Heat Wave

These are the days when I really wish that I could stop being so frugal and purchase an air conditioner. Unlike back on the east coast, out here in Cali, few people think to buy an air conditioner. The weather doesn't get that hot, usually, but right now the heat wave is... well.... really hot.

Even sitting in the shade with the lights off, the heat is like a thick fog which doesn't move. Outside, there is sometimes a nice breeze, but my apartment seems to absorb heat and not let it go until winter comes along.

I'm looking forward to going home in a few weeks, back east, where air conditioning is plentiful. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to justify air conditioning a home, especially a large home, given that it's such a huge expense and many people in the world just learn to live without.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to a good summer thunderstorm back east. I hope I get to see one. Growing up in Jersey, I hated those violent thunder storms. But now I feel like I'm dealing with passive aggressive weather. It never comes out and hits you with something, it just burns for days. The east coast weather made more sense. It was hot and humid and eventually it had to storm, and so it went. We don't get thunder storms out here. I miss the angry sky.

How Does Anyone Afford Superficial Purchases?

I went to the mall today. I know, I know, I should never do that. But sometimes I like to shop. I went for an hour on my lunch break. I tried on a bunch of clothing. Outfits that would cost me two month's of my food budget. Looking in the mirror, I realized that even these garments, these $200 pairs of jeans and $99 shirts layered over another $99 shirt weren't able to make me look halfway decent.

I stared at my thighs. Those chicken legs. Short, with lots of fat up on my inner thigh. I thought of a time when I was thinner and how that fat was still there, albeit slightly less prominent. I thought about how growing up my mother constantly reminded me of my fat stomach, that protruding bump that must be hidden at all times, but how she never mentioned my giant hips, butt or thighs - and how I wonder if my legs will ever look remotely attractive.

Then, I thought about liposuction. The surgery that, with a little vacuum cleaner, sucks out all your fat (while cleaning out your bank account.)

I came home, obsessed with the idea of lipo. After all, my happiness depends on not having fat thighs. That's worth the price, isn't it?

Of course, I'll probably never get liposuction. The costs are far too great. It would probably cost me $3000-$4000 just to get rid of the lard on my inner thigh. And there are plenty of other areas I want to tackle to. I imagine lipo for all of my problem areas would add up to over $20k. Lower abdomen, arms, inner thigh, hips, outer thigh...

And then, I really want to get my teeth fixed. They're yellowish and crooked, with an unsightly gap in the middle.

Throw in the laser hair removal, which would probably not be permanent due to my having PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), add some hair extensions for kicks, a breast lift, some laser eye surgery, maybe foot surgery because that weird bone sticks out making my toes really wide and impossible to fit into any shoes, plus, why not also get a laser facial to make my skin look fresh and radiant, some new highlights and hair dye, and... then, only then, will I even start to feel good about how I might look in that pair of $200 jeans, and that $99 shirt layered over another $99 shirt.

But... at what point in one's career does she feel entitled to spending that much money on making herself beautiful? Obviously people do it, there wouldn't be that many plastic surgeons in the world if the only people getting such surgery were in accidents.

I'm 24 now, and in my 20s, I just want to be beautiful. In my 30s, I want to be beautiful. I want to enjoy the last remnants of my youth by - being able to wear a bikini and feel beautiful.

Sure, I could exercise, I could eat right. That would help a lot. But I don't think all of the fat would go away. It would stick around some places. That's just what happens. That's why people get surgery.

I want to save up for liposuction.

But I also want to, one day, buy a house.

Lipo versus a house... I think the house wins.

And once I buy a house, well, I'll have to pay for that house for many years to come.

And then I'll have children and they'll cost a fortune. And if I actually have them (and not adopt) my stomach will get even worse. And I'll want plastic surgery even more. But by then it will be impossible to be that selfish. The money will have to go to bills and health insurance for the family and my kids and their summer camps and college and...

And I'll never be able to enjoy being beautiful.

It Costs WHAT to Get a Passport These Days???

I lost my old passport and I'm traveling to Israel at the end of May. Crap. A new one, with expedited service, costs $179. Serves me right for losing my old one that wouldn't have expired until 2010. Oh well, this one will just last me until I'm 30 or something, so I can hopefully use it on a honeymoon!

So today I did all the things I thought I had to do to get a new passport. Printed out the forms and filled them out. I was ready for a quick (albeit painfully pricey) trip through the passport line at the local post office. But things can never be that simple in my life.

First off...

Went to Long's Drugs to get my passport photo taken. Stood at the photo counter for 5 minutes before a sales clerk noticed me. She called for a customer service rep to come to the counter. 6 minutes later and no rep had arrived. She paged the customer service rep again. 4 more minutes later, a customer service rep comes to the counter and I ask "can you do my passport photo?" I find out the one person who knows how to do passport photos there has gone to lunch. Buger.

Left Long's and went to Walgreens, which luckily is a few blocks away. Got my passport photo taken fairly quickly there. Was told it would take 10 minutes to print. So I started to wander around the store. The lady who told me that came and found me and let me know that someone else was printing a huge order so it would take more like 25 minutes.

25 minutes later I return and get my passport photos. Pay $8 for them, and I'm off to the post office, which is another 15 minute drive away.

Get to the post office and of course there are a few people in line. I wait, somewhat impatiently, but minimizing my impatience because I know I have every single item I need to get that passport as soon as I arrive at the front of the line, right? Right??

Well...

First of all, it turns out I didn't have the lost passport form filled out. Or maybe I did but I must have lost the lost passport form. (hah). So I stepped aside and filled that out. Then waited a little longer.

Finally, it was my turn again. I handed the woman the various items she needed to see or take to get me signed up for this new $179 passport.

She took one look at my birth "certificate" and informed me that it's not a certificate at all. It's a birth registration or something like that.

What?

It was the same stupid piece of paper I used last time I got a passport.

So she told me that I had to call up New Jersey, my home state, and request that they send me a new birth record so I could apply for a passport.

WHAT?

I'm traveling abroad on May 27. I already have my ticket. WHAT???

It should be ok. I went home, and called the NJ agency. They had an online site where I had to pay $38 for the new birth certificate and rush delivery of it. I still have to fax them a copy of my driver's license before they can send me anything.

I also called up the federal passport agency hotline and was told that it's wise to include another $17 check in my passport application to pay for rush delivery of the passport once they process it.

So all-in-all my lost passport is costing me about $200 to replace.

It's my fault for losing it and waiting until the relative last minute, but still, I'm a little p-o'd about all this. Especially after finding out that I owed $1243 on my tax return this year.

People My Age Are Stupid

...so says a new report by the AARP. In a survey of folks ages 19-39, the majority of them didn't seem to be worried about credit card debt, or the fact that they weren't saving enough for retirement.

I'm glad that I surfed on to An English Major's Money blog about two years ago. I don't remember how I got there, but reading her blog and other PF blogs made me feel more confident about investing and saving. I was almost too ashamed to invest or save at that point, given that I had money tucked away already. But then I realized how I needed to start making that money work for me, and not to feel bad for doing so.

But most 20-somethings are dumb about these things. If they're lucky, they've got an employee-sponsored 401k plan with match, and they contribute some of their earnings to that because their employer recommended it and salesman from mutual fund firms came and pitched the horrors of not being prepared for retirement in order to sell their high-fee funds. Unlucky and they'd be in credit card debt with no savings, no "emergency fund," and definitely no retirement fund for the future.

I'm so grateful to the personal finance blogging community for getting me on the right track.

Beauty Trends, a Sephora Gift Certificate, and $200

After three years of avoiding makeup-superstore Sephora to spend my $40 gift certificate, I finally gave in and decided to splurge. The show I directed opened on Friday night and I had failed to find a blue sweater to match the dress I bought, so in desperation I headed over to Sephora for my final touches.

I meant to just spend about $40 on a new foundation. Not that I really needed a new foundation, but the colors I had for summer were looking silly on my now-pale skin (it's ghostly, really) and I needed something a bit lighter.

Here's the rub - the day before I go to Sephora I wrote some content for my job about spring and summer beauty trends. I've been avoiding following the trends for a while, given that I have a bunch of makeup and I usually just buy what I think looks good on ME and not what the trends are. But I got really, really into the beauty trends for this spring/summer. Neon pink lipstick? Why, I don't own any neon pink lipstick, I thought. I also did some research on the best mascaras and despite knowing that the drug store brands are just fine I found myself longing for some Christian Dior Diorshow Blackout. All 20 some-odd dollars of it.

Well, I spent about 2 hours of "oohs" and "ahhs" in Sephora, browsing through the aisles, trying on makeup, and trying my darndest to avoid the sales people who kept asking "are you doing ok?" (Funny, when I finally needed help, a salesperson was nowhere to be found!)

Going to Sephora to buy "just a few" pieces of makeup is really a bad idea for anyone attempting to be somewhat frugal. After all was said and done I spent $200 - only $40 of that was covered by the gift certificate I went into spend. (Yea, yea, I know that's the point of gift certificates.)

But, on a positive note, I love my new makeup. I'm still not going to be a trend whore, so I'll wear it for years - until it gets really gross.

Then again, does that justify spending $25 on Dior lipstick? And then spending $10 on nearly-the-same-shade neon pink Sephora-brand lipstick that I now use to blend with the $25 Dior lipstick?

You all probably think I'm absolutely crazy, spending this much on makeup.

But I can't be the only one - otherwise Sephora would go out of business. But that place sure is always busy. Maybe everyone else goes in and has some self-restraint. But I go in once a year or every two years and splurge. It makes me feel good. I like looking pretty, and the older I get, the less pretty I feel. It's really sad that makeup - ie, face paint - helps me feel like I'm decent looking, but I'd rather spend a lot of money on makeup than my hair cuts. I mean, as I said in my last entry, I spend $60 on a cut, but I only do it twice a year. Some people are spending $60 every 6 weeks for their HAIR. So I end up spending that money on makeup. And I just love painting my face!

I worry about getting even older. Now, at 24, at least I don't have massive amounts of wrinkles. But what about when I turn 30... or 40? Old women buy a lot of expensive, often misleading beauty products in a quest to look younger. Eeks.

For now, though, I'm happy with my purchases. My Lorac Cheek Stamp (it's blush that's like a stamp, which kind of works and kind of doesn't, but it's never been so fun to use blush), my Diorshow mascara, my $4 Sephora lipliner (if you want cheap good-quality lipliner, go into Sephora and buy their brand, it's really nice, just don't look at anything else), my $25 Dior lipstick, my $10 Sephora lipstick, my $40 Laura Mercier foundation stick (which may or may not be in the right color for me, foundations always look weird on my pale-ass skin), my $30 Laura Mercier foundation primer (oil free, of course), and the $20 eyebrow pencil in a color that's actually right for my eyebrows (as opposed to the 10 $6 eyebrow pencils I've bought at drugstores over the years that are the wrong color for my brows!). I think that's all I got. Does that add up to $200?

I guess it does, with taxes and all.

Geez, makeup is expensive. But I must admit, I feel happiest after buying new face paint.

The Cost of Having Pretty Hair

I just read a post over at Saving for a Home of My Own that details the $$$ Saving Diva has spent over the years to perfect her coif en route to her currently frugal lifestyle. Her post is so great! She breaks down, by hair style, how much it has cost her to maintain over the years. $2225 a year for the bleach blond hair, $1374 for dyed brunette locks, and now $104 per year for the low-cost, low-maintenance version.

It's amazing how much money us girls spend on our hair. Even without going to fancy salons, the costs quickly add up if you follow the recommended "get your hair cut every 6 week" myth of the salon saleswomen.

When I was younger and my parents were paying for my hair maintenance, I would get my hair cut every six weeks. From middle school on, I got my hair highlighted and dyed. It must have cost my parents a small fortune! Sometimes I'd dye my hair myself with drug-store bought brands, but it would usually come out shitty and I'd have to get it redone at the salon.

After graduating college - now that I'm paying for my own hair care - I fall somewhere between "spending way too much money on my hair" and "frugal." I admit I like to splurge on my hair, when I get it done. But I just get it done about two to three times a year. $200 three times a year or so is not going to break the bank, but every three weeks would be awful!

I think it's important to have a good hair cut and style. Makeup you can buy cheap and you can go w/ just some concealer and maybe basic lipstick to look professional. But hair is so key in your look. It doesn't need to be dyed at all - I think the cut is what's worth spending the money on.

I used to go to supercuts for a while and spend $20 on each cut, but half the time I'd end up with crooked, messed up hair. I like my hair stylist now and she knows what would look good with my face shape. Sure, it costs $60 (plus tip) to get my hair cut. Then the dye is another $100. I don't do highlights anymore, they are way too expensive. And right now my hair is dyed my natural color, almost, so I may just let it grow out and stick to cuts until I go gray and need to start coloring again.

Speaking of tips (not roots) I wonder how many people actually tip their hairdressers. I always tip 20% if someone does a good job and usually tip about 10% if I don't like what they did and don't plan on coming back. If they really mess something up I won't leave a tip at all, but that's very, very rare.

My friend - who comes from a lower-income family (not poor or anything, just not upper middle class like my family) apparently never tips her hairdresser. She goes back over and over again and her hairdresser, who has been cutting her hair since she was a kid, doesn't seem to mind much at this point.

I just wonder... how many people tip their hairdressers and how much? It seems like the tipping cost alone adds up fast. But I am very cautious of tipping poorly to people who do things like cut my hair, etc, because I want to go back to them and I don't want them to make it awful the next time around.

How much do you tip your hair dresser?

Oy, my friend is financially hopeless.

Sorry my blog has been hijacked my posts about my friend, but my financial situation is nowhere near as dire (or dramatic) as hers, and I feel like my blog title "Her Every Cent Counts" is more suited to her.

The good news is that today I think maybe I opened the door for the opportunity to help her budget and such in the future. We've agreed that I'll help her come up with a budget if she helps me organize my room. Because my room is just as a mess as her bank account is.

The bad news is that the poor girl (and I don't mean "poor financially," although in some terms of the word that would be appropriate right now too.)

I've been covering her financial saga since last week, when I first found out just how deeply she was in consumer debt. Since then, things have taken a turn for the worst.

As I noted in "It's None of My Business, But... Part 2," my friend had a little collision with a parking meter the other day and chipped her tooth. The chip wasn't that bad, but due to not having dental insurance and no emergency fund, the $300+ the tooth fix cost her today is going to put her checking account into the red once again.

But I also found out some other things that I couldn't understand.

A few weeks ago she took a trip to LA with her friend who was auditioning for some reality TV show down there. This girl (the one in debt) is a really good friend (to a fault.) Both of the girls apparently didn't really have the money to take a trip to LA, but that didn't stop them.

That's fine. The concern I have with the whole situation is that my friend, Lisa, as I'm calling her, paid for the entire price of both plane tickets on her credit card... which, since they waited till the last minute, was about $500 total. Her friend, I'll call her Tammy, has yet to pay her back for the flight. She told Tammy that she could pay her back in installments, since she knows money is tight with Tammy too.

But now Lisa broke her tooth and needed to get it fixed. She has about $250 in her checking account and the tooth fix cost her over $300. She paid by check. Obviously this is not a good situation.

I felt the need to provide some advice on this situation, so I wrote to her and said that she should call the dentist and ask if they can hold off on cashing the check for a week or two. She needs the time to get the money into her account. Her mother might lend her the extra $100, but even if she does it will take a while for the check to clear. She'll likely be stuck with overdraft fees.

After talking about this, I started to bring up how I'm really bad with budgeting and how I'm working on getting better at it. By leading in with talking about my bad spending habits (which exist, I'm not lying about them just to get her to open up) she told me about how she has a tough time budgeting. So then we got into talking about how I am now into all this personal finance stuff and I'd like to help her figure that out if she'll help me figure out how to organize my room.

Hopefully this bartering arrangement will pan out.

That's what friends are for, right?

All of this has inspired me to think about writing a personal finance book. I've always wanted to write a book, but never really had a topic I was so passionate about. I'm not sure I know enough about finance to write a whole book about it, but then again it seems like a lot of idiots rewrite books in the self-help section and with a pretty cover and tantalizing descriptions, people still buy them.

It's None of My Business, But... Part 2.

So that friend I wrote about the other day... the one who is maxed out on her credit cards, works a part-time job and earns less than she spends more often than not... ended up accidentally chipping her tooth today. Besides it sucking that she now has a small chip in her tooth, the biggest problem is figuring how to pay to get it fixed. With no dental insurance, no room left on her credit card, and no emergency fund... well, I'm not sure how she'll figure this one out.

As a friend, I really want to lend her the money to get it fixed. But I realize friendships can end badly the second money gets involved. So I'll stay out of it. I figure her well-to-do boyfriend can help her out if worst came to worst.

Still, it's times like these when I wish I could say "you know, if you put the money you spend on your 2-day trip to Los Angeles, and the shoes and sunglasses you got there, into an emergency fund, these awful accidents wouldn't have to be that bad."

Of course, I just hold my tongue. It's not polite to say such things to friends.

It's one thing if you are trying hard to be frugal and you're in debt, its another if you're just over spending when you're making enough to live a comfortable life on your income. I don't understand how people can do the latter. 

Scientists figure out we're too horny for immediate gratification to save.

"It turns out that your brain is much more aroused by $1 today than by $1 tomorrow. And $1 six months from now barely registers," according to "new discoveries in neuroscience labs." Oh, come on, I could have told you that, and I'm no scientist.

Basically, for your brain to accept waiting for interest to accrue, it has to accrue at some impossible rates.

"For your brain to be willing to wait a mere three weeks for a higher payout, that $20 would have to grow at an annualized rate of roughly 4,800%."

Eeks.

I'm glad that I'm accepting saving, and potential interest on my savings, is a long-term investment. I don't even let myself accept that I've made the money I will be investing. If I for a moment acknowledge that I could be spending that money now, it would be much harder to lock it up in savings until I'm old and gray.

One interesting tidbit I found in the article is that "the average holding period for a stock, among individual and professional investors alike, is just over 11 months."

Whoa. I'm doing pretty good, then. I don't mind holding, even when I'm losing money. It's easy to do this because, again, I haven't accepted that I've earned that money. I'd like to save for a house or grad school, or some other large-ticket item, but at the moment all of those purchases seem so impossible to me, it doesn't matter much if I lose money. As long as I can keep making money, I know I'll be fine. I just need my rent payment for my studio and food money and I can deal. All the extras is just that - extra.

I can see why later in life, investing might get more complicated. Instead of extra income from investments being a luxury, when (/if) I have kids, it might become a necessity. But then I'd think my investing would become even more risk-averse.

Anyway, the brilliant scientists "found out" that we're bad at waiting for reward. We all have a little Veruca Salt "Daddy I want it now" in us. Is that so bad?

"...the temptation to buy dotcom stocks in 1999, energy stocks in 2005, real estate in 2006, emerging markets in 2007 or gold right now - what's hot when it's hot - is overpowering for many people, no matter how often they've been burned before."

I wonder if Gold will be like dotcom/energy/real estate. Hopefully not, as I'm investing somewhat heavily in the GLD ETF (although not that heavily just because I haven't really invested much money in my sharebuilder account yet versus my Vanguard Roth.

Psychology of Overspending: Buying Happiness

Check out the awesome interview with me over at LuluGal's HowISaveMoney.net in her weekly "meet the blogger" series!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, I'll admit it. I've been awful with my finances this last month.

I auditioned for this fashion assistant reality show that will air on CW and, prior to the casting, I used it as an excuse to spend way too much money on new clothes that I mostly didn't need.

The good news is I returned the things that I'll likely never wear. I've definitely passed my days of fearing going to a store and returning an item. Even though 59% of the time a return ends up equaling another purchase (just keep me away from the mall, ok?) I've gotten better about returning without buying something else, or buying something much cheaper to quench my spending arousal without bursting my budget.

Realizing that this need for spending is so deeply routed in my depressed childhood, well, it makes me want to spend a little less.

I think I've written about this briefly before, but I've been thinking a lot about it lately.

I was such a loner as a kid. I was "cootie girl" / odd girl out. I still am a bit of an oddball, but I've found my niche, I think. As a kid, it was unbearable.

All that made me feel good in life were compliments. Some of those compliments I'd earn from drawing a picture or something, but the easiest way I found to earn compliments was to wear something that would get me noticed.

Going to the store to shop was me the kid in a candy store. And my mom let me get pretty much everything I wanted. I didn't buy super expensive clothes, but at a fairly affordable department store like JcPenny, I could easily spend $500-$700 in one visit. I just bought a lot of things. My mom told me that if something fit I should buy a few pairs and have it in every color it comes in, even if I didn't like those colors.

Then we got home and my dad, who was making the money, would throw a fit about our spending. I felt guilty about that. It was, partially, my fault. That, I think, was one of the major rifts that formed between my parents early in their marriage. They shouldn't have been together in the first place, but without that shared understanding about finances, it couldn't work (yes they're still married and, no, they shouldn't be.)

As I grew up, the idea about buying happiness stayed.

I remember in middle school spending hundreds of dollars of my parent's money to buy my "friends" smallish $10 gifts. My friends was anyone I knew, I really, hoping that if I bought them some cute earrings they might like me a little more. I think maybe they did. I didn't get nearly the same amount of gifts in return, but then I was so naive and didn't realize that others at my own school didn't have the same sort of disposable income that my family did. Besides, people who I knew but weren't close friends with weren't going to get me gifts. Still, I liked the surprise they got when I gave them a gift. I thought for a milisecond, maybe they even liked me. And that was worth more than all the money in the world.

Nowadays, my biggest cause of overspending is the infamous "SALE" sign. I love feeling like I got a good bargain, as it gets me off in so many ways. First of all, I got to buy something (score) and secondly I got that something of preferably great quality for a large percentage off. The schadenfreude spot of my brain is laughing to itself and saying, with a Dr. Evil voice and pinky finger to my mouth - "hahahahahah, someone else actually spent $300 on this while I'm getting it for just $100!"

The problem, obviously, is that $100 is a lot of money and after a few items at $100 or $70, it adds up. Maybe not to what I would have spent on the original item at the department store, but I usually end up spending more on sales than when I go to a department store and buy one item at full price.

The only way I keep my spending in control now is by avoiding use of my credit card at all costs. But I've gotten to the point in my life where I want to start building my credit history aggressively, and I'm also getting fed up with the crappy rewards that my bank of america debit card offers (keep the change is kind of cute, but I'm not saving much with it.)

So I decided to sign up for some new credit cards.

I FEAR credit cards because I'm terrible at paying bills at times. I always end up with a late fee on a bill of $30 that ends up costing more than the actual bill.

OK, so I'm going to pay these bills on time, once I start using my new credit cards.

I've been reading a lot about the Chase Freedom Card and one of the American Express cashback cards (as soon as I remember the name I'll write it here.) I was reading about them on another frugal bloggers blog (as soon as I remember the name of where I'll add it here too).

So I never realized how much money I could save just by using a credit card for purchases, especially now that I'm spending quite a bit of money a year. I still can't put my largest purchase, my rent, on my credit card, but I can start saving by buying gas, clothes, food and other things on a CC. Sweet. I like me some savings.

For those of you interested in figuring out what credit card(s) would be best for you, I recommend checking out the Cash Back Credit Card calculator over at askmrcreditcard.com -- it seemes really helpful. I think it's accurate.

I'll be writing a more thorough post about credit cards and my cash back rewards in the future... once I actually get the cards, that is.

Bought a New Verizon Wireless Cell Phone

It's funny how the cell phone companies make it seem like you get some extra special deal on buying a new phone every two years. I guess some people like to get replacements of their gadgets every two years, but I tend to hold on to my electronics for longer than that. My iPod? I don't plan on replacing it for a long time. Heck, if it still works, I'll use it when I'm 50.

But cell phones... dare I keep one longer than two years? Never. Well, the truth is this time around I actually lost my last phone (about a month ago) and despite being confused as to where on earth I put it, I'm splurging on a new, discounted-with-two-year-contract phone.

My tastes in gadgets (and everything else) tend to go by looks first, features second, quality third. That's not always the best way to pick out a big-ticket item. Luckily with phones there aren't that many options... which makes it somewhat easier to shop and decide.

Yesterday I checked out the latest Verizon phones at their Circuit City store and was hoping to fall in love with one that would be free after the rebate and my contract discount. Of course, I fall in love with one that will cost me $129 after the various discounts. Oh bother.

After trying to get my heart set on one of the cheaper phones, I did some research on the different phones and decided I really, really, realllly wanted the $129 one. At least this year I did research, right? Last time I got a Verizon brand phone and despite being black and shiny it was a crappy phone. This time around I'm going for an LG (that supposedly gets good battery life and decent phone quality).

Was I totally stupid to spend $129 on a phone when I could have got one for free (or perhaps even found my old one that's likely hiding somewhere in my room... or at a friend's house?)

I can't wait to get the phone. I ordered it online, so it comes next week.


If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing to my RSS feed.

I spent ONLY $12.91 at Target.

Someone, anyone, give me a gold star.

I walked around the entire store as always, even though I went in to buy a notebook, a sponge and tape. I picked up a few items and then forced myself to put them back down as I wandered around. Holding the item is half of the excitement of shopping. I don't actually have to buy it.

I kept telling myself "no" (in my head, of course) and I made it out of the store with exactly what I had intended to buy (well, I bought a special soap-holding sponge scrubber thing, but I still did a good job.)

A for effort. A- for end result.

Who Needs $90 Wine?

Apparently the price of wine heavily influences how much people enjoy it. A team of researchers at Stanford and CalTech set out to prove this, and gave testers two glasses of wine to try. One was a "$90" glass of wine, and the other a "$10" glass of wine. What the subjects didn't know was that these two glasses of wine were actually identical.

"Specifically, the researchers found that with the higher priced wines, more blood and oxygen is sent to a part of the brain called the medial orbitofrontal cortex, whose activity reflects pleasure," reports CNET.

Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, and the Destruction of America

When I was little, and when I was not so little, all I dreamed about was being a celebrity. It was the end all of success. As a celebrity, you'd be praised for being unique (albeit slightly unique), and everyone would love you.

Fast forward to a reality check... those celebs that find themselves on the covers of the gossip rags often once were the same ones that I'd envy, except their lives and careers had spilled sour.

Poor Britney Spears. She certainly has some kind of mental condition, and it's obvious that it's not helped by being smothered by Paparazzi everywhere she goes. Her family (that is, parents and sibling) are apparently not the most stable bunch, but Britney made it big with some spunk and rock hard abs. Could she sing? Well, not really. She could hit the right notes and had a voice that you couldn't forget, for better or worse. But Britney had what we all wanted... innocence with a serving of sex appeal. Even if we hated her music, we wanted to be Britney... or like Britney. Same goes for Lindsey Lohan. We saw both of these girls when they actually were young and innocent (well, so they'd like us to believe). And then... well, they've grown up in the spotlight, and it seems that spotlight was just a bit too bright.

It's unfortunate, but I think we need celebrities like that to use for public floggings, as otherwise the rest of us minions would think that their lives were perfect because they were rich. Apparently, money doesn't heal all wounds. Sometimes it's pouring fuel on an already painful flame.

I feel for Britney and Lindsey. They feel like it's part of their job and their image to go out and party. To be a young celebrity in Hollywood. Only when drugs enter into the picture, you lose control. I've seen friends get eaten up by drugs, and it certainly is just as much a problem in Hollywood... where celebrities have enough money to overdose daily on the most gourmet offerings of the latest designer drug batch.

But who could blame them for needing that rush? If as Americans we hold celebrities on the top of the totem pole of what we wish we could be (which I assume is the case for other people too, since celebrities are still featured on the covers of magazines, and talking about celebrities has made stars of once-Internet-nobodies like Perez Hilton, those GoFugYourself girls, etc) then once you've made it to stardom... what's left? Better party it up when the going's good.

Not all celebrities turn into psychotic drug addicts, of course, but those that do surely get the most press. Is it good for their careers? If they can make a sober comeback, possibly. Everyone wants to root for the fallen celebrity, despite how much he or she may make fun of this person. If a celebrity truly falls from their divine status and cannot return, then that pops the fantasy of flawed perfection.

Truth is... Britney, Lindsey... they're just human. Sure they happened to have been born with extra lovely looks, and with some luck and being in the right place at the right time, they guaranteed themselves a future in show business.

It's funny how easy it is to forget that what they do is their JOB. Sure it's a pretty awesome job that pays well, but so is being the CEO of your own corporation, or a successful venture capitalist. The job comes with a lot of negatives as well. Privacy? Forget it. You're working around the clock as a celebrity. From the moment you leave your house to the second you shut the door and close the curtains.

Accepting this changes my extreme, almost obsessive desire to become famous. Or, now I'd like to become famous for writing something brilliant... doing something interesting... but I don't know if I'd want to be so (un)fortunate to be one of Hollywood's young actresses. If you've got one life to live, there's not perfect way to live it. If you're rich, you have nothing to work for. You've been raised on attention, so you need to work for the attention. Look at Paris Hilton. She doesn't need to work, but she does because without work she'd be just like any other NY socialite.

A few months ago I spent some time with my grandmother who lives in Las Vegas. At breakfast one morning, she spent some time complaining about Hollywood today, saying that everyone these days is ugly. I went through a list of celebrities and she said they're all ugly (except she liked Halle Berry for some reason). Anyway, I know the idea of "beauty" has changed over time, because a lot of these actor and actresses she found ugly happened to be my personal idea of aesthetic perfection. Still, I get her point -- beauty is no longer about health and youth exactly. Sometimes people admire the beauty of those who do lots of coke because Kate Moss chic is unbearably still in.

And all of that makes us, the American public, especially the female half of that, spend oodles of money trying to make ourselves look like these people who have lots of money. It's a vicious cycle of consumerism that is at the heart of America. Capitalism would still exist without celebrity, but what would it look like?

I'm not sure of the answer. In college, I took a class called the "sociology of celebrity" and it was by far the best class in my four years at school. Dissecting celebrity culture, both from the side of the everyman and the celebrity, is understanding America.

I actually read the entire textbook from cover to cover...