Out of Control?

according to a married couple who i count as my friends. i've drank the cool-aid and i'm now out of control? i understand the "drank the cool-aid" comment, but not the out of control comment. this comment was posted on the following blog.

http://skinnyrya.blogspot.com/2005/06/car-cleanliness.html

am i "out of control'?

Bubble Gum

today at work someone had brought some off brand bubble gum to work. now i haven't had this type of gum in a long time. i proceeded to chew the overly loaded with sugar gum and blow bubbles. it was greatness.

Benanti Blogging

the last day eric, http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=pleasantlydisoriented, blogged. tuesday, may 24, 2005.

need i say more?

i did some research. at one point eric blogged on feb. 9th and then waited until april 1st before blogging again. so i guess he hasn't broken any records yet, but this is still unacceptable.

Finding "Lost" Money

you know that feeling you get when you find money in your pants or jacket pocket from at least a week ago. well i was balancing my checkbook today and while writing down my bills and purchases i started to realized that i would be a couple hundred dollars in the negative after everything posted. i was starting to freak-out. all i could think was where did my money go? a few minutes later i noticed that i didn't write down my pay day in my register. so it turned out that i wasn't beyond broke. only just over broke. a much better feeling. i hope to someday know how it feels to have too much money. is anyone with me on this?

The Best Company in the World

Last week I went to Atlanta, GA to attend a convention for my company. It was an amazing, motivating, jaw dropping, inspirational event. Seeing 50,000 people all in the Georgia dome, all for one cause left me in a state of aw. it was pure excitement. You see my companies mission is to help families become debt free and financially independent by giving them a free financial needs analysis and personally assisting clients with how to handle their money. It was great hearing personal stories from clients whose lives we have changed. it is also amazing how we are compensated for doing just that. My company also has the best opportunity for owning your life. For further proof read the book called "The ABC’s of making money" (http://www.abcsofmakingmoney.com/) this book is written by Dr. Cauvier: A speaker / trainer / consultant, who has made a career out of helping his clients become financially successful. At the time he wrote the book he had no affiliation to my company and continues to not have any affiliation just so he can be a credible witness to our cause. I personally heard him say that at a meeting I attended at the convention. In this book he notes that he and a team of researchers explored thousands of companies and rated them on 15 key points on the company's opportunity for their employees to succeed. My company is the only company out there that met all 15 points. Most companies only met 6-8 points.

On a side note, Dr. Cauvier has come out with a new book call “The ABC’s of Making Money for Teens”. This book focuses on how teens manage their money. He made a deal with his publisher to print a few hundred thousand books at cost so that I and other associates could buy them to help teach local teens on how to manage their money. I ordered 30 book myself and want to find a teacher that I know that will help me set up a time that I can come into a classroom and teach a group of teens about money. As well as give away the books I ordered to those students who would want one. I would also see if I could get a few copies to be kept in the school library since I do not have enough to give to every student.

The Woes of the Corporate World

last monday while i was on vacation my manager at work called me to let me know that the site that i work in will be closing, and i have 4 1/2 months to find a new position within the bank or take a severance package when we close at the end of october. do i care? of course not. i work part-time for the greatest company in the world. so i have decided that i am going to say goodbye to the corporate world and work full time as a financial advisor.

viva la liberty!

MRE

to me one of the scariest things in the food world is an MRE. this is a package of food provided to soldiers in the military for when they are on missions and do not have access food to normal means of food. it generally contains something from each of the basic food groups plus some kind of snack. my younger brother is in the army and current stationed in taji, iraq. before he left in january he gave me a couple of MREs to try. i recently had my second MRE on monday night for dinner. the label said it was chicken with chunky salsa. upon opening it i found the following....

a bag of the so called chicken and chunky salsa
a bag of spanish rice
a packaged veggie cracker
a package of jalapeño cheese spread
a package of short bread cookies
a package of cappuccino
a package of peanut butter m&m's.
a condiment bag (miniature tabasco bottle, salt , pepper, sugar, and a tea bag)
last but not least a package of chemicals to that you add water to that heats up your meal in the self contained bag.

all in all it tasted good. i mixed the chicken & salsa with the rice, ate the cheese with crackers, dipped the cookies in my cappuccino, and ate my m&m's yesterday as a snack.

it still scares me that something can be packaged, not refrigerated, and not have an expiration date. i still can't get over the miniature bottle of tabasco.

Road trip

about 4 am thursday morning i'm leaving for atlanta, ga. i will be driving with a couple of other guys. hence the title of this post. the reason for my travels is education. i've been working for a company part-time. essentially it is my job to help people become debt free and retire financially independent. second, since we are in a rapid expansion phase, it is also my job to find people who are tired of the corporate world and want a way to have more control of the variables of their life. what i mean by this is there are no other companies out there with more people that make over 50k, 100k, and a million dollars a year. since we only have 2% of the current market. it is our goal is to expand from 55 offices in the north texas area to 3500. to do this they need RVPs. and get this! anyone can be an RVP, because everyone that starts with the company starts out at the same spot. as a part-time associate. all you have to do to become an RVP is find others, about 20+ people, that want to do the same thing. you see, everyone that you recruit; you make money from when they help families set up IRAs, consolidate debt, realign there income protection, ect. the purpose for my trip is to attend the conference to learn how to do this as fast as i can.

