The Rain Came Falling Down

So, yeah, it's Florida and it's summer time and it therefore rains on a daily basis. Lately it would rain off and on throughout the day, but never really enough to soak the ground. But, today... it rained and rained and rained. It was good heavy rain. So heavy that when I was driving, I was stuck in traffic moving at 30mph because you couldn't see but two feet in front of you. Unfortunately, I think some of this rainy weather has not helped with my health. I've had a nasty, scratchy throat the past couple of days. Nothing else, just a nasty throat. Oh, and of course the stuffy nose that comes with it when you are trying to sleep. Oh, well. Just a little cold.

Nichole Is Here!

I tagged Nichole for a meme, so she started working on her own blog! Master Basenjimom taught me the ways of the Blogging Jedi and it is now my duty to pass it along to Young Jedi Nichole. The blog is in it's wee early stages as of now. But, do swing her way and show some love. "Try? Try Not. Do or do not. There is no try."

Freebies

Kitty Food

Dog Food

Maybelline Foundation for the ladies

Free 20 oz Coke

Excellent Contest Alert

5 Minutes For Mom is holding a most excellent contest. The prize is a 37" Insignia LCD TV from Best Buy! How about that for a free prize? This would be great for the upcoming football season. Run over to her blog to see how you can enter.

One Word

One Word Only

Basenjimom tagged me for this meme, as the title states, you can only answer each question with ONE word!

1. Where is your cell phone? Pouch

2. Relationship? Taken

3. Your hair? Shaggy

4. Work? Now

5. Your sister? Strange

6. Your favorite thing? Computer

7. Your dream last night? None

8. Your favorite drink? Beer

9. Your dream car? Ferrari

10. The room you a€™re in? Mall

11. Your shoes? Black

12. Your fears? Uncertainty

13. What do you want to be in 10 years? Busy

14. Who did you hang out with this weekend? Nichole

15. What are you not good at? Listening

16. Muffin? Eh

17. One of your wish list items? HDTV

18. Where you grew up? Florida

19. Last thing you did? Read

20. What are you wearing? Uniform

21. What aren'€™t you wearing? Necklace

22. Your pet? Finned

23. Your computer? Laptop

24. Your life? Busy

25. Your mood? Okay

26. Missing? rest

27. What are you thinking about right now? Blogging

28. Your car? Yellow

29. Your kitchen? Clean

30. Your summer? Dull

31. Your favorite color? Purple

32. Last time you laughed? Today

33. Last time you cried? Huh

34. School? Over

35. Love? In

I tag Mr. Fab and Nichole

Christmas Already?

Apparantly Christmas is coming really soon. We are now running our Christmas packages at the studio. These are some special rates we have put together for those of you that would like to put together a nice gift. I actually already have one booked for this coming week! It will be 4 hours of Christmas hell. Not really. But, after listening to Christmas carols being played on a piano for a few hours, I think I'll be all set until December.

My Space

I changed around my MySpace page last night. I haven't updated that thing in forever. It was still talking about when Nichole and I first moved into our new place, which we have been at for at least half a year now. I didn't really change the look, just changed a bunch of the content. Swing over and check it out if you like.

ING Direct Bonus

I recently signed up for an ING Direct high interest savings account. My Aunt helped me set this up for my birthday. It's going to be my little emergency fund. There are a bunch of cool things about this account such as the interest rate. It's at a nice 4.5% rate right now. Not bad for a savings account. The ING account also works great with your current bank account. It's easy to transfer money into your savings from your checking and back. I just do it all online. ING will even do it automatically for you whenever you want and as frequently as you want. There is nothing like having your money make money. That's what I love about this deal. You can take part in this too. If you use one of the cool "Bonus Links" I am authorized to give you and deposit a minimum of $250 when you start up your account, ING will give you an additional $25. Wait a sec... my money is making me money and ING is going to give me money. *pondering* What are you waiting for? Email me at kinofsic@hotmail.com, put ING Savings in the subject line, and I'll send you link so you can get your $25.

Blogsvertise

My fellow blogger and Aunt told me about this great company, Blogsvertise, that pays you to blog about their Advertisers. Just like Pay Per Post, you will get paid via PayPal and there are certain requirements that have to be met per post. What's different is Blogsvertise will find an opportunity for you and email you that opportunity. They will try to find one that would best fit your blog. You then have the option to take that opp or refuse it. Blogsvertise takes care of all that work of searching for an opp that would fit your blog and leaves you with the good stuff, writing a good post so you can make that cash.

Get Fechr-ed

No, I'm not speaking some foreign language. Fechr is actually pronounced Feature. It's this really neat site that features a new blog every 24 hours for a full 24 hours! What they do is actually put a mirrored image of your blog on their homepage. People that visit it can then read all your posts, click on your links and leave you comments all from within their site. Do you know what that could do for your traffic? Right now they say they are getting a few hundred a day! That's a few hundred people seeing your blog. The best part about this service is it is free! But, it wont be for long. I know I'm going to snatch this up while it's free. It's free advertisement people, so head over there and get your Fechr on.

