The Lifelong Learner
:: Do what you can, with what you have, where you are -Roosevelt ::
The Lifelong Learner
:: Do what you can, with what you have, where you are -Roosevelt ::
I am tired of pre-approved credit card offers. I have several credit cards and I don’t want any more. I want to opt out from the list where these credit agencies get my name from. OK, Stas, go to this website and opt out: OptOutPreScreen.com. That’s what I did yesterday. We’ll see what happens. 
I am also tired of unwanted letters in the mail. I only want to open letters that are of interest to me. I have to say that after signing up for this service, Mail Preference Service (MPS), I receive a lot less junk (just like you get less calls after signing up for do-not-call list). I’m seeing that my wife is getting a lot more junk mail now — I signed her up last week. You have to mail a letter to them.
So that’s how I keep myself from opening unwanted letters.
A look at some major events in 2004 — a slide show on IHT.com.
Did you know that the number of foreign students taking the GRE test plunged 50% after 9/11? Did you know that China wants to create 100 top-notch universities? Well, now you know. I learned about that by reading this article on IHT, U.S. slips in luring worldç—´ brightest, and in couple other places. One thing is for sure: U.S. schools will have increased competition to bring in the best foreign students. Interesting article.
Firefox brought back the browser wars! It’s not only IE now. It’s Firefox vs IE. We’ll see what happens, but Firefox will be my main browser in the near future. I love it. It looks like Firefox is really getting popular. They recently had a 2-page ad in NY Times. Today, there is a great article about Firefox in the paper (you might have to create an account, but it’s free). It’s very well written. I recommend reading it.
Where is AT&T Wireless? Where is Sprint? Where is Nextel? Well, enter the age of consolidation in the wireless industry. Recently, two big mergers took place. Cingular acquired AT&T Wireless, and Spring and Nextel merged, forming Spring Nextel. Is it a good thing. I don’t really know. But I think it will be, as the acquisitions give the combined companies more muscle. More strength to compete. More money to improve their networks. That what I hope for. But what we are left with, is three big companies (oligarchy ???), and a small one, bound to be acquired by somebody. The risk here is that they might all raise prices. Hopefully that will not happen too soon.
Here is the breakdown of the current status.
We woke up very early on Thursday morning. It was 5 o’clock in the morning. This time, I wanted to be at the airport on time. I had my clothes packed, papers checked. We were ready to go. We left at 5:40AM. At around 6, we arrived at the airport. On time. I said to myself, it’s good to be on time and not to rush. We had some time left before our 7 o’clock departure. Since we did not eat breakfast at home, we went for coffee and a croissant at the airport. We still had time. So I thought, let’s walk around the airport, since they have so many new stores. Really, Newark airport has a lot of new stores now. It was 6:45, when I thought we should go to the gate and the boarding area. Not so quick. The screening takes a considerable amount of time now. You have to take off your shoes, belt, etc. It took almost ten minutes to go though all of that. Finally, we arrive at the boarding area. It was 6:55. Everything is all-right, I thought. However, there was something weird. I see a sign for Phoenix, AZ, our layover, and it says 7AM and “on time.” I thought to myself, how come there is no people in the area. There was no plane at the gate. Weird, I thought. Well, maybe the flight is delayed. I should get something to eat, a snack or something, I thought. So I went to get it from a nearby newsstand. When I got back, it was 6:59. I hear, “Kubasek, Kubasek.” So my wife went to the lady and she said “you missed the flight.” We missed the flight. That’s great. The plane left 5 minutes ahead of time.
We were lucky. We took an alternate flight, via Las Vegas, and got to San Diego half and hour before our original flight. Hey, we got to see Las Vegas. The desert city with all of the casinos and hotels looked good from the distance. Very good. I was very happy to see Las Vegas. There were slot machines inside the airport. I tried. No luck.
We left the San Diego airport at around 2PM. As soon as we stepped out of the building, we thought we are in another world. Close to 80 degrees. Sunny. Palm trees all over the place. Just beautiful. San Diego is really nice. Where else do you get a mild whether all year? It would be nice to move here.
Mexico. We crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Right away, something strikes you. I knew Mexico was poor. A lot of people know that. We were driving through Tijuana to Baja. I got to see Mexican people, their houses, driveways, streets. I’ve seen some poor areas in Poland, but Mexico is different. Mexicans are messy. There is garbage all over the place. So the first impression was not good.
However, as we moved closer to Baja, things improved a lot. Nice houses. Beautiful views of the Pacific ocean. Different life. Why? It turns out a lot of Americans live here. Or at least they have their vacation houses here.
So how was Mexico? Mexicans might be a little messy, but they are very friendly people. I didn’t know that. Food is great as well. Lobsters, fish tacos, tortilla chips with salsa. Everything in Mexico testes better than in U.S. (I wasn’t a big fan of Mexican food in NJ.) The views from the house we stayed in were amazing. The house is right on the ocean. We stayed at a 5-star hotel, basically. And it was for free, since our friend invited us to the house. Can’t beat that.
Going Back. We wake up fairly early on Monday. It’s time to go back. We go through the border without any problems. It took us twenty minutes to drive pass it. As soon as we get to the airport and get our boarding pass, I check the boarding time. I don’t want to make the same mistake. We had a layover in Phoenix. We have over an hour of time to kill. What is there to do? We go to get some food. We kill some time. It’s 3:15 and our boarding time is at 3:30. We should go there, I thought. As I look at the monitor to get the flight information I get nervous. I don’t see our flight to Newark, I only see a 7PM flight. I go to the counter, it turns out it’s 4:15. We forgot to adjust our clocks. We missed another flight! This time my wife got a little upset. However, I think this was as much my fault as it was her. We got home around 2AM. What a trip.
Do you want to be successful? That’s easy, , follow these 5 easy steps. Deborah Brown-Volkman, in her article at net-temps.com, Career Success Is Within Your Reach, provides more detail.
I’ve read quite a few articles and books on success and the list below summarizes most of them. At least the good ones.
Believe, Plan, and Commit.
Do you ever plan to buy a house? Finance a car? If so, you better have a good credit or you might not get a good deal. It seems like credit reports are getting more important. I even heard that some car-insurance companies will be accepting customers based on a credit report. The list goes on and on. Simply put, you need to have a good credit report and you need to verify that fairly often — once every year or so. That costs money, no? Sure it does, but things are changing.
There is a new law in place now. You can get a free report from each of the major companies (Equifax Inc., Experian and TransUnion) for free. Every year! That’s some good news. You might just have to wait a little longer, though. See the breakdown of states and the eligibility, below. It looks like NJ will be eligible for free reports starting on Sept 1, 2005.
How do you get it? Visit AnnualCreditReport.com and get it from there.
My strategy? I check a different report every 4 months. I setup a calendar reminder so I know when to do it.