i know what some of you might be thinking "this is a pyramid scheme." no it's not. for one, pyramid schemes are illegal, and the financial services industry is one of the most highly regulated industries out there. it is similar to how ebby holliday works. except that if i promote an RVP i continue to make money from them. where as in ebby's system. once someone opens there own office. there recruiter looses the rider that they had over the person. also i can make money whether i recruit someone or not. you just make a lot more by moving up in the ranks than as a part-time associate. why be a part-time associate making between $500 and $3000 dollars a month. when you can become an RVP and make between $10,000 and $200, 000 a month. not to mention having a career that you can't be fired from, unless you do something illegal, and can still make money even if you ended up in the hospital for a month. i kid you not. you know how a high school year book is laid out. my company publishes a book laid out like that every year of people that are making $100,000 or more a year, and it is not thin. it is an awesome opportunity to help educate the public about money, and get paid well to do it. i welcome anyone who is interested to talk to me about it.

Smokin' ! (and not in a good way)

the past few days at work our fax machine has been jamming up a lot. today while trying to fix it i burnt the ends of my two middle finger on my right hand. so i now have a cup of ice water and a paper towel that i alternate sticking my finger in or on. my job requires me to do a bit of typing and right now that is a bit uncomfortable at times. hopefully i will not have to remove any more paper jams since next week we are going to start using "right fax". this is software that allows us to view faxing via the computer.

viva la technology!

Architectural / Engineering Problems

on sunday the manager of my apt complex gave me the keys to my new apt. so i decided i would start moving some of my stuff everyday this week to my new place. this being ideal because i am only moving 50 yards.

so i went out and bought a convertible hand truck {http://www.milwaukeehandtrucks.com/} (a/k/a "dolly") for moving my boxes and furniture. so i get my dolly home and proceed to convert it into a cart. come to find out the hole that i'm to insert the cotter pin through is not in line with the hole that is in the handle. so i cannot securely place the handle into the cart position. at this point i must decide whether to exchange the dolly for a new one, or use my drill to make the hole bigger so that i can fully insert the cotter pin. i choose option number two for two reason. one, i don't have to drive anywhere to do this since i have the right tools for the job. two, it is the manly thing to do. I proceed to complete the task with ease and move four loads of boxes to my new apt.

i now decide to get ambitious and move my washer and dryer by myself. my washer and dryer are a set that was made in the 1980's. so my washer is quite heavy. i find that my dolly handles the two appliances with ease, and i deliver my appliances to my new apt quickly and efficiently. now to install said appliances. the connections for my washer and dryer are located in the closet of my bedroom. which is next to my bathroom. kind of a cool setup. there is only one problem. the entry way to my closet/laundry room looks a tad bit narrow. come to find out the entry is as wide as my washer and/or dryer.

so here is the scene. i have my washer perfectly squared up with the entry way. i'm sliding it through the entry way, but wait. it is stuck. why you ask? because when you try to push a 36 inch wide metal box through a 36 wide hole. the object is going to rub both sides of the hole. so here i am by myself. my washer now on it's back, my butt up against my bathroom counter that is across from the entry way. and my feet pushing my washer through the not so big hole. i will say that i finally got both appliances into the closet, but must ask why the entry way must by so small. can any architects out there explain this phenomenon?

You won't get it if you don't ask for it.

my dad has always told me, "you won't get what you don't ask for." i have found this to be true. for example. today i called comcast today to transfer my services.

rep: how can i help you?
jlay: i need to transfer my services.
rep: would you like to upgrade or change your services?

at this point i could just say no thank you and move on, but instead.....

jlay: only if it is cheaper.
rep: let me pull up our current promotions.

at this point the rep gives me to options which keep my services the same. all the while lowering the cost of my services by $7 per month.

jlay: awesome!

as you can see. if i didn't ask for the discount. i would have lost out on $84 over the next year. also remember this. the worst thing that could happen is they say no.

Attitude

i have a 2004 appointment calendar that i use for taking notes at work. on every other page there is a quote. i was reading through some of them and one really stuck out in my mind that is in line with what i believe, and that is that your attitude is a choice.

"A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes."

-- hugh downs

another quote from john maxwell's book titled "The winning attitude".

"the last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances."

--victor frankl

Moving

ladies and gents. i'm moving, but no very far. on june 11th and 12th i will be moving from apt 313 to 218 in my apt complex. approximately 50 yards. my roommate has been dating a girl for a while and they had talked about living together after our lease expired on october 31st. his girl friend lost her job about 3 months ago and he has basically been staying there every night since then. he told me last week that she has been able to pay bills with unemployment, but he has been helping her with food and stuff. also that he could not pay me for all of our bills and rent until the 15th. i don't want to have to fight over money and i don't want anyone to loose there house or not be able to afford food. so, i went to my apt management and asked them if i could switch apts without any fees and they said yes. if anyone wants to help me move some boxes and furniture to across the parking lot. it would be greatly appreciated. of course i would by beer for those who can help.