January 24, 2011

• News and Notes for January 2011

  

  JANUARY 2011: Seven years and seven months on the Xanga Service

  HEALTH: Nothing of import to report, which is a good thing. I’m still quite positive that I’m healthier than I have been for most of my life. I feel good. I am not in physical pain. It’s interesting to note that sometimes I do attempt to grab my crutches or cane when I get out of the car, and I’ll stand up and start walking and think I’m “forgetting something.” After the first hip replacement, in 1993, I still limped out of habit. I never walked “straight” and now I do, and I can outwalk people half my age. I would like to run, but it is not advisable for people with hip replacements to run. It can knock the prosthesis out of whack, and we don’t want that happening (again) (although the screws just broke in 2005 on their own.)

  WEALTH: I was almost shocked when I powered up my 2010 TurboTax program about a week ago. (First of all I must express my disdain that TurboTax makes you pay retail every year. I got it at Best Buy for $49.99 on sale, but you’d think that since I have the 2009 version installed on my home computer, I could just “upgrade” for a lesser price like all other software programs!) Last year I posted “Tax Deduction for Dummies” where I crowed over the good luck to have received a $4329.00 tax refund, owing to the first time home buyer’s credit because I bought my mobile home the year previous. Most of the refund was the credit, plus a $400.00 Making Work Pay credit. I itemized for the first time in my tax life, and I would have received only $29.00 back if not for the credits. I used to get a $600.00 refund from the Federal government and have to pay around $60.00 to the State of California. This past year, I received State Unemployment for the “furlough days” and didn’t have any money withheld from almost $2000.00 during the year. Tax cuts from the previous year put more money in my pocket each week, and for about four months I increased my dependent amount so I could get more money in my pocket each week. This past year, I only had to use overdraft a couple of times to be able to pay bills, but now, at tax time, I’m seeing that I didn’t really manage my finances that well. I didn’t have enough funds withheld, and now I owe $851.00 to Uncle Sam. (Only $30.00 to the state) I can’t claim any of the medical expenses I’ve paid during the year, but I figured I wouldn’t be able to. With my income, I have to pay at least $3,000.00 before I can start claiming that expense. I haven’t figured in the deduction for state tax and/or sales tax, but I have to come up with over $1,000.00 more before I go over the standard deduction. I put $300.00 away to start saving for April 18th. (We’ve got a couple of extra days this year to file that return!)

  Speaking of those medical bills, both hospital bills for the hip surgery and the cataract surgery should disappear within three months. (And then I’ll need money for taxes!) I owe less than $500.00 total.

  SOCIAL LIFE: On Friday, my neighbor came over. On Saturday evening, I visited my friend Jim, who lives with his mother and older sister just up the block from my home. Later another three friends dropped by my place, and we socialized into the wee hours of the night. Sunday I got some much needed rest from seeing all these people! Now, if only I can meet some gals who don’t smoke cigarettes! I don’t know why so many in this park smoke! I make them go outside on the porch if they want to light up! I keep meaning to call my best friend Jim, whom I haven’t visited in half a year or more, and catch up with him. My ex girlfriend Liz is supposed to come by within the next month or so for an outing to the Queen Mary with me and her boyfriend.

  THE BLOG AND XANGA: I put up my “plugz” this week. “He’s Bald! He’s Mike! He’s Back!” In September, my first plug was up for a week for a total of 845,374, hits and 206 clicks for a 0.02 % clickthrough rate. After the first five days, I’ve got a total of 1,175,284 hits, and 208 clicks for the 0.02 % clickthrough rate.I’ve been getting around and catching up with my readers, and I’ve been posting pretty regularly. I’ve got nine friend requests right now, and people keep subscribing, but the new folks sometimes don’t have blogs prepared, and some don’t even leave comments. Among my 496 “friends”, a lot of those who are active are usernames I don’t even know. They don’t visit my blog,  (and a lot of them didn’t visit even before I went on my last hiatus.) I feel conflicted about accepting new “friends” when I can’t figure out anything about them.  I certainly don’t want to have any spammers as friends. Among my current friend requests is a username from a blogger I remember deleting as a friend because he constantly “tagged” me and of course never visited my blog. I always find it suspect to see a super long sub list on a blog that doesn’t really exist. But this was REALLY curious. I’ve seen nonexistent blogs with lots of subscriptions. Here is the sub list on the blog of one potential “friend” (who was selling a search engine on her site, and had no comments.

  featuredquestions
  baldmike2004
  TheXangaTeam
  featuredweblogs

  I’m included along with the three sites which are autosubbed when one joins Xanga. I guess I should feel special.

  I have not accepted the friend request. The reason I don’t want a “friend” if they don’t visit is because I don’t want to see their content showing up in my Ubox. If you’re reading this, and are one of my potential “friends” who have not left a comment, please let me know you’re a real person, by message or comment. Another weird thing which has been happening since I “got back” are messages which don’t make any sense. Addressed to me but not to a group of subscribers or friends. One said “Thanks for my kind response concerning Regis Philbin’s retirement.” So here’s a blogger who gives himself thanks for writing an entry, and sends it to me!  Another strange message was in my inbox this morning. Again, addressed only to me. It read: “This one left me for dead when I needed her most.”

  WORK: It’s busy. We made a profit last year. I got my yearly “paycheck bonus” at Christmas time. (A good chunk of it will be used to help pay taxes.) And there are three or four great opportunities for projects in the coming months.

  And that’s it for now. Except for one last thing. I went out to San Clemente on Saturday and took 246 photos which are in my Webshots Gallery folder titled: San Clemente Pier and Environs. Click that link if you can’t wait. If you can, I’ll have the 20 or so best shots here on the blog within a couple of days. I was complaining about cold nights a week or so ago. I swear, at the beach on Saturday, it was summer weather out here in the Southland.

  MFN/ppf
   

  • 6:26 pm
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