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Tag Archives: money
Free $20 from Serve.com by Amex
I just got my check, so I thought I’d share this if anyone’s interested. Looks like they’re trying to take on Paypal.
The first free $10 is new member only. Another $10 is for all serve members.
1. Register a free account at serve.com. You can get $10 instantly. An email verification code will be sent to you for verification.
2. Answer a trivia question at playmoneymover.com to get another $10. You will be asked for your email address when you answer the trivia correctly (you can do it multiple times until you get it right). $10 is not credited instantly, you will receive instructions in your email on how to get your $10 in the next business day.
You can withdraw your money from serve by check (7-10 business days) or transfer to your bank account (2-3 business days) for free. You can also do it on an ATM which supports AMEX. No fee for the first withdrawal in a month, additional monthly withdrawals are $2.00 each.
Additional article here.
Been thinkin a little about money lately
Just got this from my coworker about how the world’s youngest billionaires have lost nearly a third of their wealth, according to Forbes rich list.
Then I wanted to write about an article I found the other day: What does one trillion dollars LOOK like?
$10,000
$1 million
$1 billion
$1 trillion (the pallets are double-stacked)
I didn’t realize one million dollars would look so puny.
Call + Response (Trailer)
Saw this in church today.
Call+Response is a first of its kind feature documentary film that reveals a terrifying secret: there are more slaves today than ever before in human history. In 2007, slave traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined. Call+Response goes deep undercover where slavery is thriving. First hand accounts from luminaries like Cornel West, Julia Ormond, Madeleine Albright, Daryl Hannah, Ashley Judd, and Nicholas Kristof provide the backdrop of for this 21st century nightmare. Grammy-winning and critically acclaimed artists including Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Talib Kweli, Five For Fighting, Switchfoot, members of Nickel Creek, Rocco Deluca, move this information into inspiration offering this century its first abolitionist songs.
Coldplay Viva La Vida iTunes Commercial
The new album comes out June 12th, just in time before I leave. Too bad I don’t have money to spend!
Yuan breaks through 7 vs. the dollar
China’s National Foreign Exchange Center has set the central parity rate for the yuan at 6.9920 to the dollar, breaching the 7.000 usd level for the first time. #
Are you?
For all my geeky friends (and much of my family)…
How to determine if you are an engineer:
- The only jokes you receive are through email (OUCH)
- At Christmas, it goes without saying that you will be the one to find the burnt-out bulb in the string of Christmas lights.
- Buying flowers for your girlfriend/boyfriend or spending the money to upgrade your RAM is a moral dilemma
- If you find that you have to often explain how to use the gifts you have given other people.
- Everyone else on the Alaskan Cruise is on deck peering at the scenery, and you are still on a personal tour of the engine room
- In college, you thought Spring Break was metal fatigue failure
- The Salespeople at Circuit City can't answer any of your questions
- You are always late to meetings
- You are at an air show and know how fast the skydivers are falling
- You are next in line on death row in a French Prison and you find that the guillotine is not working properly, so you offer to fix it.
- You bought your wife/husband a new CD ROM drive for her birthday
- You forget to get a haircut (for 6 months!)
- You can quote scenes from any Monty Python movie
- You can type 70 words per minute but can't read your own handwriting
- You can't write unless the paper has both horizontal and vertical lines
- You comment to your wife/husband that her straight hair is nice and parallel
- You go on the rides at Disneyland and sit backwards in the chairs to see how they do the special effects
- You have Dilbert comics/paphanelia displayed anywhere in your work area
- You have ever saved the power cord from a broken appliance
- You have more friends on the internet than in real life
- You have backed up your hard drive
- You have never bought any new underwear or socks for yourself since you got married.
