wrap up:

Assets increased by 49% since I first joined.

IRA is fully funded for 2006 and 2007.

Expenses this year is at an all time high of $9,500.

Took the last final this morning and messed up badly so now my grades go like this: A, A-, A, B+.

Could have gotten a better grade had I actually studied for the last exam, but I got fed up with all the stress, lack of sleep and constant studying, not to mention the copious amount of coffee I have been consuming lately, and decided to go read porn instead. Umm...yeah, two days reserved for studying turned into half an hour of reviewing before I realized it.

Of course I'm kicking myself now, cause had I managed 5.5% more on the final, the equivalent of 2.75 correct answers, the A- would have been guaranteed. Then again I sort of resigned myself to a B+ in this class before I even took the final because his exams were extremely tricky and I would need to ace it to get the grade I wanted. Oh well, must remember to do better during the semester next time, and no more bringing the laptop along when studying.

And three more to go. I'm feeling pretty good about it, but nervous at the same time. Last time I thought I aced the exam in this class, I ended up with 88%. Got all the major questions correct, but I missed out on the multiple choices because I thought the test was too easy and didn't read it carefully enough. Those were tricky.

Had hoped to get all A or A-, but at this rate, I might end up with one to two B+. Note to self, put in more effort during the semester so I don't have to work so hard for the final.

And it's not their computer system.

The overdraft, which has no reason to exist in the first place, went through earlier today despite the fact that I requested that they canceled it. But that's not all, the overdraft originated from someone else checking account. In other words, someone is tapping into my credit card via overdraft protection.

I called back and demanded to know why this happened and they told me that for some reason, another person checking account was linked to mine, date and time unknown. After conferring with the banker and verifying that the checking account wasn't mine, the rep told me they'll have to wait and see if they can get money back from that person. I was seriously pissed off. Here I am trying my best to protect my identity as well as my finance only to have the financial institution I'm dealing with screwed me over like this.

After I rant and rave, they finally told me that since it wasn't my fault, they'll put the money back even if they couldn't get it from the other person, as well as unlink that account. Guess what, when they tried to remove that account, they couldn't do it since the accounts information do not match, which was also why my request for the overdraft cancellation the night before didn't work. So I'm told it'll take 1 to 2 days to resolve this.

I tried to get them to restrict my card from linking to any account for overdraft protection and they bluntly told me they couldn't do it. Their reason: only accounts with matching information can be linked. Duh! They why the hell did some stranger account got linked to mine? Btw, this means that any person who has the authority to link accounts can link just about any account to your credit card too.

Either they have really incompetence employees or something fishy is going on. I lean toward the latter considered that a few months ago, one of the wells fargo bank teller forged a withdrawal slip and stole money from my mom account. We had to jump through hoops with their fraud department to get our money back.

Once this is solved, I'm closing all my accounts with them. Sure it'll be a pain to change checking account with my various online accounts, especially the U.S. Treasury, but it'll be worth it.

Update:
The transactions have been reversed, finally.

I logged in to check my balance today and noticed that the available credit on my credit card dropped significantly. There had been no new charges.

I called up customer service and they told me that the new credit reflected the overdraft request set to occur tonight. WTF? My checking account is positive and the only thing pending on it is the deposit from my job.

So I was transfered back and forth between the credit card and the bank, and one had no information while the other insisted that they had an overdraft protection request. After the overdraft protection was completely removed, I asked if the checking account linked to it was mine or did it get linked to someone else and they told me it was mine. Don't know what the heck they're doing but this is seriously lowering my confidence in them.

Something like this happened a while ago to. The available credit just mysteriously dropped, but since the amount was small and there was no charge, I didn't question it. A few weeks later, the amount was raised back up. I thought that was that, over and done with, and now this happened. Grrr!

The good new, I got a raise. Yay. An extra $40 a month sure helps in this time of declining interest rate.

My ISP bills very strangely.

Dates of invoice:

May 14
June 14
July 17
August 19
September 20
October 23
December 01

Since I signed up with them, rate has fallen by $5 and when I called, they told me nothing can be done because I was locked in the previous rate. Furthermore, my current rate was supposed to be for the first 6 months only with a $10/month increase for the last 6 months. So far, I'm getting half a month free and the rate hasn't gone up at all.

I recently went to have my eyes examined, this is where the stupid spending last month occurred, and got both glasses as well as contacts.

All my previous insurance plans have covered the cost of glasses so I didn't think much about it. Blithely, I scheduled an eye exam for both glasses and contact thinking that it won't cost me anything. Boys was I wrong, the current plan covered nothing. I was ushered straight from the exam room to the optical service center to get my glasses only to find out when I finished choosing that I'll have to pay to whole darn thing. The contact fitting is out of pocket expense too. The whole thing cost me a total of $356, actually it would have cost more but I delayed ordering the contact lenses until after the follow up examination. Btw, Kaiser optical center is ridiculously overpriced.

An expensive experience, but I've learned my lesson, I'm not going back there to order anything ever again. Which brings me to my current problem, where or how to order contacts and which brand? I took a peek at walmart and they have a ton of choices. I remember reading on some blog a while ago of sites for custom order contact at reasonable price and such but I can't find it anymore.

