The Nicssite Blogger

So its a new year. My final semester of College. I at times wonder what will I amount to after graduation in May. I don’t know. I can’t see that far into the future. I can see the short term however and start to try to plan for the future.

I started to track my money more. Currently, I’m using mint.com. I hate it. I heard it was supposed to be better the quicken. I don’t believe it. Sure it’s nice to have things update automatically for free but it misses the pending transactions on one account. because of that it doesn’t recognize a transfer between banks so I’m showing more the $1300 more then I have. I can’t plan for future transactions. About the only thing I have found is I spent over 100 dollars on fast food this month.  And thats not even the most updated figure.

I think tomorrow I will start getting Quicken caught up for the year. Should be fun.

I started the year off with 3999 on my credit cards. With the help of some student aid money, I was able to get that to 1999 and still have money left in savings. Currently I am in an intro period for another month or two and have 0% interest on that card. I’m hoping I’ll have more paid off when I get my tax money.

Besides the fast food budget, everything else is falling about where I expected it to. Mint.com is yelling becuase I went over what I had inputed for the budget, but I’m not worried. Currently I’m trying to figure out my spending so I know where to cut.

Forecasting is probably my favorite part of a budget. Trying to figure out what to save up for and estimate how much I’ll make and have. I know rent comes, since it’s split, I only have to pay every other month. I have expenses in the way of a real estate career I’m pursuing. Total starting expenses are expected to be around 1500-1600 in the first year and expected to be around 8-900 dollars after that. I’ve spent 275 of that already with the class I’m taking. Some of this will be tax deductible at the end of the year.

I’m also trying to become better at saving money. I opened up a money market account with ally.com. The interest is current 1.49%. Much better then the .01% with my chase savings. If I wasn’t limited on the amount of transactions, I would probably keep my chase savings at a lower balance. Hopefully with the ally account, I’ll be able to save more money as I won’t have it as easily available to me. Even though the interest is low, I think I’ll end up better in the long run.

I’m hoping that I can get far enough ahead and be good enough in the real estate career that I’ll be able drop one of my two jobs by March or April. That should be exciting.  Things are looking good for the future so far.

As I surf the net and read all of the latest happenings, I wonder, is life really as bad as the news makes it out to be? The economy has tanked. Sure, the market is around half of its all time high of 14 some odd thousand. it only took a year to get there. but then I think, in the last 12 months it was around 5,000. Now depending on the day its closer to 8k. Hell the last month has been the best month in like 7 years. Using that as my main indicator, do I feel that we have reached the bottom? Yes I do. is our economy as strong as it was september 07? not really. I think by summer of 2010 we’ll be back to near normal.Will the economy bounce back? it hasn’t let me down in the past, though I would be more worried about inflation when it bounces back with the trillions we have pumped into the economy. Though, with inflation there’s at least good interest rates.

Next, I want to comment on Iowa and homosexual marriage in general. First, Kudos to Iowa for legalizing it. granted it was a law that deemed unconstitutional. I honestly could care less who people marry. If its a choice to be gay then so be it. People should be happy. and this really doesn’t seem to have negative consequences on society other changing ideals. Now, do I think this should be forced down religious groups. Not one bit. if a church is not comfortable with a homosexual marriage, then fine, they don’t need to marry the couple. The can goto the courthouse and have a ceremony. Will it be as romantic? No. Maybe there will be an entrepreneurship thing that will allow a marriage company to cater to gay couples. Including proceding over the wedding.  Is the world going to end if gay marriage is legalized in America? No. The couples are still going to be couples, gay people will be gay, straight people will be straight. at the end of the day, its all about legal concessions and not what the church says.

Those two things have dominated the news recently. No matter what happens with either one, the sun is going to shine tomorrow. the times they are a changing. In the long run, we’ll eventually get things right. Bush kept us on far right for so long, I figure Obama is going to take us to the far left. Kinda like mother nature uses weather to keep things in check and balances. Next president will hopefully be in the middle. Thats when we will truely flourish again. Until then, no matter how bad thigns get, the sun is still going to shine tomorrow.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The White House still believes that General Motors can restructure without filing for bankruptcy. Of course the government wants this to happen. With the billions in tax dollar money on the line, I’m sure we all want them to achieve this.

I do not believe its going to happen. Number one they can’t sell any cars. They’re not making anything close to break even and hey are still burning through billions a month and running out of cash again.

