Tuesday, April 28, 2009

April--Change a Tire/Car Maintenance

For my April resolution, I decided to ask my dad to teach me basic car maintenance like how to change a tire, jump start a car, etc. I've only had a flat tire two times in my life that I can remember, and both times there was a male with me or nearby that could help a sister out.

Since I'm planning on getting my own car soon and trying to be more knowledgeable and independent, I thought it would be best for me to know these things. There's not always going to be someone around to help me change a tire, so I should know how just in case.

So on Saturday morning, my dad helped me change a tire.

Of course, part way through my across-the-street neighbor, who's a mechanic, decided to come over to impart his knowledge on to me. I'll admit it was kind of annoying and confusing to have two guys telling me what to do as I was trying to pick up the tire to put it back on the car. (Oh, and in case you're curious, this is the same neighbor I sold my car to.)

Although I had to stand on the wrench at first to loosen the lugnuts because my arms weren't strong enough, it actually wasn't as hard or difficult as I thought it would be.

Now I'm not going to fight to change a tire if there's someone else nearby that's willing to do it. But, if I'm stranded some where with no one around, I can rest assured that I can change a tire (but if something else is wrong I'm SOL).

Saturday, April 11, 2009

March--Taxes

For my March resolution, I decided that now that I am an adult with a full-time job, I should learn how to do my taxes. My dad has always filed them for me. So, this time I would sit with my dad as he filed them so that I can know what to do so that I could do it by myself next time around. I sat down with all of my paperwork ready, excited, and nervous to get started.My dad's all about the e-file with TurboTax, so doing my taxes wasn't actually that hard. You just have to go through and answer all the questions and input all of the info. Everything was going so well until I saw this:I OWED MONEY! That can't possiblly be! I made my dad go through and redo it like 5 times and it turned out the same. Apparently, it was because my parents claimed me on their taxes. If they hadn't I would have gotten a very small refund.

I also had to file Utah state taxes because I worked there for part of the year. I owed money then too. More than federal actually. Utah taxes suck. I was so expecting a refund, but I had to pay instead. Because of this disappointment, I decided to continue my dancing and flirting from February. I didn't really do a whole lot with it though. So, I guess March was kind of a wrap up/break. Now that March is over, I'm now ready for an exciting April. April's resolution will be forthcoming.

Saturday, April 04, 2009

I Gave In...

I did it. I gave in. I finally set up a Twitter account. I even put it right here on my blog (it's on the left side). After so long of telling myself that such an endeavor was a waste of time, I succumbed.

I mean, I already have facebook with its own updates, why would I also need to keep track of updating a Twitter, too? I always thought that the phenomenon of Twitter was ridiculous. You know it would end up being one of those fads like Pogs, Beanie Babies, and Gigapets/Tomagotchis (side note: I did in fact own all of these in their respective time periods of popularity). And who's to say it won't become one?

But, it seems that after three years, Twitter is, instead of dying out, only getting stronger with more and more users everyday. I think one of the reasons Twiter is so popular is because many celebrities (and even politicians) are on it describing their many boring, mundane, and only rarely interesting experiences in less than 140 characters. President Obama, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Jimmy Fallon, Shaquille O'Neal, and Al Gore are on Twitter. There's also many companies and businesses (NPR, The Onion, CNN, Zappos.com, Jet Blue Airways) on as well. The celebrities, however, are why Twitter has become such a big deal.

Despite my resistance in joining Twitter for a while, I started rethinking my stance. Maybe it's not so bad; it could be fun. I even voiced my hesitancy in signing up on my Facebook status to see what people would say. Some said don't do it, facebook was enough, and some just added to the peer pressure and told me I should join because all the cool kids were doing it. I was still undecided on whether or not I should set up a Twitter account. What put the final nail in the coffin?

Threadless was having a contest on Twitter where you could win a gift card. If you know me at all, you know how much I love Threadless. So, as soon as I saw this chance, I created a Twitter account so I could enter. Of course I didn't win, and I don't even think I did it right. (We were supposed to "RT," which means "retweet" their link, but you're supposed to put "RT" before your post. I didn't know to do that, so I did it wrong.) But despite my failed attempt at entering a contest, I had finally signed up for Twitter. Granted my initial reasoning was unexpected, but it had already been done. I had started one, might as well keep it up and go with it.

We'll see how it goes. I'm still trying to learn how to use it and to find people to "follow" and to get "followers" (another reason I think Twitter is big; you feel famous and like royalty because you have followers). I might forget about it after a while after the novely has worn off. (Although, I'll admit after I set up the text feature, I was wanting to text Twitter the most random things every 5 minutes but stopped myself. I didn't want to be one of those annoying constant updaters).

Yup, I did it. I started a Twitter. And like any good Twitterer (Tweeter?) would say, "Come follow me www.twitter.com/missnesbit !"