ipconfig not working

Ok, this post is completely unrelated to the project, but I haven't posted to AG Chronicles in a while (but I do post to AG Anthology frequently, check it out, link on the sidebar) and this computer problem was so frustrating that I just had to put it here in the hopes the search spiders will pick up the post and it will save someone the headache I went through.

My wife's computer is an XP Pro machine, and it connects to our broadband via the wireless router. Well, about 10 days ago, the internet on that computer stopped working. Mine worked fine... I could even see her computer on the network, but she just had no internet connection.

The mystery unfolded when ipconfig at the dos prompt gave this error:

Windows IP Configuration
An Internal error occured: The request is not supported.
Please contact Microsoft Product Support Services for further help.
Additional information: Unable to query host name.

What on earth did this mean? A quick google search revealed people going off on "oh, it must be the dlink router, blah, blah, blah" (yes, our router is dlink). Well, I disconnected the wireless and uninstalled the device, leaving only the regular NIC. Still, no ipconfig, so it had nothing to do with the wireless.

I uninstalled the protocols I could on the regular NIC (except TCPIP cause XP won't let you), and even removed the NIC device entirely from control panel and reinstalled it. Still nothing.

Google searches revealed dozens of tech forums where the common solutions were:

1. Use WINSOCKXPFIX.EXE (or WINSOCKFIX.EXE) & LSPFIX.EXE

2. System restore to a time before the problem began

3. Reinstall the OS

Well, #1 did not work, though it was the highly touted solution. #2 did not work, system restore wouldn't work for most points, and when it did, the problem persisted. #3... I couldn't find the XP CD at the time, and I was loathe to reinstall all the great open source software loaded on the computer (it's practically Microsoft free, save the OS!)

Well, after much digging through a multitude of google hits, I at last found the solution. Here is the glorious link: http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/lofiversion/index.php/t9743.html

Now, in this solution, it makes the assumption that TCPIP.SYS is bad, and so walks you through the procedure of deleting it and replacing it. But I found that on this computer, the file was missing entirely, but the solution helped me find a replacement TCPIP.SYS The solution states you need an XP CD for the fix, but I think that is only if you need to delete the existing TCPIP.SYS file. I did find the XP CD finally, but I'm thinking that since the file was missing, I probably could have copied the replacement without booting from the CD.

What caused the problem? The machine has AVG anti-virus. The AVG log showed that it removed a couple viruses (can't remember the name) on the day the internet was lost. Many of the forum posts about this problem involved AVG. So perhaps the problem was in how AVG removed the virus... well, actually, many of the posts also blamed Norton for appending something to the DHCP registry entry (which was not the case with me)... well, who knows.

So, there you have it.

A Hair Affair

I left my "regular" job at the end of February. Since then, neither scissors nor clippers have come near my head. As a wee lad, I had fairly long hair for a boy. Back then, my hair was straight and soft. At about age 6, it began to change. By high school, my hair was thick, and a bit kinky, and so it was kept considerably shorter. Then, at age 17, I went to college and was in ROTC. With this came a military buzz.

I was quite fond of this hairstyle. Easy to maintain, though it did require bi-weekly clips. Then I left ROTC, after three years, and I fell into a funk. With this funk I felt a need to transform. And so I grew my hair a bit. But my hair does not cooperate with being long. It is quite wild. I could not deal with the sides being long, but I grew out the top and had it chemically straightened on occasion. That lasted a couple years, then I went back to the buzz. And that lasted for many years.

But now I've sorta left behind another life, and like Forrest Gump just feeling like running, I just feel like growing my hair. But my hair does not cooperate. Were it just me in this world, I'd be content with wild hair, but alas, I need to look presentable at times, and so a lot of effort goes into keeping the hair in check. Friends and acquaintances, for the most part, think I should cut the hair. Some even think it's hideous.

This makes me not want to cut my hair even more. My hair is what it is. If it's that revolting to you, perhaps it's best you not associate with me...

So I'll continue growing it, I think... just to see what it looks like at Christmas.

Blue Light Special

Monday was a big day for Entropy, in the realm of home improvement, or more appropriately, home completion. As mentioned in the previous post, our two year old home is not yet complete in the way of trim and landscaping.

Kmart, last week, had a 75% off special for trees. I guess these are the trees no one wanted from the spring. I know pretty much nothing about horticulture (or is it silviculture?) when it comes to trees, so I just went down to K-mart and go a bunch of trees. I didn't even know what they were till I got home and googled images of them. Some of the trees weren't even labeled so I still don't know what they are.

