My only regret is that I didn’t go see them sooner.  Through a combination of bad decisions, and poorly-timed circumstances, some of which were completely outside my control, I watched my debt increase astronomically.  It’s pretty bad when you have to put groceries and diapers on your credit card, and are constantly transferring balances from your cards to a line of credit.  There just never seemed to be enough time to catch up.  It wasn’t easy to turn to them for help.  But it was the right decision.

I was so impressed with CCS that I chose it as the topic of my report for a Personal Finance class in university a couple of years ago.  I was then asked to present that report to the rest of the class, as they were a little younger than me, and perhaps my experiences might help them realize the dangers of taking on too much, too quickly.

Well, my debt has been officially paid off since October, but it still takes time for everything to work its way through the financial system.  This afternoon I had my exit-interview.  My counselor was all smiles.  How is everything?  Everything’s great!  Couldn’t be better.  Do I need help with a budget?  Nope.  Got it all under control, thanks.  Do I want to get another pre-approved small balance credit card to help re-establish my credit?  Sure do, thanks!

It’s all good in Credit Land.  Sunshine and butterflies.  Rainbows and lollipops.

Many things have changed since I first found myself in debt trouble years ago.  There’s no point in getting into all of it, but suffice to say… I won’t be making some of those same mistakes again.  And as for the things outside my control, well I wouldn’t say that I have a contingency fund large enough to sustain me for any great length of time… but I’m working on it.

Never again…

Anyone unfortunate enough to follow my antics on Twitter has no doubt noticed that I started walking again.  No, not the kind of walking back and forth between the couch and the refrigerator.  Actually walking outdoors.  In the cold.  And longer than going to the mailbox and back.  (Which I was completely shocked to find out is an 800m round trip!)

Two days ago I decided that enough is enough.  I used to do a ton of walking.  Granted, I used to be a teenager without a car, and I had to walk to go see my friends.  And I used to be much lighter than I currently am.  But something that I remembered from those days of walking an hour each way still holds true today.  Walking clears my head.  Opens up my mind.  And maybe, just maybe… is good for me.

I’ve discovered that sitting around the house, waiting for the seasons to change, doesn’t appear to be doing much for my state of mind.  So rather than hide from Old Man Winter, I said “screw it” and put on a heavy jacket, gloves, hat, and a pair of boots that can only be described as a death-trap.  They have thick rubber soles on them that look like they should be good in any weather, but Olympic ice skaters could probably qualify in these things.  They’re horrible on anything resembling H2O in it’s crystallized form.

And of course, the requisite iPod.  Never leave home without it!

I went exploring.  I found a road that I’ve driven past for years, and always assumed was a private road.  Nope.  I followed it up through some sparsely placed houses, and then through the woods, all the while twittering to my heart’s content.  My sister didn’t seem to believe that I was actually out there.  Probably figured that someone got tired of hacking Paris Hilton’s account, and decided to take mine over instead.

I even tweeted as I lay on the ground after my feet were kicked out from underneath me.  I figured “why stop now?”  I pulled myself off the centre of the road, and propped up against a snowbank.  I really didn’t feel like trying to get up at that point.  It hurt too much.

Eventually, I found my way back home.  The next day I took the car and drove through the exact route that I had traveled by foot.  7.2 kms.  That’s quite a little hike.  I didn’t expect it to be that far.  I figured 5 or 6 at most…

Still would have been plenty for me and my newly-formed blisters…

Hmm…  Maybe the all-nighter wasn’t the best idea before embarking on an ambitious plan such as this blogging blitz.  I feel like someone tied miniature weights to my fingertips, and is beating me in the back of the head repeatedly with a 2×4.  It will be lunchtime in about 20 mins.  I bought a Take And Bake pizza last night from Sobeys.  I’ve been wanting to try one of these things for the longest time.  I’m told that they’re very good.

What I WASN’T told was how to get it out of the pan without completely destroying it!  I assumed that you can use the pan that it comes in, but apparently I was wrong (yes, it’s been known to happen from time to time).  So then I tried to pry it out of the existing pan, and get it onto one of the pizza pans.  Easier said than done.  The dough doesn’t want to be picked up.  The toppings don’t want to stay on the dough.  It looks more like a mess than a pizza.

