Now till Retirement

Cigar Name: Cigar Review: JR Edicion Limitada Alternative - Montecristo C
Purchase Price: $1.55(shipped)
Location of Purchase: JRCigars.
Beverage: Diet Coke.
Cigar Size: 5.62×46 .
Wrapper: Ecuador Sumatran.
Binder: Nicaraguan.
Filler: Nicaraguan.
Appearance: Chocolate brown, very smooth, very oily.
Construction: Very firm, slightest traces of veins.
Aged: Six months in well kept humidor.
Pre-Light Aroma: Dark tobaccos and woodsy.
Method of lighting: Pre cut method(10 inch match, flame tip just under cigar foot while rotating cigar, cut cigar after cigar is lit).
Method of Cutting: Large ring punch.
Burn: Pretty even all the way down past the band.
Problems: Ash fell off in lap even though it looked firm.
Ash Color: White ash with bits of gray.
Ash Structure: Looked perfect then fell off at half an inch in lap.
Draw: Easy draw, clouds come easily.
Strength: Medium full.
Tasting Notes:

First Third: Bold taste of nuts with hint of sweetness.

Second Third: The sweetness has taken over as the primary flavor with hints of cream, and just a tiny hint of nuts and wood.

Finish: Super sweet and cream, with some spiciness past the band..

Overall Impression: This is a great cigar. For the price they can not be beat period. Premium tobaccos, quality construction, premium flavors… all under the JR name. This cigar is delicious and even though ti is a strong cigar, I don’t think a newcomer would be in over their head with this one…. as logn as they smoke it slowly. Over an hour of smoke and I didn’t want it to end.

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This is awesome. These four guys filmed an entire D-Day landing scene, by themselves. Not a single other person. They recorded every part separately and merged it in with computers and other scenes taken from other locations they had filmed. These guys are very talented and their video deserves a look.

Step 1: Pour Rockstar energy drink into large mug.

Step 2: drop shot of Jaeger in mug!

Brave Bull:

• Rocks glass
• 1.5 oz tequila
• 0.5 oz Kahlua

Q: What is the drink that Tom Cruise’s character prepares at the beginning of Cocktail?

A: Rum, Coke with a lime wedge

Do you track your income and expenses? Do you set aside money for specific goals or purposes? Do you even manage your finances? If you are like the old me, the answer is nope. This is bad, very bad. The first step before any other in taking control of your financial life is to track and budget your incoming and outgoing money. You cannot get a grasp or make any significant changes, if you don’t have a firm idea of how things are working.

You must be able to accurately track your income and expenditures so that you may allocate accordingly with you financial goals in mind. A plan must be made what to allocate money for(bills, savings, emergency fund, discretionary fund, investments, etc.) with the income that comes in… What do you have to spend out of necessity? What are your goals, long and short term? Without a plan you may as well not bother budgeting, or even sticking your money in the bank… because the option of sticking it in the mattress makes just as much sense. I cannot make your plan for you, as it revolves around your needs and wants, but I will say make sure you allow for some fun in your budget. If you fail to give yourself some discretionary funds to be wasted if you so choose, odds are you will be very unhappy with trying to live with a budget

What can we do to track whats coming in and going out? There are many options out there which range from good to bad, but anything is better then nothing. I personally suggest some variant of Quicken to help you keep track of your finances, but a spreadsheet in OpenOffice (free open source word suite), or even a notepad would do…. so long as you are actually keeping track. Once you have decided how you are to track the income and the expenditures, its time to actually go collect that information and input it. Make sure to include information on your assets and debt as well(may as well track everything while making the effort). When all is said and done and you have entered all the data necessary (Hopefully your income exceeds your expenses), you can move on to actually making your budget plan and sticking to it via some automation.

A lot of times a plan for a budget will fail, besides over ambitious spending cuts, because there is easy access to your money to spend at will. We are going to set up some hurdles to that with the use of online banking and multiple accounts. The money will still be readily accessible but when it is not in one pool it is easier for most people to leave it alone and a feeling of guilt can be associated with taking something away from its expressed purpose. We want to use a banking service that has high interest rates, no fees, and easy access…. I suggest using ING DIRECT to open multiple savings accounts(One to receive your income and the rest to allocate to your various needs and goals: bills, savings, retirement, emergency fund). We also need to open two Electric Orange Checking Accounts(one for your “allowance” a.k.a. your discretionary fund and another for all outgoing monies from the various funds). The reason we want to do everything at ING DIRECT besides the consistent great rates is immediate transfer of funds between accounts.

