Thursday, March 27, 2025
Yesterday, I was out most of the morning, taking care of one errand or another. It was bright and sunny with a high of 50, however, it was very windy.
I chose an outfit I have already discussed (see this post), as a try-on outfit.
Outfit Description...
- Urban CoCo Dress
- Saks Fifth Ave Chocolate Pumps
- Brown Knit Sweater/Jacket
- Gold Button Earrings
I really wanted to offer the brown sweater/jacket in my shop, however,
unsure as to whether I can source the item from the supplier. What do you
think? Retail price point $39.95.
A lot of things going on in March 2025. Major issues included:
- Skype business line (443-393-6650) successfull transfered to my Verizon service as an additional line. Skype service to retire in May 2025.
- Jury duty excused
- Successfully opened the new CD I mention in this post.
- A number of business and non-business issues...
Hoping April will be a lot smoother.
Monday, March 24, 2025
I have notable news as related to my finances for the month of March. I added new Visa and Mastercard rewards cards to my financial profile.
Why? Well lets back up for a moment and explain the rewards cards I had before March 2025. They included:
- Chase Visa (Amazon Signature Card - affiliate link) Amazon purchases 3% back, 2% gas stations, and 1% everything else.
- Citi Mastercard CashReturns 1% back any purchase
- PayPal World Mastercard 3% back using PayPal checkout (I like this card for my online shop as related to respective suppliers)
- Personal Bank Checking Debit Card if I enroll with merchants offering rewards (rewards % vary)
Where else do I spend money? Costco. Did you know- Costco Warehouses do not take Mastercard? Online, yes. So I decided to get the Costco Anywhere Visa Card By Citi. That is 2% on Costco (online & warehouse purchases) and 5% on gas. I fill up about every 5 months and never dine out.
The new Mastercard? It is the Belk Rewards Mastercard and recently it allowed me to save over $55 on gift and shoe purchases that together, totaled less than $120. The store, Belk reminds me of Macy's, Nordstroms, and other department stores I used to patronize in this area. I think Belk is more popular in southern states. I was researching online for the best deal on a pair of heels I needed and they had it.
Though, I have several other cards in my wallet, mostly debit cards and my
Amazon Store Card (unsure of the rewards), the illustration below shows only
the
rewards cards in my wallet.
The other news? On Wednesday, March 26, 2025 when the funds transfer completes, I will open a new CD for $3500 @ 4.15% for 60 mos. It is only about $10-$13 a month. My business and personal checking accounts are not interest bearing accounts and I try to make smart moves with money.
For some reason, I think CD rates are going to drop further and I want to take advantage with whatever I have available. This last statement is based only on my opinion without a lot of research into where others think rates are going.
The other thing I would like to note? I work hard to find the best interest and dividend income for my CDs and savings accounts (about $300 income per month). This to say, I do not carry balances on my credit cards. I also try not to spend more than my dividend/interest income per month. That is why I purchase gifts way in advance- if I find a good deal.
Did my credit rating take a hit because of new card applications? Wells Fargo (my business bank) shows a 26 point or so loss 796 to 770 as of 3/18/25. The others are not reporting any differences as of today, March 24, 2025.
Most know, credit applications can affect your credit rating. Mine will bounce back, I think. I think the Costco rewards card was a good move on my part because I do spend money at Costco and the online store.
Thursday, March 20, 2025
Yesterday, it was bright and sunny with highs in the upper sixties. I was up early because I had a package arriving, however, it turned out the package arrived (8:19 am) before I left.
What I wore to take care of a couple of errands.
- Liz Claiborne Size 6 Black Knit Dress (purchased over 15 years ago at the Liz Claiborne shop in Arundel Mills Mall)
- Oversized Sailors Blazer w/big collar
- Aerosoles Black Leather (see the list of my Amazon purchases of this pump on the right)
- Gold Button Earrings
- Black/Brass Timex Watch
- Brass Bangle
When I returned, I finally tried on the white slacks I mention in this and this post.
Still working on my diet, however, may have to invest in a white body shaper.
Sunday, March 16, 2025
The last computer I purchased was in November 2020 just before starting my Maryland Real Estate course. I discuss the purchase in this post.
