Insane Random Ramblings

I use SwagBucks as my search engine all of the time. I never win the contests though. They have a big winner every hour but I’ve never seen my name. I’m not saying that I’ve never been chosen it’s just that if you don’t check your name could come and go before you notice.

They also have a Mega Swag day every Friday where you can win larger than normal bills. I have won a few of those. But what I could never do was get all of the collector bills. They have them for most holidays including the 4th of July and Labor Day. There are usually 5 bills but I never get more than 3 or 4. Until Monday.

For Thanksgiving there were 5 bills including one that was only available on Black Friday. I got all of them except one. Then on Monday night about an hour before time expired, I finally got the last bill. I felt like I had won a marathon or something I was so excited.

For collecting all of the bills I think I got a 10 point bonus in addition to the value of all of the bills. I’m just happy I finally beat that monster!

I earn points for searching and I save them up to buy something big for myself every year.

Where people just lose their minds shopping. If you’re like me and hate the whole Black Friday crowd thing, you just wait until today to shop online. Usually you can get great deals in the comfort of your own home, or office as it were. Sometimes it’s shipping deals, sometimes it’s discounts and if you’re lucky you can get both.

There’s a catalog company that I shop from that has the exact pants I want. They’re not in my preferred color but they’re my size and in a tall length, which is hard to find in regular stores. They’re normally $40 but $35 each if you buy 2 pairs. With the discount today, 2 pairs will be $52.50 plus $4.99 shipping for a total of $57.49 which is a good deal in my opinion. Especially since I can’t find these pants in B&M stores.

I had better balance my checkbook and see exactly how much money I have to shop with.

I visit several online message boards. A few days ago, one of the regulars on one of the boards announced that they were “taking a few months off”. Apparently it was because people were gossiping and talking about them behind their back.

I was shocked and amused at the same time. The shock stemmed from the fact that this particular website is known for being back-bitey and gossipy. Everyone talks about everyone and it’s not always nice. The amusement came from the fact that someone took an internet message board so seriously. Really?!?!? It’s not real life people.

I guess that’s why I always lurk on the boards that I frequent. That way if I decide to stop visiting, there is no need for a big announcement. And if someone e-hurts my feelings, it’s easy to stop visiting the site.

I used to love internet shopping. I shopped mostly through catalogs but I purchased the items over the internet instead of by phone. I just hated talking to people and it’s a lot easier to add or unload stuff from your cart online. There also used to be a lot of stuff in the catalogs that you couldn’t find in regular stores. Either the item wouldn’t be sold locally or it would sell out quickly but the catalogs almost always still had the item.

I recently looked at one the the catalogs that used to be my favorite and the items were ridiculously high. They were the same price as going to the mall and on top of that you had to pay shipping and handling. Once I added everything up, I realized that it’s just cheaper for me to shop locally. I can pop in and out of stores and shop at my leisure to find good prices.

It looks like catalog shopping is out for me.

I’m looking for a new job for several reasons. First, I don’t like the job that I have now. It’s boring and there is no room for advancement or development. The second reason is that I don’t even remotely make enough money. And because you can’t develop or advance here, all I have to look forward to is our annual raises, which are really bad at this company.

The one perk is that I have access to the internet. I can read news stories, blog or just surf for information on a discectomy while I’m here. As long as my work gets done, my boss doesn’t mind us using the internet.

I do know that once I find a new position, all of my internet access will come to an end.

Almost every good website is blocked at my job. Sometimes it’s games or sweepstakes but sometimes it’s just a news story that I’m looking for.

The majority of the time it’s a weekly feature that I’m looking for. On Slate it would be Dear Prudence (Monday and Thursday), Friend or Foe (every other Tuesday) or on WDAS’s website Patty’s 411 (every Friday).

I used to use the Google cache feature which would bring up a specific page and I could read that even though the site was blocked out. Unfortunately, that’s no longer an option since it seems that Google fazed it out.  It’s not a big deal since I can read everything once I get home. But I used to love reading stuff at the end of the day when I was cleaning up to go home.

Oh well,  just another technological advance.

Boo…I am not happy either. I’ve been checking into my job for over 3 months. I actually stole the mayorship from another guy that works in the building.

So about a month ago, one of my coworkers starting using the service and checking into our work location. Now remember, I have over 2 months more check-ins than she does. Well I was off for a week on vacation but came back to my mayorship. Monday was a holiday and I was off yesterday. Guess what, she stole my mayorship!!! How is that even possible?!?!??! But the best part is that it told me I’m 3 days away from being the mayor.

That’s not even possible. Foursquare cheats. I guess it’s they’re way of ensuring that more people get to be the mayor but that’s crap. There is no way she should be the mayor when there are 444 check-ins and I have over 100 of those. 65 people have checked in and the other guy has about 80. How many could she really have?

I know it’s supposed to be fun, but I don’t like when services just randomly award and reward people for no good reason.

***Rant over***

You thought I was gonna say the “K” family didn’t you? Admit it, that’s the first thing you think of now. I was looking for celebrity wedding news and of course they were the first ones that popped up. I was actually looking for information on Carmelo and his new wife LaLa.

It’s funny and weird at the same time. I feel almost like a voyeur looking into their lives but the put it out there for everyone to see. It’s a double edge sword because you feel bad because they have no privacy but they know that’s what they’re getting into when they sign up for those shows.

Now back to the gossip for me.

The sites at work that is. The frustrating part is that the site will be available one week, or even one day, and then totally gone the next time you try to access it. I don’t know how our IT department decides which sites should be blocked. At one point any site with the word “blog” in the title was blocked, now they aren’t. However, Swagbucks is now blocked. Now that’s odd because I had been using that site for over a year.

I guess I should enjoy Ebay before that gets blocked again.

That is so not a good thing. I’m on the internet all the time and if my computer is not up to snuff, that means I have to look into replacing it. I’m saving to buy a house next year so now is not the time to randomly have to kick out several hundred dollars on a new computer. I have thought about getting one of the new tablet computers that are all the rage. They’re fairly inexpensive and I can take it wherever I go. That means I can play on the computer on the bus and during my lunch break.

Now I just have to hope I can find one at a decent price.