August 2008 Archives

Hi everyone. I thought now would be a good time to discuss with you, if I may, some things that are going on. So make sure you read this whole thing if you care.

Bandwidth Problems, Gone:
Beginning sometime in the next two weeks, I am getting a lift of bandwidth which means instead of getting 10 GB of transfer, I'll get 110 GB of transfer and on a faster speed too. So, let me put it in a chart so you can compare. Plus, I love making charts in Numbers. Here it is:

That leads me to my other point...

Webcam Updates:
For the longest time, I haven't updated the webcam at all. Actually, this is the last photo:

So you'll see it's been a long, long time. And because of the bandwidth problem, I could only update it every once in a while... every 5 or so minutes. After a while, I thought, "What's the point?" And sometimes I just don't think people want to take the time to care. So what I'm asking is, do you care? Would you like to see it continued?

(I did find the link to the poll thing from Nick's site. I do have my own polling software here, but I sort of broke it with the last version of my website.)

Change of View:
I'm also thinking about unifying idioPod and idiologic with red, black and white instead of black, white and 400 shades of gray. I want to try to redo it before Christmas.

Hurricanes a'brewin':
Unfortunately my family lives on the Texas coast and hurricanes are heading their way. Hope for the best and pray for them if you do that kind of thing. I hate being here at times like this because I wish I could help. There's not much I can do, especially since I can't leave here for a few months.

That's all I have for now. I'm starving for some hot wings so I'm going to make those later today or for lunch or something like that. If I didn't do anything about my visa problems, I'd be illegal now (and before anybody gets the cute idea to call immigration to let them know that I am staying here illegal, I'm not). So good for me but it sure came at a high cost.

OK, so I handed my visa application in yesterday and it was probably the quickest I've ever been through immigration before (and in a bad way, that's later). I stood in line on the bottom floor for like 5-10 minutes; that's fine. They were crazy-busy. My partner was checking his email for work and/or chatting on the phone like a high school girl and they told me to go up about 20 floors. OK, that's fine. My partner was hiding somewhere I guess so I called him to go with me so yeah, he finally found me.

I went upstairs and there was no one in line so I walked up to the counter and felt like I left my brain at home. I paid half and my partner paid half. She said, okay that's it, you're on a Bridging Visa A after your current visa expires (which is tomorrow) and I sorta sat there staring at her for like 5 seconds said "OK..." And I left. I got downstairs and felt like I just dropped over $1000 and didn't get any satisfaction. My partner told me to go back up and start asking questions. I asked and got the clarification about what exactly a Bridging Visa A is. BUT. Now I have a problem. I thought I was supposed to get a label put in my passport or something. (I almost gave them my passport completely.)

Reading what a Bridging Visa A is, I feel like some kind of criminal or something. Weird, but true. I have had possible employers flat out tell me to come back to them once I got my visa mess sorted out which I THOUGHT that's what I was doing that day. Now I have no evidence that I can work! That bothers me because I really, really want that awesome nursing job that one of the hospitals offered me a few months ago.

It's funny, my partner Gilbert, you all know him, woke me up this morning and said "So how does it feel being a resident of this country now" and I said, "Hey, don't jump the gun here..." He's pretty excited about it and it's nice to see his excitement. He's going to be pretty mad today because I really needed to see if I needed a label in my passport.

BUT... but... the weather was so nice today. It was 17º C / 63º F today and the sun was out and it was awesome. I took the dog out instead. I thought it would be a good time to do it since it's not often at this time of the year when the temperature AND weather is nice. I couldn't pass up that opportunity. I guess that's procrastination talking!

Gilbert and I are supposed to go out to eat tonight to celebrate. I'm sure it'll be good. I don't plan on posting every single update to my visa stuff. We shouldn't hear anything for a week or two.

It does feel good to breathe again though I do feel like I was screwed in this deal.