- You have used coat hangers and duct tape for something other than hanging coats and taping ducts
- You know what http:// stands for
- You look forward to Christmas only to put together the kids' toys
- You own one or more white short-sleeve dress shirts
- You see a good design and still have to change it
- You spent more on your calculator than you did on your wedding ring
- You still own a slide rule and you know how to use it
- You think a pocket protector is a fashion accessory
- You think that when people around you yawn, it's because they didn't get enough sleep
- You wear black socks with white tennis shoes (or vice versa)
- You window shop at Radio Shack
- You're in the backseat of your car, she/he is looking wistfully at the moon, and you're trying to locate a geosynchronous satellite
- Your checkbook always balances
- Your laptop computer costs more than your car
- Your wife/husband hasn't the foggiest idea of what you do at work
- You've already calculated how much you make per second
- You've ever tried to repair a $5 radio
- Your four basic food groups are: 1. Caffeine 2. Fat 3. Sugar 4.Chocolate
Underground Atomic Bomb Detonation
Why detonate underground when you can do it above ground? I want to see mutants, dangit! Here’s another underground detonation video at google .
That reminds me, I need to get an emergency kit together. I wonder how many of my friends and loved ones are prepared.
I was talking to Jerry today and I mentioned that if for some reason I was not able to survive on my own without being hooked up to one of those life support machines, I want to be allowed to meet my Maker. He said people have been known to wake up within 2 weeks of being put on life support. After that, their chances of waking up become extremely small. I said I wouldn’t want to waste my family’s money that way or keep dangling that bit of hope. Just let me go. I wonder if other people think about this stuff. Wow, what a morbid post.
Is it Friday the 13th or something?
I’ve had about the worst day ever today, and it’s not even over yet!
First off, I overslept, so I left the house late. When I leave later, there’s more traffic. Stinks.
I leave before eating the free lunch at work to get new tires from Costco. I drive over to the one near the airport because it’s not as busy as the others. They don’t have the tire that I need. The guy tells me to go to the south city Costco. It’s raining.
On my way there, I get rear-ended. Thank goodness it was a slow-speed hit, and nothing that can be seen save for some scratches. But boy did I feel it in the car. I got the guy’s information, who, by the way, had nothing on his right arm past the elbow.
I finally get there and good, they have the tires I need, but there’s about a 3 hour wait. Let’s see, I need to eat lunch, maybe walk around for a bit, but for THREE HOURS??!!! Fine, let’s get this over with. $140 per tire that comes out to be over $600, oh man. Doh! I forgot I’m at super-lame, super-exclusive American express, cash, or check only Costco. I got nothin on me but 7 bucks and a credit card.
At least I had enough money for lunch.
My own Operation Rice Bowl
The World Bank defines poverty as living on less than $2 a day and extreme poverty as living on less than $1 a day.
During Lent, I’ve decided Continue reading
New company policy
Dress Code
It is advised that you come to work dressed according to your salary.
If we see you wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, we assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raise.
If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therefore you do not need a raise.
If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.
Sick Days Continue reading
Coffee Calendar
I normally don’t spend money buying calendars since my grandma or aunties have an ample supply from Chinese banks, but I haven’t gotten any this year. So I went out and bought one. They’re 50% off, but they still cost a couple bucks. They have the usual animals or Lord of the Rings, but I found a small coffee-themed calendar featuring Michael Kungl’s work. As a tribute, I’ve put up some of the pictures so all my caffeine- fiends friends, can share the eye candy.
Full-time ministry
First day at the new job. First thing that went on was the Monday morning prayer meeting. It’s great. Who gets to go to work on Mondays and the first thing they do is pray? During the meeting, they mentioned that I was a turning point, going into full-time ministry. Even up until today, I didn’t fully realize that I have just crossed the line into full-time ministry work. I guess that phrase didn’t occur to me. Maybe because I’ve always thought that full-time ministry meant working as a pastor, youth worker, campus minister, urban or overseas missionary. I have to raise funds for my salary. People are more willing to give money to a someone who will be working oversease rather to someone who will be working mostly in the Bay Area, like me. But if you want to partner up with me in this ministry, feel free to donate, supply things that might be helpful for my job, or if you want it to count as a tax deduction, wait for my prayer letter. Want other ways to partner up? Invite me to make a presentation at your group or church. You can also help me pray for
- smooth transition for the kids I was working with
- support from my family as I share my career move with them
- good team experience, spiritual encouragement and growth as I enter full-time ministry
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I watched Kingdom of Heaven this weekend. I agree with what Sacrod said about how there are huge gaps in the character development, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
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From The Guardian’s news blog:
What are they? Have the Pokemon been spawning the love children of Astroboy? Have five boddhisatvas turned up in Beijing as strange little manga aliens?