Once you have all your accounts up and running the basic idea is to deposit your income into your main account automatically and to have all of the other savings accounts use the automated savings plan feature to withdraw the amounts you came up with for each need and goal every month when planning the budget. The other account that should be set up to withdraw automatically from the primary account is your allowance checking account(this is the debit card you will carry with you for random purchases that are not planned… that are hopefully within what you budgeted for yourself).With all the funds separated into their respective goals and needs, we now transfer the money from those accounts to the other checking account when a bill comes due, you have reached a goal, or you need to move the money to an investment account. These are the accounts we pretend do not exist on a day to day basis so we can keep on track. Do not even think of taking money from these accounts except for their purposes, until the end of the month if there is an overage. That overage should immediately be applied to savings or retirement and just not even be considered as still existing to be used in any other fashion.Hopefully with this system, you can implement whatever your budget may be and stick to it easily.

“If I go crazy, then will you still call me superman?”

I learned this drink today at bartending school and was impressed by the sheer radiance of it.  Apparently in low lit environments, it appears to glow.

Recipe for two shots:

Use shaker tin- fill with ice- use strainer.

• 1 oz Midori
• 1 oz Rum
• 1 oz Lime juice
• POUR!

No particular reason.

Martini or Rocks glass

• 1.5 oz brandy
• 0.5 oz creme de menthe or peppermint schnapps.

I am a Porsche guy, I always have been and always will be. I can see the merit of other cars and even desire them, but when the choice comes down to it I choose the Porsche. Its been that way in the past(as is shown by the 944s and 98s I have accumulated) and will most likely be that way in the future. I buy within my means though and my true desires automotively must be put on hold.

The Porsche 997 GT3 RS is the current reason in life why I strive to continually better my financial situation. It is not as powerful or as fast at the Porsche 997 GT2 Turbo, but that doesn’t matter to me. I am in love with the high revving naturally aspirated engine in the GT3. The bare minimum of weight on the car, makes the power to weight ratio very similar to the turbo. This achieved by such measures as carbon fiber bits, titanium bits, plastic windows, a sticker for a hood crest… and the lack of safety features such as stability control.

This is a drivers car. You are in control to either drive it to its limit, or go past the limit and begin to have a very bad day. This is the kind of car that appeals to me. This is the kind of car I will own without a second thought of the expense within ten years if I keep on my current track. In the meantime I get to drool like everyone else who wishes they had it, reminding myself why I shovel every penny away into investments, rather then fast food.

The Bamboozle Left

This year it’s going to be April 5th and 6th in Irvine, California, and I can hardly wait.

I’m hoping I’ll have a job before then, so I can indulge a little more than I usually would without one. Two of my favorite bands are playing! Reel Big Fish and New Found Glory (Unfortunately I don’t see this as an event Jimmy Eat World would play.).

Reel Big Fish put out a really interesting record last year: Monkeys for Nothin’ and the Chimps for Free

• I have to say that it was a return to a ‘more familiar sound after “We’re Not Happy ‘Til You’re Not Happy,” which sounded like it featured far less of the horn section, and was somewhat more depressing/subversive in the lyrics (’Don’t Start a Band’ was the big single, along side a cover of ‘Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution’)
• I really like the change of styles in ‘Party Down’, it’s really like nothing out there except for their live versions of ‘Suburban Rhythm’
• I also like the silly lyrics in Party Down. A lot. “All the Dingos say, eat your baby mate!”

I also want to check out The Color Fred, Paramore, Anti-Flag and The Bouncing Souls.

I’m hoping when more bands are added that they include either The Matches, BoysNightOut or Brandston. I’d really like to see all three in concert soon, but especially the Matches since they are hard at work on a new album; A band in Hope. It’d also be cool if they extended an invitation to the Dollyrots or theSTART to play. I think the singer from theSTART is beyond amazing both vocally and lyrically, and I’m happy they are coming to play Beauty Bar on January 19th (Thanks Pulsar Productions! You put on awesome shows, dude.)

I have a love/hate relationship with big brown.  See, they bring me things I want.  I like that.  What I don’t like, is that they don’t let me know about it.

What good is tracking if none of the drivers on their way across the country ever scan the package in to say it’s progressed any on it’s trip from musician’s friend warehouse to my house?

Also, how am I to know there is a package outside if they never knock on the door? (We do not have a doorbell.)

I would think for an item over a certain value, such as a decorative acoustic guitar, mic, mic stand and tons of cables, would require signature confirmation.

At least none of my packages have ended up at the wrong address.

I probably just damned myself.

Because some asshole decided to act like one and fuck with my brother’s site. Seriously, shouldn’t people have better things to do with their lives? It’s ridiculous, but I believe that karma will bite them in the ass. Like an AIDS taco (sorry to the people of Durango, Mexico.)

As for a potent rusty nail:

• Rocks glass

Scotch

Drambuie