“What’s our Plan B?” I asked…

Well, it’s in the oven now, but I’m not holding my breath.

I’ll be leaving for an appointment shortly afterward, and I guess I’ll have to re-assess how I feel after that appointment.

“Rumours have swirled for months about a new Ferris Bueller movie”   Really?  This is the first that I’ve read anything about it!

When I first noticed the article, I was pretty excited.  Then I read through it, and realized that Matthew Broderick not only wasn’t going to be in it, but wanted nothing to do with it… other than giving his blessing.  And that made me start to wonder if my initial excitement might have been caused simply because of nostalgia.. which is probably the case.  And then I began to wonder if I really needed an update to the classic original… probably not.

I’ve seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off too many times to count.  It’s one of my all-time favourite movies.  I never get tired of watching this movie, and it’s hard for me to imagine any spin-off, update or anything else coming close to the original magic that makes this movie a classic.

Sometimes things are best left alone.

My dear friend, Lisa, once asked me to make a list of some of the things that I wanted to accomplish in my life.

“Publish a book”, I told her.  I even shared the working title with her.

She seemed surprised by that answer.  I think she’d asked that question a lot, but never received that answer before.  She told me that she looked forward to reading it someday.

Lisa’s been gone for a few weeks, and it made me start thinking more about that book.  I may have mentioned to a couple of people about the idea that’s stuck in my head.  I hesitate to use the word “novel”…  more like an unauthorized biography… except that’s impossible if I’m the author, isn’t it?

I’ve had the chance to talk to a couple of local people who have their own books in the works.  It’s probably not as rare as you might imagine.  It’s actually quite encouraging to know that you’re not alone in possessing a deep-down desire to write your story.  But who would read it?  That’s the million dollar question.  Or the ten dollar equivalent! 

I’ve looked at some of the things that I’ve written over the years.  I try to keep as much as I can.  Good.  Bad.  Otherwise.  I like to be able to look back and try to find some value in those words.  I note people’s reactions to what they’ve read.  This blog actually is a direct result of years of encouragement from friends who have been pelted with emails since before email was even popular… waaaaay before the word “blog” even existed.

But I have yet to take my writing to the next level.  I have yet to write a single word of the book, or any of the other significant projects that I have mumble jumbled in my brain.  It’s up there.  I know it is.

I just have to get serious about things, dig down deep… and write.

OK, let’s get this out in the open right away… My Coke-free-zone lasted only 6 days.  I mentioned that in another post, and then suffered the ridicule of some of my friends who know me all too well.  Damn you, and you’re always being right!

But, in all honesty… the sheer amount of Coke that I’ve consumed in the 13 days since I resolved to stop drinking it has decreased immensely compared to any other 13 day period that I can think of!

Case in point: My last 4 day shift at work… I went to Deluxe for lunch, and had a club sandwich platter.  I ended up throwing out most of the french fries, and drank water with my sandwich.  The next day I went to Jeremiah’s deli in the City Market for an excellent chicken salad sandwich.  Again, no Coke.  On my night shifts, I brought in my lunch, and drank water from start to finish.  No Coke.  And the same was true of the previous set of shifts that I had.  In fact, I don’t seem to be tempted at work as much as I thought I would be.  Sitting there for 12 hours can get pretty boring, especially at night, and that used to be a bad time for me and my Coke habit.  I can remember polishing off a 2L bottle of Coke during each 12 hour night shift.  It didn’t happen often, but it did happen.  This year (yes, I know that it’s less than 2 weeks into the year) I don’t think that I’ve even had Coke at work.

The problem seems to be when I’m home.

I have a water cooler.  I usually have milk and juice in the fridge.  There is no shortage of beverages to be found.  But when I’m sitting there, watching a movie, or reading a book…  I get the craving for something a little sweeter.  But again, in fairness… the amount of Coke that has gone into the house is drastically lower than normal.  As was pointed out in a comment on the blog, maybe going cold turkey wasn’t realistic… but I’ve been able to cut back significantly.

