Breaking Even, Inc.

Reader Poll: How Did You Know Your Computer Was Toast?

Clearly if you are reading this blog, you have a computer. And whether you've experienced the loss of a computer firsthand or know a friend of family member that has, you understand what it's like to have a computer completely bleep out on you.

How did you know your computer was dying? (Specific symptoms are helpful). And more importantly, what did you do about it? I'm collecting information to analyze my current technological situation. . . Thanks for your help!

Are Coupons All They're Cut Out For?

First of all, my apologies for the corniness of the title. Even though I usually skirt the edges of corniness, today I just dove right in. Somehow, I just thought "coupon update" was too boring.

I decided a photo would help me summarize my coupon experience so far. Voila.

That's right, my zen experience of coupon cutting has since been trumped by a few facts: 1) the stuff that has a coupon is stuff I never buy (mostly brand name products and prepackaged food) and 2) the whole waiting-for-things-to-be-a-low-price-before-using-the-coupon strategy seems to lead to a lot of crumbling expired coupons into my purse. A few lessons:

Coupon websites will only get you far if you are a certain kind of buyer.

If you do buy a lot of packaged foods or brand name products , here are some sites where you can print coupons:
www.coupons.com
www.smartsource.com
www.coolsavings.com
www.printable-coupons.blogspot.com
www.wow-coupons.com
To be fair, I did find a coupon for Sean's contact lens solution and a coupon for Benefiber that saved us a combined $2. Sean also has a bizarre fascination with the smell of Tide so I'm keeping the Tide coupon in reserve. That was about it.

In-paper coupons seem better in both quality and useability in your area.

My combined coupon savings from coupons I've physically clipped from fliers have saved me much more money (about $6) then searching and printing off of online websites.

Usually there is a reason they are giving a coupon for a product.

As far as deals went, I found the lower unit price was often on a generic product or on a similar version of the product not on sale. The coupon sounded like a good deal...until you had to buy in major bulk (do I need 3 Tide-to-go pens ever?) or try some new gimmick-y product (that cereal that comes pre-poured into a bowl just seems lazy to me!).

That said, there is plenty of useful information online.

Freebielist (free samples by product type)
A great system for keeping track of mail-in rebates (from Sense to Save).
Eating healthy with coupons (from Cheap Healthy Good)

And add these two blogs to your RSS reader:
Money Saving Mom (she breaks down the sales flier for you for the best deals)
Spending Less 101 (how I saved $8 on my senior dog's expensive food)

If you buy online, see my buy online guide. It'll change your life.

Summary: While I'm not cheerleader-excited about coupons, I'm going to only spend my time going for the ones I like.

I'm going to check online coupon sites only monthly; stay subscribed to the coupon blogs above; and read my grocery and drug store fliers religiously. Saving money on food is certainly worth a little effort but only if it pays off.

This post was submitted to the Carnival of Personal Finance.

A New Website For Me!

I made the plunge a few weeks ago and decided to finally do it: get my website designed for me.

You may say, "Don't you know how to design websites, Nicole, I mean you work for a web company!" Here's the thing. I have no design experience. (Why do you think I'm using a template that came with Typepad?) I create the content, folks. I write, podcast, edit video... I don't do cms or know how to use a frame. (I only know these things exist and can use them in a sentence to sound smart).

As far as design, I know what I like, but not exactly what I want. In short, I'm a nightmare client.

I'm paying the company I work for to design the website for me for several reasons:

1) They do a great job. I've seen the thought my coworkers put into other people's designs and I want a product like they put out. Plus they understand me and my blog pretty well from our daily interations.

2) They're affordable. My custom designed Joomla! site is going to run me about $1,000, which is a reasonable rate from what I've seen.

3) I may not be able to design a nice-looking site from the ground up by I can sure mess with a created site. Since I work with Joomla on our newspaper sites, I have an idea of what can be done with my site.

4) Having my own site will teach me a lot of the web stuff I've been avoiding... but not having to set it up takes a lot of it off my mind.

5) Free software means nothing I have to buy... though I did order a $20 Joomla! book to teach me a little more.

Anyway, so if you know anything about websites or Joomla! (I'm going with version 1.5 for you computer types), if you can think of things I should include when I'm thinking about all this, please comment or email me. Suggestions from others are so helpful when you are doing something like this!

