New Laptop

Just bought myself a refurbished IBM laptop for $328.21 directly from IBM.
Here are the specs:
IBM Thinkpad R31
Pentium III, 1.0Ghz
256 MB RAM
30 Gig HD
CD-Rom
Int Modem
Ethernet
Windows XP Pro
14" display

This model is quite old, but it will be fast enought to suit my needs.

I saved about 10% by using a discount purchasing program. Without the discount, the laptop would have costed $366.11. Usually the discount is around 20%, but the laptop was already discounted by 10%.

Credit Report

I just checked my credit report today and all seemed to be in order. I try to check my credit report every 4 months to see if there are any unexplained activities. With the high frequency of identity thefts these days, people must be vigilant in preventing fraud.

Each person is allowed one free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus every 12 months. I check my credit report at 4 month intervals, each time checking a different credit bureau. This allows me to continually check my credit report throughout the year. To get your free credit report, go to www.ftc.gov. On the left hand side, there is a link to "Free annual credit reports". I would suggest always going to www.ftc.gov instead of searching through google or clicking on any other link you find. If the link isn't on the www.ftc.gov, there's no guarantee that it won't lead to a fraudulent website.

Bocktoberfest

A few friends and I went yesterday to Bocktoberfest. It is a small festival in Shiner, Texas with a handful of bands. We saw Audioslave, Good Charlotte, Seether, and Clint Black. Audioslave (which was formed by members of Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine) played several Soundgarden songs, which was really cool. I'm more familiar with Soundgarden than I am with Audioslave. Overall the day was much more relaxed than ACL fest. At Bocktoberfest, I just sat back, relaxed, and drank a few beers. At ACL fest, I was constantly on the move from stage to stage to see the different bands.

Year of the Natural Disaster

This must be the year of natural disasters.
Here are a list of some of the major disasters within the past year:
Dec 2004: Tsunami:250K+ dead
Aug 2005: Katrina:Costliest Natural Disaster in US history
Sep 2005: Rita:$8-11 Billion in Damages
Oct 2005: Stan:Possibly 2k+ dead
Oct 2005: Kashmir Earthquake:20K+ dead

The next major (and possibly worst) calamity could be the avian bird flu, but lets hope that doesn't occur. The last major pandemic was the Spanish Bird Flu of 1918 which killed millions of people.

Sherry and Cecil looking happy!

Once I get my other pictures up, I'll post a link