I started this Christmas week the day after payday, at which point I had -$200 in the bank. I charged every purchase onto my credit card. Here's how I did:

Total spent:	$252.67
On others:	$123.20
On me:	$129.47

The real question is: why do you care? This is mostly a post for my own future edification... more->

Don't you hate that feeling where you look at your bank balance, and it says $800... and then you check your other account, and it also says $800, yet you still know that you're more than broke?

The first $800 is in the processing of transferring into the other account... the one that I've already spent a little bit more than $800 out of. When it does, I'll have less than no money, because right now I'm going to withdraw $40 so that I can get to the airport on time.

Ok, that previous post was meant to have a little more depth to it...

Step 1. Open a new checking account with awesome, super-nice electronic bank ING.

Step 2. Decide, "Hey, they have no overdraft fees! I'll pay all my bills with them, instead of my current $25-per-overdraft-even-if-it's-a-penny bank!"

Step 3. Pay all your bills with new online bank.

Step 4. Realize that you've never actually transfered any money into the n... more->

Cross-posted from Queeresque

Just wanted to quickly share this pretty ... more->

You ever see that Ralph Fines movie Strange Days? It was a sci-fi thriller about this person who had videotaped a murder. The bad guys were after her, and I think she hid "video tape"^* right before she got killed herself and then Ralph Fines found it and had to get it to the Media before the killer found him, or something.

If only she'd used old skool 2009 technology instead of her future-camera! The resolution isn't the best (and it ca... more->

Wow, I wish that I had time to host parties where I did things like this. And that I had nice matching mugs that look so well. Hmm, this is definitely a Paladino sort of thing... although I suppose I could pull it off. The dollar store sells mugs, don't they? (:

I've ordered a bunch of presents from a bunch of places (and was mostly done shopping last week!! Go me!!) so when I package arrived for me last night, I assumed it was for someone else, so to speak. I opened it up--and unwrapped my first Christmas present! Thank you very much... whoever you are! (There was no indication in the box...).

Turns out that Ghareeb Nawaz delivers!!!!! ($18 minimum, $3 charge, so order with three friends).

Huh, I just beat Mirror's Edge, that new parkour game. I was mad skeptical at first, but by the end I really, really liked it. Impressions:

• At first I was very grumbly about all the fenced in spaces. If the point of the game was "If you see it, you can climb it", then why can I only see fences?

  Turns out that wasn't the point ... more->

  ---

  URL      Edit? 

One of my favorite authors, Peter Watts, just got ... more->

I promise not to continually update this 'blog with posts directing you to Cheap Talk, but I thought that this article was also fascinating:

http://cheeptalk.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/sniping-and-squatting/

They compare two common eBay strategies (bidding your maximum price at the beginning and then waiting to see if you win, vs. waiting for the last possible second and bidding... more->

Ever since I saw Edward Woodward lamenting his plate of beans in The Wicker Man, I have sworn to follow his pronunciation of the color.

"Broad beans, in their natural state, aren't usually tur-kwize, are they?"

Sadly, this has been a meaningless vow--I never get a chance to say the name of that color. Bwahahaha! 2010 is my year!

Awesome short article on Cheap Talk looking at blackmail from an economist's point of view, and asking why it's illegal (granted that it's not a nice thing to do... but what's the legal theory behind it?) and how it even works in the first place.

I was all skeptical, but then I watched these PSAs about James Lipton's beard, and --fwoom-- my mind was blown. Especially the first and last ones.

http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/yrs-give-it-a-ponder-campaign-for-lg.html

via Metafilter