And don't worry, I'll try not to turn into more of a nerd then I already am.  

The Three Steps Of Buying Online

A Little Extra Effort Could Save You A Ton

I finally broke down last week and bought myself a digital voice recorder. My boss was supposed to order me one for the podcast I do for our paper but I'm tired of bugging him... plus, I want to use it guilt-free for my own purposes.

When I buy online, I've developed a new pattern. I do three things before I buy anything. I find it's harder to figure out exactly what I want then to do these three things I do afterward:

Step 1: Go to your favorite price comparing website, like www.pricegrabber.com. There is usually quite a range in prices for the item you want. Also it takes shipping and taxes into account, which is nice. Write the three to five cheapest retailers down as well as the price of the item.

Step 2: Check which of the three or five retailers are on www.eBates.com for further savings. Write that down.

(One retailer should stand out to you at this point. It usually does for me.)

Step 3: Go to www.retailmenot.com for coupon codes you can use with your chosen retailer. I don't bother trying the ones with less than a 50% success rate but otherwise, why not?

My digital voice recorder ended up being the cheapest at Overstock.com. (I would have never thought to look there for electronics!) I paid about 15% less for it after doing steps 2 and 3 then if I would have just took the price off of Pricegrabber. Also while Overstock was the second cheapest in the list initially (about $2 more then the cheapest), combining the free shipping with the savings websites put it way ahead in the end.

If there should be another step or two, let me know. I'm working on refining this and making it an easy download...

May Movie Giveaway Winner

Congradulations to Randy Devost who won the May Movie Giveaway contest. Here are some of Randy's favorite forms of cheap entertainment, both on and offline:

Cheap Online Entertainment

• Subscribing to YouTube vlogs (for some) is in many ways better than TV. Cable and Satellite subscriptions are SO EXPENSIVE! Some YouTube favorites of mine are: What the Buck Show, ThoseLilRabbits, Rocketboom, Leslie Hall, etc. I’m interested primarily by shows that make me laugh and inform me on what’s going on in popular culture. You can also watch regular TV programming for free using services like: Joost, Hulu, etc.
• For those who seek the latest dance trends, there are those sharing new dance styles online. Here are a few that are fun to learn and alter upon: Sydney Shuffle, Tektonic, C-walk, Le Tabarnak, etc. Upload your own!
• Using Flickr to create photo slideshows of goals you feel like are impossible and then sending them off to your most critical friends may help add viability to your convoluted fantasies. My last, “Shack on a Wharf,” is about how I dream of converting a fishing shack into my home.” What’s nice is that letting yourself dream helps you stay happy and keeps you motivated for the future. “Life is never bland with dreams at hand.”  -Randy Devost

Cheap Real World Entertainment:

• Learning a new card game with friends
• Running, swimming, hiking, biking, fishing, etc.
• Inviting friends for a night of board games. Have everyone bring a new or strange board game found in grandma’s attic or from a yard sale!
• Sewing parties for guys and girls!
• People watching (malls, public transportation, public squares, etc.)
• Playing “makeover” and letting your friends dress you up.
• Internet cafés or finding new WIFI zones. jiwire.commay be of help.

Thanks to those who participated and thanks to Randy for fun suggestions. Next time you're bored, try a few off that list!

In June, I'm launching another contest. The prize this time: the book "Nickeled and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America. I'll make a page for it later today. It'll be a random drawing and it will involve blood. Stay tuned!

Nicole's State Of The Economy Address

I'll be the first to admit that I have little to no-pull in terms of making people think one thing or the other about the economy. I do, however, come to a point where I have collected some cool links that just need to be shared.

I'll cover the economy in seperate sectors of the agreed-upon needs of all people: Food, Water, Clothing, Shelter, and Love (and I'll throw in Government just for fun!).

Food

Food price inflation may not be as bad as we thought (check out inflation explained at Debt-Free Revolution). I also read a completely hilarious blog about media mass hysteria about food prices meanwhile the average barbeque meal only cost $1.65 more than last year... if you know who wrote this post let me know, because I lost the link! Even the Wall Street Journal has reported rice futures going down.

Water

My friend Sarah sent me this fabulous SIGG water bottle for my birthday. It is amazing. It keeps my water cold and crisp and does not leave a plastic aftertaste in my mouth...and, of course, it's refillable. I don't normally endorse products but here's the store if you want to buy one.

