Yesterday was my birthday and it was hot as Hades so I did pretty much nothing all day except for trying to stay cool. I did make a quick run to Stater Brothers in the AM for provisions before it got hot, and bought a new air cooker on QVC (happy birthday to me), otherwise I cleaned and hung out with my cat for the day.
I can't believe I'm 50. 50! Yesterday was also Father's Day which reminded me that, yes I was born on that day and I miss my dad so much.
I was scheduled to get a B12 shot on Friday, but decided to move it up to today (Monday) because when I started to Uber drive today picking up people, my hands were tingling and my one eyelid was starting to twitch, a sure sign I'm B12 deficient. I did 5 pick-ups/drop offs, logged out and then called for an appointment. After that, I went to Go Bananaz and bought a bowl of Dole whip and topped it off with coconut and strawberry boba. YUM!
There was so much on this newsletter that sparked my attention that I had to capture it on by blog.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: CNET Daily News<newsletters@cnet.online.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 14, 2016 at 10:48 AM
Subject: Net neutrality rules win big in appeals court
Internet service providers had sued the FCC in an attempt to overturn the rules, which they argued are too much of a burden.
Trip Log: *Saturday*
06/11 - Tustin to Tustin
06/11 - Tustin to Tustin (Swinging Door)
06/11 - Had to cancel a ride because it was ordered 5 hours before the arrival time. On the news this weekend, Uber advertised that they have started to schedule pick-ups in advance, but this feature has not been rolled out in the OC Market yet. Refunded rider.
06/11 - UCI to Turtle Rock
06/11 - Irvine to SNA
06/11 - Irvine to Irvine (Chili's)
(break/bought groceries and went home)[99 Ranch Market]
*Sunday*
06/12 - Santa Ana to Irvine
06/12 - Irvine to LAX
(Note: Make airport/terminal maps for SNA and LAX to keep in the car + the staging maps on where to park.)
... got gas at Costco in Hawthorne and drove back to OC
06/12 - Santa Ana TS to Newport Beach (Stag Bar + Kitchen)
(Note: Get a regular local taxi number for those people who only have cash.[Unrelated note to the drop off above but rather someone who needed a ride.])
(break/bought groceries and went home)[Grocery Warehouse]
06/12 - Tustin to Anaheim (Downtown Disney)
06/12 - tried a pick-up on Harbor Blvd, but there is no place to stop or park and the rider wasn't ready, so I canceled. Hated to do that because anywhere around Disney is a perpetual surge spot. And I get why with the crush of people, it can make it extremely hard to locate the rider!
06/12 - Garden Grove to Garden Grove
06/12 - Santa Ana to Laguna Beach
...and then my cell phone ran out of power! Arg! So I went home, made dinner and called it a night.
Blog Entry:
This was the first weekend I drove and it was also the weekend that the UCI students were moving out of their dorms and three of the riders I picked up had something to do with that, so it was a good thing that I drive a small SUV because they were able to load up everything and go.
Uber is also a great way to get to where you want to get your drink on and get home without having to chance it and get caught driving under the influence.
So this week, I'm emerging from a period of mourning over the loss of my uncle after having attended his memorial and getting back into town from being in New York for a week. I didn't feel like I was able to go through the grieving process for him while stressed out over my job, so it might have been a good thing that I separated when I did so I could go through and get through what I felt I needed to do in dealing with his passing. Now that I'm feeling better about it, ...
I've got to get a job. Or at least some money going. It's been a little over two months since I've had a paycheck. Going to check out Uber and see what that's all about. But in the meantime...
Even though I've previously sworn off pursuing the music scene like I used to, I'm getting into one band that sparked my attention from the Alt radio channel on SiriusXM - The Struts, and I could just kick myself that I missed going to their concert at the Observatory in Santa Ana on 03/29/16. Probably won't ever see $16 tickets for their shows after again after all their touring all over the world.
And in getting acquainted with said band, today, I was perusing the videos they have posted on Youtube.com and I have come to the realization that the one song that has captured my attention on the radio, i.e. "Kiss This", sounds familiar. Really, really familiar.
Listen, I'm no expert, but I am almost twice as old as some members of the band and as time is on my side with regards to a larger catalog of music that I've been exposed to, I couldn't help but searching for the song that sounds, in part, like theirs.
In doing so, I reacquainted myself with the goings on with the popular Swedish duo Roxette. Sadly, their lead singer made the hard choice to cancel the remaining tour in Australia due to the further breakdown of her body after having a brain tumor (see: Roxette Makes a Tough Decision to Quit Tour). At least we have the wonderful catalog of music from the band that spans from late the 1980's to 2016, which is when their last album was released.
When Roxette was first making the charts in the U.S. in , one of their most popular songs was titled "She's Got The Look", or some would just call the song "The Look".
I can even can hear that the phrasing tempo seems similar, even though the actual lyrics are different.