Well, today is the day. It's really and truly amazing that I made it this far in both staying in Australia as well as in my relationship. Last night, we hurriedly worked on the visa application and getting our things together. I have to say that doing that together really brought together our relationship and in a good way. So it's all set to go. I'm still missing a few things though which I will be getting later.

So my little checklist of what I need looks like this: (everything isn't included but you get the idea)

Application Form
Sponsor's Application Form
Medical Checks
Passport Photos (2 for both of us, mine hasn't officially been done YET but I'm about to get it done)
Evidence of ongoing, genuine relationship (bank statements, pictures, travel docs, phone records, etc)
Evidence of living together for 12 months (stamps on passport, original mail envelopes with dates)
Police Checks for Australia (has been sent in, needs received)
Police Checks for the USA (has been sent in, needs received)
2 Statutory Declarations concerning our relationship (1/2)

So that's where things stand. Around 2 or 3 pm I'm going to bring this in, after I get a haircut and passport photos done.

I'm here, and I'm thinking "Wow." I didn't think I'd be doing this again so it's exciting in a way. Wish me luck because if I don't do this today or tomorrow, I'm shipping out on Saturday, legally.

Now I need to bathe, eat something and head to the shopping center where I'm going to whack a good bit of hair off my head. As my mother would say, I look like an orphan. Everybody says I don't need a haircut but I'd feel a lot better if I did. I'd be tempted to shave it all off if I could.

Bye for now, and I'll have an update soon.

Are you curious to know what I'm talking about? Click here.

I was still feeling the effects of what I did on Sunday. Yuck. This podcast is a short one about my busy week I'll be having but at the same time, it was hard to get up and moving around. (I'm OK now. I have to be OK anyway.) I won't be doing a podcast on Friday at all. So, yeah. I need to really focus on getting my visa application completed and submitted on Thursday so on Friday I will be able to turn in the things I might have forgotten. After Saturday, I'll be in huge trouble.

I really need to leave in the next 10 minutes, so I will just make a quick list of what I talked about:

• Waiting until the last minute to do things... it's called procrastination and it will keep me from doing a new podcast later this week. Use that time to catch up with other people's podcasts, please.
• In lots of pain because of my walking way too much. I documented what I did in the weblog entry I linked to above. It has pictures. Quite lovely ones.
• Odds and Ends: Procrastinating, early bedtimes, and lots more.
• My feelings of Barack Obama's VP pick... what an asscheese.
• Check my weblog regularly to see what's going on with me. I never put everything in podcasts... maybe that's my problem eh?

The podcast episode is 15 min 10 sec long and 7 MB big. Um, and you can listen to idioPod 39 here.

I will be back in September with #40 from somewhere, somehow. We'll see. Stay tuned.

Subscribe here.

Ah, I've made a new category called "Visa / Immigration Progress" for those people who kind of stumble on this website looking for Australian visa information. Especially those people who are from the USA and thinking about moving here.

I will be writing my progress notes here to let you know and hopefully that will allow me to get out of talking about it in my podcast. :)

If you already know what's going on, I'll spare you the repeated information. The other goods can be found in the extended entry. There should be a link below this if you're on my main page.

I also want to plug YanksDownUnder.net right now for being a nice support group for me and having lots of information to help me along. Good community there. It's for Americans who are living or have moved to Australia.

The holidays are fast approaching and now is the time to start thinking about the gifts that you're going to buy people. Or better yet, what you're going to buy for yourself. I think everybody is entitled to completely spoil themselves at that time of the year and I know a lot of you are going to agree with me, right?

I'm aiming to be back home for the holidays, especially Thanksgiving so I can make myself into a pig and I have an excuse to drink a bit.

One of my favorite days to shop is the day after Thanksgiving (in the USA). On that Friday, known as Black Friday, you can save some major money buying things for people at a fraction of the cost. Unfortunately, you have to get up around 4 or 5 am to get to the store at 6 am to find a line of people that you start to ask yourself if it's really worth it. Most of the time it is because these deals can save you around 80% off!