For all I know, the trees are sick, or are inappropriate for this climate zone. And I know that the soil out here may be good for agriculture, but it's not the most hospitable for trees. But what the heck, for $20 for a 10 foot tree, I'll take the chance. So in the ground 20 K-mart trees went. I post this entry mostly for my own records. I'm gonna try to outline what these trees are and where they are planted so that in five years, when someone asks "what's that tree?" I'll search my blog and know.

Here is a *hideous* 2 minute MS Paint layout of the new trees. Yikes! I really need to do it up in cadd or something. And I guess it was 22 trees. Anyway here it is and below will be the key.



1,2,3,4 - Either willow oaks or willowleaf oaks... might be the same thing, Quercos phellos

5, 6 - are... dammit, I forgot!!!

7, 8 -- again, don't remember

9 - Autumn Purple Ash

10 - Autumn Purple Ash

11 - Showbiz rose tree

12,13 - some kind of crabapple tree

14 - whip raywood ash

15 - not sure

16 - not sure

17, 20 - fantasy maple

18, 19 -

21 -

22 -

I can't remember anything!!! Hopefully some have tags on them that I'll go look at when I water today...

Wasted day & drilling wells

What is a wasted day? I often feel that I have wasted a day, but upon closer inspection, I did do something productive on that day. Perhaps I feel the day is wasted because I wasn't doing something I felt was more important.

This may seem like a menial inner conflict, but it's important because this perception easily sets a tone for the following day or even the week. Two examples are this past Sunday and Monday.
On Sunday, I spent most of the day moving some water well drilling equipment from Mountainaire to Santa Fe. The machines are older and slow moving on the road (at times going a whopping 20mph), so it really did take all day.

At the end of the day, I mourned the day, for I felt it was a waste, monkey-wrenching on equipment and driving for 5 hours in a hot, stuffy cab. However, in really thinking about it, this was an important day for Career. In addition to the construction venture, I want to carry on the water well drilling legacy my father began with his brother. The construction venture, in addition to general contracting, will drill water wells, with my father as qualifying party for the company and me becoming a qualifying party in the future.

Thus the move was important for two reasons. First, it needed to be done for two wells I'll be drilling with my dad in the next couple months. Second, it motivated me to pursue the well drilling venture.

Yesterday (Monday), I spent the entire day planting trees. 20 of them. I'll create another blog entry about that, but anyway, i sort of felt it was a lost Monday as I have much paperwork, bill paying, website (business) updates, and business planning to do. However, I do realize it was an important day for Entropy. We've been living out here for two and a half years. There are many aspects of the home that are incomplete, landscaping being a big part. These 20 trees made a big impact in progressing the landscaping agenda and bringing us a step closer to a complete home.

In all, these two days weren't wastes at all.

Work Ethic

I started to read Total Recall by Sara Paretsky, and in the prologue, I found something speaking to work ethic. As usual, and as it should be, a mind pursuit positively affects one of the other life categories, here being entropy and career. Read the AG Anthology blog entry about it, but here's what I've taken from it:

I need to create a work ethic. I've always had a tremendous work ethic. Showing up to work and working hard. That was when I had a clearly defined job to do. Now, my work is entrepreneurial and of a creative development nature. If a day goes by with me not doing anything work related, nobody notices, but it does negatively affect my progress. It requires a new type of work ethic.

This is a challenge. How do I make sure that every work day, I get up and advance my career? I have my home office, but it often turns into a place to escape the kids and check out youtube. I've gone so far as to consider renting an office in town so that I can 'go to work.' I'd hate to waste that money if I can create a work environment in my home.

Check out the entropy page to see what I'm trying to establish insofar as scheduling my life is concerned. I hope to create a routine of work ethic. But I need some inspiration or a kick in the pants to carry it out. Any suggestions?

Reading, Righting, Rithmetic

I guess spelling wasn't in the curriculum of this saying's author. I do have, or at least had, a strong aptitude for arithmetic and advanced mathematics. There was never an advanced math or calculus class I couldn't ace. With the exception of differential equations. And I'll blame that on the fact my professors (both times I took it) spoke no English and lectured to two hundred students at a pace appropriate for a livestock auction. The students who succeeded in these classes were those who actually had the compunction to attend study groups and seek out TA tutoring. Not me, nosiree. If I didn't get it during lecture or after skimming the chapter, I was done. I had better things to do like lounging at student union or napping on the quad.