Clothing

Apparently, the New York Times is having a hard time believing that Sarah Jessica Parker's newish Bitten line of clothes is so wonderful. They seem to think that attraction towards inexpensive clothes is a phenomenon in these economic times. Those of us who love women's magazines though have seen a "Bitten" example in every issue for at least the past year. Ok slight exaggeration but SJP (and women wanting cute cheap clothes) is here to stay.

Feeling left out menfolk? Please don't: LL Cool J has got your back! (from USAToday.com)

Shelter

If you want to understand how this whole housing debaucle happened, listen to this hour-long program from This American Life. Great storytelling, which you can expect from TAL but makes this whole thing way more understandable.

And if you're a renter, feel free to get angry. Read this fabulous post by Baglady to see why this housing crisis will effect us all whether we rent or not.

Love

Ah, poor Anne Heche. She may love her kids but can't afford to pay child support. OK, if she can't afford it, I think that pretty much lets everyone else off the hook, too. (I have no sympathy for celebrities who make more money in one day then I have in five years then waste their money. Where I'm from we call that gaspilleuse!)(from People.com)

But in the good news bin about love, people apparently love and appreciate small businesses enough to actually pay in a pay-as-you-wish situation. (from Freakonomics blog)

And according to a recent Gallup poll,almost 50% of us are happy and thriving. How happy? People are working on an index for that! (from Freakonomics blog)

Government

Haven't spent your new government stimulus check on a new Wii or a crazy night in Vegas? Good for you! Here are some more productive things to do with it. (from Mighty Bargain Hunter)

And guess what? The government is doing something about credit card companies (from Debt-Free Revolution).

Need even more government fun? Now you can actually prove if you could do a better job then your Congress people. Balance the federal budget...it's a new game called Budget Hero. (Freakonomics blog)

To summarize: things may or may not be as awful as we thought, but we certianly can't control everything. Might as well smile and wave...

Image from www.shorpy.com.

 

I Want My (Internet) TV

Online Television Not The Real Thing Yet But Will Do In A Pinch

We are lucky enough that television (or at least websites with television-like qualities) is making it's way online. Great for people like me who don't want to pay for high speed internet and cable (guess which one won out for me?) Let's check out our options, shall we?

YouTube, Metacafe, Videojug, etc.

Idea: User submited (and theoretically user generated) videos; ability to rate the videos and sometimes embed them into your own website; you can make one video or a hundred.

The Pros: Short enough to "sneak a quick one", easy to keep clicking from one to the next

The Cons: Often short, sometimes crappy, highly addictive to some people

My Take: I don't like these kind of videos. Nerve Scanner, a blog I love, is great about getting the coolest, funniest ones off the web. I'm not patient enough to watch a bunch of ok videos to find one good one. (Meanwhile Sean will watch YouTube karate videos for hours, though he also likes people being clumsy). To each his own I suppose.

iTunes, or any online location for video podcasts

Idea: User generated and submitted content; like a audio podcast, you can subscribe and get all the episodes; most often a series (it's kind of a commitment). Also, iTunes often has a free television episode every week if you are looking for something random.

The Pros: Usually when people commit to making a series of videos, they are more commited to it then the average person. You can expect content that was thought about at the very least, and if you like what you see, you can see more on the same subject by the same people. Easily loadable on the newer iPods.

The Cons: Sometimes videos seem a little more on the informative side and a little less on the fun side. Sometimes podcasts also just "disappear" (as in they stop being updated with no explanation).

My take: I don't count on anything from iTunes. I use it to learn something (like I love the WhoWhatWear Daily video podcast) and when I go on a trip, I'll download some free television for entertainment. Other then that, not much iTunes for me. 

SurftheChannel.com (from Comment faire de l'argent...en economisant)

Idea: A central place you can go online to watch all your favorite shows... and shows you didn't even know existed (hello, "Make Me A Supemodel"!)

The Pros: Hundreds of shows (everything from Little House On The Prarie to Will and Grace) and by hundreds of shows I don't mean just different shows. There are over 300 LHOTP episodes! You can take the experience to full screen too.

The Cons: It takes awhile to load full screen (so just get up and make popcorn while you wait). The quality is also a little bad. Oh and sometimes the videos have distracting subtitles:

My Take: If I'm bored some Friday night and want to watch a little bit of "Make Me A Supermodel" to test drive it, I will. If I really like the show, I may rent a DVD of a season of it. This is the closest thing to a cable experience I can have at this point.

