Sietch Creare is far from a finished home, in a manner of speaking, but Tobie and I certainly love it. It's a surprisingly good area and we have access to pretty much everything we need. Plus on a more personal level, I'm able to be near both sites for my office and I'm closer to my family, thus visits aren't as unreasonable anymore. We're still thinking about all the little improvements that need to be addressed to really complete this apartment like sufficient shelving for our books, ways to store the rest of our clothes, an additional counter top for other kitchen appliances and supplies and a couch for entertaining guests and random snuggling on nights spent at home. If course these kinds of improvements all need money and so it'll take a while before we get everything in place.

Now a situation has sort of come up in recent weeks that sort of affects our timeline for finishing the outfitting of the Sietch completely. Apparently the owner of the unit is keen on selling it off, which means that if it goes to a new owner, we'll have to negotiate new terms with that person at the end of our contract. Or there's still the possibility that we won't be allowed to stay entirely and will ultimately have to move again, which naturally sucks.

On the other hand, the current owner is amenable to us possibly negotiating for the unit, which means trying to figure out how to come up with the down payment amount and eventually a way to finance the whole thing over the next ten years or so. It's a pretty big decision and getting into something like this inevitably raises questions about how sure things are going to be over the next decade. Will we have the same jobs that we do now? Will we be able to survive the payments? Do we even want to commit to getting this particular unit and not look outside for potentially better opportunities? Heck, the devil's advocate in my head even argues whether or not it's too early to commit into this kind of an undertaking given that Tobie and I have only been living in the Sietch together for roughly five months. So many factors certainly come into play.

It's definitely something that will require a lot of careful thought and of course we're limited in terms of the time left to make a decision before some other buyer may snatch up the place. The Sietch is definitely comfortable and we're so far away from really maximizing the unit's potential so it's hard to make a final call just yet. Argh! Things rarely settle down in these modern times we're living in, eh? The problems aren't necessarily about survival anymore, but it doesn't mean the challenges are any less daunting.

But enough of that kind of stress - it's time to get ready for this week's game!

---

OMG - this is more realistic then you think. Damn you Meyer! You've ruined vampires forever!

Work was okay. There are potential changes on the horizon that I'm preparing to deal with. Crossroads are always tricky.

Tobie and I made a quick trip to Shopwise today to complete the cooking shopping list. Today we picked up a decent frying pan that can double as a sauce pan (or vice-versa) and a modest pot (although technically I think it's a Dutch oven). With the addition of these two items, we now have everything we need to start some REAL cooking, and tonight I have a major dish planned. My thanks to my sister Mina for sending me the recipe - wish me luck! I've done all the prep work now before bed so later I just have to bring everything out, fire up the pan and get cracking! I'm so excited!

Funny thing about Shopwise - I keep forgetting to keep my receipts. You see, I've been running off a pretty set routine when it comes to my finances - purchases are made, receipts are brought home, expenses are logged in my tracker then I shred the receipts and throw them away. I keep doing this without thinking and this has cost me the option of already redeeming my Wise Card - the Shopwise version of a loyalty card. Bugger. Today's shopping racked up a considerable amount since we also picked up a few incidentals and a colander for future pasta cooking so today I immediately gave my receipt to Tobie for keeping and just kept my credit card receipt to use to track my expenses. Seriously, sometimes my own habits, routines and patterns get the better of me. Boo that!

The video collection has become even more insane. Beyond all the anime I've copied from Seth's collection, the ridiculous amount of DVDs and VCDs that we have, we also have all the downloaded movies and videos. I was pleased to find out that Tobie had downloaded copies of some major Mel Brooks classics - Spaceballs and History of the World Part I! I've been scouring the DVD racks over and over for these movies without much luck and it's so amazing to have copies again. I tried watching a bit of Space Balls before work and found myself laughing before the jokes were told or the punchlines delivered. It just goes to show that I have Mel Brooks hardwired into my brain or something. It's a shame we don't have good comedy like that again.

It's the middle of the week and already I can feel the looming pressures of an event-full weekend. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is showing this week plus there's Balasa / OGM this Saturday and the stars know what else to contend with. I hope I get enough time to rest and more importantly to experiment with cooking more. Tee hee.

I better get some sleep lest I wake up too late to cook my planned dinner!

---

I've said it before and I'll say it again - it's all a matter of perspective. =P

I just realized I had greeted Freddy a day early. Oh well, I guess I'm not yet fully acclimated to be back on night shift thinking or something. Here's one more Happy Birthday for Freddy just to make sure, haha!