However, I've never seen math as something to do during leisure time to improve your intellect. Reading and writing, however, I consider two of my hobbies, or perhaps even my passions. When it comes to writing, I am one of volcanic temperament. Meaning that there are always ideas bubbling and brewing, but it is only on occasion that there is a spewing forth of composition.

Reading, on the other hand, is something I love to do all the time. Novels, magazine stories, shampoo bottles, you name it. Reading, along with music and films, illicit some pretty powerful emotions in me. Like dreams, unfortunately, those feelings often dissipate shortly after. I sometimes read strictly as a distraction, but even then I'm learning something... about the world around me or about the human condition. Same with music and films. Even in the most inane songs and movies often have some hidden wisdom and insight. Because truly, I think most writers do try hard to instill depth in their work, it's part of their ethos. The production, of course, often takes a turn for the worse, but at the core of the script or lyrics, there's often something good. If nothing else, it presents some sort of conventional wisdom or even a reflection of pop culture.

Anyway, I want to chronicle what I read, listen to, and watch. I don't want to chronicle in this blog, since I'd like to focus on the project. Like AG Musings chronicles my writings, I'll create another blog to chronicle my readings/watchings/listenings (is there a term for these three things?) I'll call it AG Anthology, only because I can't think of a better name. There I'll list all things I read/watch/listen to, and provide commentary in the form of posts.

Meathead

So I completed my second day at the gym. I'll say I took last week off... after my soreness inducing episode with my friend. I didn't make my deadline on putting up the 'body' page, but again I'll try this week. It's a good feeling to work out, to have a solidarity of purpose while I'm there. No distractions, no excuses. I just have to get there regularly. I tried cardio.. yikes! I only lasted 10 minutes on the elliptical machine. And my kooky wife is going to be running a full marathon in the fall, nearly 4 hours of running. I'll be happy when I can do 30 minutes of cardio.

Ok, then... this was an uninteresting post...

Time: The Devour of All Things

Has it been nearly a week since I've contributed to this project? I must say it has. I've been out and about this past week, staying with family for the 4th, then on a camping trip. But back to grind I go... I've learned a few things this past week, now that I'm being more reflective. I'll probably forget most of these things before I can chronicle them, but I'll try...

Entropy, thy name is mud

First, where does that saying "thy name is mud" come from? Google, amazingly, failed me. I had to turn to yahoo via alltheweb.com to find this somewhat placating explanation.

Anyway, I tore into entropy today. Not the best entropy-ripping day I've had in recent memory, but a good one none-the-less. What is 'entropy' anyway? Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it. Check out the AG Entropy Page for more, but basically 'entropy' is a measure of disorder.

In my life, at least, disorder reigns. It threatens to consume me and my environment. Some people are very good at creating order, it comes natural. I, however, must try very hard. And I must try hard because I am inefficient in a chaotic environment. I helped for a week or so in the Katrina disaster recovery effort near New Orleans. I was in an animal rescue base outside of Gonzalez, LA. It appeared to be chaos, but it was managed chaos. And my sole job there was that of a structural conduit, to reign and control the chaos. It was amazing, and I did well.

So in my personal life, there is much energy, but that energy easily leads toward disorder. In this project, I strive to apply this energy constructively and in an orderly fashion.

Today, I attacked several home projects, and it felt great. I put up a pool, a trampoline, barn roof rafters. I created order on my homestead. I spent time with family and friends (who helped me accomplish these tasks), spent time talking and connecting. I also rode (a horse) for the first time in a very long while. This last activity was full of meaning. It established a baseline for entropy-busting, by exciting me about working with the horses again. It was physical exercise. Most importantly, it rekindled a spiritual exhilaration. See this Musings entry to get a feeling for what riding means to me. Good day. I also gave myself some points for mind... perhaps that was for reading the New Yorker... ha!

Sing a song

Sing, sing a song
Sing out loud
Sing out strong
Sing of good things not bad
Sing of happy not sad.
- The Carpenters

Music is a beautiful thing. I have a friend of the intellectual ilk, who I deem a literary and musical snob. You know who you are, buddy. Perhaps I'm being too harsh, but I remember him commenting to a co-worker once, "You have the second least-worst taste in music here." This is a double snub, first on the music, and then on people's taste.

I'm not sure I could ever be so bold as to decry anything of a creative nature as 'bad.' The most I could say is that I don't like it. For who really can understand the inspiration of the work and the creative process behind it? How pretentious of one to pass judgment without 'having walked a mile.'

