Owner: Special Kind of Stupid URL:http://specialkindofstupid.com Join Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:36:30 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Humor by and for the comedically impaired. A site dedicated to personal finance, sports, pop culture and life (with a dose of dry humor). Site statistics:Click here
Back Into the Lion’s Den, Part 1 2007-08-16 10:54:54 The following attempts to explain why, after being debt free for the first time in a decade and having not used a credit card in over seven years, I am in the market for a new credit card.
In general, I am not a fan of credit cards. Their issuers are soulless banks who prey on the weak, the uneducated, the young and the old. They are, in two words, pure evil. However, if the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer can convert - not one, but - two soulless vampires into champions fighting on the side of justice, I can take a small piece of plastic and turn it into an instrument for good.
Credit cards themselves are merely tools. I can choose to use them wisely or carelessly. It’s up to me. Knowing this, and knowing I have the disposition to properly handle them (i.e. I put the frugal in frugaltastic), I should not be afraid to use them if doing so can benefit me. And they can (benefit me, that is).
Credit cards offer me several real advantages over debit/check cards: security, rebates an
Frugal Shopping: Save Money With Online Coupons 2007-08-16 09:02:48 Christmas is still a few months away, but it’s never too soon to be on the look out for good deals when shopping. Where as my mom clipped coupons out of the Sunday paper in order to get good deals when I was younger; today, I can get the same deals without the risk of paper cuts or stabbing myself with scissors.
There is an online directory called Coupon Chief that lists thousands of available coupons via promo codes at online stores like Best Buy, Gap and Staples. For me, Target coupons and Overstock.com coupons could lead to some nice savings. Currently, Target is offering $5 off any online purchase of a $50 or more, and among the offers at Overstock is savings up to 60% and 75% on men’s and women’s watches (respectively).
Read more:Coupons
, Frugal
, Money
, Shopping
How Do I Know This is Really You? Say Something Only my Discover Card Would Know… 2007-08-15 10:05:48 I used my Discover
Card for the first time ever on Monday. The aftermath of this act gave me two distinct, conflicting opinions on Discover as a company.
(Why am I, after being credit card debt free for the first time in a decade, using a credit card, you ask? I’ll explain the method to my madness in a future blog post. For now, just know that I will continue to be credit card debt free because I will pay my balance in full at the end of the billing cycle).
I got the card last November when I began my journey to eliminate the Visa debt I accumulated in college. The Discover card had 0% interest on balance transfers for one year, so I got it and transfered as much of the balance on my main Visa card onto it. This allowed me to save some money in interest charges while I paid down my debt, and in the end I estimate I pocketed several hundred dollars thanks to the endeavor.
However, in all that time, I had never (obviously) used the Discover card for any purchases. Until Monday.
On
Penny Wise, Pound Foolish 2007-08-12 20:23:01 When I moved in April, among the changes I faced was where I would now get my gas. I had to find a new “my gas station” - the gas station I would use 99.9% of the time because it’s conveniently close to home. As a creature of habit, having one primary gas station I use over and over is a must.
On the highway to and from my new home, there are two brand new gas stations, Chevron and Shell, directly opposite one another. These were the two candidates. Since they were virtually identical in every way (including gas price), my choice pretty much came down to a coin flip. I chose the Chevron.
I had used the Chevron to get my gas for a couple weeks when one morning on the way to work I stopped in to buy a caffeine drink. I grabbed my drink, walked to the counter, and handed the lady behind it my credit card.
Lady: This all you get?
Me: Yep, that’s all for today.
Lady: You want buy something else? Candy bar?
(to myself: Does this lady get a commission on what I buy?) Read more:Foolish
, Penny
, Pound
Misleading Movie Titles 2007-08-10 06:20:50 I finally watched the movie 300 last weekend. With a title like that, my brain thinks of two possibilities: a baseball flick (about a pitcher chasing 300 wins or a hitter chasing a .300 batting average) or a documentary about the average SAT score for America’s high schoolers. Still, as misleading movie titles go, 300 is pretty tame. For example:
Those expecting a laugh-riot comedy filled with monkey hijinks when they watched the Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt film Twelve Monkeys were gravely disappointed.