Unfortunately, I don't really care for the crowds or waking up around 2 am to show up at the door of the stores at 6. But also unfortunately, you don't seem to get the best deal after that day and up to Christmas. Hopefully I'm going to be back in the USA on Thanksgiving and the day after. I could definitely do without the getting up early part while half-drunk, but what's that you say? I don't really have to?

Hey, you're absolutely right. I don't. You can shop from the comfort of your own home from websites such as www.iblackfriday.com. If I wanted a chance to save some money on a new iPod, I could go to Apple's page on this site and I can see how much I can save. I will tell you, it's a lot better than going into an already cramped store on the biggest shopping day of the year just to stand at the register for an hour, eh? You bet! Planning before you go and signing up for email notifications is much easier than wasting the gas and heading out in the cold.

Some mornings, I wake up and want to play tourist. I take my camera and go out with absolutely no mission. I end up going to the city and walking my feet to the point where they have blisters. Great fun!

I'm not going to post a jillion pictures mostly because half the pictures I take aren't worth showing anybody and I am very, very exhausted. In fact, I'm so going to sleep after I do this.

First, I hung around Federation Square for like 10 minutes and headed towards the Royal Botanical Gardens where I walked myself crazy because it's like a maze. I was pretty tired after I was done, but I snatched some pretty "lovely" photos along the way:

Then, out of the purest stroke of luck, I found The Shrine of Remembrance. I was actually looking for it for a while but I couldn't find it for the life of me. Usually I can look around and find it, but not this time. So we went there and here it is:

We went in and they were doing some kind of service that lasts about 5 minutes and there's a ray of sunshine that goes over a rock. It was really hot in there and I was starting to sweat 30 seconds after I got in. I wasn't expecting this but that's OK. After it was done, I crawled up to the balcony and took a snapshot:

After doing this for what seemed like 2-3 hours, I headed over to one of my favorite restaurants (Oporto) and grabbed one of these babies (I actually grabbed two... one for me and one for my friend):

It's a chicken burger with sweet chili sauce basically. Gets my nose running fast.

Then we finished that and I said, "So, do you know what you want to do next?" (My friend is new to Melbourne from S. Korea and I was trying to show him some of the things about Melbourne so yeah, we was with me today.) So we decided to head to go to a beach. I usually like to go to Sandringham Beach so that's where we went. We got out, walked around and I said, hey, let's go to St. Kilda. Alright, this is the problem:

View Larger Map

Yeah, I walked along the beach all the way there. That's about 10.6 km or 6.6 miles (the blue line). I walked that along the shoreline, half in the sand. I have blisters on my feet. They burn. I have a pair of shoes that I shouldn't be wearing. I need to make a "Give Ben Some New Shoes" fund.

We got to a pier and walked down where I snapped a picture of my friend:

So that was my day up until 7 pm. I'm absolutely tired! By the way, 10.6 km/6.6 mi is a huge workout for me.

Hot on the heels of idioPod 37 comes 38. As promised, this podcast is about 1/2 if not more about Australia. The only reason this podcast has two "parts" is because it was done in two days. Nothing more. That and the topics were a bit different. I know this is a pathetic attempt, but hey, I hope you like it.

Part 1: Australia Facts and Figures

• Australia-shaped meat... mmm, mmm, mmm.
• Facts and figures about Australia and the state of Victoria
• More about my love of Australian money
• A few facts about Melbourne (temperatures, food and animals... not necessarily all related)

Part 2: Miscellaneous Junk (not really related to Australia)

• My early morning plans with my nice neighbor & "stat decs"
• November-December plans: Podcasting overseas & complaints about my Macbook
• What exactly is on my external hard drive? :)
• Simutran: An open-source SimCity-like game, a transportation simulator (one of my cities is called Morningwood) (an unintentional review, requires X11 on Mac OS X... WHEW!)
• Requests for questions and stuff, killing the webcam soon (& stuff), read my weblog

I measured it. My podcast is 27 minutes and 14 seconds long and weighs 12.6 MB. Have a listen to idioPod #38 or subscribe here.