The moving preparations continue to progress well enough. Apart from the physical packing of things to bring and the much calmer discussions with Brian |kitchengod| about how to divide certain shared collections, I've started making the phone calls to get my essential services moved from Vella to the new place in Cubao. It seems safe enough to assume we'll be moving to the new place over the weekend in order to get fully settled i by the end of next week so it's a pretty decent time to start scheduling these things.

I've first called SkyCable to get my cable service moved for a hefty P2,000 fee (the same as new service), but at least I'll be back in a DigiBox area, which means a much clearer picture. I'll also have the option to customize the cable package a lot more with individual add-on channels so I plan on downgrading back to Silver and just adding the channels I liked in their Gold package, which are Discovery and Animal Planet, along with History, which is currently a Platinum offering. I'll have to wait for the new service to be set up at the new location before making changes to the package though, so that'll be after Friday next week, which is when my appointment is set. I have to admit that I've yet to have a problem with dealing with their customer service team - nice one, SkyCable!

I then called Globelines to schedule a disconnection date for the wireless broadband service we have here at Vella. That wasn't a very good experience, to say the least, and my problems are on-going. First, you can't disconnect a service over the phone - you need to submit a written letter to one of their business centers instead. Second, apparently there's an early termination fee that applies since I'm canceling within my lock-in period when the agent who initially signed me up stated there was no lock in. Darn it! To cancellation penalty is a whopping P1,990, which is equal two month's worth of service fees on top of any pending balances I might have for the remainder of my service term with them. I considered the possibility of moving my service, but that involves a service fee of P1,890, which is ridiculous for a wireless service that does not involve cabling or significant installation expertise on the side of a technician. Given how the service isn't at all great for extensive downloading, I'm in no mood to retain it and thus I'm probably better off killing the darn thing entirely. I'll see if I can get them to waive the cancellation fee when I go to the business center over the weekend.

That just leaves setting up an install date with Bayantel for their DSL service. I already have the forms filled out (as emailed to me by their customer service / sales group) and it's just a matter of sending it over with the document requirements and settling the initial payment. I'm hoping I manage things to be as seamless as possible in order to get fully set up as soon as possible, but then again these things are bound to take time, of course.

All this is what I tend to consider to be the easy part. The harder bit will always be the actual packing, the moving and then the dreaded unpacking. Moving is such an exciting and frustrating process since there's always the buzz of new things and the challenge of trying to figure out where to put everything and finding a proper place for everything you decide to bring with you. It'll be an interesting month ahead, but then I'm pretty confident things will go well. Fingers crossed!

---

You have to admit, it's a weird process for nature to develop, hehe

Today's the birthday of two of my trainers at work - Camille and Mayda. Happy Birthday to both you ladies! I hope things are still going well.

The weather continues to balance on the head of a pin, it seems. It's like it's confused about whether it wants to go on and rain or if it wants to return to the blistering heat we've come to associate with summer. It's resulted in some pretty comfortable moments of nice, cool weather while alternating with mild extremes of sudden rains or heat spikes. I'm still not complaining - this has to be better than embracing one end of the spectrum over the other.

The weekend looms beyond the horizon, and further till Holy Week, and this is going to be the first time in a long time that I'll be seriously taking time off from work. I can't remember the last time I ever did anything like this apart from the beach trips Brian |kitchengod| and I have taken in the past. Despite my non-religious leanings, it seemed like a good enough time as any to get some rest even if I don't necessarily go out of town. I just plan on relaxing, getting some blogging, reading and DVD-watching done and of course hanging out with friends.

I finally opened that time deposit this morning - it was nothing amazing, but still, it certainly made me feel good to accomplish that much. It's pretty much a bare minimum fund and despite interest rates being what they are, it steal beats standard savings accounts or leaving them in a hole in the ground as we weather out the storm that is the global recession. I hope to keep this up over the next few months and either open more time deposits, start bigger time deposits or build up enough funds for more serious investment options. With things as crummy as they seem to be, it's certainly a buyer's market and I feel it's a good time to start investing since the returns in 10-20 years should be more than worth it. The key to all this is thinking long term and being able to risk a bit more than the usual.

Yeah, I guess I am in more of a risk-taking mood as of late.



