Shaine Mata Blog

Notes on QE, Qm, Alma, and Tien.

Alma told me this morning that Tien had a fever last night. Alma decided against sending Tien to school. I'll drop her and Magnus off at Madero.

I have a podcast address if you'd like to hear the crap I call in. http://shainelee.audioblog.com/rss/shaine_mata_uncut.xml

We just got a new employee at the store, Erica. She is friendly, easy to talk to, and seems able to get right to work on whatever needs doing. I let her do a twinkle candy bouquet after showing her to do one, and she did well. She needs to work on her bows a little, but that comes with practice. Today was just a long orientation. Tomorrow, we'll get into the serious business.

New hire at work. I'll need to train. Entry for Mission. And, end of day review.

Here are three entries I made for today. I am testing out the playlist feature for Audioblog.com. Summary: woke up late, posted to blog, went on a date, went to UTPA, and fixed computer.

The other morning, I awoke at 5:30 in the morning. Normally, the alarm wakes me up to get my daughter up for school. What awoke me was the need to go to the bathroom, but I could not sleep afterwards. What kept me awake was the dream I had prior to waking up. In my dream, my life was different. Alma and I were divorced. In the dream, it was already a done deal. We had long separated and worked out our issues. There was no going back. We had separate homes. She had remarried. Tien was staying with me and Magnus was staying with his mom. Alma also had a stepson with her new husband, about Tien's age. In my dream, we lived within walking distance of each other, which probably served to shorten th length of the dream. What was really disturbing was the emotion of the situation. I felt happiness for Alma, that she was able to move on with her life and find happiness without me. I did, however, feel a sense of loss. This was similar to the loss you feel when somebody dies. It was a longi...

Listen to today's audio post. http://calendar.yahoo.com/shainelee

Listen to today's audio post.

Listen to today's audio post. http://calendar.yahoo.com/shainelee

I was just learning how to use playlists over at http://audioblog.com . Using playlists, I can call in a post without publishing. Then, at the end of the day, make one playlist of calls and make one single post. I'll use them later. I don't have a use at this moment.

I filled up on gas before the price gets jacked up again. Also discussing hurricane Rita.

Listen to today's audio post. My first entry did not post until I recorded this. I tried a second test recording and both posted.

Listen to today's audio post. This is my first test post using the new service through Audioblog.com. I got it going as a journal entry.

Up late at night waiting. Alma is in pain. I need to wake up early for a bike ride.

Late night entry before going to bed. Changed phone plan. Reading Made In America by Sam Walton.

Audio entry of my restlesness of recent.

I am good to go insofar as being caught up with my student loans goes, except for an emergency loan at UTPA, which I will be paying at the cashier's office. Costep is happy; Conserve is happy. I am happy. I just need to make Pan Am happy. My admission application is in. I await an admission letter. Things are looking up for school. I will absolutely take my classes seriously. I am living the consequences of not finishing school. Not cool. Once I graduate, I will be shooting for the stars.

I didn't have an luck finding the lost sales. I have a suspicion of what happened, but no proof. Jason still had me do the rounds last night, so I suppose he generally trusts me to do the job. We have not had a chance to speak yet. I wanted to quit doing the rounds. Alma suggested it would be a good idea. I'll deal with it tonight. I wouldn't mind spending time with the family, although we could use the income. I'm iffy right now. I have debts to pay off so that I can get into school and to achieve some other goals. The extra income, although meager, is steady and allows some planning. For sure, my doing the rounds will have to stop in January. All I would be doing is moving up the schedule.

I lost last yesterday's sales for Mission. I feel really bad as it is the second time this happens. I remember picking up the money after wrapping it with the rubber band and putting on the summary. I assume I put it in the money bag. I don't know for certain. Usually when I leave the money on the counter, it is next to the register where I put the sales temporarily to leave change. I did not open the bag until Edinburg when I put in yesterday's sales there. That's when I realized, "where's Mission?" I even checked my truck even though I did not open the bag in between locations, just in case. I don't know what to do. Perhaps I shouldn't close anymore.

