reading my WalMart credit card bill; one of life's guilty pleasures...

Hmmmm.......
I spent $94 apprx on my WalMart credit card between 2/4 and 3/3
I paid $74 of that, which means I'm behind by $20 + $12 interest.

I do need to cut down my WalMart CC spending.  So far...I don't think I've placed any new orders since 3/3.  I can't be sure b/c 1) my "recent orders" says there are no recent orders and 2) they are sorry at the moment, and I should try accessing my "order history" (non-recent orders) "later"...so F1 is openly stupid and F2 acts like it knows what it speaks of, which is nothing...should I really trust F2??  Let's just say I'm not going to be supplying F2 with weaponry...

If I can keep from ordering ANYthing this billing period, I can accrue probably the same amount of interest, no more than, and then my minimum payment of $25 will do me about $12 worth of good...........,
,,My Fingerhut monthly payment right now is $60 b/c i owe them a shitone of money...the interest for that one is $25 give or take...which would be cool if I hadn't nullified my WalMart monthly payment by almost $10...
Uh, let's see...I dind't spend anything @ Overstock.com (my other CC)  in February, so I guess as far as THAT PARTICULAR billing period goes, I was $12 ahead there, $8 behind on WalMart, and $35 ahead on Fingerhut...$40?;  out of $110...eh...could use some improvement but it's only gonna get so good with a mandatory interest charge total of $45....(rough estimate)
I guess I havent done too terribly bad; overall, my credit spending amounted to $35?  I could have cut that down a little...ideally, it'd be $0, but the closest ideal to that would be $10 or $15...$20 wouldn't be too bad, but at this point in time I have no hope for wanting anything.  I was all amped about the upcoming debut full length by this band named Can't Swim, who released an EP in 2016 titled DEATH DESERVES A NAME.  It's an OK CD, I'm not impressed with it.  There's so many of these mediocre emo bands with glossy production and mediocre songwriting skills.  Makes great background noise and if you're listening to it b/c you think the singer needs a pity party, then whatever....some people probably face the issues that these nu-emo singers are singing about.  They sound genuine, but they don't stand out.  I think the biggest issue I have with it all is they sound more angry and tormented than anything.  They sound like war cries rather than the kinds of sad lamentations that got me hooked onto emo in the first place.  I don't have any philosophy to justify the time I spend on sad gut wrenching songs to people who think sadness is enemy #2 tied in with regret and fear, with anger/hatred trumping those.  Happiness is something I usually feel after I've spent a good chunk of time utilizing a resource successfully.  But as I said, I like sad gut wrenching songs, so if I'm "successfully" listening to Pandora, is that really happiness?  So yeah...I guess my love of egg nogg can be dismissed fairly easily by all you egg nogg haters now...
anyway...was also thinking of pre-ordering a CD by a band called Have Mercy.  Not getting caught up in that again.  HMs' other two CDs are so-so, I guess...I don't like the singer's voice all much, and the music on them is a hybrid of dirge and swagger...I'd heard a couple single-song releases on Spotify 2 or 3 days ago, and was like "Oh, did these guys remove everything bad about their music?!"...then I went back and I was like "eh...".  I guess I was just in the mood for those songs then...whatever they were...I think one of them was called "Collider", can't remember what the other one was...uhk

was thinking about adding a bunch of movies I'd started watchin a year or two ago...I had
12 YEARS A SLAVE
SPOTLIGHT
VACATION (2015)
TRAINWRECK
and something else, I think....in my shopping cart, was like "oooh", but then I slowly came to a firm grasp on the fact that I simply did not like the way SPOTLIGHT was told.  It's little more than a dramatized documentary.  If the story that inspired it were not so compelling the movie would have sucked b/c there's no flair to the storytelling.  It just shows the reporters interviewing a bunch of people and collecting data.  If newspapers had "special features" like DVDs do, the contents of SPOTLIGHT would have been just that.
 It is cool to receive stuff in the mail...the stuff I receive is almost always easily disposable....