Now, only copyright lawyers and royalty trackers have the ability to sort out these things out in a court of law if it has to come to that, but there have been recent settlements out of court in the news for this very same thing. See: https://www.buzzfeed.com/
I used to love Oreos as a kid and now that I'm approaching 50, I really can't believe all of the different flavors of Oreos that are available now for sale:
Original
Double Stuff
Mega Stuf
Golden
Thins
Mint
Peanut Butter Creme
Key Lime
Cinnamon Bun
Brownie Batter
Chocolate Crème
Fudge Crème
Fudge Crème Mint
Cookie Dough
Cotton Candy
Carmel Apple
Marshmallow Crispy
Red Velvet Cake
Birthday Cake
Pumpkin Spice
Strawberry Shortcake
Toasted Coconut
Lemon
S'mores
Blueberry Pie - only available at Target for a limited time starting June 6th
Fruity Crisp - available starting June 1st at certain southern? regional retailers
Today is May 10th and I'm 46 days into my resignation and things are looking up in the jobs department at Me.Inc.:
I got a haircut
I've brushed up my resume
Updated my LinkedIn profile to include my notary commission as self employment
Joined monster, careerbuilder, branded.me
Multiple recruiters are in play
Hiring managers have requested my resume
Recruiters are emailing/calling
I've tried to keep an open mind about what skills I have and how they can be applied to roles other than mortgage loan post closing. With that being said, I developed an administrative assistant resume with a role in mind with a large local employer. Also, I was contacted about a reports analyst job at a medical insurance company (which is attractive to me because everybody needs medical insurance but not everyone is in the position to obtain a home loan), so I'm brushing up on my Excel skills.
And even while I was typing up this blog post, I got a call from another recruiter asking me if I wanted to interview for a Correspondent Purchasing position. Now I understand why that company is the way it is if they are contacting people to interview for roles they need to fill with zero experience, hiring them at a lower salary because of that fact, and then when they go through their trial by fire and fail, bloop, they get canned and the role becomes open again shortly. I feel like I dodged a bullet.
It's also 8 days from my departure date to be with my family for my uncle's memorial. A decidedly somber event. I think we all agree that his passing was sad but also blessing having witnessed him living with Alzheimer's disease and watching his slow demise.
You have to be careful because everyone wants to separate you from your money. I think about this fact every time I read the emails that land in my inbox advertising for this or that.
And then there is all the commercials on tv. Buy our product because you're getting older, uglier, sadder and sicker as time rolls on and if you buy our products you'll be less of those things. But you need money to buy all of those things. And when you don't feel like you have enough, people will go through all sorts of lengths to get it. So here I am, currently unemployed and wide awake at 3AM watching the latest infomercial selling the idea that life can be easier if you follow our system to be a real estate investor. Immediately, I'm skeptical. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Bait and switch. These were the things that were running through my head watching advertising for a seminar to get rich quick flipping homes cloaked as become a real estate investor.
So here's how it goes. You attend a seminar. You are baited by a book and some sort of minimal free giveaway of cheap electronic equipment they bought in bulk. You get some general information, but not enough to do anything with unless you buy into additional workshop. So you have to then buy into the workshop. And then at the workshop, you are sold access to the experts and walkthroughs. "This is how I did it and if I can do it, you can do it, too."Learn the steps to success and repeat these steps over and over again."
Doug Clark. Who is this guy? Someone from Utah that flipped houses and was filmed doing so to make a certain type of reality tv show. You can find this out if you search for "Flip Men" and watch shows on youtube. The tv show went off the air four years ago. Investigating further, the Better Business Bureau currently has a great example of what it's like to go through their learning process and you can read how these poor people from New Mexico feel like they were duped:
So how does this go for them? They buy an LLC. They make a business selling you the same LLC paperwork to you. You pay the filing fee. They call an infomercial company and create 10 minutes of script that's repeated 3 times to create a 30 minute show. They hire a host to ask scripted questions of spokesperson. The background for the host looks like a newsroom or a talk show stage. The spokesperson looks like they are sitting inside a beautiful home, but it can be a photo projected on a green screen which provides the desired appearance for you to think, "Yeah, I want what this guy has." In actuality, he's sitting in another part of the studio. Once the infomercial is filmed and produced, they rent seminar rooms in hotels around the country. They develop presentations at four different levels. One for the free talk to get you to come in (the infomercial). Two to provide some more information to bait you to buy the seminar. (They have to sell enough seminars to pay for the space they rented on credit cards.) Three is to buy the access to the process and techniques they are familiar with but you're not..Maybe even a website they feed with the foreclosures that you can get from newspapers yourself. They prey on the fact that you're not confident you're doing things right because you're not gaining the expected results they tell you you should be having so... Four you get access to the experts... the people that keep you in the process so they can use any amount of success you may have to bolster what they are trying to sell in the first place.
You paid for a seminar, a LCC, you maxed out all of your credit cards and then paid for access. You haven't bought a foreclosed home yet which is what you wanted to do in the first place. You'll need more money to do that so you'll have to get others to pay for the purchase of a foreclosed home reducing your profit margin. You'll have to pay for others to fix the home because you're probably not a licensed contractor and then will reduce your profit margin more. If you couldn't find other serious investors, you went to a bank or mortgage company to get a loan and then the mortgage comes due between 30-60 days. That's the same time frame you have to fix the property and sell it. This is why you want a buyer on contract to get you out from under having to pay for that mortgage payment. They also forgot to tell you you also have to file two tax returns, one personal and one for your business. They also don't tell you that as a real estate investor, you're responsible for self employment taxes on all money you make.
You don't need to buy someone else's seminar to know that everything you do involving a home is expensive and you end up paying for it in the end. You don't need to buy someone else's seminar to tell you that if the mortgage payment is more than the going rental rate, you'll forced to sell. Guys like these love to sell seminars like these in states where the real estate is expensive so you have no recourse when you fail because you didn't follow their program.
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