gushue.net

I love it when I’m able to arrange extra time off without actually losing any days. This weekend coming up is my normal weekend off (Fri/Sat/Sun). I have Thursday off for the holiday. I have Wednesday off for my personal day (we get one paid day off a year). I would normally have Monday (tonight) off, but instead I’ll be working tonight and taking Tuesday off. That gives me six days off, almost like a week long vacation!

I haven’t found a decent theme that I’m happy with for Wordpress, I guess I’ll have to make my own one of these days. And finish moving my existing old pages to a dynamic WP format. Then I can just edit them online - which is actually something I had written to do myself previously, but it’s nice that this is built into WP. Maybe I might actually get around to writing some of the pages I had been thinking about, too.

I just switched over to Wordpress - my other pages are still around, the links are currently next to the blogroll links on the side. When I get the time I’ll move things around, change themes, etc.

My site is in need of a major overhaul anyway.

Well, maybe not back, but at least making this entry! :)

This year I’ve decided to finally start doing something about my (bad) financial situation. In the past, I’ve had a bunch of debts that I haven’t been very good about paying back. Hardly saving any money at all, even when I have plenty of extra cash after paying the necessary stuff. When I had credit cards back when I started university, I abused them for stuff I didn’t need and never paid more than the minimum amounts, if that (not surprisingly, both of them went to collections eventually). Fiddling with info on my student loan applications (not quite lying) to get as much as I could. And then wasting most of that on booze and other things you would when you’re 18-20 and in school with your friends.

So, I’ve been working and living at home for the last five years. And what do I have saved? Practically nothing at all. Well, now I do, but that’s pretty much all from the last few months. I received a decent sized bonus cheque at work yesterday, and I’m quite pleased that most of it went towards some bills that I’ve been putting off. Well, one wasn’t really a bill, but my web/email hosting renewal was there. Spent a little on myself, but nothing extravagant. It sure was tempting to get a nice home theatre system or big LCD television. But I resisted! :)

Now, I’m aiming to get an apartment of my own this summer, by August (or maybe even July). Of course, this will reduce the extra money I have, but I can deal with that. I wasn’t really spending a lot of it on anything useful anyway (I’m afraid to go back and check to see how much I spent at the liquor store between Thanksgiving and New Year’s last year). My plan is to really bump up the amount I’m putting into savings (ING Direct - ask me about the $13 bonus for new accounts referred by me, for each of us) until then. Which I’d use for basic furnishings that I don’t already have access to, security deposit, etc, plus having a chunk of money set aside for emergencies.

After I get a certain amount put aside for an emergency fund, I’m planning to start putting that much money into whatever debts I have to get them paid as quickly as possible. At this point though, I think it’s just my student loans that are left. One of which might never get paid. The smaller one I’d like to pay off. Then I can build up my emergency fund to something that could last 6-8 months if really necessary, and then start putting a lot more into RSPs and a little into another account for gifts to myself (stuff like a new tv, etc).

So yeah… a bit of a long and rambling entry there. Just typing as stuff came into my head. I’m pretty dedicated to this, I’m tired of being in debt and “broke” (well, spending/wasting every extra dollar I get at least).

Oh, I never did post any pictures of my custom poker chips. I’ll have to do that sometime. Another thing I’d like to do sometime is possibly switch over to Wordpress from Movable Type. A redesign of my web page couldn’t hurt either. I’ve been uninterested in playing World of Warcraft for the last 3-4 weeks, compared to before when I was playing it constantly. Gives me a little time to fiddle with things like that :)

Pygmy Surfer and Bones both suck. That is all.

Congratulations from a fellow (not directly related) Gushue to Brad Gushue and the rest of the men’s 2006 Canadian Olympic curling team on getting the gold!

I really haven’t been updating this at all lately. I’ll just quickly go through some of what happened since last summer…

I started taking three courses at SWGC in September, which was technically fulltime - the first time I’ve done so in quite a while. I ended up finishing the semester with a 79.3 average, which is pretty good considering I also work fulltime.

I stepped down as support manager at work, mostly due to school and lack of time to concentrate on that. They still haven’t filled the position, and probably won’t post it again until they can find someone else that wants the job and is competent.

I’ve gotten more poker chips and good playing cards (Copag, Kem, etc) over the months. I currently have an order for 1000 custom chips from a special offering with choices not normally available. That should be here in April sometime.

I’m taking this current semester off school. I just need a break - the last 6 or 7 months were quite hectic/busy/stressful/etc. I did well last term, and want to continue to do well. I think that if I kept up with this semester doing another three courses, my marks would suffer. I may drop back to just one or to classes in September, or I may do three again. I’m not sure yet.