credit worthiness on the loose

Wow.  I haven't used my Fingerhut CC since Nov. 9th
Minimum payments are over the roof.  I'm paying $60/mo (rrrr).  I have another $75 or so to pay down before I get my minimum down to $50 or something like that.....
I'm hoping to keep from using my Overstock and WalMart credit cards for the months of April & May and then use it very sparingly in June onward...I'll have about $10/mo to spend on b.s. and frivolous whatthejunks out of my post-bill/need/bigtime want money, so I figure I'll allow myself $10 or so from my credit cards, which will allow me to get ahead of my debt by $10 or so per month.  It's going to take a loooong time to get a handle on this to where I'm not paying $110/mo on credit card debt.  I have $220 to choose what goes to what.  Some of that goes to my cat Sophie (cat food and cat litter) which varies sorta b/c she doesn't need me to buy her food every month..., and some of that goes to medicine copays, which range from $1-$5 (not sure what that variance depends on...), grooming, and I'm able to spend $15-$30 on Starbucks Coffee Co. cafe outings...I have $30 if I don't eat out anywhere else...I usually spend about $9-$12 on eating out...but I don't eat out more than once a month, sometimes twice if I sell something(s) on Amazon, which I can't predict happening before it happens....I have inventory that's been idle for several months...usually if I sell something, it's something I've just recently uploaded...usually crap I bought from WalMart or Overstock...before I started selling out my budget to credit card debt, I would buy a lot of CDs and DVDs, some of them not worth much, some of them worth nothing, some of them worth almost $10...I'd buy stuff from Hastings Entertainment Superstore in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and then sell it on Amazon, knowing full well that Hastings would *maybe* give me a good chunk of my money back but most likely not...for awhile there I was running out of envelopes to ship my Amazon inventory in.  That's no longer a problem b/c I hardly ever sell anything on Amazon since I hardly ever list anything on Amazon.  Most of the stuff I sell on Amazon is stuff I can't sell to CD Warehouse b/c they have too many copies of it/them or because the items are too scratched or some nonesense.  I bought a CD on Overstock titled IT'S IMMATERIAL by a band called Black Marble.  I kept it for about a month and one-third.  I sold it at Amazon about half a month after I listed it.  Ditto for a movie titled MORRIS COUNTY, an anthology of short films tied together be a theme of suburban residents in distress.  That one took about a month to sell.  I did buy some envelopes back in April or May I think...it took almost half a year to use them all and I still have envelopes collected from junk I get on Amazon, which I often can't resell ON Amazon without losing money, so I end up taking it to CD Warehouse, where they say it's too scratched...I've actually thrown out several CDs..that's something I didn't think I'd ever have to do...but if I just hold onto every CD I buy my trailer just turns into a rainbow of schit.  There's a fine line between being a pack rat and being a collector.

I'm probably getting my stories mixed up about the influx of inventory etc...I've had to get rid of some of the envelopes and boxes that were on hand...I did that in Missouri b/c we were seriously running low on space in the office closet, and we had actually ran out of space, so I chucked some of the packing materials that I seriously doubted would ever come in handy...I used to keep every CD-and-DVD-sized envelope I got in the mail on hand even if it was in less than ideal condition, but lately I've been able to be a lot more selective in that area.  I keep 'em for a little while, but I Just don't sell that much stuff.  I've kept a good deal of what I've bought over the last year.  I actually have a surprisingly large DVD collection...ditto with my CD collection.  I think I have around 40 CDs...I used to get panicked when I got half of that and think "what am i gonna do with all these CDS?", but it really doesn't matter.  It used to somewhat, b/c I had nowhere to put them once my media rack got filled up.  Before I had a media rack, I was overly concerned about quality...I was in this ridiculous persuit of perfection, looking for ways to refine my CD collection into some kind of thing worthy of awe in my eyes at least...the only thing wrong with my CD collection that I can see improving upon is the fact that it's all just entertainment, most of it with the exception of 2 or 3 genuine worship albums, one by Michael W. Smith titled SOVEREIGN (2014) and another by Crowder titled AMERICAN PRODIGAL (2016).  OH, yeah, I also have WAKE UP THE WONDER by Elevation Worship, which is more a worship album than AMERICAN PRODIGAL...I have a couple other Christian music albums on mp3 format...not sure if I have any more Christian music albums on CD...OH, yeah I do, I have 3 albums by Fernando Ortega...that guys cool.  I like his peaceful take on things  So many Christian albums in CCM are loud and obnoxious, which is fine for awhile...I don't think it's always needed though.  The Prince of Peace should have some peace-ful music in His name as well...bands and artists like Elevation Worship and Michael W. Smith have their softer songs, but they're backed by synthetic arrangements like electric guitar and synthesizer.  All that's left of God is the lyrics that pay homage to Him.  It's not a bad thing to use tools to help us in our lives.  We need things like stoves, electricity and gas power etc., doctors, but the only reason we need those things is b/c until we get to Heaven where the sin in our blood is removed -- not just fogiven -- and we can thus have unrestricted, unadulterated access to God, we are not in a state of being where we can EXPECT God to do anything for us...we are blessed to have His Holy Spirit to guide us in the correct path of our life, but even then we have to work at listening, at least I do...someone who is naturally a good listener or has a formed habit of good listening skill can probably interpret what His spirit is saying better than I...