Faraker's training progressed at a highly unusual rate. It wasn't entirely clear what had happened during that first planar shift lesson, but the effects had been generally positive. He now had access to memories that were not necessarily his - at least not the Faraker of the present. However, there seemed to be no clear pattern to his newfound skills and abilities and he would flip-flop between knowing higher level spells and yet not knowing some of the more fundamental charms and enchantments. Thus despite his greater awareness of the workings of the world, he still had to go through all the grueling drills, lessons and exercises in order to ensure nothing was missed.

His primary instructors were Dawn and Gorval, but over time they entrusted him to other members of the Order so he could be exposed to other disciplines and areas of expertise. The whole time Faraker had been strictly instructed not to reveal too much of his new memories in order to avoid further alarm and panic surrounding his presence at the Tower. The matter of him being an innate magic user was still up for consideration and adding in this most recent development probably wouldn't help things.

Today he had been assigned yet another new instructor. He had been told to wait for her at the main gardens near the center of the Tower - a magically preserved place despite the lack of natural sunlight. The gardens were certainly beautiful and the abundance of life and green growth had Faraker wistfully thinking of his former home in the Forests of Vohan. He had been raised to have a certain affinity for the land and all that grew from it and living in the somewhat sterile conditions of the Tower had started to get to him without him realizing it. Arranging for the meeting here was probably Dawn's doing - she was always concerned for his emotional well-being.

Well, well, Dawn never told me you'd be a pretty one. Faraker was surprised at the mental incursion and quickly searched for the source of the message. All he could see around him were the various flowers and trees and the occasional bird hidden amongst the branches. Dawn said you were smarter than most, but clearly you're having some difficulty finding me. the voice taunted. Most mental communication tended to come out flat and emotionless and yet hers was vibrant and colorful. He tried to still his thoughts and focus on finding her amidst the distractions provided by the gardens.

As Dawn had reminded him over and over before, the trick to overcoming such mental challenges was maintaining one's calm while letting the magic boost his natural abilities. As he let the magic seem into his consciousness, he could see the gardens alive in a completely different way. The abundance of life was like an explosion of colors and sensations - a certainly beautiful display, which sadly only acted as "noise" at this point. His mystery guest was using the abundance of life as a shield to hide herself with. She was very good, he had to hand it to her. He couldn't detect any unevenness or irregularity on the patterns presented by the gardens.

He felt a sudden tap on his shoulder but as he turned, he saw nothing but more of the verdant green around him. Not only was she crafty, but apparently she was fast. He tried extending his will as a sort of net in order to feel out her presence should she come that close again, but it was difficult to maintain this level of mental activity for long. Still, he was certainly challenged by his "assailant" and was determined to prove his worth.

She was darting around the gardens, that much he could determine. He could catch whispers and echoes of her movement around him as she tickled the fringes of his mental net surrounding him. Whenever he'd try to pursue her, she'd completely vanish into the background and nothing he could do seemed to be able to bring her out.

Finally, he felt a strong push from behind him, sending him sprawling onto the ground. "Enough games, I suppose," came the taunting voice of his instructor for the day. "Despite what Dawn has told me, it seems you still have a long way to go. You certainly put a lot of effort into things, I'll give you that." He rolled over to face her and was surprised at her beauty. She had rich olive skin and an intricately braided set of flowing black hair that seemed to shimmer with a hint of blue or purple here and there. Her eyes were unusual though - he couldn't tell if they were blue or black either. Whatever they were, they complimented her somewhat elfin features with a generous taste of the exotic. Her beauty left him somewhat speechless.

She rolled her eyes as he gawked at her. "Oh please, you're such a boy. You'll probably lose interest once you realize how old I really am, haha." She offered him a hand as he picked himself up off the ground. This quickly turned into a hearty handshake that was somewhat exaggerated on her part. "My name is Balouisse, but friends call me Bal. I'm here to show you just how little you know." she prodded. Despite the barb, Faraker couldn't help himself from smiling.

---

Yeah, some things you only learn with the passage of time, hehe.

First off, birthday greeting go to a good buddy of mine from high school, Gino |floopate|. Happy Birthday, Gino! Don't party too hard! =D

It's Holy Week next week, and while I'm hardly religious these days, I've managed to negotiate getting the week off entirely as my boss and I sort of take turns in manning the fort. I get next week off and he gets the one the week after - it all sort of works out. I don't have definite plans yet for the time away from the office, but there are some possibilities coming up. Either way, I definitely plan on relaxing and having fun before things get busy again with the implementation proceedings of our new campaign.