Number two, the UAW still won’t budge to help them out. Keeping their workers at high wages and making it harder for a company to scrape money is better to them then having lower wages a company that will be able to employee union members for a long term

Then there is this perception that they make junk cars. While they certainly have had several bad models in the past, I don’t think that this is the case today, at least, not any worst than any other car manufacturer. Toyota has had problems in recent years. The other two of the big three has. It’s growing pains.  GM needs to work on getting rid of that perception. They certainly are trying with their ad campaign of how many cars get good MPG. Is it enough? I don’t think so. They need to get it so people realize you are not having to take your car to the shop every other week.

GM also needs to get more cheaper, stylish,  yet extremely reliable cars on the market. People want a car the feels luxurious but not at the high price. It’s the reason the Corvette was created. GM wanted a car that could go as fast and perform as good as the performance cars of the day. The Vette came out and people loved. Create a car with that mindset, and GM has a good chance of winning over the people.

However, with all the things GM needs to do, its going to take money and couple years. That is something GM does not have at this point in time. Can they claim bankruptcy and come back smelling like roses? Yes. Shed the debt, restructure and come back leaner, meaner, more aggressive. Is it going to hurt the tax payers? Yes, however, will it help in the long run? Yes, its what should have been done a long time ago.

I’m just testing from my phone

Nic

So I know I said I’d post the news about the Office Depot interview Tuesday. As you can see it just turned to Monday Central Time. I called the hiring manager between 7 and 7:10 and got an  interview lined for 9 that same morning.

I showed up around 8:50. I wasn’t sure if this was my application online for the management job or the application in-person for the hourly job. I found out that it was the online one probably a little later then I should have.

It wasn’t full time; only 20-25 hours. He seemed alright with a 2nd job as long as it wouldn’t interfere with my job there. No problem with me. After a couple other questions he asked if I had taken the personality quiz. I asked if that was the 105 question one and he said yes. I said yeah and he started saying something about it being an instore thing. I said I had applied instore a couple weeks before. He then went and looked and came back and said he didn’t realize that I had taken the quiz and they he thinks they’ll pass and that I seemed to be a fine young man.

I was out of there by 9:07.  I called subway and she said the person in charge of hiring  wasn’t there but she had put the applications in her inbox and that they would give me a call if interested. Hopefully something will come of it.

I started entering my finances into Quickens again. It helped put me at a little more ease. Something I’ve been stressing over lately is that. It won’t be perfect but it is not as bad as I thought it was.

I’ll have a couple other things off my to-do list tomorrow so that should help me freaking out cant focus problems.

I think I’m out,

Nic

Work today was well…….Work. I went I cleaned, I drove, I cleaned, I took trash out I went home.

After getting home I went to walmart to get somethings so I could look decent for applying at subway for a manager. went back to my place got ready checked me email, saw some more great news to be mentioned later.

I finally got to subway about an hour and half of getting off work. I applied left called home drove home talking to home and finally had supper at 930. it was good.

So anyways the other good news, I got an email from Office dept saying the person in charge of hiring would like to talk to me about my application. and to call him between 7 and 4 this week. So I’ll try to get a hold of him in the morning and hope I can get an interview before I have to work at 9.

In other news, I’m thinking about do a podcast or something on views of credit cards.

So this here has had its ups and had its downs. Its had its fun times and crap times. Read Chelsea’s blog to understand how it started as that’s pretty much January and February. I’ve been looking for a job since the beginning of February. No luck so far. I was given my two weeks in March. Still remain employed through at least Monday.

This semester in college I got 2 B’s out of 2 classes. Not too bad, could’ve been better though. I was .01 points from semester honors.

On May 17th I turned 21. bought some booze at midnight. Life was then good. I have yet to be drunk since then. Chelsea’s birthday was the next day. I proposed to her. We are now engaged. WOOT WOOT. Life has been good.

Bagua Radio was started back up. It will probably have to take another Hiatus. I need a desktop computer to really do it so I can play music all the time. My laptop goes too many places for it to work out now.

I’m kind of trying to get into voice over acting. you know radio commercial the in a world where… ect. I think it would be fun and something I can do. I just can’t get a demo I like for it. It doesn’t sound exactly professional. I don’t feel it sounds completely amature either. But I don’t have any professional critiques to be sure.

I have a new Idea for a blog/podcast. (blogcast? just did a google search indeed thats what it would be) It would be fun but kinda outta my league? I bet with some help I could accomplish it. I started the idea as a joke, but it’s grown on me.

I had another idea for one too about finances and crap and me trying to stay out away from uncontrollable debt. We’ll see, Maybe I’ll just make it a sub-section here.

As for nicssite.com; I feel bad for not making something of the site. I may end up redoing the message. I’m sure we have a crapton of members that arn’t real. We’ll see. I want to have a goal of a new blog almost daily.