This same snobbish friend rekindled in me an interest in music, if for nothing else, to justify my own predilection for 'bad music.'

I'll announce it loud and proud, that on my smartphone right now I have Eminem, Nelly Furtado, Pink, Gwen Stefani, Jack Johnson, Oreja de Van Gogh, Blue October, Gym Glass Heroes, Cyndi Lauper, the Buggles, the Killers, Notorious BIG, Snow Batrol, Dan Seals, Blink 182, Dido, My Chemical Romance, Tom Cochrane, Canibus, Black Eyed Peas, Freedy Johnson, and Ron Sexsmith. I don't which of these artists are considered crappy, but I like them. I like their music. The lyrics touch me, the music moves me. So there!

The Mind aspect of the project is about intellectual development. While music may move the soul, music appreciation is intellectual. So is writing and playing music. I'm a beginner piano and guitar player, as well as neo-lyricist. By 'beginner' I mean I am no better than after finishing a summer's worth of instruction 10 years ago, clearly for lack of natural talent. But I try.

This morning my daughter wanted to sing a song about a new friend of hers. So we threw together some lyrics and some music, even turned on the arranger for a back-beat. It came out pretty good. I'll post the song on the Mind Page when we get it recorded. I give myself a 4 in the Mind category today today just for writing (with my daughter) and composing this little song.

Connections

Let's talk connections. Not self-serving business connections nor lecherous backpage 'missed connections,' bur rather genuine, benign human connections.

My illustrious daughter made a friend at theater class recently. And as most parents can relate, this situation typically necessitates some sort of friendly interaction with the other kid's parents. These are often superficial, but tolerated for the sake of the kids. But sometimes, there is the potential for more.

Neither my wife nor I are very good at maintaining close friendships, and I am considerably worse than her. I have only one good friend from my youth that I interact with regularly, and it's usually him that reaches out after periods incommunicado.

Part of the reason, I suppose, is that I can be rather selfish with my time and energy. Friendships are relationships, and relationships require time and effort. I do realize the importance of friendships, they satisfy a basic need of our spirit.. a need to connect and relate. I do have that need, like anybody else, and I've deprived that need for too long.

In this project, I will make a true effort to reconnect with family and friends, and to nurture any new connections I may encounter.

This couple we met, the parents of my daughter's new friend, seemed kindred in a way. The potential for a real connection is there, I should make a true effort, to give it a chance.

Dead Links on AG Chronicles

I hate dial-up!!! I'm traveling intrastate a bit now, in the midst of launching this project and website. At home I have high speed Internet, but not at my secondary location. Only dial-up. It's maddening!!! I curse dial-up for being so slow, but I also curse web technology for hogging so much damn bandwith.

In the infancy of computer tele-communications, as in the infancy of PC computing, I think programmers were simply forced to be frugal... and we all benefited. Bill Gates is quoted as having said something like, "640K of memory should be enough for anybody." Gates denies saying it, but you get the gist. This allegedly from the guy who founded the company notorious for memory and processor-creep.

My first modem was 2400 baud. I ran a BBS (Bulletin Board System... the predecessor of websites for you young 'uns) on this 2400 baud modem. I had callers dialing in at 300 baud. And we took care of business. We had our discussion groups, email, file transfers, and even online games, all hosted on an MS-DOS computer over a 2400 baud connection. Granted, my BBS had only color ASCII graphics, but it did the job.

NOW, I can't even update my freakin' website because the web FTP interface from my hosting service takes 10 minutes to load over a 56K connection, and it freezes up 90% of the time. My ftp client's build expired and I need to download a 3MB update, but that download corrupts for some reason, so I can't use that either. And though I do have internet service via Alltel for my smartphone, Alltel offers only 1x(slow...) and not EVDO(fast!!!) in my area.

So all this ranting just to let you know that I do realize all the 'page' links on the site are inoperable, and that I am working on the content, but it'll take some time before I can upload the content. I did finally order DSL for my secondary location, because dial-up is infuriating and often useless, but it'll be a week before they switch it on. So, hang tight!

Body of David

I can't move my arms today, not even to scratch my nose. It is because I took a step in the right direction. I went to the gym yesterday. A friend of mine has proved to be a dedicated gym rat, and so I hope that by association, I become one too. It's not so much my desire to be a gym rat, but rather to reap the benefits of being one.

