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A Big Book Donation to End the Week and Start the Holiday

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Hey everyone. After I posted a series of book reviews (Made to Stick, Lords of the North, Sword Song) I thought I should celebrate by purging a little bit. So with that in mind, I spent a lot of time last night cleaning off each of my bookshelves and dividing my books into those that I’m keeping and those that could be donated.

When all was said and done, I had 32 books ready to donate to the local Monmouth County SPCA. Here is a list of the books that I drove over the SPCA today so they could be resold to someone who wants to read them and the proceeds can be used to help the animals:

• Arguing with Idiots by Glenn Beck
• Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
• Winning the Future by Newt Gingrich
• Real Change by Newt Gingrich
• Culture Warrior by Bill O’Reilly
• Who’s Looking Out For You by Bill O’Reilly
• The No Spin Zone by Bill O’Reilly
• American Soldier by General Tommy Franks
• How to Talk to a Liberal by Ann Coulter
• Slander by Ann Coulter
• Jersey Devil Press 2010
• Writing for Dollars by McAllister
• The FairTax Book by Neal Boortz & Congressman John Linder
• The Matrix and Philosophy by William Irwin
• The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy by Gregory Bassham
• Why We Want You to be Rich by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki
• The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
• I Had the Right to Remain Silent…But I Didn’t Have the Ability by Ron White
• Where the Right Went Wrong by Patrick J. Buchanan
• Old British Literature Textbook from College
• The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump
• How to Get Rich by Donald Trump
• State of Emergency by Patrick J. Buchanan
• The Appeasers by Martin Gilbert and Richard Gott
• The Good, The Bad, and the Mad by Floyd
• Paradigm Shift by Harry S. Franklin
• To Be The Man by Ric Flair
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
• Seabiscuit by Laura Hildebrand
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
• A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, and The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens

I feel kind of good about donating so many books to the SPCA. And I feel great about starting off the Fourth of July weekend right by doing something good for the less fortunate and decluttering my bookshelf in the process!

I’ve Lived “Down the Shore” Longer Than Anywhere Else – Ever

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Last month (May 2011) marked a pretty interesting milestone in my life. I’m not sure if it’s anything that would be termed as “major,” but as of the end of the first week of May 2011, I’ve lived down the Jersey Shore longer than anywhere else I’ve ever lived in my life. It’s a pretty interesting milestone, I guess, if for no other reason than it gave me a chance to reflect on where I’ve lived and for how long.

The sunrise as viewed from Long Branch's Pier Village. Absolutely beautiful.

From 1981 – 1988, I lived on the upper east side of Manhattan. That’s where my family lived when I was born and that’s where we stayed until my younger brother was born in December 1987, when my parents decided that it was time to move to our summer house in New Jersey because there was more room for my brothers and I to grow up and be kids. So from 1988 – 1999, I lived in Roxbury Township up in Morris County and I really don’t have anything bad to say about it. Although, I should preface that statement by saying that I don’t really remember a whole lot from those early years up there, but I do remember a lot about the mid and late 1990’s when I was in Junior High School and High School – and I really had a good time.

Then in the Fall of 1999, I moved down to West Long Branch to attend Monmouth University and – except for the summer in between my Freshman and Sophomore years of college – I’ve been living down the shore ever since. It’s not so bad down here and I don’t really have any major complaints other than that the hour and a half drive back to Roxbury is a bit of a pain sometimes just like my hour drive to and from work each day in Trenton is a bit annoying, too.

Would I move away from the shore? Sure. I’m not sure where, though. I’d be happy going back north to live in the Roxbury Township/Morris County area. I’d also be able to survive in the New Brunswick area once my company moves there in the fall (essentially eliminating my commute). But I do have a lot of friends down the shore and I also built up some business relationships that I’d have to release – causing me to lose money. Obviously, if I moved away from the shore I wouldn’t be as eager to be an adjunct professor at the local college down here (especially given the meager amount that adjuncts earn). So that would be a small drop in income. At the same time, I’d elect to cut off some of my remaining business relationships with my small web design firm. Also a very small loss of income.

And then I’d miss out on doing some of the things that I like to do down the shore. I’m not as big a fan of going to the beach as some of the folks who live down here, but I do like going there every once in a while. Also, I like going to the Monmouth Hawks basketball games – I don’t think that I would attend the games if I had to drive a long time to get there.

But I’m not looking to go anywhere right now. In fact, I just renewed my lease for another year. It’s nice down the shore and I’m happy. Hey, do you think I can call myself a “local” now? 🙂

Guest Article: Mitigate Student Debt Blues – A Complete Know How

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We all dream about a financially secure future after school but the raising fees of tuition, accommodation, library, commercial and research works often turns this dream into our worst nightmare and when we finally leave college we are stuck with pile of debt. College is a huge investment which sometimes compels us to borrow student loans but if you act a little cautious and plan your finances well you can evade falling into a student debt trap. As debt relief programs are not applicable in case of student loans, it is quite difficult to find ways to tackle your student debts. Read on to know a few ways to ease or eradicate debt woes in student life.