ABC, NBC, (Television Network websites in general), Hulu

Idea: Networks, not wanting to lose their audience or potential for online revenue, have moved some of their shows online. The good news is sometimes independent companies (like hulu) are thinking of better ways of bringing the episodes to the average computer.

Pros: Video quality is usually good, automatically blowing up to full screen well. Full length shows!

Cons: If you have a five year old (and on it's last leg) laptop, your video card may not be up to snuff. I could only watch about 5-10 seconds of any NBC show before my computer spaced out. 

My take: If I had a good enought video card, this would actually be the closest thing to a cable experience for me.

Image from blogsmonroe.com, Check out a post about Hulu here.

 

So the good news is, if you want a television experience, it can happen online. It certainly does have a little bit of a ways to go to make it similar to a real television experience though. If none of what I've listed above works for you, here is someone who has done enough research to rank each site and list what's available in table format.

Review of MaineCreates.com

I met Matt Zito at that SMBIZ4ME Conference I went to last week. I had done a little work before with Maine's Creative Economy (one of my old bosses is on the Maine Arts Commission). I enjoyed talking with him and the idea of having a place online to connect with other people in Maine who have similar "creative" work. (Myspace is great for music and film but kind of leaves out other professions as far as major networking opportunities.)

Here is my take on www.mainecreates.com.

The Bad

The site is a little cumbersome (I have been trying to add to my ideas unsuccessfully for about ten minutes, though I am admittedly not the most web-saavy person). It is hard to browse for something unless you know specifics. For example, I can look at all the cabinetmakers on the site or all people in Ellsworth but there seems to be no "here's everyone" place on the site (you have to select one user at a time). The very specificness of the categories also makes it on one hand, easy to glimpse what people specialize in but on the other, harder to just "run into" people.

The other thing about the site is you can only have 10 connections total. (That seems to mean ten people/profiles, though I'm able to send messages to people I'm not connected to, it just involves an extra step). Limiting the number of connections seems odd; the more connections you make on a social networking site, the longer you stay on it, right? I'm also unsure about how the site determines my "possible connections". Is it by location, or perhaps similar work?

And the site will start charging for access after a year. Hopefully, the revenue can be generated by advertising or some other way besides charging users in the future.

The Good (Because despite my long paragraphs above, the site is mostly good)

Mainecreates.com is clearly a site with a lot of thought put into it (both in design and information organizing). This is clear because people are joining it in addition to myself. (It's less than a month old.) The creative economy is a dynamic part of Maine that needs to be celebrated and needs to connect people.

On a more selfish end, I enjoyed how easy it was for me to create a profile as well as how easy I found people I knew (or people I want to know). If you live in Maine and have a creative job, sign up for an account. It's free and you might meet some people to collaborate with.

I also see that Matt is taking every opportunity to present this site to people (he wasn't impatient talking to me at all, even though I'm just one blogger). The guts to go out on a limb for people who don't have a ton of money but need representation (I'm guessing most creative folks in Maine do their craft as a supplement to their income).

So spread the word about this website if you know someone who could benefit.

Liked this post? See related post: Getting Up In My Business (SMBIZ4ME Conference)...

Are You Twitter-petered?

Behold The Addictiveness of Twitter And You Too Can Have One More Website To Check

For those of us who are online a lot (or just like being online), it's fun to have a few websites you can visit and have a good time with while feeling as if you're getting something accomplished. People seem to like having things they can check. Sean's obsession with checking his email (at least five times a day) is one such example. A couple of my friends obsessively monitor Myspace pages or surf bored.com. And now, we have Twitter.

Twitter is a social networking site for lazy people. (I lump myself in this group; writing and maintaining this blog take up enough of my time that social networking goes to the wayside a bit.) You have a tiny profile (here's mine) and can send little 140 character messages to people who are following you. That's about it.

I don't know even half the people who are following me. I know only a few of the people I am following. But I broadcast my little messages to the world anyway. Twitter has brought a little traffic to my site, not enough at this point to make it worth the thought I put into my little messages. But it is still oddly addictive.

I think bloggers like Twitter because it let's us get out of our niche and be a little more personal (though shameless self promotion, myself included, does happen). Also people are using it sort of like an online "word of mouth" (See Harnessing the Power of Twitter (SheGeeks) or The Power of Twitter (Miss 604) for more info about this.)

