I like listening to audiobooks on my iPod when I’m washing dishes or cooking. It helps pass the time and makes my chores far more enjoyable. However, I frequently end up catching my headphone cord on a cabinet handle or other protuberance as I’m moving to and fro in the kitchen. That ends up yanking the cord right out of my iPod and causes a major inconvenience as I have to stop what I’m doing to fix the problem.

So now I’m thinking that I really need to buy a speaker mount for my iPod so I don’t have to deal with headphones at all. I don’t have a lot of extra space on my counters, but if I can find something that mounts on the wall, I’d go for it. It’s got to be better than what I’m dealing with now!

Remember how last month a rogue trader cost banking giant Societe Generale a mind-boggling $7 billion in losses?

Well, a similar thing happened yesterday, though admittedly on a much smaller scale. This time, a rogue trader for MF Global, a futures firm based out of Bermuda, let loose at the Chicago Board of Trade, racking up losses to the tune of $141.5 million.

The trader was a man named Evan B. Dooley, who worked on commission from an office in Memphis. He apparently was able to make wild trades in his personal account by backing the action with money from the firm’s account. MF Global has assured investors that they’ve made changes so that this kind of thing won’t happen again.

The full Tribune story can be found here.

Don’t you think it’s time that every investment firm reviews their procedures to make sure a single person can’t devastate their finances like this ever again? How many more of these massive scams are we going to have to read about?

The last of my 1099 forms arrived this week, so I’m finally ready to do my taxes. I’ve had all of my receipts and other records organized since the beginning of the year, but have been procrastinating because of the 1099 situation.

At any rate, I’m planning to use Turbo Tax Online this year instead of paying $350 for an accountant like I did last year. I know that in some instances it’s better to have a professional prepare the returns, but my taxes are so straightforward that it’s not worth it for me. I mean, it’s not like I own Wilmington real estate or have major capital gains to report.

It shouldn’t take me more than a few hours to get my taxes done. I know I’m going to end up owing about $500, so I’m not looking forward to the result here. Hopefully my cut of the “stimulus package” will arrive sometime soon to make up the difference!

Today’s Booking Through Thursday question is a tough one:

Who is your favorite female lead character? And why? (And yes, of course, you can name more than one . . . I always have trouble narrowing down these things to one name, why should I force you to?)

I’ve read so many books that, inevitably, I only remember the strongest, most well-defined characters after all these years. As such, these are the women who stand out to me, even though they were far from perfect. I loved them despite (or perhaps because of) their flaws, even the ones on the list who ultimately committed suicide:

Francie Nolan (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn), Tess Durbeyfield (Tess of the d’Urbervilles), Amy Dorritt (Little Dorritt), Brett Ashley (The Sun Also Rises), Anna Karenina (Anna Karenina), Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany’s) and Edna Montpelier (The Awakening).

Obviously there are too many here for me to give specifics about why I liked these characters, but to generalize, I think most of them were strong in their own ways, be it sheer presence, force of will, or a quiet strength/endurance. These are the characters that stand out to me, and whose stories I would willingly read again and again.

One of my favorite places for seafood is Poor Phil’s Bar & Grill in Oak Park. I’ve been going to Poor Phil’s for more than 15 years now, and never get tired of their menu. In fact, the first time I ever tried oysters was at this restaurant, way back when I was still in high school. I remember that I went on a double-date with my best friend and two guys who were our lab partners in chem class. I wanted to appear more “worldly” than I really was, so I ordered oysters as an appetizer, while everyone else ordered the usual fries and onion rings.

I actually didn’t like oysters that first time, but have acquired a taste for them over the years. Now, my husband and I make it a point to go all the way out to Poor Phil’s at least once every couple months or so in order to enjoy a plate of chilled oysters together. I find that I crave oysters as much for the ambiance at Poor Phil’s and for a great day with Jerry as for the eating experience itself.

And yes, we eat our Gulf oysters raw, which I know is a concern to some people who fear they might get sick from doing so. But that rarely happens to healthy individuals these days — especially since modern post-harvest processes (such as freezing, heat-cool pasteurization, and high-hydrostatic pressure) significantly reduce the chance of Vibrio vulnificus infection.

At any rate, I’ve been enjoying oysters for a long time now, and have never suffered any ill-effects thus far, so I’m not planning on changing my habits anytime soon!

I haven’t had much to post about here recently, so it’s given me a chance to think about what I want to do with this particular site. It’s pretty much been a catch-all, general type of blog where I just post about anything and everything under the sun. But I’m thinking about narrowing the focus a bit and talking about just one or two topics from here on out (like sports or current events). Or maybe I just need to take a week off and come back with a fresh perspective….

I don’t know; I think I’m just feeling burned out on blogging in general, especially since I’ve made approximately 3,600 posts on all my sites combined in the last 14 months. Yikes!!

Back when I worked at my office job, we made extensive use of employment agencies to help with hiring new staff. We used a temp agency to find workers for the factory, and we used an executive recruiting firm to fill management positions.

The temps we got for the factory were generally pretty good, but we had a hard time holding on to the executives that the recruiting firm sent us. It seemed that we rarely got a candidate who was a good match, despite the fact that we spelled our our requirements in great detail.

The problem was with the recruiting firm itself. Apparently their screening process wasn’t as thorough as it should have been, so everyone ended up wasting a lot of time and money.

It’s too bad my former company didn’t use A.E. Feldman Associates for their recruiting needs. For the past four decades, A.E. Feldman has been highly successful in recruiting and placing executives in various financial, accounting, legal, consulting, human resources, and technology positions all across the country, and I’m sure they would have done a better job at finding qualified candidates than the firm we ended up going with.

At any rate, if I’m ever go back to the corporate world, you can bet I’ll recommend A.E. Feldman Associates for any executive recruiting needs!