Know your debts well- It might sound a little absurd but it is true that maximum students are clueless about the exact amount of debts they owe. As a result they fail to handle their finances in an organised manner and end up incurring huge debts. Ideally, you should create a list of your debt obligations and make a clear estimate of the outstanding amounts you owe and make the repayment plans accordingly.

Make a proper Budget: Start following a strict budget and curtail your expenses. List your total monthly allowance and expenses and design a budget on its basis. Live and spend within your means and if required spread out the cost of your accommodation, study materials, cafe bills with your other class mates.

Repayment plan- If your student debts took a mammoth shape contact, your creditors and negotiate for a restructured payment plan. While convincing the creditors arm your self with all your income proofs, recent billing statements and other substantial paperwork. Ask the creditors to allow you to push back your payments in case you find difficulty to grab a job after the completion of your studies.

Preventive measures- If you like to spare the horror of facing student debts you can fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form which can help you to attain student loans with favorable terms and conditions. You can consider borrowing a Stafford loan, a form of Federal Financial Aid for undergraduate or graduate students. These are low interest loans for part time and full time students and you can borrow your full tuition fees by opting for Stafford loans. However, in case you let your debts go into default and 270 days pass without any payment, the government has the fair right to garnish your wages. Things could e worse in private loans where anytime you could be sued for the debt amount.

Critical situations- If you have no hope left to reimburse your student debts you can join AmeriCorps or Teach for America where your loan can be partially or even completely forgiven.

Remember, if you default on paying your student loans, they can turn into a great menace. Therefore, make sure you obtain a degree from an accredited college or university which offers good career placement services in future. If you have already incurred student debts, then follow the above mentioned tips and deal with your student loans in a better way.

Now We’re Fully Integrated with Twitter – Wonderful…

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For better or for worse, I fully understand that Twitter is unbelievably popular these days. So, with that in mind, I’ve decided to integrate Twitter with JerseySmarts.com. If you take a look at the upper right corner of this blog, you’ll notice my Twitter feed. Granted, most of the time the feed will probably reflect what you already see posted on JerseySmarts.com, but I figured that I needed to integrate Twitter with this blog in an effort to keep it current, “hip,” and with the times.

Plus, from time to time I do find that I go on Twitter and bitch about something. For example, this morning I was listening to some blabbermouth on the radio and he was talking about education spending in New Jersey. I tweeted (that’s right, I “tweeted” a thought): Spend as much as you want on education – without proper support and reinforcement at home it’s all a waste.

And that’s the truth!

Anyway, if you haven’t already done so you should follow JerseySmarts.com on Twitter @JVince81. Just imagine – you can check my bullshit out directly on your smartphone as well as your own Twitter feed. Wonderful!

How Many Pills Do YOU Take Each Week?

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Yesterday, I did this thing where I tweeted all day. I don’t know why – I just wanted to get that vapid, share-every-minute-of-my-life feeling that all of these stupid kids seem to have as they run around on their smart phones all day. Honestly, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but I still don’t get the fascination with Twitter. Seems overrated to me.

At some point yesterday, I tweeted all of the pills that I take each day. Here is a cropped version of that picture for you to take a look at (and be sickened by, I would guess):

This is the collection of pills that I take each week. Yummy!

Want some explanation on what all of that stuff is in those boxes? Okay – here we go!

Well, the pills at the top of the picture are the ones that I take each morning either right before or right after breakfast. Thus, the pills at the bottom of the picture are the ones that I take each evening either right before or right after dinner. Thankfully, I don’t take any pills during the day.

I take two types of pills: those that are prescribed and those that aren’t prescribed. I’ll go over the prescription pills first. Those big white pills are 1,000 MG of Metformin. That circular pinkish pill is 100MG of Januvia (which is incredibly expensive). Those really small, circular green pills are 2MG of Glimepiride (two of those each morning – not sure if you can see both pills in the top boxes). Finally, if you look at the third box on top, you’ll see a small yellow pill – that’s 81MG of Aspirin.

And those are my prescriptions. Now, for the other pills in the boxes…

The bright orange pills are 400MG of Turmeric Extract and the orange/brownish pills are Ultimate Man Daily Multivitamins from The Vitamin Shoppe – I take two of them each morning.

So there’s my daily regime. Once I get rid of this Type 2 Diabetes, I should be down to just taking the Turmeric Extract and the Daily Multivitamins.