Hopefully my next entry won’t be after such a long break :)

Yep, another week off for me. I don’t really have anything planned at all. Should be enjoyable just to have the time off at least. Especially after maybe… 105+ hours of work in the last two weeks.

The poker chips I’ve been babbling about in various places finally got here a few days ago, they’re really nice!

And now I’ll subject you all to pictures! Muhahah!

My camera has been annoying lately. And/or my batteries. Plus, the battery cover on my camera broke a while back, so it doesn’t really stay in place without holding onto it, or taping it in place. Which sucks.

The new job is going pretty good so far, I’m enjoying it much more than I expected. I was really nervous before I started, and even while thinking about applying (and before my interview). But there’s not much to it, really. And I guess I’m a bit more vocal/whatever now, should get better at that eventually, too.

Long hours though, at least I’m kept busy the whole time. There’s never enough time to finish everything you’d like to get done. Last week I think I had almost 44 hours, and about the same this week. That’s a ton of overtime. I’m afraid of the taxes…

Off tonight and tomorrow though, which is cool. I’ll get to play some poker tonight with the guys (need to have a regular Thursday night game, since I’ll always be off!). Too bad my clay poker chips from ASM won’t be here, I ordered them last Friday and mailed my payment on Monday. I doubt I’ll have them before next Thursday, but should have them before my vacation at least. I’ll be sure to post pictures and an update when I do get them.

Just to let everyone know, I did get the support manager position! Still getting used to it, but I think I’ll enjoy it.

At least I’ll have regular days off now, every Wednesday and Thursday. No weekends, but if I ever need a weekend off for something, that can easily be arranged now that we have two support managers on nights.

Well, today marks the third year of working nights at Wal-Mart. And to celebrate, I get a raise and an interview for a support manager position on nights. We have one now, plus an assistant manager. It was mentioned months and months ago that a second would be added at some point, and they finally posted the job listing a couple of weeks ago. It would involve another raise, plus somewhat different job responsibilities (I’m already often doing a lot of what that position is meant to do). Plus, it would also go well with the Business degree I’m trying to work on - be it experience in management type stuff, or education stuff helping at work.

And regarding the topic, I’m on vacation! Started Saturday, after a couple of weeks of having extra time off due to Canada Day and a personal day (a paid day off each year). I haven’t done much so far, but I don’t have to go back to work until the 18th. And then another week off sometime in August. If the weather and my camera cooperates, I really should get out to take some pictures. It’s been far too long since I’ve done that.

I’ve hardly played EQ2 at all since my last entry, near a month I guess. Computer troubles plus some slight boredom in the game is the cause, I guess. I’m not abandoning it, just taking a bit of a break. I (finally) picked up Civilization 3 Complete last week, that’s such a fun game. So addictive. I can’t wait until Civilization 4 is out, the changes in that game sound so nice.

I’m still on a night-time schedule, so it’s time to do some reading before getting some sleep. Hopefully some BBQ and poker tonight, with my job interview in between (and many beer after that)!

It sure has been a while since my last entry here. Even on LJ, I haven’t been posting very much. And that’s pretty strange for me.

Not a lot has really been going on, though. I’ll have been working at Wal-Mart for three years in a few weeks. Doesn’t seem like that long at all. Even the time spent playing EverQuest II since November doesn’t seem like such a long time. I’m currently not playing it as much now though, partly because of being exhausted from work quite often, and partly from my video card starting to be flaky. More and more often I’m getting weird graphics glitches (but only on 3D games), I guess it’s time to pick up a new video card.

What I have been playing more often lately is poker. Mainly Texas Hold ‘Em. In actual games with friends, local small tournaments, and online (though only for play money or freerolls there for now). Nothing high stakes, just $5-10 a game with friends.

As for internet poker, there seem to be billions of online poker sites around. I’ve tried a few different ones, a few of which seemed to be ok. First, JetSetPoker. They have simple software, plenty of action, and games with blinds as low as 1c/2c in case I ever decide to throw a few bucks that way.

Not satisfied, I checked out PokerRoom. Their software is more impressive, and also has a variety of free gaming options, but they seem to be more geared towards higher-stake games. $5/10 blinds aren’t to my liking at all.

Somehow lately, I stumbled across PokerChamps, probably from browsing around various poker sites online. Their software isn’t just a clone of every other online place, and is quite impressive. They also have games with blinds as low as 2c/4c, which I like. And a Freeroll tournament every hour, all day. With a $35 prize pool, top 28 positions paid. Worth a shot, for free. Even more impressive is that some well-known people in the poker world are running it - Gus Hansen and Tony G. That gives me a little more confidence for playing for money there, if I ever do that. Some affiliate program as well, but I’d recommend it just from using the software and the various options they have.

I have some vacation time coming up, maybe I’ll actually have something worthwhile to post about then.