Logo

That's my logo in the upper right hand corner of my blog. My good friend Diego designed it for me. My initials M and S, and the A.E. is for Audio Engineer. I think it is pretty professional and clean looking. All the little lines are supposed to vaguely represent the meters and faders on a mixing console. What do you think?

Nichole's Frontline

Nichole is on the hunt for a second job as well. She's very close to getting a job at Bank of America. I really hope she gets it and can split her hours between the tux place and the bank. If they are in need of someone, she's the girl for it. She'll be a lot happier and that's what matters. Especially since I live with her.

Resignation

I put in for my resignation from the cell phone joint today. Since I will be working so much with the church and studio soon, I can't do the required hours at the cell phone store. I typed up a nice, professional letter and emailed it to my boss today. I even told him that I was resigning from my management position, but would like to still work part time so I can get that extra money I need. I was surprised, relieved and glad that he took it very well. I figured that's because I'm one of their best employees and I actually followed the rules and typed a letter to them instead of just saying I quit. They also knew it was going to happen sooner or later. They know I'm an Audio Engineer and that's what I want to do. So, it's all good. Just have to find a manager and train them. Know anybody?

Blogging Tips Meme

I was tagged by Basenjimom for this blogging tips meme...

It'€™s very simple. When this is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.)

Add the next number (1. 2. 3. 4. 5., etc.) and write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general.

After that, tag 10 other people. Link love some friends!

Just think, if 10 people start this, the 10 people pass it onto another 10 people, you have 100 links already!

1. Look, read, and learn. *****
NeonScent

2. Be, EXCELLENT to each other. *****
Bushmackel

3. Don’t let money change ya! ****
The Random Forest

4. Always reply to your comments. ****
Chattiekat

5. Blog about what you know & love. **
http://sugar-queens-dream.blogspot.com/

6. Alt tag your images for added search engine exposure. **
Fracas

7. Blogging is supposed to be fun, Don't let it stress you! *
WherewasI

8. Don't be afraid to comment on other bloggers sites!
Not your typical Granny

9. Post at least once a day!
BasenjiMom

10. Keep your blog pretty/interesting with pictures, borders and cool links that correspond to your posts.

MicMan

I tag Colleen.

Disclosure Policy

This policy is valid from 25 July 2007

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

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Freebie Treasure

It was amazing to find more than two free items today. Here is the trove:

Honey Bunches of Oats Sample

Nestle Crunch Bar

Zip Loc Zip N' Steam

Smell Like Mariah Carey with her new fragrance!

Drew Carey?

The replacement host of The Price Is Right has been decided. Drew Carey will replace Bob Barker as the host of the long running The Price Is Right. I don't about that. I guess Drew is as good as any. I'll have to see how he does. Not that I really watch The Price Is Right anymore. I did notice that Drew Carey got fatter. I thought that was interesting.

Pay Per Post

So, I signed up for Pay Per Post the other day. Both my Aunt Colleen and Aunt Cheryl have been doing it for some time now. I can proudly say that my Aunt Colleen has made more money on Pay Per Post than anyone else! That's amazing. I was just waiting for my blog to be old enough to get into it myself. I really hope it ends up being an enjoyable experience with the added benefit of getting paid.

Business Dinner

Last night I had a "business dinner" with Corey, his wife Lindsey and Nichole. It was to feel out where both I and Corey stand with the future. To make a long story short: Corey works for a church and is the Technical Director for one of the satellite campuses. Basically it is a church that has a main site in one location and then has a bunch of little satellite sites for people to congregate at that might be closer to them than the main site. Every Sunday they meet and have a live band and/or singers and have mass. Anyway's, Corey is being offered the job of Technical Director for the whole church! A big job. He will therefore need someone to replace him at the satellite (me) as well as he will need someone to be at the studio more often since he will be gone longer. I am already on board with the church thing. I will become the Technical Director for the satellite location. I will be in charge of audio, video and lighting. I am also on board for the studio. After discussing last night, the plan is this: If he takes the job promotion, which he most likely will, I will take over running service on Sundays and working 15 hours a week, making pretty good money. There is more to it but the big portion is running the service. I will then also be working 2-3 days a week at the studio all day long. I'll be in charged of whatever is scheduled on those days. This will end up being between 16 and 24 hours a week. Both those jobs combined will cover me pretty good financially. But, I will most likely take over a part time position at the cell phone place for extra bread or I have some other ideas lying around. One is The Hard Rock Casino is hiring A/V Techs. So, I have to go out there and check that out. I figured between the three (church, studio and a 3rd job) I'll be all set. Plus, we still have all the live concert gigs booked that I am in charge of. Tomorrow is the moment of truth. Once Corey knows what's going on, I'll know what's going on and we will set everything in motion. I'm pretty psyched about all this. Oh, and I forgot to mention some of the perks. Working for the church, I get a Macbook and they also book trips such as one coming up where we would go to Chicago for a convention, all expenses paid!

