But it isn't here. Try here instead.
Let's put it this way. For a huge part of my life, I never really took any responsibility when it came to money. During college, I would work all summer to make money to have during the school year. But that never seemed to last very long, and by the Spring Semesters, I almost always had no money for books for my classes. And that made my classes a lot harder than they should have been. And then, when I graduated from college, and started waiting tables, I thought that I could do better. But I really didn't. I was really living from paycheck-to-paycheck (or, more truthfully, from shift-to-shift, as my paycheck was never more than about $30 every two weeks and I usually made more in tips). But I was just not holding myself to be responsible. I mean, it's not like I went to my parents and begged for money. But I did figure out strategies to barely keep my head above water.
But then, I managed to land a steady, 40 hour a week job. Even though it was entry-level, I still started to feel like I could turn things around eventually. I have started down the road towards fiscal solvency. I've started saving with an ING savings account for an emergency fund, monthly fun money, and a travel fund. I pay off a big portion of my credit card (and try very, very hard to not put any other charges on it, though I'm not so good at that all the time). I read personal finance blogs like Get Rich Slowly, Consumerism Commentary, Give me Back my Five Bucks, and Mapgirl's Fiscal Challenge on my RSS feed reader everyday. (Side note: I love seeing that real people have gone through some of the same mess I've gone through, and managed to make it out. I really enjoy being able to learn from their experiences, and getting some wonderful advice that I might not have found elsewhere. And, even though I almost never comment, I know that these blogs are a community that I feel like I belong to, and I'm happy.) I pay my student loans religiously, and I try to keep to my simple monthly "budget" (I'm not sure if you can really call it a budget, but I do!) as well as I can. There are still sometimes where I dip into my credit card, or simply have to take money out of my savings to cover unexpected expenses. But I'm at a better place already (even without having everything paid off) than I have been in a long time, and I feel like I'm being very successful. I know now that if I'm not responsible for my money, who will be?
I would love to be one to receive a Mint.com beta invite. I am struggling to get my finances straightened out as a twenty-something, and I love trying new things. I just found Saving Explained and I really enjoy the down to earth advice and personal nature of blog. I don't write that often, but I do when something really strikes my fancy, such as the contest for one of five mint.com beta invites. I feel that I could definitely get a better hold of where I stand financially and what I can do to keep a better hold. But, I won't know for sure until I get a chance to try it out. And sooner is always better than later. :) So this is my entry. Thanks for taking a look.
I finished it! All I'm going to say is that JK Rowling sure can write. I went through all the emotions, and i loved it all.
Good night!
Stupid freaking a**hole boys!
Why does it have to hurt?
Editor's note: If you are reading this through TIG, please forgive the fact that it sounds like a kid wrote this. I am in fact 25 years old, yet I get so giddy sometimes that I write as if I were speaking to my sister. :) Now enjoy!
I mean, where else would they close the parking lots so that Jody Conrardt can take pictures with Bevo?!?!?!
And it's right outside my building!!! I mean, how cool is that?!?!?!
I'm so glad I brought my camera to work today!!
So cool!!!!
I know I am a little late on this, but this is the first chance I have had to post...
Best-selling author and columnist Molly Ivins, the sharp-witted liberal who skewered the political establishment and referred to President Bush as “Shrub,” died after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 62.
• The first rule of holes: when you’re in one, stop digging.
• What you need is sustained outrage…there’s far too much unthinking respect given to authority.
• Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous.
• The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.
• Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful.
• There are two kinds of humor.
One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity — like what Garrison Keillor does. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule — that’s what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel — it’s vulgar.
• I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth.
• You can’t ignore politics, no matter how much you’d like to.
• It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America.
• What stuns me most about contemporary politics is not even that the system has been so badly corrupted by money. It is that so few people get the connection between their lives and what the bozos do in Washington and our state capitols.
Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television sitcom that you can decide you don’t much care for.
• I believe in practicing prudence at least once every two or three years.
• I still believe in Hope - mostly because there’s no such place as Fingers Crossed, Arkansas.
• One function of the income gap is that the people at the top of the heap have a hard time even seeing those at the bottom. They practically need a telescope. The pharaohs of ancient Egypt probably didn’t waste a lot of time thinking about the people who built their pyramids, either. OK, so it’s not that bad yet — but it’s getting that bad.
• It’s like, duh. Just when you thought there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties, the Republicans go and prove you’re wrong.
• In the real world, there are only two ways to deal with corporate misbehavior: One is through government regulation and the other is by taking them to court. What has happened over 20 years of free-market proselytizing is that we have dangerously weakened both forms of restraint, first through the craze for “deregulation” and second through endless rounds of “tort reform,” all of which have the effect of cutting off citizens’ access to the courts. By legally bribing politicians with campaign contributions, the corporations have bought themselves immunity from lawsuits on many levels.
• Any nation that can survive what we have lately in the way of government, is on the high road to permanent glory.
• I am not anti-gun. I’m pro-knife. Consider the merits of the knife. In the first place, you have to catch up with someone in order to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We’d turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don’t ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives.
What's the most famous movie you've never seen?
Submitted by Mike.
The most famous movie I have never seen is "Scarface." All that cocaine and F-Bombs combined with BAD Cuban accents...I don't think I could take it...
I think the most famous movie I have ever seen is "Citizen Kane." Every film critic claims that it is the best movie ever made, and it always ends up #1 on film lists.
The most infamous movie I have ever seen was "The Birth of a Nation" by D.W. Griffith. It tells of the rise of the KKK - and they're the good guys!?!?!? It was surreal for me to watch. Kinda like a car accident that you can't turn away from...
Sure, most sequels stink, but what movie really needs a sequel?
I think The Incredibles could have a sequel. I would like to see how the kids are doing as superheroes. Maybe the teenage girl could find a boyfriend who's a superhero, and she doesn't know it...
Please go to this website and sign this petition if you agree that we have been at war long enough...
Senator Kennedy's Anti-War legislation
I am the daughter of a soldier, but this is rediculous. We should have never gone there...
