Pre-order Aion?

Aion is finally almost here. I have been looking forward to it for almost a year; I actually had it pre-ordered last October. But, in the interim, I have sworn off pre-ordering hot new games. I have just been burned too many times in the past couple of years; I pre-ordered Pirates of the Burning Sea, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online and suffered crushing disappointments. My resolution was recently tested with the release of Darkfall, but vindicated when my guild's division flamed out in less than two months due to game play issues, saving me the cost of the game.

I am oh so tempted, though. Aion is an NCsoft product, and NCsoft also published Guild Wars, which is the best MMO I have ever played. I canceled my Warhammer subscription in January, and I am suffering severe gaming withdrawal. Aion won't be out until September, but if I pre-order now, I can play the US betas. The next beta starts Friday, so I feel some pressure to decide before then. After all, if I am going to pre-order, I should get all the beta joy I can out of it. I also cherish a hope that, should I try the beta and hate it, I can cancel my pre-order.

Several people in my guild have been playing the Chinese beta and love it, but none of them are people that I know from other games, so I'm not sure how much weight to give their opinions. After all, I know people who love playing Eve Online, but that doesn't make it a good game. Ten Ton Hammer gave the first NA beta event a favorable review, but they didn't get to try any PvP.

What do you think? Should I give in to shiny beta temptation or wait a couple of months after release to see if the game actually has legs?

AnySoldier June Mailing

I try to mail out a care package to a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan every month. It is my small, personal way to say "Thank You" to those that serve my country. This year, I have not been as consistent about t as I would like. However, I was determined to get it done this month. I don't know anyone personally there; I get addresses from Any Soldier, Inc.

This month, I decided to see how frugal I could be and still come up with a good care package. Here is my final result:


At the Any Soldier, Inc. website, the soldiers can request specific items. As part of my frugal challenge to myself, I determined only to send things that were specifically requested.

First I looked around my house. I had:

(1) Toothbrush - given to me by my dentist at my last visit, but not my brand.
(2) Pantyliners - accidentally ordered (I meant to get the X-long ones); not worth sending back (postage would cost more than I paid)
(3) Pens - I buy these in bulk at Sam's, because I hate looking for a pen
(4) Books - I found that I somehow had duplicates of these two books in my collection

Out of pocket costs = $0.

Then I went to Rite Aid, where I had the end of a $25 gift card that I got for transferring a prescription. With it, I bought (all prices include tax)

(5) Shampoo - $1.13
(6) Conditioner - $1.13 x2
(7) Large Hershey Bar - $1.08
(8) Microwave Popcorn - $1.38 x2

and I also paid for

(9) Off Sportsman - $4.35

At Winn-Dixie, I bought

(10) Crest Toothpaste - $1.00

At Wal-Mart, I got

(11) Suave Deodorant - $1.06
(12) Notebook - $0.27

Walgreens was having an advertised sale on their store tampons - 2 packages for $4. Normally, I buy myself natural 100% cotton tampons, but these soldiers had specifically requested plastic applicators. As far as I know, there are no natural cotton tampons with plastic applicators available on the market. So I saved a ton of money vs. what I would usually buy, Natracare Organic All Cotton Tampons. I buy them in bulk, but they are still almost $5 each. So,

(13) Plastic Tampons - $2.18 x2

I was doing well - under $20. I got it all packaged up ...

... then realized that I still had a big space. You can't see it in this picture, but its under the pens. I did not want to waste a big space; since this is the flat rate box, it wouldn't be frugal.

So I stopped by CVS on the way home from shopping for swimsuits, and purchased

(14) Ivory Soap - $1.78











At the end of the day, I did not keep it under $20; the total came to $20.05. I count the items I bought on the gift card in this total, since I could have used the card to purchase other necessary items for myself.

In a final effort at frugality, I am trying out the Post Office's pre-paid shipping services. According to the website, I will save $.45 by printing the label myself. According to the postage notice at my post office, I will save $2.45. I am using the large, flat-rate box, so weight is no issue (it comes in at ~9 lbs). This is my first time to try this, so I am hoping that it is as simple as the post office website said that it would be.

Here it is, ready to be sent:


Total Including postage (if pre-paid shipping works): $31.55. Not bad for a month's worth of toiletries and a few extra goodies.

His Majesty's Dragon - Free for a limited time

One of the neat things about owning a Kindle is that Amazon gives you free books. Of course, they hope to entice you to buy more. I am OK with that - if I like a book enough to pay money for it (rather than borrow it at the library) it makes my day.

I understand that, if you have an iPhone, you can download an free app that allows you to read Amazon Kindle content on your phone. Details here (directs you to Amazon.com).

If the price below shows as zero, you can still get this book free.


Anything free is worth what you paid for it. I liked it so much that I also bought the next 4 novels in the series and made them my vacation reading.

The series is set in the Napoleonic wars. Except that, in Ms. Novik's world, dragons inhabit regions all over the world. All regional dragons possess different characteristics; some are acid breathers, some are fast, some are more intelligent than others. And the nations of the world use them to wage war.

A British Navy captain captures a Chinese dragon egg. No one on board knows anything about dragons, except that they have to be tamed at birth, and there is no time to get the egg back to England. Because it is Chinese, it is infinitely precious, because the Chinese breed the best dragons in the world. Due to misadventure, the Navy captain tames the dragon, and thus is thrust into the word of the Dragon corps, a licentious, freewheeling lot, despised by the Navy, that even accepts women into their ranks. Of course, they see the Navy as a bunch of supercilious prigs, and most of them treat him accordingly.

This book contains enough classic fantasy elements to make it a rollicking good read, without so many cliches that you can anticipate the entire ending ten pages in. By the fifth book in the series, Ms. Novik has taken her characters to a different place than I guessed at the end of book one, or even at the end of book two.

It's not deathless prose. But if you like fantasy, and you need a summer read, I would suggest it. If you don't like ebooks, it also comes in paper here.

Credit Cards are not the Devil

I read a lot of PF blogs, and a lot of PF bloggers love Dave Ramsey. They love him so much that I think some of them would like to bear his children (whether or not that would be biologically possible). So I finally broke down and read The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness, admittedly mostly to see what all the hype was about.

I don't want to knock the guy too hard, as his system obviously works for a whole lot of people, and you haven't noticed me writing any bestselling PF books lately. He has some good advice: figure out what you make, spend less than you make, know your debt, pay down your debt, make sacrifices now to save yourself the pain of compound interest on your debt, etc. However, his methodology, the snowflake, seems counter-intuitive to me. I think that my brain just doesn't work the same way his does - to me, 1K of debt is the same whether I owe it to one creditor or 10. So paying down smaller amounts, rather than higher-interest amounts, just doesn't make sense. As far as pop-culture PF books go, I strongly prefer Suze Orman's The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke, as I felt that it had better debt reduction and savings strategies for the way my brain works.

My real issue, though, is his insistence that those who follow his plan cut up all credit cards. Don't get me wrong - I have gotten in trouble with credit cards before myself. However, the problem was not the cards, the problem was that I spent more than I made. Once I solved the problem, credit cards became a very useful tool for me.

I make over 1K a year by using credit cards. I currently have 4 - an AMEX, 2 Mastercards, and a Discover. None of them has any annual fees. I use whichever card will give me the most cash back wherever I happen to be buying stuff. I try to get Mr. Goat to do the same, but he doesn't have the same love of cash back that I do, so he does so only when he remembers. I pay all four balances off each month.

Additionally, I don't have the problems inherent in carrying cash. I don't worry about being mugged with this week's grocery budget in my purse. I don't drop cash accidentally. I can tell panhandlers straight out that "I never carry cash," thus removing the temptation to give them money. (I refuse to give panhandlers money as a matter of principle, but my principles are easily tested by a hard luck story.) My wallet doesn't present any temptation to my housekeeper.

Finally, as part of my budgeting process, I track all my purchases. Credit cards make that way easier - if I somehow lose a receipt, I know that it will show up online in a couple of days. If I ever get really organized and start tracking using Quickbooks, I'll be able to download my tracking automatically.

The credit card companies pay me for all this convenience. All I have to do is pay my balances on time, in full, every month. Since I am checking them every couple of days to crosscheck the accuracy of my tracking, it is easy to schedule a payment as soon as the bill comes due. The power of the Internet has allowed me to do this even while living in China.

More importantly, if you close all of your credit card accounts, it will wreck your credit score. Mr. Ramsey seems to think that you don't need a good credit score if you aren't looking to borrow, but the truth is that everyone from insurers to employers judge you by your credit score nowadays. It may not be fair, but it's the way it is.

I am not saying that credit cards are for everyone. If you don't enjoy item-by-item tracking, and prefer the jar method, cash is probably an easier and more efficient day-to-day option for you. Some people truly cannot restrain their spending with a credit card in their name; I agree that they should forgo the use of them. A universal ban, however, seems unreasonable to me.

Canceling all your credit cards is a lot like joining AA - you are making a radical behavior change that will put you outside the norm for our society, with all the consequences that that entails to your credit score. If you are an alcoholic, you may need AA. If you quit drinking as part of a plan to lose a little weight, AA is overkill. Mr. Ramsey is treating all his readers as though they have a credit card addiction; I don't think that we all do.

All addictions entail denial; do you think I am making a good point, or trying to use a good cover story?

Chocolate

Thanks to Won't Go Down Without a Fight, I too have been promised free chocolate (check my mailbox in 4-6 weeks).

I don't actually eat Mars-brand chocolate, as I avoid high fructose corn syrup. However, I regularly send care packages to soldiers in Iraq through Any Soldier, Inc., and Mars products are one of the things soldiers request.

June Baby Goats

We had some new baby goats born in the last couple of days. They are adorable, especially before they have quite figured out the walking thing. Here one of Cinnamon's new babies has just tripped over her sibling. She's probably about two hours old at this point.


It doesn't take long, though, before they have the fundamentals figured out. This is about 10 miniutes after the first picture.


Cinnamon started to get a little aggravated that I was hanging around her babies so much, so I went off to check on our other new baby.


This is Chica and her new baby, who was born the day before Cinnamon's babies.


Hard to believe that they will look like this soon!

Is our students learning?

I went to DonorsChoose.org, an organization that connects donors to classrooms in need. This was the front page request.