I opened up an account with Texas Commerce Bank back in 1999. Soon after, they merged with Chase Manhattan. A couple years later, JP Morgan joined up and the bank became JP Morgan Chase. Now, my bank has merged with Bank One. In all these years, I have not had a problem with my bank. Everything has been straighforward. I deposit, the money goes in, I spend it. No problem. Yesterday, I deposited and nothing happened this morning. So, I went over to my nearest branch and asked. They are sorting it out. In the meantime, they allowed some direct debits from my checking to go through and take me negative. I checked online a while ago and it looks like they found my deposit. When it clears tomorrow, I need to go back and ask for the NSF fee refunded. Overall, I am happy with my JP Morgan Chase & Co. account. This one problem in so many years. Actually, make it two problems. They just changed the automated system so that whenever I call, I get routed to a rep instead of getting my balanc...

Having said that, last night we went to Buffalo Wild Wings where I had beer with my dinner. We had an alright time. Alma tried a berry margarita. We both played the trivia game. We wound up coming in 3rd place. What threw us off is that they changed Countdown from general trivia to sports. We are not sports fans, so we blew it, he he. Oh well. There was no prize anyway. Afterwards, we took the kids to Barnes and Noble. I got a Men's Health magazine. They got books and the boy got a train.

So much is going on in the U.S., the Rio Grande Valley, in Mission, Texas, and in my life. So little of it has direct impact on my life. I am starting to focus my attention on some of the more important things. I am now narrowing down my attention to getting into UTPA and now getting into the ROTC. In order to get into the ROTC, I need to qualify for the National Guard. In order to do that, I must be able to do some of the following: Run 2 miles in 17 minutes ( 8 minute miles) do a minimum of 40 push-ups do a minimum of 45 sit-ups walk 3.11 miles (5 km) 3' Wall Lane Guide Ladder on Ground Cement Culvert Cargo Net Low Crawl Wire 3' Across Jump Box 30" Balance Log Culver 40" Deep Trench Horizontal Ladder Over and Under Hurdles Night Trench High Crawl Window Wall 40" Wall High Stepper 5' Jump and I am learning more. There will be a 10 km march and a 15 km march It seems I have a lot of work ahead of me to be able to successfully get through basic training. My bi...

Here is a story of leftist grandstanding. It's pathetic how artists and other celebrities use a disaster to try to give themselves free PR. Kanye West is another example of an artist moron. These people need to stick to what they do best, entertain. Nobody expects any serious opinions from them because art is generally divorced from practical experience and logic. These are things that traditional people use to shape their thoughts. It's fine to question tradition and the status quo, as artists often do. However, questioning and practical use are often completely different propositions. It is incumbent upon Americans to realize that celebrity has no claim to knowledge and wisdom.

Here is evidence of the left wanting to hurt President Bush for his ineffectiveness in the Katrina disaster relief. Nevermind that most of the crisis management for New York on Sept. 11 was by Rudy Giuliani. The New Orleans Mayor seems unable to do anything or to command any authority. This is a deliberate effort by the media to smear the president with something to fight his great job on Sept. 11.

Kanye West decided to inject some racial friction into the Katrina Reliefe effort with his recent comment in which he voices some of the nonsense that other black artists like Martin Lawrence say for humor. If you saw Boomerang, you know the comments. How come the black olives come in a can and the green olives are in a jar? The can is another word for jail. Why is it that in pool, the last ball in is the black ball? Why is it that the white ball hits all the others? Martin Lawrence says these absurd things because they are funny. Kanye West shows his level of thinking by muttering similar absurdities. What is really funny, is that you get liberal writers like Robert Hillburn from the LA Times supporting such out of place comments in the middle of a disaster recovery. The president could not go to New Orleans for very practical and technical reasons. First, where would the president land if he is on Air Force One? Our relief efforts would be much faster if we could fly supplies in and...

If you want to pump gas fast, stop here. Pumps are quick.

I was just over at Investopedia.com to read up on some information. One of the current stories is The Indiana Jones Guide to Getting Ahead . I like getting ahead and I like Indiana Jones. This made the article a good read. In the trading simulator at Investopedia, I am at a $101,243.97; which includes $23,469.97 in cash. I made a good chunk on shorting BIDU. The rest of the gains, despite my capital loss, is from interest and dividends. $271 in interest and dividends last month. My interest and dividends for September, so far, is about $75. In my real purchases, over at sharebuilder.com, I had three purchases pay dividends last month. That account is not big yet. I'll start working on it later as more cash comes in. On the retirement front, I am expecting to get another share from dividend reinvestment. I wasted the first few years of the IRA going for growth. Growth is good, but unreliable. I need reliability for planning ahead. So, recently, I exchanged funds from growth to incom...