Since then, I have also purchased the following tablets:
- iPad Mini - May 2022 (related post)
- Samsung Galaxy Android - November 2023 (related post)
Forgot, I purchased a new laptop in November 2022, however it was a holiday gift for my mother.
For work, I primarily use the mini PCs with portable high resolution monitors or one of the tablets. The problem? The mini PCs are not mobile enough and my older laptops and desktops cannot handle today's technology.
Another issue? The space on one of the mini PCs was not adequate enough to handle the Visual Studio installation I wanted to experiment with. Yes, most of my development work (mainly Java) is done with the Netbeans IDE and Xampp, however, I wanted to experiment with Visual Studio on the non-production mini PC.
On both mini PCs I installed additional storage in the form of Seagate 500GB internal hard drives. In addition, both are setup with my software development tools, however, I do not install software tools I only want to experiment with, like Android Studio and Visual Studio on the production mini PC.
All this to say, last week, I ordered a new HP laptop.
New HP Laptop Specs (I paid under $600 on sale):
- Screen Size 14 Inches Touch Screen
- CPU AMD Ryzen 3 Processor (4 cores, 8 threads)
- Hard Disk Size 1 TB high-speed PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
- Ram Memory Size 32 GB
- Operating System Windows 11 Pro
- Display Resolution 1366 x 768 Touch Screen
- Connectivity Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 5
- Various Ports USB A (2), USB C, HDMI, SD
- Included Microsoft Office Lifetime License
- Included HP Original H10H Wireless Earphones
Applications I installed on the new HP Laptop, include:
- Netbeans IDE
- Java
- Php
- c/c++
- Xampp
- MySQL
- Php
- Android Studio
- Git
- Vim
- Microsoft Office 21 Professional (added Access & Publisher)
- Active Presenter
- Print Drivers for Konica Color Laser & Brother Monochrome Fax Laser
- FileZilla
- Canon EOS Camera Utilities
- Visual Studio
- node.js
- Python
- Chrome
- Thunderbird
- Any Video Converter
- FastStone
- Zoom
I am happy, I can pull out this new laptop wherever I am and work on tasks I cannot do on either my tablets or phone. No, the display on the laptop is not the 2560x1600 resolution of my portable monitors, however, I can live with that.
Saturday, March 15, 2025
One of the things I have tried to work on, my appearance in photos, virtual meetings, and videos. Photos are an issue, however not as much as the videos and virtual meetings.
One of the major issues, no matter good, bad, or ugly I have to be able to identify as me. I am concerned with mistaken identity as it relates to legal issues. This the reason I have not attempted to doctor or repaint my photos and videos with some of the new software editing technology.
One of the ways I try to filter my appearance is by using a low resolution video camera for videos and virtual meetings. I discuss my Zoom setup in this post.
Most of my photos are taken with my Canon EOS M50 and I am still trying to figure out how to downplay my big head in the full body shots.
The two photos shown below were taken Thursday evening (March 13, 2025) using my Canon EOS
M50, the first- as I was about to
set my hair. I had a good night's rest
the previous night and tried on my new sandals with different outfits for most
of the day (see last post). I did not have the haggard look I have noticed more often than I
want since mid
January 2025. The second photo, after I finished setting my hair.
This past week, I scheduled a virtual meeting with a business resource and
I was concerned I would have to use my Android Moto phone for the meeting. On
March 7, 2025 (see time stamps in the illustrations below), I ran some tests.
I was not happy, however was very tired and it showed.
I was rather surprised by how much the video editing software on the Android phone could change my appearance. I have never used Botox nor had any type of facial surgery. When I can afford to look better than I do, I am going to invest in good video editing software.
Friday, March 14, 2025
This week, two orders arrived that I am pretty pleased about.
The first, new computer hardware which I will discuss in a later post and a pair of summer sandals I wanted to check out.
- Strappy T-Strap Gladiator Thong Sandal - 2025
- Summer Maxi Dress - 2019
- Plaid Crop Top - 2019
- Thin Leather Belt - 2024
Sandal try-on video:
