I bought a laptop last year thinking that I’d only use it while traveling. I therefore went with a cheaper model because I figured I wouldn’t use it enough to justify spending a lot of money on it. But then I went and got a wireless LAN card and love the convenience so much that I’m on my laptop more often than my desktop. I like being able to take the computer out on the porch when the weather’s nice and being able to work in bed when I want to.

Now, however, I’m faced with a different problem: lagging performance due to a serious lack of RAM. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy (and affordable) to expand computer memory these days. I’m already looking at a few different options, and hope to be able to buy something after my tax refund comes in. After that, I’ll probably start doing all my work on the laptop and might even get rid of my desktop altogether so I can have more room in my office.

My husband and I love to travel, so we’ve got a pretty good list of both domestic and international destinations that we’d like to visit at some point in the future. One of the places that we should be able to get to in the next year or so is Lake Powell, which is supposed to be a premier spot for boating and jet skiing. These are activities that we don’t get to do nearly as often as we’d like, so it’ll be great if we can actually make this vacation happen soon.

We’ve been wanting to go to Lake Powell for quite some time, so we periodically check out various travel packages to see what kinds of deals are available. One thing I’ve noticed is that lodging near Lake Powell is extremely expensive and would definitely cut deeply into our budget. So I started looking around for deals on Arizona hotels, and found a website that I think will be very useful. It’s the Travel section of the Azcentral.com site and it features a comprehensive listing of hotels within the state. I was able to sort by price and location, which are the two most important criteria for me, and left the site with a much better feeling about our chances of finding affordable lodging in Arizona.

I’m not sure when we’ll actually be able to make it to Lake Powell, but at least now I know of a fast and easy way to book a hotel!

Did you see that LiveScience.com article about the work habits of smokers vs. non-smokers? It essentially says that non-smokers are better workers because smokers have a tendency to quit before serving their full term, take more sick days, and receive more disciplinary measures.

I don’t know about all that, but I do know that personally speaking, I am definitely a much better worker now that I don’t smoke. I used to be a pack-a-day smoker and when I worked at an office job that meant stepping outside at least once an hour for a quick smoke. That impromptu smoke break often lasted 5 minutes or more if a friend was out there smoking too because obviously we’d spend some time chatting.

I was far less productive than co-workers who didn’t smoke, and many of them (rightly) complained that it wasn’t fair how smokers were able to take all these extra breaks during the day.

Oh, well — not like it matters now. I quit smoking and I work from home, so whatever!

So I finally heard back from Rivals.com about my disputed charges. I posted about a week ago that they automatically renewed my membership and charged $99.95 to my credit card without notifying me of anything.

I just found out that the billing department denied my request for a refund. Yeah, big fuckin’ surprise there. Bastards. I will NEVER do business with them again, and I will tell everyone I know about how bad they suck. And yeah, I guess I’ll post this on my blogs too.

Now I have to go through my cc company to get a refund. Let’s see if they’re any better.

Back when I was in high school, I used to golf quite a bit. Several of my friends were members at exclusive country clubs in the Chicago area, and I was able to get into those places on guest passes from time to time. There’s no way my family could have afforded our own membership, so this was a much appreciated gesture by my friends.

Even as an adult, I am very budget-conscious when it comes to golf. I still hit the links, but only a couple times per year so I simply can’t justify spending a lot of money on equipment. That’s why I play with used clubs and buy discount golf balls whenever possible.

In fact, I was just browsing on the Internet for a couple of new golf supply stores and I came across a very promising site. It’s called GolfBallsAndAccessories.com, and the site specializes in offering used name-brand golf balls for a fraction of the cost of new ones. I don’t mind playing with used golf balls, so this site is perfect for me. Can’t wait to place my first order!

Usually I can sleep very well, but for the last week or so, I’ve been having a rough go of it. I’ve had a very hectic schedule, for one thing, that necessitates my waking up at 4:30am and not getting to bed again until 11:30PM or midnight. My days have been full of chores, assignments, and tasks that I can barely motivate myself to do, so these things hang over my head forever.

Anyway, it’s starting to affect my sleep and I don’t know what I can do about it. I am not getting restful sleep, am having nightmares when I do sleep, and wake up each morning with a vague sense of dread, as though I’ve forgotten to do something important or like something bad’s going to happen soon.

It’s stressful. And exhausting.

I’ve never really participated in “social networking” sites. I tried Friendster back in the day, and even had a MySpace page once upon a time, but I never really got into those things to the point where I would check my account several times a day or whatever.

Now someone I barely know invited me to join Facebook. I know what that site is, but I don’t think I have an account there (I might have signed up at some point, but I really don’t remember).

Anyway, do you use Facebook? Is it worthwhile as an actual networking tool rather than just a social site? I’d be interested in professional networking rather than social stuff. Since that’s the case would LinkedIn be a better bet for me?