Back to my financial things which I started this post with......
Had been kinda feeling lousy about my CC situation...freaking out, I guess.
but after thinking about it, I came to a sorta conclusion...
Like I said, I haven't used my Fingerhut CC since November 2016.  Yes, it sucks that I have that on top of $50 owed to other creditors.  But I don't need or even really want to add to my Fingerhut debt.  Their selection is slim and their prices are out of this world.
If I can keep my Fingerhut situation the way it's been the past 5 months(!), I can eventually get out from under it...shouldn't take more than 4 years to pay it off completely.  My WalMart and Overstock CC can then be paid down faster.  Should have them paid off shortly after Fingerhut b/c I owe them combined the same amount I owe Fingerhut...well, plus a couple hundred dollars...but
honestly, I have no significant interest in being "debt free".  The problem I see is that I started out with a WalMart credit card credit line of $700 and now I owe them over $600.  I JUST OPENED THAT ACCOUNT!!!!, like, what?--3 months ago?  This isn't a new development either.  I've been paying $40/mo on average on my account.  I was doing so-so for the first month and a half, I think...kept the balance down to $400 or something...
Anyway........it's a mess, but assuming the economy doesn't 1up the Great Depression or God doesn't send me Home early, I should be able to untangle it in time.........lots and lots of time.....

a giant cup of wtf-EVER!

Been shopping up the wazoo, mostly with credit.
Planning on returning apprx. $10 worth of it and I have a pending refund for about $20 worth of more.  I spent $16 on one thing b/c I was offered $10 cash back on it for trying this service...they said it will take 3-6 weeks to receive it...eeesh...not much telling if i'll have the willingness to pay toward my CC with the cash that I get back from it...I bought a Club O Gold membership from Overstock.com, priced at the standard rate of $20, but they offered $25 worth of Club O Gold points, which I felt was too good to pass up.  What's more is I get free s/h on all future orders until 1 year from sign up --- no minimum.  Normally Overstock.com's prices are a bit higher than places like WalMart or Amazon, but SHUTUP! they had Martin Scorsese's GOODFELLAS on DVD for $2 and some chump change.  I KNOW!  That DVD isn't normally very expensive no matter where you buy it, but I not only found it for next to nothing, but I didn't have to go through some monster-company to buy it...wow.  I also ordered a couple other things, one of which I should have used my Club O Gold points on instead of ordering it with my Club O Gold membership...I'll be returning that when I can...probably Tuesday.  I also pre-ordered something, might go ahead and return that too..actually, I think I'll keep the item that's NOT a pre-order and then use my points on the item I pre-ordered once I get everything straightened out...gosh, this a tangled web...the pre-order won't be coming until the 28th or something so it probably won't even be here until April.  In the meantime, it racks up interest...I haven't even seen the movie, the one I might have mentioned in a prior blogpost not sure A MONSTER CALLS; looks promising, although Rotten Tomatoes critics seem to have somewhat mixed reactions to it-- that could mean nothing or it could mean something...
...rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

eek!

Sheesh.  Haven't been reading my Bible...I'm like 10 days behind...(sigh)

mmm...food

This is probably a crude sketch of my food budget.  There's probably a couple or so things I'm leaving out.  I get $142 in SNAP benefits each month on the 13th.  Hopefully I can come up with some alternatives to some of the things on here...(i.e.: "junk food"...sandwich bread really should last more than 1.25 days a loaf...might figure out how to do thathehe).