I’m sure that many a moviegoer was confused to see Rosie O’Donnell in the film Beautiful Girls.
As a kid, I never thought I’d get over the disappointment of The Never Ending Story being only 102 minutes long.
Words cannot express how I felt upon discovering Pauly Shore did not die in the 2003 “comedy” Pauly Shore is Dead.
While not technically a misleading title, am I the only one who expected Kindergarten Cop to be about a 5-year old who figh Read more:Misleading
, Titles
World Domination 2007-08-09 21:11:45 If you went to the Humor section of Associated Content’s site right now, you would see a familiar face. No, not mine…Charlie Sheen’s.
Two weeks after they first published it, Associated Content has put my Atlanta Braves Sign Charlie Sheen fake news story as its featured humor article. What does this mean? Nothing really. But I’d like to think it’s step one towards my goal of world domination.
If you would be so kind, go to the article at Associated Content and leave me a comment. Comments make me happy.
(In case the article ceases to be featured, here is a print screen) Read more:World
10 Years in the Making: I’m Credit Card Debt Free 2007-08-09 15:24:01 That’s right, boys and girls. It’s another post about money.
In the fall of 1996, I received my first credit card. In the summer of 1997, I received my second. A decade later, I am now finally free of both.
Even though I haven’t used either card in over five years, the debt accumulated during those early years has followed me throughout my twenties. I was content, because I was ignorant and didn’t know any better, making the minimum payments each month. At interest rates of 20.5% and 31%, those minimum payments meant the credit card companies were able to bleed me dry in interest charges.
Last fall, I had my personal finance awakening and began trying to knock out this debt by paying double the minimum each month. In February 2007, I started my version of Dave Ramsey’s Snowball Method by tackling my highest interest rate debt first and paying only the minimum on everything else. I put every extra cent I had towards these debts. Tuesday, August 7, my last p Read more:Credit Card
, Credit Card Debt
, Years
PayPerPost 2007-08-09 15:00:46 As part of my continuing quest to see if I can earn some supplemental income through blogging, I have joined another “get paid to blog” site called PayPerPost
. At first glance, it appears to be one of the better such sites I’ve seen.
Once I registered and my blog was accepted, I had seven writing opportunities available to me (as I write more articles and my blog gains in popularity, more and more opportunities will become available to me). These opportunities ranged from $5 to $20. The post you are reading right now, a post discussing PayPerPost in all its glory, was one of the available opportunities (and the one worth $20).
The nice thing about PayPerPost is I will be able to pick and choose topics I’ll write about from their various blog ads. Currently, there are writing opportunities on Fantasy Football, Paintball and “natural geothermal treatment of psoriasis.” I don’t know about the first two, but that psoriasis one sounds cool.
It rema
Barry Bonds is the Worst Kind of Cheater 2007-08-08 11:11:54 Now that he has broken Hank Aaron’s legendary homerun record, it is time for me to do a cathartic exercise and write about my thoughts on BarryBonds
. But before I explain my reasoning as to why I believe Bonds is the worst kind of cheater, I should first establish why I indubitably believe he is a cheater:
It is generally agreed by everyone outside of San Francisco or his immediate family that Barry Bonds
knowingly took performance enhancing drugs late in his career. Your physique and head size simply do not change this dramatically from your late 20s to your early 40s.
Supporters of Bonds like to say that he has never tested positive for steroids or performance enhancing drugs. I don’t care. I’m not a judge. I’m not on any jury. I’m just a guy with two eyes and a little something I like to call “common sense.”
The best-selling book Game of Shadows, using the San Francisco Giants’ equipment manager as a source, claims that since joining Read more:Cheater
I Heart iPhone 2007-08-03 17:44:07 This one goes out to all of the people who just can’t get enough of the iPhone
. You know who you are.
Read more:Heart
From the Xanga Archives: August 20, 2005 2007-08-20 19:56:22
Someday, FoodTV “personalities” Rachael Ray and Emeril Lagasse are going to fall in love and have a child. And that child will one day destroy the world. Ironically, however, the child will not be able to cook.
In my world, this qualifies as a deep thought.
