Category Archives: Life

Free Birthday Crap

Posted on by Dave
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With the Big Four-Three just a week way, my Yahoo! inbox is slowly but surely being inundated with the usual fare of free birthday offers and other crap.

This year, however, I’ve noticed that some companies are being a lot less generous with their offerings.

Take Best Buy’s RewardZone of which I’m a member. It’s that program that rewards you with points whenever you make a purchase either online or in-store. Their birthday gift to me was an amazing quadruple Points on my next purchase. How freaking big of the company that charges ridiculous amounts for their accessories because they make the highest profit margin off of them (hint: do NOT buy accessories from them).

And if you’re curious, you get 1 Point for every $1 you spend and it takes 250 Points to earn $5. That said, I would have to buy something priced at least $63 to earn that cool $5 certificate with my quadruple Points bonus. Sure, it’s not like I’m spending the whole $250 to earn the same amount but I seem to recall that members used to get a $10 certificate for their birthday. This time, I’m spending money to get money.

Screw you, Best Buy.

Then there’s my Sport Chalet’s Action Pass membership which, once upon a time, would score me (if my mind isn’t failing me in my old[er] age) a $10 certificate for my birthday. What did I get this year?

sportchalet

A discount of $15 off a purchase of $75 or more. So again, I’m spending over $60 to earn the benefit. This would have all been fine and well if I were still making a decent paycheck but I haven’t had one of those since I was…on unemployment. But honestly, this one may get used because I frequent that store much more than Best Buy and with Anthony’s birthday around the corner, it could come in handy should we decide to go 50/50 on a bike with Ann’s folks.

There was some actual free birthday stuff in my inbox lately, courtesy of Del Taco:

deltacoshake

Looks pretty good, no? Yeah. I think it does, but the Haunted Mansion font should only be used for 999 Happy Haunts living in ghostly retreats. The thing is that me and shakes don’t play well anymore. Something about the over 500 empty calories and my lactose intolerance that makes me shy away from them and believe me, you don’t want to be around if I do have one. While I appreciate the offer I’m pretty sure I’ll pass on it. At least it’s not that repulsive bacon shake that Jack in the Box is serving up:

gross beyond words

Maybe it’s because I’m no longer a behemoth of a guy anymore, but I don’t quite get this fascination with bacon. I can safely say that fat people must love stuff like this.

Then there was this offer from Ruby’s, an overpriced kitschy place that I haven’t gone to in at least 2 years:

rubys

For reasons already listed under the Del Taco offer, this one probably won’t get used, either. And personally, I prefer Johnny Rockets.

Then today, I got one that I might just have to take advantage of: IHOP’s Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘N Fruity plate.

ihop

Pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon not blended inside a shake. I’m pretty sure this one’s a winner, even if I don’t eat the sausage (which I’m sure others at the table will have no problem taking).

So those are all of the free and mostly useless birthday craps that retailers and fine dining establishments have sent to me so far. I just hope that the 12-headed jackass doesn’t sing Happy Birthday to me as they bring me my plate.

Facebook Break

Posted on by Dave
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As I occasionally do, I am taking yet another break from the unprivate world of Facebook for personal reasons. It’s not that I’ve got some kind of incurable disease that has rendered my body useless. Hell, I rode over 12 miles on Sunday and played some over-the-line on Saturday so I’d say I’m in decent condition for a guy who will be 43 in about a week.

No, I need to take a break for several reasons with time consumption being the most prevalent. I mean really, I spend way to much damned time at that place either posting goofy stories or pretending to be the funny guy that everyone loves.

It’s just not true and I don’t wish to seek that kind of validation for a while, which means that I will be back – I’m not closing my account. I take care of a friend’s restaurant page and need to still be in the loop.

Yes, I did try this in the past and I don’t think it lasted very long. In fact, my goal was to write blog posts based on what I was going to post as my status but that never happened. This time, however, I will try a little harder.

Additionally, my uncle sent me a personal message about his third book now being in his publisher’s hands. When I mentioned that I needed to follow his lead, his words were to “follow no one; follow what you are led to.”

It was pretty heavy. There have only been a few times in my life when someone’s words really kicked me in the ass and forced me to do better for myself. This was definitely one of them. The other time was when I was working a (yet another) crappy job and learned that I might possibly be moved to the overnight shift. I was not happy about this as I was attending college at the time and the change in shift would have made it difficult if not impossible to attend.

I spoke with one of my art professors about the possibility of quitting the job. His words:

“If you don’t do it now, you never will.”

I walked into my job the next day and quit on the spot and without notice, much to everyone’s shock. My art professor was proud and I was able to continue attending night classes – and found a job without much difficulty.

This all comes back to how my time is spent, and how much less of it I need to spend there. While it’s great keeping up with everybody, there’s only so many times I can view reposts of George Takei’s photos (as many of my friends are also subscribed to Mr. Sulu). It’s funny, it’s cute, it’s more than I need to deal with at this point.

So with that, my Facebook days have been cut to a minimum for an indefinite period of time.

I’m currently nestled deep in the corner of the den listening to various white noise apps drown out whatever noise is in the background. The fan is on and I’m wearing my robe (I know, it’s weird but it’s part of my comfort zone).

It’s time to work on what I’m being led to. And I’m looking forward to it.