3/5 - 3/26 (21 days)

$000.00 pancakes (4 days) (4 days)
$000.00 4xTUNA (2 days) (6 days)
$008.00 4x bread (5 days) [11 days]
$000.00 cream of wheat (2 day) [13]
$004.00 bran flakes (3 days)    [17]
$011.00 Peet’s coffee
$004.00 2x creamer
$006.00 2x milk
$015.00 junk food (3 days) [20]
$000.00 eggs (1 days) [21]
-------

$048.00

3/27 - 4/14 (19 days)

$50^^

$09 3x MILK

$07 1x CF eggs (2 days)

$04 creamer

$02 pancake mix (2 days)

$00 cream of wheat (1 days)

$20 junk food (5 days)
$16 8x bread (5 days)
$09 12x tuna (4 days)
----

$125

Oingo Boingo "Flesh 'N Blood" (GHOSTBUSTERS II version)

I've been obsessive about Oingo Boingo since I walked into a music store in the mall one day at the age of 5 and saw the cover-art for SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET: THE BEST OF OINGO BOINGO. My mom picked it up while out doing errands, for my father, and I had never forgotten it, despite the CD being out of the house along w/ my father for almost 5 years before I rang up my father long distance and asked him if I could have it...He said yes and mailed it to me.  I didn't have a CD player at the time (this was 1995), and a friend of my mom's offered to transfer it to cassette (which I accepted).  I shortsightedly parted ways with it and re-bought it a few times over the years during a 10 year long streak of bad handling of money...(I'm still not great at it, but after almost 15 years I'd hope one would not expect less...)
Anyway.  The GB2 OST is not nearly as good as the GB OST (Yes, I know it's a cliche).  That's not to say I adore the GB OST...there are some good songs on it, but half the album at least is filler.  Even the track "Magic" by Mick Smiley is two songs featuring the word "Magic" and only one of them was heard in the movie, which may mean something if you want to remember the movie rather than just watching it again, but the song itself really is nothing special.  However, I do friggin' love the original Arista Records CD cover-art with the CD-logo on the bottom corner and the layout of the back cover-art...the shade of red on the front cover, heck even the shade of black is frikkin' perfect! The music on this CD is not all heard in the movie.  There's not a whole lot of songs in the movie and the soundtrack includes everything except the theme song for the 1984 original.  This CD would have been marketed as "Music From And Inspired by GHOSTBUSTERS II" had it been released in the mid-late '90's...instead it just says "GHOSTBUSTERS II SOUNDTRACK ALBUM" on the disc itself and the insert for the jewel case spine. 
Believe it or not, this is one of the songs that was IN the movie, although it was a different version, I think...what you hear in the movie is all instrumental and it's missing the chorus and some bits of the verses...I don't know if it was a remix or just a different recording altogether...
And, for me anyway, the cool thing, having been a fan of the movie this song is part of the soundtrack of/for since roughly the same time SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET: THE BEST OF OINGO BOINGO was released, being a young child who was already a fan of GHOSTBUSTERS, is the knowledge that these two megathings of "me" are forever officially linked.

Touring.....The Story So Far(!/?)

I'm curious as to how bands who are on the road constantly have enough life experience with which to write songs around.  The term "song" seems up for debate, especially when you're around people who ignore the dictionary, but even when lyrics are included, the notion of a SONG can get kind of polluted often, IMO.  A lot of bands have minimal to no melody in their music, and sometimes a little trace of melody and a barely discernable backbeat and it's referred to as "catchy" and "poppy" in certain circles.  Build To Spill opens one of their albums with such a song.  Seattle-grunge founders Mudhoney made a similar album starter back in 1989, the same year Nirvana's BLEACH came out.  People who have no appreciation for pop music overlooked Nirvana's debut in favor of the druggy space dazed sounds of Mudhoney and their ilk, but music industry executives know a good thing when they see it and Nirvana was able and willing to take the world by storm with their direct and dynamic songwriting. All they needed was the help of MTV and FM radio.  Most radio stations for whatever reason back then anyway didn't bother playing music that wasn't on a major label...although that started to change it seemed around 1994...I read something somewhere indicating that the record label that released Live's THRWOING COPPER (Radioactive Records) was bought out by Universal Music, but most presses of that album mention no conglomerate in the copyright info.  And The Offspring's SMASH was released on an indie as well, and is still their most highly regarded album. That phase in the history of FM radio didn't last long tho and as far as I know those were the only two exceptions to the "major label only" rule that radio stations seemed to live by...
I'm anticipating a release by this band called The Story So Far, whose debut was so-so...their follow up is freakin' KLASSIK! and their 3rd album is pretty good too.  I'm a little nervous about their 4th album, but I believe they got what it takes to pull it off without pissing off a good chunk of their fanbase.  Their Facebook page seems to indicate they are STILL ON TOUR!  Their 3rd album came out in 2015, back in February or March, I think...why aren't they in the studio laying down music?  ARe they going to go on like Aerosmith and just live their life like it's a freaking party and then hire someone else to write their music?  Surely their pockets aren't deep enough to afford all that....
Anyway........didn't read The Bible yesterday...I'm feeling tired now, but I don't WANT to go to sleep...I've been feeling that way for awhile now...damnit, I need to go to the bathroom now, just went a little while ago, it seems like anyway...liquid comes in, it must go out...sad state of affairs, but so it is........