In other news, I'm almost done reading Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, as lent to my by Tobie, and it is just an amazing book. Don't let appearances deceive you - what first appears to be some lame comic book is actually an intellectual study of what makes up comics and the history and philosophies behind the alternative art form. It was written by the brilliant Scott McCloud, the same guy who was tasked with creating the comic promoting Google Chrome. If you claim to be a fan of comics in general, than you can't go through life without taking the time to read this book.

I feel so geeky these days. How fun!

Ended up putting off going to the bank for tomorrow. There's no real rush to the time deposit creation and I'll be going home late tomorrow anyway, so the bank will be on my route home. That has to help to some degree, right? And thus I justify this to myself, hehe.



Shortly after the Davmin had dismissed Chi'tairn and sent her back to the Marauder, she was joined by the Avatars returned from their data retrieval mission. From the looks of their armor, they had taken significant damage during the mission and Shift was in dire need of new material in order to get back to full strength. She sent them off to recharge, repair and download their memory cells into the main computer - it was the most efficient way to debrief the three robots and to understand how a stealth data retrieval mission could end with a firefight significant enough to do that much damage to Shift.

She had her own tasks to get to as well - trying to figure out who this "Yogandan" character that the Davmin had mentioned.

As she made her way to her central command station, she found some comfort in the feel of the ship's engines reverberating ever so slightly through the deck plates beneath her feet. The ship had never been designed with aesthetics in mind and thus was mainly cold metal walls, lines upon lines of protective runes and wards and muted lighting. Given she was the only living being on the vessel, there was no real need to dress things up. However the small imperfections like how the engines hummed, the various systems chimed their ready status beeps or cycled through various cycles of display screen messages all gave the Marauder a certain sense of character that Chi'tairn had come to know very well over the past few centuries. The unique combination of high technology and ancient magical lore had resulted in an amazingly unique ship indeed.

Service droids ambled past her as she finally reached her quarters. It didn't take much effort for her to snap the release triggers on her helmet and settle in at her primary console. It would take some time yet before the Avatars were fully "debriefed" and so she opted to start the search for the mysterious Yoganden. An initial run of the ship's master database came up with nothing apart from a few obscure references here and there in various legends, myths and folktales across the Multiverse. That did not seem like much on the surface, but the scale of occurrences and references was staggering - how does one central figure appear in so many tales in completely different universes?

She began to sort through the stories at her disposal and soon a clear archetype for the character began to form. In all of the stories, Yoganden was some sort of a wizard or some other magic-wielder. He was sometimes the hero but more often than not he seemed to be the villain, a dark figure who commanded armies of fanatical zealots serving various incarnations of demons and other dark creatures. Even in cases where he was depicted as the hero, he was presented as the kind who would do anything to get the job done, thus making significant sacrifices in the name of whatever cause he was fighting for. It bothered Chi'tairn to some degree that she had never heard of this man before despite how widespread he was across the Multiverse, if the stories could be believed.

This was one of those time she wished she still had full access to the Gossamer's Library - their archives were equal to none in terms of the full sum of knowledge across the Infinite Planes and the depths of their archives was constantly growing with each new member joining the Order and each new missions accomplished. The Marauder had been able to tap into those records one last time before she left the Order but everyone beyond that was simply based on her own investigations across the planes. This Yoganden figure unnerved her - how could a figure appear in so many dimensions and yet not catch the interests of the Order? Their primary purpose was to safeguard the realms and to not notice someone as prevalent as this was highly unusual.

Unless that's precisely what Yogandan had ensured - that he remains largely invisible to the attentions of the Order. If he could manage that, then he was definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Chi'tairn read on in silence, continuing her next move.

---

Now here's something handy for those who will eventually marry...LOL

Welcome to April. Happy April Fool's Day! It's not like this has ever been that big of a holiday over here, but I suppose I'm western enough in my thinking to sort of continue with the greeting. It's better than actually pranking someone, right? Plus today is also the birthday of beloved fantasy writer Anne McCaffrey. Happy Birthday!

The weather has been a tad odd, and yet still pleasant since yesterday. There's been a little rain here and there but overall it's just been pleasantly cool and not overly humid. It's certainly made it a lot easier to sleep in the day, which is an essential skill for any call center worker. I'm also glad it hasn't happened to rain while I'm on my way to or from work (*knocks on wood*) and I just wish things would stay in this area for a while longer. It's hard to say really, but ultimately summer is just around the corner so it probably doesn't make much sense not preparing oneself for the coming heat.