I don’t bother to count last week’s show because it was the audition show.  The real season started this week, because this is the first week that the contestants danced for votes.

I’ve gotta say, I’m having a much harder time getting into this version of the show, compared to the US or Canadian ones.  It’s not that it’s horrible, because it’s not.  But the quality doesn’t seem to be there.  It’s not really the dancers.. it’s something else… almost hard to pinpoint..  Because it’s a much more condensed series than what I’m used to, it almost feels like they’re rushing.. just to throw something out there and judge whether it’s worth having a Season 2.

Even the way that they do the competition and results shows is rushed.  In the North American versions the competition show airs one night, followed by 2 hours of voting, and then the results show airs the following night for 30-60 mins, depending on their mood.  Not in the UK.  They run the show for about 90 mins live, then turn it over to the voters for 2 hours… THEN they come back THE SAME NIGHT and have a 30 minute results show.  It’s weird.  I’m lucky because I’m watching downloaded episodes, but if you were watching it in the UK you’d watch for 2 hours, and then need to find something to do and then turn the television back on for 30 mins to find out who got booted.  That’s bloody awful, to borrow from the British judges.

One other interesting thing… they don’t seem to have commercials.  Sure, it’s downloaded, and the commercials are usually cut out from TV shows that are downloaded… but at no point does Cat (the host) say “Well, be back after the break”.  They just keep going until they’re done.

And don’t get me started on those phone numbers that they put up on the screen…   that takes some getting used to.  I’ll have to have someone explain European phone numbers to me someday!

As far as the music is concerned, I’m a little surprised.  I was really expecting to hear more music that I was unfamiliar with.  I can remember years ago when a friend would come back from Europe, and bring back CDs of club music. It was always way ahead of anything we had here.  And if I get a copy of Top 40 UK, it’s usually full of songs that I don’t recognize.  That doesn’t seem to be the case so far.  I don’t think that I’ve heard anything (except the guest performer) that I didn’t immediately recognize… which is good because they don’t put the name of the song and artist on the screen at the start of the performance.  How many times have I started to watch a routine on the other shows, and then scramble for a pen and something to write on because I’ve heard a new song (or new to me) that I wanted for my iPod?  You’d think that it was a rare occasion.  You’d be wrong 

So who actually got the boot on Saturday?  It’s still too early for me to honestly remember their names, so I have to refer to my reference material. But I did correctly call who was going to be in the bottom pair of couples.  I must be getting good at judging this show!  Chris, the Colin Farrell look-alike…  it was kind of a shame..  I didn’t think that he deserved to go home this week.  For the girls, it was Anabel.  Same thing.  I wish that she’d made it through to next week.

Ah well… it’s a competition, and somebody has to go home.

I thought that I’d try something a little different today.  Something a little fun.. yet something that would push me to start exercising my brain, and test my commitment to this blogging thing.

Today is Wacky Wednesday, and for the next 12 hours, my sole purpose in life is to generate enough quality content to post one article every hour.  Although I do have a few ideas in my head, I don’t have a pile of what I call “canned” posts to throw out there.  No, I will be generating these posts throughout the day, and then posting them at the top of the hour.  Well.. that is if everything goes well…

I don’t want to simply post for the sake of posting.  This isn’t about adding 12 useless posts to the blog.  It’s an exercise for myself.  A homework assignment, if you will. My secondary purpose is to watch what happens to the number of views for today.  I’m curious to see what will happen there.  I do expect to see an increase in traffic numbers, simply from the bots crawling through, especially any pages that I link to from Twitter.  I’ve noticed if I tweet about a post, and include a bit.ly compressed URL, that I immediately have 5 search engines crawl the site.  Probably more later.

I do have a few little things that I need to accomplish today.  At some point I have to move my car this morning, before I end up getting another lovely ticket.  I also have an appointment this afternoon, so I will have to work hard to make sure that I meet my goal.  But other than that, my day is dedicated to this task.

Now let’s see where it takes me!

Oh, and for some reason I chose to pull an all nighter, so this could be fun… if you see zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz across a post, that’s my forehead bouncing off the keyboard from exhaustion