Just because it's called THE ROAD...

Mike & The Mechanics, which I have a natural knowledge of since the guitarist for Genesis from 1978-1997 (bassist for Genesis from 1966-1977) is the band leader/project coordinator, released an album a few+ years ago titled THE ROAD.  I had assumed it was a live album.  I gave out an irritated yawn, and said "I guess this is Aerosmith 2005-2011 all over again...". (Has it already been 4 years since MUSIC FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION was released(officially)?  It just seems like yesterday.  That's how disappointed I am in that album.)
I just realized after a casual eyeing of Genesis News Com, that the album titled THE ROAD is NOT a live album!  I finally listened to it a couple days ago.  It's got a negative-lukewarm average customer rating on Amazon.com for very good reason.  It's not a bad album, but it's far from noteworthy.  I'm not a fan of Mike & The Mechanics anyway, although they did put out some really good songs, primarily "The Living Years", "Silent Running" and "All I Need Is A Miracle".  There's probably a few others that rival or equal (maybe surpass) those, but I haven't come across them, at least not so as I remember.  I bought BEGGAR ON A BEACH OF GOLD during my ravenous e-bay days...I didn't like it enough to finish listening to it.  Albums are not something to cherry pick from, IMO.  If the 'skip' button is required, it shouldn't be sold as an album.  An EP or a 1-2 track standalone release is fine.  I don't know why the music industry, especially in the mid-late '90's when so many one hit wonders were abound, made it a hard and fast rule that the music consumer had to pay $10-$15 for ***ONE SONG*** or stick with the radio.  Thank GOD! for the internet, which has brought the prices of music down and made obtaining music you ***WANT*** to hear not as much of a chore.  I don't condone the original incarnation of Napster (which is now what Rhapsody calls themselves, Rhapsody being - for those in the dark there - a non-ad-supported version of Spotify...it requiring a monthly fee of $10+ a month was, from what I can tell, the reason it never gained the ubiquity of Spotify), but the result of their anarchistic behavior is something to relish in, at least in my case, being somewhat "poor" -- I put quotation marks on that b/c $875 a month apprx w/ food stamps factored in is not a terrible income, although it can feel like it in this age of consumerism and I realize people with more money have more value to the overall economy...people in my income bracket are basically bottomfeeders...I haven't done the math and I don't know what most minimum wage employees are taxed, but back when I was 14 or so, my mom did a math sketch and figured I'd be taking home roughly $850 a month, if I recall correctly...minimum wage went up, I think, at least in Missouri, since then...I don't know if ever went up nationwide since 1998, but either way, working minimum wage, in my cursory guestimate, cannot eqate more than $1000 a month, unless maybe you have a spouse and 2 or 3 kids...which lowers your taxes, understandably so, since traditionally someone in a marriage, usually the woman, can stay at home with the kids while the other person takes home the butter and has an extra $100/-+ takehome pay divided by 12 months...which I guess is practically nothing...I can't imagine being single and/or childless would make a person required to pay more than $100 annually in taxes unless their NOT making minimum wage...of course, people who get $0.25/hr beyond minimum wage deny they are working minimum wage...which is a joke, IMO...working for peanuts is still working for peanuts even if the peanuts in question have a 1/20" larger length...
Anyway....
Went to the doctor today.  I did not get any kind of diagnosis or even a guess of one.  I was told to take Mucinex, but my mom was too tired to buy any...or something...I don't have any money left to my name...my mom handles the household expenses because my sister lives a tad too far away to do it for her/us (we're both a little too fast and loose with our money) and for some b.s. reason I don't understand I'm less "responsible" than my mom...a notion that cannot be tested, as I've never been given any responsibility.  I opted out of driving b/c I realize I'm too easily distracted to drive.  Financially I did make some mistakes when I was younger, but what young person doesn't?  My sister bought a house when she was 24 and took a $15,000 hit on it, but that's OK while my credit card debt is NOT Ok... and I admit, I do have more credit card debt than I would like to have...and I have a whole host of debts that I gave up on paying a looong time ago after I wrongly aligned the timing of my purchases and my payments, which snowballed  into minimum payments of $100/mo rather than $30 a month, which kept adding up despite my attempts to get onto some kind of repayment plans...the only credit card company that *eventually* understood what I was trying to get across and connected me to the appropriate department was CHASE.  Capital One was of no help whatsoever, even though in their lawsuit -- they were the only ones who took me to court -- they cited as evidence against me some lie they included in my monthly statement indicating they can work with me if I'm having trouble making the minimum payment...all that debt equates somewhere in the $5K range apprx, which when compared with my income is out of this world...you know what's even more out of this world?  I didn't order sushi or rent a limo or hire a bodyguard and I ***STILL*** managed to spend all of that.  And I don't know WHAT I spent it on.  All I remember is taking my mom out to eat somewhere for mother's day and buying a DVD recorder, both of those things equated less than $200...Eek!