Read more:Archives
, August
, Xanga
From the Xanga Archives: May 29, 2005 2007-08-19 21:32:15
A forgotten part of the moving process is you have to clean your old place. And right now, my old place looks like a garbage can exploded inside of it. Why is my brother such a slob? Why do I keep everything ever given to me? An hour ago, I came across a November 2002 memo from (my former place of employment). Why did I hold onto it? Did it strike me as funny at the time? Did I keep it in case I ever wanted to spit out some gum? Was it a magic memo that promised to grant me three wishes? And if the latter, where are my millions of dollars, my Ivy-league educated supermodel girlfriend, and my ability to turn invisible?
I dug up this old post of mine after spending the weekend cleaning. I wrote it while I was getting ready for my April 2005 move. Two years later, in April 2007, I moved again. I am still, four months later, getting my place organized.
You would think I’d have learned from my move in 2005 to do a better job of decluttering. But sadly, I did not learn my lesson. I ha Read more:Archives
, Xanga
Back Into the Lion’s Den, Part 1 2007-08-16 10:54:54 The following attempts to explain why, after being debt free for the first time in a decade and having not used a credit card in over seven years, I am in the market for a new credit card.
In general, I am not a fan of credit cards. Their issuers are soulless banks who prey on the weak, the uneducated, the young and the old. They are, in two words, pure evil. However, if the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer can convert - not one, but - two soulless vampires into champions fighting on the side of justice, I can take a small piece of plastic and turn it into an instrument for good.
Credit cards themselves are merely tools. I can choose to use them wisely or carelessly. It’s up to me. Knowing this, and knowing I have the disposition to properly handle them (i.e. I put the frugal in frugaltastic), I should not be afraid to use them if doing so can benefit me. And they can (benefit me, that is).
Credit cards offer me several real advantages over debit/check cards: security, rebates an
Frugal Shopping: Save Money With Online Coupons 2007-08-16 09:02:48 Christmas is still a few months away, but it’s never too soon to be on the look out for good deals when shopping. Where as my mom clipped coupons out of the Sunday paper in order to get good deals when I was younger; today, I can get the same deals without the risk of paper cuts or stabbing myself with scissors.
There is an online directory called Coupon Chief that lists thousands of available coupons via promo codes at online stores like Best Buy, Gap and Staples. For me, Target coupons and Overstock.com coupons could lead to some nice savings. Currently, Target is offering $5 off any online purchase of a $50 or more, and among the offers at Overstock is savings up to 60% and 75% on men’s and women’s watches (respectively).
Read more:Coupons
, Frugal
, Money
, Shopping
How Do I Know This is Really You? Say Something Only my Discover Card Would Know… 2007-08-15 10:05:48 I used my Discover
Card for the first time ever on Monday. The aftermath of this act gave me two distinct, conflicting opinions on Discover as a company.
(Why am I, after being credit card debt free for the first time in a decade, using a credit card, you ask? I’ll explain the method to my madness in a future blog post. For now, just know that I will continue to be credit card debt free because I will pay my balance in full at the end of the billing cycle).
I got the card last November when I began my journey to eliminate the Visa debt I accumulated in college. The Discover card had 0% interest on balance transfers for one year, so I got it and transfered as much of the balance on my main Visa card onto it. This allowed me to save some money in interest charges while I paid down my debt, and in the end I estimate I pocketed several hundred dollars thanks to the endeavor.
However, in all that time, I had never (obviously) used the Discover card for any purchases. Until Monday.
On
Penny Wise, Pound Foolish 2007-08-12 20:23:01 When I moved in April, among the changes I faced was where I would now get my gas. I had to find a new “my gas station” - the gas station I would use 99.9% of the time because it’s conveniently close to home. As a creature of habit, having one primary gas station I use over and over is a must.
On the highway to and from my new home, there are two brand new gas stations, Chevron and Shell, directly opposite one another. These were the two candidates. Since they were virtually identical in every way (including gas price), my choice pretty much came down to a coin flip. I chose the Chevron.
I had used the Chevron to get my gas for a couple weeks when one morning on the way to work I stopped in to buy a caffeine drink. I grabbed my drink, walked to the counter, and handed the lady behind it my credit card.
Lady: This all you get?
Me: Yep, that’s all for today.
Lady: You want buy something else? Candy bar?