Free Stuff

Walmart has a few things for free today. I got a Soy Joy bar, and two different brands of hair care. Head on over to Walmart and get your free on. 

Transformers

My boss at the cell phone place has been in town for about a week now. Yesterday we were both up here working and it was getting pretty boring in the mall. We ended up getting a "bootlegged" copy of Transformers! It's a camera version, meaning someone sat in the theater with a video camera and taped it. But, surprisingly the quality is pretty good for a camera. It's not too dark, the colors are good and the sound is fantastic for a camera. We were thinking it might have been ripped off of a DLP projector. New theaters and some of the old that can afford them, are installing DLP (digital light processing) projectors that use basically a software file and totally do away with film. If someone hooked up a computer to one of these, they could have ripped it off. I don't know. But, anyways, it was pretty cool to watch Transformers on the computer before it is even on DVD. My boss also ended up going down to Radio Shack to purchase a decent set of speakers with a sub for the kiosk just to watch movies! 

Boring Sessions

Since Corey is out of town, I have been running all the sessions on Tuesday and Thursday this week. Today, I have probably the most boring thing I will ever work on. We have a voiceover project coming in. For those who do not know, voiceover work is when a talent comes in and they are recording for something like a tv or radio commercial or they might be laying down words over a prerecorded video for things such as seminars or corporate events. Today we will be recording someone speaking for a video commercial. I don't even get to see the video. It's basically one of those gigs where you sit down, press record and say "go". Easy money, but so boring.

DVDs

Nichole and I went to Blockbuster the other night to rent some movies. We ended up walking out of there with 5 purchased DVDs and 1 rented DVD. They were having a good deal on their used DVDs. Buy 2 and get 2 free. We ended up getting Saw II and Saw III, Pursuit of Happiness, Hostel, The Departed (good movie) and rented Babe. She likes her pigs. Fortunately they have a 30 day guarantee on their purchased DVDs because Hostel wouldn't even load in the player.

Waverunner

My good friend and colleague Corey purchased a waverunner about 3 months ago. He happens to have a job where he makes his own schedule and gets every Saturday and Sunday off. You know what he is doing on those days? Yep, out on the waverunner tearing it up in the sun. Both days and every weekend. I envy his time. But, it got me thinking I want one too. I have a trailer hitch on my truck now. I know I can afford one. The only thing stopping me is my time. Unfortunately working at the mall requires me to be there all day Friday and Saturday. But, that still leaves Sunday wide open. I really do not want a used waverunner, but I also do not want to have to finance something else. So, if I can find a used one that is in great shape, low hours and possibly still has a warranty attached, I will seriously consider it. Nichole's cousin's husband who installed my shocks on my truck, used to work on waverunners and jetskis for a living. Therefore if I did buy a used one and something was to arise, I can have him take a look at it for me. So, if you know of anyone that has a jetski / waverunner that they want to get rid of, let me know.

New Suspension

I just put new shocks on my truck the other day and it rides so much better. My Blazer Xtreme is already lowered 2 inches in the front and 3 inches in the rear. I lowered it using spindles and blocks probably about 2 years ago. Riding on stock shocks at this height will wear them down. I've been noticing that it was riding kind of funky and I didn't like it. I also knew that soon I would start towing trailers from time to time for our live production company, Full Wave Sound Live and I'm wanting to get a waverunner as well. I figured I better get some new suspension. I purchased my parts off of Summit Racing and they were here in 2 days. Then to have them installed, I'm lucky enough to know Nichole's cousin's husband who owns his own shop. So, I Tuesday I went over there, had him install them and bam! All new ride. It definitely rides a lot smoother, yet it is also stiffer. Just the way it should be. Now to put it to the test of towing trailers.

Tuesday Freebies???

Free Coffee-mate Sample

Dove always has free samples

20 free 4 x 6 prints from Kodak

Free kitty food

Free Sample of Nivea Visage Wrinkle Reducer

Friday Freebies

John Frieda Frizz Ease

Sleeveless Ready Kit from Dove

K'NEX Building Blocks for the kids

Weird Weather

I've been taking notice of the strange weather we have been getting. Most days have still be hot and beautiful outside, if not just a bit cloudy. But, when it rains is when it gets strange. Take for instance, this morning. When I woke up to take a shower and get ready for work, I noticed it was pouring outside. I thought to myself that this is going to be great. Run out to the car, drive to work and then run from the car to the mall all in the rain. But, when I got out of the shower it was all gone. All that was left was the puddles. The sun was even shining. Then, when I got to work, which is only about 10 minutes away from home, I noticed it hadn't even rained there! It was bone dry. Weird.