permalink...

...b/c I might get kicked off Amazon if I just copy/paste the texts...

https://www.amazon.com/review/R1MFA08EA5ZLWX/ref=cm_cr_rev_detmd_pl?ie=UTF8&asin=0310330912&cdForum=Fx310ZRDCHXUWIK&cdMsgID=Mx3L60FS3IREQ02&cdMsgNo=1&cdPage=1&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx4T8FNHG8Y7MR&store=books#Mx3L60FS3IREQ02


It's nice to see humanity in smart-mode.

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL: REDISCOVERING WHAT MADE THIS NATION GREAT is a title brimming with false hope.  This nation is not the be all end all of God's creation.  The be all end all of God's creation are His citizens.  "Heaven and earth will pass away", which means we'll still have to relocate when we (Christians) get into Heaven.  But God values us as individuals, not residents of Tea Time or Coffee Date or Gingerbread Marketsquare...location means nothing and the understanding of God's word means very little, although it is fun to try to understand it and it is personally rewarding for the time between now and when I see the Father and can dwell with Him intimately and experience His splendor in ways I cannot even imagine.

a new day has come...(that day is today)

Spent most of the service leaking like a faucet in dire need of repair.  I don't know why.  I guess I sorta do, but it's difficult to put into words...idk...I feel much better.  I prayed a not so reverent prayer to God around 6:30AM and felt more at peace reading His word, even though I still didn't understand much if any of it, at least as far as the Old Testament goes.  I am kind of curious as to the New Testament when Jesus said that heaven and earth will pass away but my words will endure forever.  I mean, words don't endure.  Words have contexts, and the context of Jesus' words were in the context of a temporarily earth-bound human's life.  Confusing.  It's that kind of thinking that gets me into trouble.  And it's why I'm not comfortable explaining why I feel better.  Maybe later.  idk.  But anyway...
Lend-A-Hand outreach/ministry is starting up soon again, I guess.  I think winter in Atlanta is due to end by early-mid next month and with all this climate discombobulation, it may even come sooner.  We have had a lot of spring-like days, but they've been spotted in scatters.  Weather's like a yo-yo.  It's toying with us!

I'll probably more consistently feel better about my earthly status as a Christian when I'm able to help out with that once every month for roughly half the year.  We wrapped it up in Sept of last year, after not doing it in August because of scheduling conflicts.  I really don't know why we didn't do it the following week or the week after that in August...unless I'm mis-stating that...it might have been scheduled for July and ended in August...I don't know for sure which month we concluded for the year on.

g'buy