Edit:

Looks like I don't have as much choice as I thought. For my diameter, 13.8, the only monthly contact lense available is Focus Night & Day. Darn it, I wanted the $20 per box price instead of $43. At least it's still better than the $278 for 1 year supply at Kaiser. Lol, I forgot that 6 lenses is only for 3 months.

Here's a picture of my laptop



I added 1GB of RAM, which was easier to do than for a desktop, and got rid of the memory leak know as McAffee as well as junk programs so it's very fast now. Of course it's slow compare to a duo core, but quite a deal for $100. I installed some basic programs and they used up half of the 80GB hard drive. Yikes! Definitely can't store much on it. I upgraded my sister's laptop too and bought a bunch of accessories for both of us so I ended up gifting her back the half price portion she gifted me.

Btw, if anyone is interested in getting a basic laptop. I would recommend a duo core. Even though most programs are not written for processes splitting, a duo core with lower GHz is still much better since each core can run a different program.

Here's the junk I acquired too. Bleh!



They should have just decreased the price by the $70 that the printer is retailing for instead of including it in the package. I don't need a new scanner/printer/whatever combo since I already have devices with the same functions. The resell price is so low since the market is saturated with it that it'll probably cost me $ to get rid of it. The worst part, it's taking up precious space in my room.

Now I only need to get gifts for my parents and I'm done for Xmas.

My sister decided to go all the way to the Best Buys in Palo Alto to camp out. This is a problem because I originally planned to join her at midnight at the one in Milpitas. There is no freaking way I'm going to drive all the way up there in the middle of the night to freeze my butt off. I don't trust my car that much. So to make up for it, she'll buy the laptop for me and I'll reimburse her half the price. I'm not too thrill with it since the processor is Intel® Celeron® M processor 530 at 1.7 GHz and it only has 512 MB RAM, which is pretty bad for Vista home basic. But it has the essentials like DL DVD burner, wireless networking, media readers, and a passable 80 GB hard drive. Plus, if she manage to get it, it'll only cost me $125. That's a big difference to the $800 HP Pavilion dv2500t that I had my eyes on. Wish me luck, or better yet, wish her luck

For all the innovations, Vista is seriously lacking when it comes to the basic. I accidentally opened a zip file with 7-zip and caused the file association. Worst, there wasn't any way for me to restore the default zip association. After much research, I finally had to go and delete a regkey to restore it to default, complete with appropriate icon. I ran into a lot of complications trying to clear out my cookie folder too. With all the spying problems on the web via cookie, hiding the cookie folder is the stupidest move.

Financially speaking, let just say this is the worst month ever with one costly mistake after another. Mind you they're not junk, but to spend when I didn't need the product yet and simply because the sale person talked me into it is so foolish. I need to go out and interact with people more given how gullible I am when it comes to dealing with them, sale people in particular.

I spent way too much time making these.

With flash and less light



Without flash and more light

I've discovered Daiso, the $1.50 store that sells japanese products. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I was planning on buying a set of bento box online, complete with bag, chopstick, and belt for around $20 + shipping. Well, I now ended up spending $40 for 4 bento boxes, bags, belts, chopsticks, various molds and a bunch of other bento equipments. Very expensive for lunch containers, but so very, very cute. There are still more must have equipments that I haven't bought this time around. The only bad thing is that the interior of the boxes are not black, they're the same colors as the exterior, and the belts they sell are not the type I like. Which mean I'll probably go back to that store many times until I get what I want. More money are going to walk right out of my pockets. Ah well, I suppose it's good to splurge on things I like once in a while. But I'm never, ever going to step foot into a Dollar Store, it's dangerous.

I feel like celebrating. The assignment that I slaved over for a week - since that was all the time I was given - pulled all nighter twice, skipped a couple of classes and even one shift of work for has pay off. Before you start on why I should prepare it better and avoid doing all of the above or it's just a measly 95, let me state that it was a Research paper. Research paper is the ban of my existence. First I have to rack my brain to think up of thesis, transition sentences, catchy intro, then the hours and hours of research. And after all of that, I ended up using barely a quarter of what I found.

Then onto the writing, fitting all the ideas I managed to retain - my mind felt like a sieve, unable to hold on to all the wonderful ideas I had - is like taking a sledgehammer to a puzzle because the pieces don't fit properly. Not that I can't write wonderful papers, I can. It's just that each page will take me more than 24 hours and it will feel like I'm writing with my blood, pure torture. And let not forget grammar, tenses, and word choice mistakes that I always made. Those tend to kill my paper if it wasn't for the critical thinking and any other saving grace it has. Did I mention that it's a single space only paper?

But it's over and done with. Yes, yes, yes! That was 20% of my grade and on the traditional grading scale of 90, 80, 70, losing only 1% is a huge relief. I should celebrate by buying that pretty bento box. *nod**nod* It's only reasonable.

Finally got around to taking pictures of my lunch, done in part to curb my itch to buy those expensive lacquered bento boxes and accessories. First time I tried making rolled omelette, especially with filling, and it came out better than I expected. Made cute hot dog flowers too, but I ate them before they can go into the box :P





It looks kind of washed out though. Not sure if it's because of the obsolete camera or poor technique. Or maybe I really need to buy that black colored interior bento box after all.