I'll take some 'before' pictures soon and post them on the Body Page of my site and I'll describe my regimen, goals, progress, and what-not. I better set a deadline... I'll say by Friday, July 6th b/c I need some time to get with a trainer and come up with a regimen.

The true reason for making 'body' one of my main life categories is to ensure good health and good energy, so that I can tend to the other things in my life. To be honest, however, my reason for working out at the gym, as opposed to simply walking/hiking/staying active, is vanity. I want to have a nice body. I want to look good. I want to have strong legs and arms, a bulging chest, and cut abs. Are there health benefits to this? Probably not.

I was talking to my gym-rat friend about an unrelated subject, body hair. I was deliberating waxing my, um, nether regions, for the purpose of vanity, of course. She could not fathom it. "It's not natural," she said. Either is her shaving her legs and pits, I retorted. "But that's our culture," she concluded. And I guess she's right. Her statement migrates readily from body hair to body image. The reason I want to have this great body is because of the cultural connotations. A fit, if not muscular, body, connotes health, virility, and sexual desirability. I want that!

So, anyway, I've set the stage for working out, which is very good. I just need to throw in cardio, which I hate. But vanity to the rescue, here. My friend says ab exercises are not enough to get rid of my gut, that I need cardio. So there's my motivation. My heart will thank me, I suppose. I also need to throw in a good diet, but that must come later, for now my sausage McMuffin with egg and side of hasbrowns await.

And, if you must know, the consensus seems to be 'skip the waxing,' though I must insist on an occasional trim. I hope my barber concurs.

Introducing AG Musings

After posting this last dream journal, I realized that I couldn't post my writings to this blog, the entries would be too long and not of general interest. I created a blog called AG Musings with a url of agmuse.blogspot.com There is also a link in the sidebar here. Check it out if you're interested in my writings.

Strangest dream

I was working in downtown Santa Fe, but it looked different than it actually does. It was bigger, more open spaces, more modern. It was around Fiesta de Santa Fe time. In fact, the Zozobra burning was supposed to be that evening. It was a Friday. What the heck is Zozobra, you ask? Click here to find out: http://www.zozobra.com/

The dream was erratic, as I suppose dreams usually are. There isn't a good chronology to it. Anyway, at one point I met with a friend, a girl who I once knew, I'll call her 'R'. We approached a pickup truck that appeared to have been a police salvage vehicle. It was an odd truck, for the bed was long, much longer than a normal truck. It had no tires, but it had tire wells for an additional pair of wheels behind the typical rear axle. The cab was open and my friend climbed in. She found a large piece of bloody duct tape with the impression of a human ear in it, as if the tape had once, indeed, held someone's bloody ear to their head. At that moment, a plainclothes cop of some kind showed up with a Doberman pincher. He started to show off his dog's obedience and attack abilities by siccing the dog on me, but not letting the dog bite me. I think the dog did start to bite me once, but it stopped. This went on for what appeared to be several minutes while my friend stayed in the truck admiring the tape. Apparently she knew who that ear impression belonged to. A guy who was a cop, and that we both knew. And I think he actually lost his ear.

Next thing I know the cop and the dog are gone and in my dream-mind there is playing an audio newsreel explaining that this cop (the one with the dog) was officer Johnson and he had solved some mysterious crime. I was surprised that someone with such a sick sense of humor as to sic his police dog on innocent people would accomplish such a feat. Around the time the audio news reel is playing, I find myself circling a mobile home with an odd roof. The roof being made of a blue, odd, rubbery material, not unlike what tracks (as in track & field) are made of. This mobile home and roof material is somehow linked to crime in question, but I'm not sure how.

My aunt 'C' showed up. She wanted a couple things, I don't remember the first. The second was that she wanted us to drive up to Zozobra in a tractor. Don't know why. We didn't, we drove up in a truck. 'We' being people of undisclosed identity. My friend R might have been in there, but I'm not sure. We got stopped at the admissions gate and I got out for some reason and didn't continue on the journey.

My cousin, B, made it into the dream, but he was just saying he didn't want to go to Fiestas.

At one point I was in a hotel or dormitory of some kind. Something meaningful happened in the building but I don't remember what.