It has some interesting implications and takes little of my time for it so I guess I'll remain a little twitter-petered. (For those of you who get why I used a random Bambi picture, go you.) I'm breakingeven on Twitter if you want to tweet with me. And if you have unlocked the hidden powers of Twitter, do share!

Just think; one more thing online you can check besides your usual haunts... 

Image from www.distractedglobe.com

8 Random Things About Me

I've been indirectly tagged by Being Frugal so I've decided to go with it. Here are eight things you probably don't know about me:

1. I am a great cook but a horrible baker. I try to make substitutions when I bake (like when I cook) but that doesn't really work. I get really nervous about baking in general, even cookies. My best cooking work: crepes and "meal with whatever is in the house"

2. My guiltiest pleasures are really bad television, gossipy magazines, and silly movies. I'm intellectual in most other ways but I only feel entertained when things are a little silly.

3. I hate working out. If I was naturally skinny, I'd never do it. (On the same front, if I could, I would eat Chubby Hubby everyday.)

4. I am just like my father. I inherited his looks, his raunchy sense of humor, his constant introspection, and his love of life.

5. My college thesis was examining long chained fatty acids in a sediment core from a Russian lake to determine plant life over the course of 30,000 years. And now I work for a newspaper and have a personal finance blog. Horray for a liberal arts degree.

6. My favorite possession is my grandmother's engagement ring. I have worn it daily since I was 12 years old.

7. I love having a dog way more then I ever let on. I love having her follow me around like my personal "entourage" and I love how she snuggles next to me when I nap. Had I known how wonderful having Sadie would be, I would have gotten a dog much sooner.

8. Sean and I met online. He said he wanted to go out with me because in my personals photo, I "looked happy". (I also found Sadie and my last and current jobs online. Horray for the internet!)

If you're reading this and have a blog, consider yourself tagged!

Getting Up In My Business

SMBIZ4ME Governor's Regional Business Conference Was Interesting, Worth A Day Off

I took the day off work Wednesday to attend the SMBIZ4ME Conference for a few reasons: 1) It was only a half hour's drive away. 2) I heard it was going to be good from a few people. and 3) It only cost $25 and one day off to attend. As someone who has already heavily invested in my brain but knows little about business, I figured the price and the opportunity to network with people in the area would be invaluable. It was.

The vendors set up over breakfast and gave me something to do when I first walked in and was getting my bearings. (I can be social; I just sometimes need to ease into it). I made a few good connections with some Maine publications that were at least theoretically interested in my writing as well as met the guy behind Mainecreates.com. Mainecreates is a social networking site for Mainers involved in the creative economy. (I got on the site to set up a profile when I got home but I see I will be charged for it after a year, which I'm not really down with. But it is a good idea so I set up my own account there.)

In my first seminar, I met Melanie Brooks, who just got hired at MaineBusiness.com. It's a division of MaineToday (another newspaper) but it's focused on business content. She's a blogger, I'm a blogger. She suggested I crosspost on their site. So I'm trying that out to see if that'll be a good use of energy. (Really I want to end up as one of their featured bloggers, I'm competitive like that.) Melanie was fun, energetic, and into blogging; she seems like the kind of person I'd hang out with if I lived closer to Portland, though though the blogosphere can at least be a virtual friend.

All this happened in the first two hours. Did I mention there was all the free coffee I could drink and croissants I could eat? (Out of restraint, I had one croissant, ladies and gentlemen, with an apple chaser).

Meeting a lot of people who are all either thinking about or running their own businesses and having to give my "elevator speech" about my blogging consulting/web content creation business allowed me to not only realize that I actually did have a good, original idea but that I do really believe that I can do it.

As with any event of this nature, there is some golf clapping, boring speech listening, corporate sponsors to thank profusely, and a couple snotty people but that was all minor. (One PR woman in my last seminar seemed ridiculously jealous of me and conducted herself in such a way that I wondered, is she actually a PR person?)

Overall though, I met some wonderful people and got some great ideas. I left feeling energized, even though being nice and civil to people you barely know all day can be fairly exhausting.

Have you had a rockin' professional development day recently?