(to myself: Does this lady get a commission on what I buy?) Read more:Foolish
, Penny
, Pound
Misleading Movie Titles 2007-08-10 06:20:50 I finally watched the movie 300 last weekend. With a title like that, my brain thinks of two possibilities: a baseball flick (about a pitcher chasing 300 wins or a hitter chasing a .300 batting average) or a documentary about the average SAT score for America’s high schoolers. Still, as misleading movie titles go, 300 is pretty tame. For example:
Those expecting a laugh-riot comedy filled with monkey hijinks when they watched the Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt film Twelve Monkeys were gravely disappointed.
I’m sure that many a moviegoer was confused to see Rosie O’Donnell in the film Beautiful Girls.
As a kid, I never thought I’d get over the disappointment of The Never Ending Story being only 102 minutes long.
Words cannot express how I felt upon discovering Pauly Shore did not die in the 2003 “comedy” Pauly Shore is Dead.
While not technically a misleading title, am I the only one who expected Kindergarten Cop to be about a 5-year old who figh Read more:Misleading
, Titles
World Domination 2007-08-09 21:11:45 If you went to the Humor section of Associated Content’s site right now, you would see a familiar face. No, not mine…Charlie Sheen’s.
Two weeks after they first published it, Associated Content has put my Atlanta Braves Sign Charlie Sheen fake news story as its featured humor article. What does this mean? Nothing really. But I’d like to think it’s step one towards my goal of world domination.
If you would be so kind, go to the article at Associated Content and leave me a comment. Comments make me happy.
(In case the article ceases to be featured, here is a print screen)
Read more:World
10 Years in the Making: I’m Credit Card Debt Free 2007-08-09 15:24:01 That’s right, boys and girls. It’s another post about money.
In the fall of 1996, I received my first credit card. In the summer of 1997, I received my second. A decade later, I am now finally free of both.
Even though I haven’t used either card in over five years, the debt accumulated during those early years has followed me throughout my twenties. I was content, because I was ignorant and didn’t know any better, making the minimum payments each month. At interest rates of 20.5% and 31%, those minimum payments meant the credit card companies were able to bleed me dry in interest charges.
Last fall, I had my personal finance awakening and began trying to knock out this debt by paying double the minimum each month. In February 2007, I started my version of Dave Ramsey’s Snowball Method by tackling my highest interest rate debt first and paying only the minimum on everything else. I put every extra cent I had towards these debts. Tuesday, August 7, my last p Read more:Credit Card
, Credit Card Debt
, Years
Introducing: Random Quotes 2007-08-24 08:26:59 It has been “live” for a few days, but I just realized that I never publicly introduced the latest neat (at least I think it’s neat) feature of the site: random quotes.
“What are you talking about crazy man,” you might be asking. Turn your head slightly to the right of the screen. No, not that far to the right. You’re not even looking at your monitor anymore. Turn back to the left a little…a little more…stop. Perfect.
Each time you view a page on my site or “refresh” your browser, you’ll see a random quote from one of my past blog posts. I know what you’re thinking: “how awesome and not the least bit vain that he quotes himself.” Yes, I’m incredibly cool and modest like that. Anyway, beneath the quote is a link that takes you to the blog post from which the quote came.
This neat little feature is from a Wordpress plugin by Dustin Barnes. If you like it and are a little knowledgeable in PHP (unfo Read more:Introducing
, Quotes
, Random
A New Design (Again) 2007-08-23 21:01:26 As you can see, I have changed the layout and design of my site.
Again
.
Why did I do it? How does “for grins and giggles” strike you? Just joking. The truth is I was never completely pleased with the old design. Too much wasted space for my taste. This new layout suits me much better. That said…
I wish I could say this will be the last change for awhile, but that would be a lie. And like I’ve said before, boys and girls, lying is wrong. I might be many things, but liar (and polygamist) isn’t one of them.
Lab Rat 2007-08-21 20:52:40 After the coffee machine in my place of employment’s kitchen broke for the fifth time in three weeks today, I came to the following conclusion: I am an unwilling participant in some sort of sadistic science experiment.