Then there was a flashback to some kind of war, maybe WWII. I pictured a John Wayne movie poster with John Wayne as a soldier. He had green olive green fatigues and helmet. He was all dirty and had very yellow, rotting teeth, apparently from being in the war trenches forever, smoking and unable to tend to oral hygiene. I don't remember ever seeing a real John Wayne movie poster like that, but perhaps I have. I saw some part of some battle occurring. The battle was realistic at first, but it quickly degenerated into a scene from a video game. But it wasn't even something from Medal of Honor, the warriors appeared to be naked, short-haired trolls. Apparently they couldn't escape the army barber. For the under 30 crowd, here's a picture of the trolls I'm talking about. So yeah, these cropped haired trolls were spewing forth from their rainbow colored APC's and battling out with an unknown enemy. That dream sequence didn't last long, thankfully.

Finally, I found myself on the roof of the aforementioned hotel/dorm. It was a vast roofscape. I think the previous war dream sequence was meant to intro me to a character in my dream. I think this guy is old today, but he was a wee lad during the troll-war. So in world war fashion, this roofscape was strife with poverty and dirty children in tattered clothes. These children (and adults) were trying to climb their way up this very steep metal roof, pockmarked with obstacles such as boulders. Children were regularly falling and would come tumbling down this roof and would fall into the abyss.

So anyway, I was sorta hovering next to this kid that I would apparently meet in modern times. I followed his progress to the top, encouraging him all the way. Several times he wanted to just let go and fall along with his countrymen, but he made it.

So yes, last night I had the strangest dream... what does this mean? Dunno, just thought I'd share.

Statistics, I need help!

So I took a course or two in stats while in college. I always found mathematics fascinating, but I never really believed it would be useful. Sure, while working in a research lab, but in the outside world?

Well, I have a need now. How do I derive meaningful stats about this project? I layed out some metrics in the metrics pages, but how do I analyze the results? I'm not entirely sure. So I used the only statistic that I can readily pull out of my head: average.

I will rate my progress daily in each of the 5 life categories on a scale of 1 to 5. I assigned two definitions to each number, a subjective one and an objective one, so that I have some flexibility in rating the day.

My goal is a daily average of 4 across the board.

I need some help here with spreadsheets. I'm too tired right now to describe what I'm trying to do, but if you are really good at spreadsheet formulas, email me so we can chat.

What profit is there in this?

Public accountability is one of the premises on which this project is based. For this to work, I need to be incredibly honest. Being honest with you, the reader, compels me to be honest with myself. However, this slope is wrought with repercussions of an unknown degree, namely that I don't know if and what I write will be held against me in the future.

Will family and friends scorn me if I speak of a subject they find unsavory? Will business associates discriminate against me for what they might perceive as a character flaw?

How much will honesty hurt me? What if I reveal I've committed larceny, but wasn't caught? What if I mention an interest in necrophilia? What if mention an affair I had with another man? These are not facts in my life, but what of similarly controversial revelations? Is honesty worth whatever cost it incurs?

I'll probably use this test: What profit is there in this? Of course, by 'profit' I refer not to monetary gain, but to a net benefit of some kind. Honesty fundamentalists might argue that omission of fact is dishonesty. I don't agree. Thus unless someone can convince me otherwise I'll continue this way. Besides do you really want to know all my deep dark secrets just for sake of knowing? There are some juicy ones...

fiscal phobia

I have a condition (one of many, I might add). A quick google search validated it. Now I need to find a support group. I have 'financial phobia' aka 'fiscal phobia.' For some reason, most of the engine hits are from the UK, but none-the-less, it's real and I have it. Financial phobia is:

... a psycho-social syndrome which causes individuals to avoid cognitive engagement with the management of their personal finances. Sufferers experience negative emotions of anxiety, guilt, boredom, or feelings of lack of control when dealing with money matters, resulting in lack of vigilance – and in the worst cases complete avoidance – in this area. (Dr. Brendan Burchell, link below)

I NEED HELP! Seriously. I have months of unreconciled bank statements. My bills are often late, paid only by the grace of a last minute, anxiety ridden, flurry of online bill paying. In exploring bookkeeping options for my small business(es), I spoke with a few bookkeepers, and they seem averse to handling what appears to them insignificant matters such as reconciliation, budgeting, and bill pay. They seem to believe these are such ludicrously simple tasks that the business owner or an employee of the company is much better suited to carry them out rather than an outsourced bookkeeping service. With noses raised high about such tasks in business, I'm loathe to broach the subject regarding my personal finances.

So, anybody have any suggestions? Anybody in the 505 interested in doing my personal finances for a pittance?

I must go now, I think I saw a couple disconnect notices in the mail I have to go hide under the 32 bank statements piled in a box under my desk.


http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-fin1.htm
http://new.egg.com/com.egg/images/PDF/FinancialPhobia.pdf