Cheap Electronics and Electronic Accessories

Yesterday, I drove to my hometown and surprised my mom for Mother's Day. The five hours driving and taking half a day off work were completely worth it to see the look on her face when I walked in.

I like to be helpful when I come visit so I asked her if there was anything she needed help with. She needs a new laptop charger for her computer (I like being the tech person in her life, even though probably to many people, I'm low tech). I got on the case this morning.

I heard about Deal Extreme from Brown Eyed Girl And Her Money as a cheap way to get electronics. I was waiting to check it out until I had something to buy.

I found the laptop charger for my mom's specific computer in a quick Google search. The price looks good ($26) until you go and put it in your shopping cart. Ten dollars is the minimum amount in shipping, which brings the price to almost $40.

I then did a quick search on Deal Extreme for the same product. With shipping included, $21. Now that's a little better.

Brown-eyed Girl had good things to say about it (though I can't find her entry on it at the moment), saying she got the product quickly and it worked well. I believe her, I mean, she is on my blogroll.

So if you need a 4G flash drive ($21) or crystal soil balls for your plants ($2) it's worth a quick check to see if Deal Extreme has what you need. It's the best deal around as far as I can tell. And I mean, who doesn't love a slightly quirky Japanese company?

The Free Version of Photoshop: Nothing To Get Excited About

This past week, Adobe came out with a free web-based software called Adobe Photoshop Expressions. Marketed for a younger (and subsequently poorer) audience (because Photoshop is, even with a good deal, a few hundred dollars), you upload pictures (they have 2 G of free space per account) to your spot and can modify them from there.

I enjoyed how the web site was shamelessly marketing to the young and hip. From "Join the 24/7 photo party. No cover charge.) to the cool, flashy black and grey interface to the registration page with a default birth year is 1990, I felt a little unsure of it. I mean I'm not that cool. I signed up anyway so I could report on my findings to other frugal-minded types.

The airbrush tool (of most interest to me and most every other woman I know) was not as precise and the shortcut tools I know with regular Photoshop (like holding "shift" while cropping to make the photograph a perfect square) didn't work. I feel like most digital cameras come with the other features of Photoshop Express like red eye reduction and photo effects (you know, like tinting yourself pink and stretching your face out). I use the real version of Photoshop at work almost everyday and if I did any kind of real work with photos, I think I'd pony up for the full version of the software.

I guess with all the hype, I was expecting more. That said, it sure beats the pants out of Microsoft Picture Manager, which comes with windows systems. In short, better than nothing but certainly nothing close to Photoshop proper.

Have you tried Photoshop Expressions? What did you think? If you're interested, here's the link.

Image: Here's about two minutes of fun with Photoshop Expressions. Cute but nothing to write home about.

How To Free Up 10% Of Space On Your Hard Drive

I know, I know. My posts are getting more techy and less saving money lately. Essentially the issue is my almost five year old laptop is not running so hot (imagine that) but I can't afford to replace it, at least not right now. When I tried to run a defrag a week ago after deleting some non-essential programs and files, my memory was too full for a defrag. I only had 5% free space and I need 15% to run a defrag.

So time and energy has been thrown at this problem. I have successfully reached my 15% goal and a defrag will run while I sleep tonight.

Here's how I freed up 10% more space on my computer:

• You know those free T.V. shows they have once a week on iTunes? (If you want an archive of them or don't know what I'm talking about, check out this blog.) Well, since I don't have cable, I download one every week in hopes it'll give me my television fix. So deleting all those shows I will never watch (read: Gossip Girl) and watching those shows I'm ashamed to admit I like and then deleting them (ok, I'll admit: My Big Redneck Wedding). Deleting unnecessary video has created some much needed room. Like a show? Burn it on CD or DVD for future enjoyment.
• Uploading photos to my Picasa web albums, which I talked about last post. Free 1,000 MB and, if you don't know how much that is, I've probably uploaded close to 1,000 high quality digital photos and there is still room. As my boyfriend asked in amazement, "Do other people know about this?"
• Delete photos you don't like. I have some unflattering pictures of myself, fuzzy photos, duplicates, etc. that I've been holding on to for too long. I think many people feel guilt about throwing away pictures. I am no longer one of those people. Since I was getting my pictures ready to upload anyway, I took some time to delete. And it was good.
• Delete podcasts. You know, I always mean to listen to the CBC podcasts but sometimes, it doesn't happen. Then I end up with a pile in my iTunes folder and it makes me feel like such a slacker, sort of how I would feel if I subscribed to an intellectual magazine I only read sometimes. I deleted all podcasts that were over a week old that I had no sentimental attachment towards. I kept a few This American Life ones though because they rock.
• Don't forget to empty your little recycle bin/trash can. I know, I know. Just had to remind.

Hopefully this will help my, and maybe someone else's computer run a little better. I like to think of myself as the kind of person who repairs something broken rather than going out and buying new things so here's hoping my computer is not the exception. 

No Computer Issues Google Can't Fix

I am one of those ridiculously focused types who, when I really want to get something done, will obsess until it is. So what I thought was a little photo problem has become way bigger as I begin to dig.

Sean and I went to Moab last April. Beautiful scenery, had a great time, took a lot of silly pictures. I downloaded them with photo software, either Kodak Easyshare or some kind of Adobe photo-looking-at program. I forgot about it.

I go to organize my pictures and decide, hey, I wonder where the Moab pics are. I have looked through all the jpegs on my computer (and everything named moab and kodak). I also searched my external hard drive, which I back things up on all the time. I have tried to reinstall Kodak Easyshare which was not working properly and the software CD won't work. I can't find the Adobe program. So, in short, I have 400 photos on this computer that I can't get to and spent a good eight hours on this problem only to be in the same place I started.

I go to defrag and, wait, there is not enough memory to defrag. You need 11% free and I've got 9%. Yikes. Maybe it's these 12,000 other jpgs I have on my computer clogging up my memory and slowing me down. No more.

I am downloading my favorite albums into Picasa web albums (after putting them on Mr. External Hard Drive) then deleting them to free up precious space. Picasa let's you store 1000ish MB for free (and after that you can upgrade for a small yearly fee) but let me tell you, putting them online will be piece of mind. If I ever find my Moab photos, I will do this immediately for them.

Will some photos off my memory and a defrag help me find Moab? It couldn't hurt. After I do a little cleaning house (here's hoping that'll fix the getting the Kodak program working problem), I will go way back in time to a restore point sometime last summer when these photo programs did work. Then I guess we'll see. My computer (and myself, actually) will probably need some professional help if these steps don't work.

Your comments and thoughts of free or cheap online photo storage are most certainly appreciated. 

You Know You're A Little Nuts When You Buy Things You Don't Really Need And Then Get Really Excited About Them Anyway

You know you're nuts when 1) you spend money you don't have in an uncalculated way and 2) get as excited buying a domain name as you do about a new dress.

Yesterday, against the little bugetary fairy talking in my ear, I purchased a pretty and functional dress at The Grasshopper Shop. For you non-Mainers, this is the type of store that sells $150 dollar jeans, not a place a girl on a budget should go let alone purchase clothing. But everyday as I walk by the window with my powerwalking ladyfriends from work on lunch break, I gazed lovingly in the window at a Donna Morgan graphic print dress. It was too nice and way too expensive at over $100.

Two months passed and I still smiled whenever I saw the pretty, brightly colored dresses, posed perfectly in the window. But I still did not go in.

A thirty percent off sign went up before Christmas. I decided to wait it out.

A week later, fifty percent off. They had me. I emailed my boyfriend, fraught with temptation. "Get the dress" he urged in his email reply. Well, that was all I needed.

I went in, picked the dress I wanted off the rack. One left. My size. I tried it on. It draped well. I paid $40 I don't actually have yet and walked out. The clouds parted and the sun shone brilliantly as a little bird perched on my finger and began to sing...

Ok, everything except the last sentence was true. You know, there is some satisfaction to be had for waiting for something. So Nicole's a big nutball story part one: I get excited over a dress.

Nutball story part two: I bought a domain name today. Do you believe www.nicoleouellette.com wasn't taken? Thank you Network Solutions and my parents who apparently gave me an uncommon name! I thought of the possibilities and even spent about an hour just now making my new domain name point to this very blog. Do I know what I did? Not exactly. Will it work? Not sure. 24-48 hours will let me know. 

In both cases, notice how I recklessly spent money even though I have a tight budget. I know, I know. The key is this behavior not become habit (and the fact that I have adult ed teaching money coming in soon). But my two purchases at $140 total (my domain is good for five years) have brought such joy that I wonder if money can buy me happiness, at least a little bit.