OK, Wells Fargo isn’t really stealing my money. At least, I doubt it. Jen ahd I have had a joint checking account with the bank since 2005. And in that time, we’ve had several issues with overdrafts. I believe I do a pretty good job of keeping the checkbook balanced. And each time we’ve been hit with overdrafts, I’ve implemented new methods to help keep track of the account balance. And still, every couple months, it happens again. The most recent round of overdrafts happened yesterday. Fortunately, we have overdraft protection on the account, thanks to the Wells Fargo credit account I opened for this very reason. (Though there’s probably still some kind of fee involved, it’ll just be connected to the credit account instead of the checking account.) As it stands, we have no money in the bank. This is especially discouraging, as our finances had been riding high lately due to cash infusions from several sources. But now we’re back to zero. This has happened more times with Wells Fargo than any other bank I’ve ever used. I’m not one of these corporate-conspiracy cranks. I really don’t think Wells Fargo is taking my money. But something is off, and I’m not sure what to do. I suppose that one of the bank’s employees could try and track down the error. Most likely, it was caused by an ATM transaction I missed. The difference between what I was showing in the checkbook and the amount of money that was overdrafted would equal about the same as a typical ATM withdrawal. But I’d really like to just start all over again with a new accoun. I’ve been considering opening an account with a local bank. Sure, the local bank may not have the world-spanning reach of Wells Fargo. But you can e-mail the bank’s president right from the website. That’s pretty cool. And I’ve noticed that throughout my banking history, the larger the size of the bank, the more problems I’ve had. Of course, switching banks comes with its own set of hassles. Between me and Jen, we’d have to get three direct deposits changed, and that’s likely to take weeks. Still, I think now’s the time. Before Wells Fargo has a chance to take any more of my money.
Just in case you didn’t know, Jen is quickly becoming immersed in all things web 2.0. You can find her on Twitter and she’s also started a YouTube channel. Of course, you can still get her daily “Haiku of Frustration” on her MySpace page and you can still listen to her podcast.
Be sure to add/follow/subscribe to everything she does!
Every now and then, you’ve gotta have a “meta fest,” right? Where would blogging be without them? It occurred to me this morning that this site hadn’t been updated at all during the month of May. That’s pathetic. I’ve had plenty of ideas for entries. I just haven’t bothered to take the time to commit them to text/video/audio/whatever. You’ll note that I didn’t say that I didn’t have the time. I just didn’t bother to take the time. Time that I should’ve been dedicating to posting things to this site was used instead for… who knows what. Halo 2? Obsessive RSS feed catching-up? Obsessive tinkering with the “new” G4? Had I bothered to blog about some of these things in time, you’d have an answer, and I wouldn’t have to pose the question. But I’m not very good at balancing things in my life. Not yet, anyway. I’ve been spending a lot of energy lately trying to better focus msyelf towards achieving some kind of balance. It’s not easy. My nature is to focus on one or two things at a time and then push everything else aside. And it’s not healthy. I could do a lot to work towards that balance by keeping up with this site. Maybe not daily updates. But at least a few a week. Even if it is just a simple photo blog or a food review. It’ll help balance out the things I’m taking in. And I should be doing it, anyway.
I’d actually really like to just stay up all night and work on a bunch of half-finished projects. But going through the rest of my day half-awake won’t do much to help me find a sense of balance. Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is, the original tag line for this site was “content = life.” It’s time to get back to that.
Just before I began typing this entry, I realized that this site is about to hit its first anniversary. Hooray for blogging. Hooray for me. It’s kinda funny, really. I’ve been considering shutting this site down. Been feelin’ like it’s time to move on. Find some new digs out on them thar Interwebz. Or something like that. I mean, as a personal blog, this site is OK. But I probably could’ve achieved what little I’ve achieved here anywhere. I could’ve set up shop at Blogger or MySpace or wherever. Hell. I could’ve just kept my old blog going. And saved some money on a domain name, too.
When I launched Shawnogram, I envisioned it as a rich “multimedia” site where audio, video, photos and text would all live happily together. Side by side. Sorta like the United Nations, but better. All that’s really happened is I’ve gone through cycles of doing just one thing for weeks at a time, usually followed by doing nothing for weeks at a time. That depresses me. Shawnogram isn’t really a “content-rich” environment. It’s kinda like the Santa Maria mall in that way. Sure, there’s a few good things. But really, it’s mostly empty, and what good is that?
I had an idea this morning for a new site. And in reality, the new site wouldn’t be all that different from Shawnogram. Except it would be different. You see, I’d really like to start creating things on a daily basis. Things like audio podcasts, videos and even fun text entries. Sure, I could just start doing that here. But this idea is also attached to a new URL, and I like the sound of that particular URL. It’s something that I think the boingboing crowd and the iKidz of these crazy Internet times would like and remember. It’s certainly better than Shawnogram. And oh yeah, the other thing. I also thought I’d try and get some other folks on board for this one. You know, guest submissions, regular contributors. Stuff like that. I know, I know. I’ve tried all of that in the past, and it’s never worked. But maybe this time’ll be different! Because… because… I don’t know. It just will!
Or maybe I’ll just leave everything as it is. In the meantime, if you’re reading this, and you’d like to be a part of the next Big Deal in Internet, contact me using one of the handy methods available in the sidebar. And hey, you! Thanks for reading!
I dislike Sundays. Specifically, Sunday evenings. I get off of work at 8PM, and it doesn’t leave me with much free time for anything, because I have to be to work at 11AM on Monday morning. Now, I know what you’re thinking; “Shawno, you lazy bastard. You have 15 hours between those two work shifts. What’s the problem?” Well, I’ll use tonight to demonstrate my point.
As you should’ve read in the first paragraph, my Sunday evening work shift ended at 8PM. Immediately after that, I began cooking dinner, and by the time dinner was made and consumed, it was certainly approaching 10PM. Of course, Jen finished off the leftover wine from Valentine’s Day with dinner, and that put her in a chatty mood, so we spent the next hour or so sitting on the couch, talking. And that’s just fine. But by then, it was 11PM, and I really needed to get the dishes washed. So I washed the dishes. And now I’m typing this. It’s just after midnight. In order to get a decent night’s rest and still get a walk in before work tomorrow (today!) I’ll need to be in bed around 1AM. That gives me not quite an hour of true “free time,” and I don’t appreciate that one bit.
Which means I really should stop writing this and go do something less productive for awhile. I think I’ll watch the last of last week’s “The Daily Show” and “Colbert Report” episodes, and if I’m lucky, I’ll squeeze some reading in right before I go to bed.
Anyway, Sundays suck.