I've been a good financial planner in the past few weeks. You see, it starts with the fact that my sick leave conversion finally got credited last pay out and since I managed my leaves such that I only used my vacation time and my compensatory time off days to manage my times away from the office while leaving my SL credits untouched meant a lot of money paid out in cash. Sweet. Now instead of considering what to purchase with this new influx of cash, I carefully weighed my options and came up with a pretty nifty plan.

It all started with me determining how much extra cash I actually had. When all was said and done and the government took the lion's share of my money in taxes, I still had a decent amount (although it was significantly smaller than it originally was). With the amount of cash left to me plus a little research of what BPI, my current bank, had to offer, I found that I had enough cash for two major financial moves. One was to finally open a Maxi-Saver account, which is great since it has higher interest rates than a standard savings account, it gives a bonus 1% per annum interest bonus for any month when you don't make a withdrawal and yet it maintains the flexibility of a deposit account. Second, I still had just enough left over to open a decently-sized time deposit that I can pretty much have roll-over and earn compound interest as needed as extra money to grow. I made sure to study the interest rate tables to determine the minimum cash needed and the maximum interest that I could earn while still keeping things flexible enough such that I can pull out the money in a timely fashion if the need came up. This left me with just depositing P10,000 and setting it on auto-rollover every quarter. I didn't see the point in having the interest deposited in my savings account when I could just bank the interest and earn more through compound interest.

And they said high school mathematics had no purpose in real life. =P



As per protocol, the station commander too a shuttle out to the Excalibur to formally welcome the Imperial Tactician. No Fleet Admiral was allowed to leave their vessel as a safety precaution in light of unfortunate events that had occurred during the last war. Station Commanders were normally somehow local in terms of the sector in order to promote confidence in the government. Naturally this led to a limited degree of mistrust of these assets and strict controls had been put in place to protect core Imperial Officers and ships. Thus Commander Piers was not flying a lone shuttle to dock with the Excalibur alone.

Ulsdan Crai never left his command center, leaving the duties of debriefing the Commander to his subordinates. He was far too engrossed in the on-going analysis and data-sifting. As logical as he was, he had learned to trust his instincts long ago - they were never very detailed or significantly insightful, but they were inevitably on the mark somehow. He felt it now, as soon as they completed their download of the stations logs. The key to finding the rebels and rooting out their network of collaborators was somewhere here.

Crai had never been very good at trusting others when it came to analyzing data. He had no doubt of the raw skills the techs in his fleet but they lacked the innate appreciation for the intricacies of how information could flow from one location to another. It wasn't just about running the AIs to find mathematical patterns in how the data flowed - it was about understanding what the people involved meant, what their potential motivations were and which behaviors were out of pattern. That was something one could only learn through time and with experience or a mind as uniquely calculating and developed as Crai's. At least, that was his expert opinion in the matter. And thus he still devoted time to going through the data himself, checking and re-checking the works of the other tech teams.

He already had multiple AIs that he had designed himself sifting through the countless ship logs, maintenance reports and communications traffic when a bridge ensign called his attention. "Tactician Crai, Station Commander Piers insists on meeting with you. He claims to have important information that he didn't wish to entrust even to a secure channel. He claims he needs to inform you of the matter in person." Crai barely looked up as the ensign relayed his message - his black eyes continued to dart to and fro as he studied the streaming data in front of him. It was at that precise moment that the pattern finally emerged - the key to everything.

"Ensign," Crai began in his cool, almost monotone voice. Relay orders to the fleet, execute fleet maneuver 217. I will designate target zones. Execute in 3 minutes and 27 seconds. Mark." The ensign's changed into one of distinct shock as the blood drained from his face. "Begging your pardon Tactician, but are you certain?" he asked sheepishly.

Ulsdan Crai brought his steely gaze to bear upon the young ensign. His jet black eyes were unwavering in their intensity that even the red lines of fatigue clearly tainting the whites of his eyes could even attempt to diminish. He quickly drew his side arm and shot the ensign directly between the eyes. The young man was killed instantly. "I gave an order!" he shouted as he resumed his post. Execute in 3 minutes, 3 seconds."

The fleet began to assume a complex englobement formation around the Starbase, all weapons priming. The Starbase did not immediately pick up on the hostile intentions of the Third Fleet before it was too late.

---

Statistical Voyeurism - now THERE's a concept that'll really grow on me, LOL

Today's the birthday of a high school classmate, Marco. He's been in New York for like ages now and it's a good thing we somewhat hear from him periodically. Although he probably won't be able to read this message, but here's a Happy Birthday, Marco! Don't be such a stranger!