The Bat

I finally bought something I have been wanting for some time. I bought Batman and Batman Returns on DVD. I have had them on VHS, but damn, the quality is horrible. I bought them from Amazon.com, which I have been shopping at a lot lately. The reason is because I keep getting $15 and $20 gift certificates for belonging to this technology board. So, it's like getting free movies! With my next gift certificate, I'll be buying Batman Forever and Batman and Robin (even though they are not as good as the original two).

Great Buy

Okay, so I order product for my cellular store every week online. It usually gets delivered either Thursday or Friday. This past Monday I placed an order as usual with the usual products like cases, car chargers, charms, etc... But, this time I also saw that I could order these really cool remote control cars! They are mini, battery operated remote control cars. Just a little larger than a quarter. You might have seen them this last holiday season. They were everywhere. Anyways, I got my order today and there they were. I gave one to my buddy who works next to me and I kept one for myself. They are really cool. They drive fast and actually work really well for being cheap. They only cost $4 is product cost. I think I gave my friend the best gift ever. All he has been doing is driving the car on his kiosk. He even built a couple of ramps for it! As you can tell, it's a slow day in the mall. 

No A/C

So, we didn't have a working air conditioner for the past couple of days. I woke up Saturday morning and thought it was pretty warm in the house. Checked the thermostat, nope it's set right. Apparently something was broken. Had maintenance come a check it out. Unfortunately they had to order a part and were not able to finish the job until today. But, they were kind enough to put a nice portable air conditioning unit in our living room without even asking. I thought that was rather nice of them. It worked really good too. It cooled the whole house! The only room that was still a little warm was our bedroom. But, it was cool enough to sleep in. Nichole got home this afternoon and told me it was back up and working. I can't wait to go home and enjoy my nice cold A/C.

Transformers

Nichole and I went to see Transformers last night. It was really good. I was never a huge Transformers fan when I was a kid, but I still knew all about them and would enjoy them from time to time. The movie was really good with a lot of action sequences. I was impressed with the CGI (computer generated imagery). They did a good job meshing it with real life shots. I also liked that they kept with the original series and kept some of the same characters and even their color scheme from the old cartoons and figures. I heard there is already a Transformers 2 in the works. Good thing this first one was a money maker. It's done very well at the box office. I can't wait for next one. Hope it doesn't suck like a lot of other sequels.

Too Tired To Blog

It's been a few since I last posted. I have just been too tired or too busy to get around to it lately. But, I now have a few things to blog about. So, I will get started today.

Tagged

Apparently, I have been tagged. My Aunt tagged me. I now have to list 8 things about myself. They can be any facts or habits about me. The good part is I can then Tag up to eight people I know. The bad part is I do not know anyone else that blogs other than my Aunt Cheryl and Aunt Colleen. Both of them have already been tagged. Looks like it ends with me. People who have been tagged, should blog their list of eight and then link back here.

1. I have since I was a kid and still do bite my nails.

2. I have not had pimples for at least 3 years. I recently used some astringent on my forehead, and now it is all broken out. Apparently I am allergic to that astringent.

3. Even though I went to college and had some hefty student loans, I no longer have any student loan debt. (Thanks to my Great Grandmother) Not many that went to college and are my age can say that.

4. During high school, if I was at home and not at a friend's house, I slept on the floor because my drumkit took up too much room for a bed.

5. Since 2002 (moving out of mom and dad's) I have not lived in the same place for more than 1 year. (I even lived on a bus for 3 months!)

6. Oue A/C has been broken since Friday and is getting fixed today

7. Nichole and I saw Transformers last night

Playin

I love Photoshop.

Free Stuff

Head on over to my Aunt's blog for some free stuff. Also, check out her 3 Day page. She has been getting a lot of support/donations lately. Go over there and see how you can support her and all the others fighting for this fantastic cause.

Significant Fest

Although it was unbearably hot, very long, very smelly and at times just over the top crazy, it was a success. We were setting up gear Friday morning at 7:30. The show started at noon and lasted into the night. The second day also started at noon and we did not leave the event until 1:30 AM, putting me in bed at around 4 AM! I was so tired. Out of all the bands that were there, only about half had any real talent. The other half were more often than not just a group of kids up on stage making noise. Although, the whole event was heavy/hard rock screamo. Every band played heavy rock with a "screamer" that screamed so loud, it would distort all the sound and you could not understand a word of it. Thank God for the earplugs Nichole bought me. There were a lot of people there which just added to the poorly ventilated atmosphere. I don't think I have ever been that hot or sweated that much. Except for our damaged gear (two mics, 1 mic stand and some cables) it was a great show with a great turn out. Hope to do it again next year.