No, they’re Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying and Ni Ni – the five official mascots of the 2008 Olympics, unveiled earlier today in a grand ceremony in Beijing…
Why do the Chinese always use dolls to market/promote events? Hmm…
Whitewater rafting
I’ve gone whitewater rafting before, but this time we ran the Middle Fork of the American River. It was terrific. If you look at the picture on the website, you can see how all the people in the boat (with the exception of the guide) is sitting down in the middle of the boat. That’s because in the Tunnel Chute, the guide gave the command to “get down” so we would put the weight in the center of the boat. That was only for a few seconds and we were called back to paddling immediately after the first huge drop. The water was sooo cold, but it was extremely fun. Thanks to Brad for a fun trip!
Someone asked if I would take the high schoolers next year. All summer long, they kept asking me when I would plan a rafting trip for them. Even the several weeks prior to the trip, I asked for a show of hands of who’s interested and who would go. But when it came time to turn in all the permission slips and money, not a single soul wanted to go. So you ask, will you plan a rafting trip for them next year? I say they don’t deserve to go. I don’t even want to plan the snow trip anymore. I just know that I’m going up.
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As I posted before, today is officially Talk Like a Pirate Day. Play this game where you have to convert as many people as possible into piratey Pastafarians as you can before the time runs out.
Get your grill on
That’s right folks, I gotta put my tiny grill to use. The 2 hotdogs look quite lonely there. Toasted some leftover buns from the bbq this weekend, slapped on some chili, tossed up a bowl of salad, and I was good to go. The grill fits a maximum of 9 chicken thighs (3×3). I’ve only used it twice (if you count bbq’ing 2 hotdogs as one use), but I think I already got my money’s worth. Plus, I think it’s already falling apart from the weight of the chicken the first time I used it. If you look closely, the rack doesn’t exactly fit on the grill. It fit when we first put it together, but after we fired it up last time, it must have been warped by the heat. So cheap.
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For Jerry: a Pixar blog. Check out a bit of animated film history.
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When I’m at my desk, I find myself writing notes or reminders on scratch paper all the time. I have a notepad nearby at all times, but I’ve found myself using post-it notes on my computer quite often now.
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What a unique clock. I would have preferred the year on top and the seconds going by on the bottom.
The best trip EVAR…visiting first stores EVAR!
Here are some pictures of some of the flagship stores we visited:
Jaime talking on the phone in front of the first Starbucks ever:
Security glass
Digital photo printing price comparison
Check out some tips for the cheapest prices on digital photo printing. Maybe I should start printing out my pictures more. Now if I could just choose which ones I want…
I wonder where everyone goes to print out their pictures.
Q&A: Star Wars
Q: So why did you decide to make a Star Wars themed site? Are you jumping on the bandwagon because of all the hype?
A: Partially, yes. But I’ve loved Star Wars ever since I was little. After watching it the first time, I wanted to watch it again and again. My parents recorded a lot of movies for us (yes, we had one of those illegal cable boxes that we bought from some door sales guy). But Star Wars Continue reading
Low postings in December 2004
I was looking at my list of archives by month and noticed that I made only 1 post last December. That’s pretty sad. I wonder what I was doing? I just remember that it was a busy month. Like I always tell people, you can probably tell how busy I am by the amount of activity that’s going on at this site. I’d like to change that in the future though. I should start posting more often (like I have been recently), just so I don’t waste this space.
Which reminds me — while things over at beigetower.org were kinda slow back in December, I bought somegirlwitha.com as a little birthday present for myself. My coworker buys something from Tiffany’s every year for her own birthday. For my birthday, I go and buy a domain name. How geeky is that? Oh well, I gotta get my money’s worth from now on.