also to have access to more current shows. I have to say after a week of use I have decided to drop the Dish Network and go all internet. Even my teenage daughter is happy with it. Cost wise it is great, the Roku boxes I bought cost me $60.00 and $80.00 each, the subscriptions to Netflix and Hulu cost me about $20.00 a month, so a big savings over the $76.00 a month I was paying for the Dish Network service. Though Dish network is getting me one last time before they let me go, they are charging me $15.00 shipping for each set box I am returning to them, so it will cost me $30.00 to get them out of my hair, but after that I am free of them.

I do have to say that going internet all the way might not work for some people, if you have to keep right up to date on any shows it probably isnt a way to go, but if you usually watch a few days behind original airing, then it might work out for you.

Image via CrunchBase

Image via Wikipedia

I will be trying to catch up some more posts here over the next few days, as long as things stay like they are…

I have a video of my daughters cheer team, some pictures of our new family member and some other things to post on.

I really did not want to install VS 2005 & VS 2008 on this, the main reason I need VS2005 is because I use MSSQL Reporting Services and use VS2005 to design reports for it, as VS2008 seems to have a problem with that. tHen I remembered that the SQL install had an option for a install of the Reporting Services Dev as a stand alone. So I installed it, and then downloaded the service packs, and updates, then installed VS 2008 and updated it. So far looks good, but will find out for sure when I get to work tomorrow.

All I have to do now is get Dreamweaver, Flash and Photoshop installed, then Flex, and the MotoDev IDE for Android, Mapforce, Oxygen XML editor, and MS Office and I will be back up and running on my Dev laptop . I will have the Adobe products installed tonightand will take care of the rest tomorrow.

Well I am going to take the plunge and hope this brings some power back to
my dev laptop. From what I have seen using a test laptop it should. I will
give updates as I go.

I did some checking and I should be able to get most of the cost covered by grants. I am planning on applying for the Spring semester. There is a lot I have to do, apply for financial aid, apply to ASU, get my transcripts set to ASU. My goal is to graduate by the time kiddo does in 2012.

Of course things will not be easy. I tried to get my FAFSA application in today, but ran into trouble because I need a federal PIN # for an electronic signature, and when I tried to get one, the system said I had one already, so I checked, and yea, I did, but it was made inactive because it was from back in 2002 when I had applied last. So I am dealing with trying to get that fixed so I can get my application in, but I figure it is going to be like this the whole way.

But here is a pic of the new casa…

There is still a lot of work to do, but at least I am working on something that is mine.

In November I was informed that the condo that my daughter and I live in was being put on the market in January, and we would be on a month to month till it sold or we moved out. At one time I had concidered buying the condo, but the price they were asking was way out of line with the market. So I started looking around, and the more I looked, the more interesting it bacame. I went and got prequalified for a home loan and found a realtor and started looking at houses.

Lets just say that house hunting in the current market is interesting. I am currently on the 3rd house I have made an offer on. The first one was a short sale and went to auction before my offer was even seen. The second was also a short sale, and the bank that held the morgage said it could take 45 days to approve the offer, and this was 2 weeks after I made it. During this time I continued to look, and a found a great 3br, 2 bath home that was bank owned and had only been on the market a couple days. I made an offer and it was accepted, so now I am going through the process, my loan is in final authorization process, the inspection has been done, so at this point I am just waiting for the bank to say yes or no on my loan. If things go right I should be in my new house the first part of March. 

Also while all this has been going on, the economy has been heading down the drain, and has finally hit us at my work. We are laying off staff, one from my IT staff, and there will be pay cuts, though no one has said how much they will be yet. I have been meeting with the CEO and the Controller quite a bit the past 7 days, and we are working on ways to make it possible for the staff to do more work with less people, and improve processes. 

So as I said a bit crazy…

I put an offer on one place, but it was a Short Sale and my offer didnt get looked at before it went to auction. Put an offer on another place yesterday, also a short sale, and they are saying it could be up to 45 days before they have a reply to my offer…. Well the offer is in, and I can still look at other places if they come on the market. As my realtor said, I need to find something that is not a short sale or a forclosure, thing is those are the best deals right now, and I figure I should get as much house as I can with the market as it is…

So heres to next year!

edit: had to edit the original post, was done from my G1 and did not come out right… need to check on that..

If you are a blogger, podcaster, into social media, or interactive media then Podcamp AZ 2008 is the place to be Nov 1&2. There is a long list of speakers, with some great topics.

I will be streaming live and also posting to Seesmic through out the event. When I know for sure which service I am going to use for live streaming I will add a link to the blog.