I came across a live version of "Me and a Gun" by Tori Amos while looking through iTunes a few weeks ago, maybe months. It is absolutely, without a doubt, the most haunting version of this song I've heard by her. It's downright creepy. I found the same live performance she did as the iTunes file, so watch it here:

I wasn't a fan of the song to begin with because it deals with such a touchy matter that makes me quite sad. When push comes to shove, no one "deserves" to get raped. I don't care how they look or what position they put themselves in. Our bodies are meant to be shared with those who we choose and not by force.

As I have said before, the best thing to do is to continuously be informed of the alarming statistics.

Approximately 3% of American men, or 1 in 33 have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. In 2003, 1 in every 10 rape victims were male. 2.78 million men in the USA have been victims of sexual assault or rape. (For women, this is 1 in every 6 women and 17.7 million women in the USA have been victimized.)

Every 2 minutes, someone in the USA is sexually assaulted.

A victim of sexual assault are:

• 3 times more likely to suffer from depression;
• 6 times more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder;
• 13 times more likely to abuse alcohol;
• 26 times more likely to abuse drugs; and
• 4 times more likely to contemplate suicide.

People could tell me a million times that rape doesn't happen to men, but I'll tell you right now that it does. Only 10% of these cases are reported to the authorities. 60% of rapes/sexual assaults are not reported to police. 6% of rapists ever serve a day in jail.

To point you in the right direction to get more information, you can go to Men Surviving Rape or RAINN. (The statistics were taken from the RAINN website.) If you're in Australia, go to South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault. To get information about the myths of about male rape go here.

A lot of this podcast episode (about half) is about something I did to somebody when I was in junior high school (grade 8) that pretty much puts me in the nominations for "Biggest Asshole in the World". But, because I'm a jerk, I think about it and laugh because well, I'm just mean like that. Being a bastard doesn't make a person any better but I'll admit that it does create some good opportunities for a laugh or two or dozen.

Not only do I explain just how mean I was in junior high, I talk about these things, plus more:

• My trouble in junior high with conversation hearts and this girl who did something nasty but "liked" at one point. She turned into quite the character who I guess isn't afraid to do certain things in public.
• My high school days, guys I liked and my "first" boyfriend (using that term VERY lightly... I don't consider it as a first.)
• My doctor visit last Fri, "Quack quack" and getting it all together
• Thanks for the voicemail, Scott which I've included because Americans have a thing for Aussie accents, believe me.
• More Australian stuff coming soon in another podcast episode...

22 min, 40 sec and 10.4 MB. Bliss, I tell you. Pure bliss like eating chocolate covered almonds.

Go grab yourself a box of chicken nuggets (or just grab yourself) then listen to idioPod 37 here. But, as I've stated time and time again, it's so much easier to subscribe right here. It gives me the opportunity to know how many people are listening.

Want to send me a message with Skype? Just go here... or do you have questions you just NEED answered? You can Skype me or just leave a comment here.

Ah, been a few days, hasn't it? I am hoping you guys are enjoying the break I've unintentionally been giving you. I've gone and bummed myself out again since Friday. I did go in for my medical exam and dropped about $330 for it. And I'll admit that it's better than what it cost in the US to have the same exact thing done. But I guess being touched, prodded, needled and stuff takes a toll on me. I got there about 30-45 mins early just to get started about 50 minutes later than my appointment was. Some lady who doesn't know when to keep her legs clothes and certainly doesn't know a damn thing about disciplining her children was in there. All 6 of them. The husband was about 943.9% useless. They were totally stressing me out.

But I'll admit that there were some pretty cute students in there... either from the Middle East or India or somewhere. Sometimes guys with those black glasses can be sexy. (And that is José, a friend of mine. I think he's super cute.)