Coffee machines simply do not “break.” They’re like alarm clocks, blue jeans or tooth brushes in that regard - once you have one, decades go by before you need another. With that indisputable fact in place, it stands to reason that the only possible explanation for our coffee machine’s repeated breakdowns is foul play.
I don’t know where these mad scientists are hiding, but I know they are following my every move. When I take two Advil because of a mid-morning caffeine headache, they are there. When I slap myself hard across the face in order to wake up, they are watching. When I rob the local Starbucks during my lunch break, they write it down in their clipboards.
At least I’ve kept my sanity through it all.
Eyes in Front 2007-08-21 06:27:58 I find it amusing how words can take on a whole new meaning when used in a different context. A saying that is upbeat and cheery in most situations can be funny and juvenile in another. For example, before my work switched office buildings last year, we always had fliers with inspirational words on the walls of the men’s restroom. The following was once placed above one of the urinals:
Look up from what you are doing for a minute. See the beauty that is around you.
I know what you’re thinking. No, I didn’t put it there.
Read more:Front
Hooked on Phonics Works for Me: How Learning to Spell Can Make You a Better Blogger 2007-08-27 12:15:41 Sue came to me depressed. “Why does no one visit my blog,” she asked me.
“Well Sue,” I responded, trying to choose my words carefully. “No one visits your blog because they think you’re dumb. You misspelled ‘blog’ in your page’s title. Also, you misspelled your name.”
Sadly, Sue’s problem is all too common. In today’s fast-paced world, many have replaced proper grammar and spelling with run-on sentences and shorthand. This is fine if you are sending your mom a text message from your cell phone while driving and changing the radio station. It is not fine if you are writing a paper for school, drafting a proposal for your job, or - in Sue’s case - writing a blog.
When I was first introduced to the online world of e-mail and instant messaging, I quickly discovered that the only way for someone to decipher between the intelligent and the insanely stupid was their writing. For example:
Email #1
WHAT ARE U DOING FR Read more:Blogger
, Hooked
, Learning
, Works
A Fake Interview with Keanu Reeves: One on One with the World’s Worst Living Actor 2007-08-29 12:07:29 The following is a significant revision of the fake, Keanu
-penned blog post I did last year titled, I am an Awful, Awful Actor
. This new version was recently published at Associated Content. I will also present it here in all its glory.
Inarguably an awful actor, how Keanu Reeves
continues to earn work in Hollywood is a mystery even to him.
(more…)
Read more:Living
, World
Delay in Updates 2007-09-23 15:28:18 I haven’t updated since Thursday and likely won’t be updating until tomorrow due to my dad having his appendix taken out Friday morning. It burst on him early Friday - while he was at the hospital waiting, no less - so his recovery will take a bit of time. He’s doing well, though, and tentatively due to be released from the hospital on Thursday.
Your prayers are appreciated.
Read more:Delay
Dear Reader: A Three Hour Tour? 2007-09-20 12:24:47 Today’s installment of Dear Reader
goes out to the individual from Amstelveen, Noord-Holland in the Netherlands who browsed my site today for 3 hours, 13 minutes and 58 seconds. A big thanks to humor-blogs.com for referring this individual.
Dear Reader,
Wow. What can I say? Thank you for visiting my site and staying for such a long time. My records show that you viewed 85 different posts of mine. Again, wow.
It saddens me that you did not leave me any comments, though. For one thing, your leaving a comment would have given me a way to contact you and say thanks - either by e-mail or, if you supplied a web address, leaving a comment of my own at your site. Secondly, just like a zombie needs to eat brains, my blog needs comments in order to thrive. Juicy, delicious, stick-to-your ribs comments.
You know, something here just doesn’t seem right. There are only two reasons someone would browse a blog for over three hours, but not leave a single comment:
My sarcastic wit left th Read more:Three
OJ Simpson, the Armed Robber? Doesn’t Sound Like the OJ I Know 2007-09-19 09:33:25 On September 13th, O.J. Simpson
and two co-defendants allegedly pointed guns at two individuals, taking their sports memorabilia along with the cell phone of one of the individuals and the baseball cap and sunglasses of the other individual.
Call me a skeptic, but that doesn’t sound like the O.J. Simpson I know.
(more…)
Read more:Armed
, Sound
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