Today I pretty much got to go home on time - in fact I made it a point to do so. After spending an extra 3+ hours at the office for the previous two working days, it seemed prudent to make sure I didn't spend extra time at the office if I didn't have to in order to help my body recover from the physical stress. The extended hours have certainly made my subsequent work shifts a bit more of a struggle given the generally urge to fall flat on my keyboard and catch up on sleep.

I know, I know, if I'm really that sleep, I wouldn't be blogging right now but I am. So sue me.

My long overdue annual increase finally kicked in today, which is of course a good thing. The amount doesn't seem to much at the end of the day but of course this is without me seeing my actual payslip. Once I have that, I can really figure out what my new basic salary even in the absence of the actual documentation for it. I'm not exactly desperate for money, but of course every bit is bound to help and the added expense of supporting Vella has certainly limited my social activities. At least it's helped me save money a tad more along with getting a somewhat higher level of physical activity into my regimen, which has supposedly resulted in a certain degree of weight loss. Or so some people tell me, I dunno really.

Of course an increase in pay (regardless of size) will mean a need to re-evaluate the budget and re-determine how much out allocations are going to be. Since it's based on the percentage of our total expenses versus our total income as a couple, it'll lead to adjustments in the percentages, which will ultimately lead to slightly new values. I doubt the changes will be that significant but I know I'm going to enjoy the exercise of re-running my budget calculator to come up with the new numbers. Math can be so relaxing.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be free on Saturday night since Brian |kithengod| is probably going to go clubbing and despite the added income, I don't quite feel like going out just yet. A movie night might be fun and of course Vella is always open to guests willing to make the trek - just lemme know if you're interested in dropping by. Seriously, I wouldn't mind the company if you won't, hehe.

I really ought to plan these things further in advance. Oh well, I'm working on it.

---

I'm pretty sure I'm well past this point - it's just the trick of trying to figure out when it happened...

Pretty tired right now. It was a pretty busy shift last night and a rather frustrating morning today. Just one of those days, I suppose. Don't get me wrong, I'm not in a mad mood or anything - I'm just pretty beat beyond just the physical sense of things.

Work was busy in a nice way. My primary client (for now) sent out a challenge of sorts to all the vendors to design the training materials for the new spring promotions to be launched later this quarter, and naturally I was pretty excite about the opportunity. It's being positioned as a contest even though we have no idea what the "prize" will be but I'm good with just the potential bragging rights we might get from this venture if the bulk of our materials gets included in the final version of the module. Deck design can be a generally fun activity when it's for training (as opposed to preparing formal presentations) and it's also a good opportunity for me to sit down with Mau, my trainer for the account, and give her a few tips on making training presentations with greater impact. It's strange that I've actually learned to do a lot better on PowerPoint than I used to because of all the forced (and usually stressful) hours of cramming client presentations or process decks.

As for this morning's frustration, it has nothing to do with work. Instead it's about my bank and life insurance company. You see, one of my life insurance policies' premiums is due this coming Monday and I had planned to use my online facility to pay it via credit card. I had first successfully done it with my other policy late last year and it went through without a hitch. Thus I had no concerns about this second policy and I had actually loaded enough cash into my credit card just to make sure I would make the payment okay. It's all part of my practice of trying to funnel as many expenses as possible through my credit card not to defer the payments but just to earn more rewards points. Otherwise, I treat the thing like a debit card and keep it free of debt every cut-off.

So much to my surprise this morning, I wasn't able to pay it using my credit card. After a few frantic calls here and there, it turns out that this particular policy is not eligible for credit card payments. Gee whiz, I wish they had mentioned that sooner as part of the disclaimers or conditions of the website. So I changed tracks and tried to get my bank to reverse my last payment (just made the other day) in order to recover the funds but apparently (1) they don't do refunds if it's not over my credit balance and (2) even if they did honor this, it would take 4 banking days. Boo. I was near breaking (my mind goes nuts when things don't go according to plan) when my insurance agent clarified that there's a 30-day grace period so I have until the same time in February to complete my payment before penalties are applied.

I really need to get over stuff like this. My OCD-like tendencies have me feeling tremendous levels of stress whenever I'm faced with moments like this. I hate being late. I hate missing billing due dates. I hate missing deadlines in general. Whenever I get into situations of this nature, I actually start feeling physically unwell. This is how I know I have a bit of a problem and that it's something I need to learn to get past in time, if that's even possible. The very same source of my organizational abilities and way of seeing the world in straight lines, processes and interconnected tasks is also a curse when things don't go well. Boo me.

---

Name all the sci-fi characters!