I'm about 95% sure that my blood tests are OK. The only reason I wouldn't be sure is because I work in the medical field, that's it. I can't remember the last time that I licked any band-aids or anything, but still. And I know my urinalysis came out with no abnormalities detected. So I didn't fail that again. And the damned scale said I weighed about 78 kg (which is about 172 pounds) which I was sad about... because that means it's the most I've ever weighed. The doctor did ask me a few questions and I'm afraid that I will have to go and get something investigated further. I don't want to say much about it because I think she's full of it. We'll see. When I'm more comfortable divulging that information, I will. I'm still sort of absorbing it myself.

Gilbert came in very late Friday night (or very, very early Saturday morning, however you want to look at it) and of course he was in a shitty mood because Qantas loves delaying flights if it's drizzling outside. He was trying to talk to me and such and I just didn't want to listen. I didn't want to tell him about what the doctor said. Not then. So we argued and I just said to send me home because it's better. Today, I did tell him what's going on and I learned a very important lesson.

You never know what's going to happen from day to day. And dwelling on things when you know there is something wrong can just dig a deeper hole of self-pity. You can't do that. Well, I can't. I am responsible for other lives as well as my own. If I can make those differences in people's lives, then I have done a good thing. I'm proud to be able to say that.

But yeah, I'll be OK. I always am.

In other news, I have to go back posting weblog entries for cash. I'm getting very tight with money in the USA because I've been charging things to my credit card as of late. So I am sorry to say that the "Good Stuff" category will see a bit of a return. Not proud of it, but I have to do what I have to do.

Also, I wanted to say thanks for Scott (from Brisbane) for the voicemail. It made me smile. Thanks. I hope it didn't cost you too much to call the number in the US. But yes, thank you!

About one day after I did #35, I made #36. One of the worst things your partner can say is the "Let's Be Friends" speech which I did get. I seriously don't think there's any meaning behind it. But of course I have a non-caring attitude towards it. Since I made this though, it seems like he forgot he said it.

Also, I talk about these things:

• Ongoing visa issues and a few travel plan changes (by the way, did you read my last weblog entry?)
• The "Let's Be Friends" speech (which I will go into more detail in another podcast)
• How ugly Clay Aiken is (and also the guy from the naked lady show, whatever it's called... Carson Kressley. I think he would make a really good gay Joker.)
• My hatred of Apple-made mice
• Leaving messages on Skype and my local US number
• Answering questions such as:
  • When did I realize I was gay?
  • Do I hate myself sometimes?
  • Do I regret I was born?
  • If I had to choose between telling the truth and hurting a friend OR lying and making them happy, what would I do?
  • Why do people always want to know what people think of them?
  • What is easier: being friends for many years or being life partners for many years? (I know you have the answer to this already, eh?)

29 min and weighs in at 13.3 MB. Quite longer and bigger than I want. (Oooooh yes)

Listen to idioPod 36 here and grab a beer. But when you subscribe here a kitten lives one more day.

Leave me a comment if you want or hell, Skype me. I think dirty thoughts when you do.

I'm feeling a bit bummed out today and am not sure why. But I will feel better at some point, so that's something to look forward to, right? As plenty of you are aware, I am quite busy working on staying in Australia for a few more months, going back to the USA and then coming back here. And I still ask myself if this is the right decision. I honestly need to decide before I shell out over $250 for a medical exam for the immigration stuff.

For those who don't know but almost care, I'll tell you what I'm doing. In Australia, there is this visa called an interdependency visa. This visa is generally for same-sex partners and will allow me to enter and/or remain in Australia based on the interdependent relationship with my partner. To qualify, my partner has to be an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident or an eligible New Zealand citizen (eligible... not sure "how"). And of course, we both have to be over 18 years old and we both fill that requirement by a long shot.