 

 Save the Music Industry: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The music industry, as we all, know is in a lot of financial troubles. How do these problems get solved? I believe its time for a major overhaul.

First record companies need to start listening to the the consumers again. One thing the consumers want is more diversity. 5 bands that sound nearly identical gets kind of old. How many times do you listen to the radio thinking one band sings a song but yet, it turns out to be one of the other four? Get 5 bands with 5 Distinct sounds and lets see how CD sales take off again.

Another way to increase music sales, Have quality music. If you have 15 memorable songs People will not only buy the album but be playing it more and more. This will then lead to more tickets sold to concerts which equals more money to both the labels and artists. Also in the age of the download, it is even more important to have quality songs. People can pick and choose all they want, entire albums are purchasable by the singles. The more quality songs you have, the more singles you can sell the more money in everyones pockets.

They need to get back to their roots of promoters of music not sellers of music. By promoting you’ll end up selling. Some ways to get back to promoting are:
1: quite overplaying things on the radio. Rather then play one song from an album over and over and over and over again on the radio, play several songs from the album. Get people excited about the whole album, not just one or two songs.

2: Realize the internet can be your friend. Rather then be afraid of technology, embrace it. In the last few years this has been getting better with itunes, rhypsody, emusic and amazon and getting rid of DRM a few months back but still I think more can be done. One thing that would help is get your songs in as many places people visit as possible. Embrace Internet radio. Millions of people are listening to it and millions more will start tuning in in the next several years. Rather then try to kill it with high rates, Let it live and don’t control it, let the markets decide who succeeds and who fail. Find ways to get podcaster to review music, or even incorporate it into the podcast maybe as an intro.

3. It maybe too late to do this, but do some research on Peer 2 Peer sharing. It very well could have been an excellent promotional source. There were the bad apples, but what if people really did buy more music with it after discovering it. Lets learn from this and next time something similar happens, lets go into it with an open mind and see if its helping or hurting without assuming that its hurting. The same songs that people were downloading are now available on myspace to preview.

4. Have a simple database were people can go and a few whole songs off an album. There needs to be more then 30 seconds. There could be a rocking part of a song then the rest be crap, which part would you share? Let people truly decide if they like song before buying it. If the whole song isn’t possible, lets get a good portion, at least half.

5. Become people friendly. Realize that people don’t have deep pockets. Learn the true financials of the companies you’re dealing with. Shed the Freudian theory that people are evil and realize that people are not lying to payless, but instead are telling the truth so they are not hurt financially. Learn to sit down and negotiate new royalty rates and use your heads.

It is time for the music industry to renew its business plan. It can take years to move an industry around, but maybe its time to innovate a little more and get people excited about buying music again, particularly albums. It’s time to promote the music and sell the albums. Hopefully they will achieve this. When you have a bunch of people boycotting your music, maybe its time to listen.

Well, I got moved in indiana. I’m kinda accidently using someone elses internet. But I need their internet to see about my internet? I’m looking for options. I’m trying. I should see whats in Michigan city. Maybe I can get like some wireless for cheap and just be able to not have to worry about wires and modems and crap.

 my apartment is ok. small. but comfy. theres a few problems. but nothitng too huge i guess. fun times.

 work is ok. I’ll be happy when everything’s caught up Kim was right, I do hate credit cards. almost makes me want to use cash everywhere now since they can be a problem….almost… haha.

 I miss chelsea soo freaking much. she makes my life complete and now, shes 12 hours away. (11.5 if you take my car and only stop for gas.) haha.  I wish chelsea was here right now .I miss her arms. and her body and face and touch and her kiss.  I have her candle she gave me lit. I smells nice.  I saw a picture of her at the office. God it made me miss her even more. :(  I want her here with me right now. I love her to death. I can’t wait til were married.

Well, it hit today, I’m moving Thursday. Basically my mom came in my room to ask me something. Then she looked around and I could see the tears well up. it hit me then. She left quickly, understandably so. Well the next little bit I was able to keep my mind distracted some. Then we went to wal-mart. On the way there I tried to hold back. then my sis. saw me in the mirror and asked what was wrong. It was much harder then.

Since then, I’ve felt better.  Though, starting next Monday, for two weeks, it’s going to absolutely suck. I’m going to be 12 hours from everything I know. My family, my friends, Taco John’s and Chelsea. Chelsea is much higher on the list then 4th.  Its a big long step. Then on July 31st chelsea will be there and things will get easier for me. Then mi family will be down that weekend. Should be fun.

But during those two weeks I’ll have work. That should kind of help out some. It’s the down time in my lonely apartment that scares me. I guess, I will have to have the net. It’ll be easier to keep in touch that way.

anywho, I’m out
Nic