This visa will permit me to come to and stay in Australia with my "spouse" until a decision is made regarding the finalization of my permanent residence (PR) visa. I can work, study (international student rates aka total ripoff) and enroll in Australia's benefits expenses and hospital scheme, Medicare. After two years, I will get PR status and get the government quirks like unemployment and can choose to get citizenship.

The charge for this kind of visa (up until the PR thing) is $2,105. Off-shore, the charge is $1,420 (which is what I did last time).

Sadly, the United States of America doesn't allow migration based on same-sex relationships. Sure, two people of the same sex can be married in a few states but that is on a state-by-state basis which means that it doesn't make any difference on national law. That means that I can't sponsor my partner based on our relationship. And this is why I am in Australia doing this. Had the USA actually dropped some of its stuffing its face in all the religious stuff, I would have stayed in the USA (most likely New York).

I admire Australia for having an option open. No, marriage is still not "legal" for same-sex couples but the rights we have as couples here in Australia has come a long way compared to the USA.

There is a quota or limit on the amount of same-sex partners that go to Australia for each country. The USA has a lot available, but I suspect there are always "available slots".

I have actually had people ask me why I hate the USA so much to come to live in Australia. And time after time, I tell people that I don't hate the USA. I love my home country and as with all places, there are bad things associated with it. Ours is the fact that we (as an American) are extremely religious whereas I do not feel like religion should be a factor in deciding our laws. The USA has some pretty awesome food, awesome clothing stores, awesome people but... until a legal way arises so that I can bring my partner there, I have to stay here. (And that's why I support Immigration Equality.)

In the same breath, I'd like to mention that I love Australia as a country. I love its people, its landscapes, its beaches, its accent and its meat pies. I do wish that immigration would throw me a frickin' bone here and there though.

Ah, yes, and I wanted to mention that this visa is one of the hardest visas to get. Remember, I have already had one refused which will follow me for the rest of my life.

That is a little about what I am trying to accomplish because I feel like I've never been clear about it. (Picture below for giggles... DIMIA is Australia's Immigration):

I'm always happy to answer your questions about Australian immigration but remember, I am not a migration agent. If you want professional advice, help them but I can give you what friendly advice I can.

And to come to a close, I'll go off the beaten track. What do you like to do on your birthday? Well, apparently, the best way to spend your birthday and be cool is to take a bath in a sink at Burger King if you work there. (That's Hungry Jack's for you Aussies, but I know you know that.) I'd settle for some Jello shots or Midori popsicles. Or hell, a cake, BBQ and cokes. I'm sure I wouldn't be happy finding a few pubes in my burger or fries. Or even on my soap!

This podcast is all about me, again. It's just an introduction for those who might not know the basic information about me. So that's what I talk about in this podcast. Really, nothing more than that. I basically read from the profile I have at idiologic and extended on it a little bit. My likes, dislikes, my relationship, my pre bi-nationality. That kind of thing.

15 min, 25 sec and 7.1 MB. Short and sweet... or maybe just short.

Listen to idioPod 35 here right here, right now. But it's so much easier to subscribe right here.

Want to send me a message with Skype? Just go here... or do you have questions you just NEED answered? You can Skype me or just leave a comment here.

Again, I've said I would do things that I haven't. Well, the meeting went OK but I was told more or less that I am going to have to really get my ass in gear if I want to stay. That means that I have only 2.5 weeks to get another visa application submitted. I'm actually so rushed that I have a medical check, blood tests and a chest x-ray scheduled on Friday of this week. Not only that, I have to get some passport photos taken (and a haircut) by then. I also have a job interview on Wednesday which means I need to get my haircut before then. Next week, on Friday, I will need to submit my finished visa application.

What does this mean? Time is really tight. I have to schedule in working and relaxing before then too so needless to say, I didn't really finish the video I said I was going to post on Friday. I did notice some of it has some horrible lighting so I don't think it's worth posting. It's not 2 minutes, it's 1 minute. And it's of me irritating my partner.

I have actually just uploaded idioPod 35: The Re-Introduction but haven't updated the feed just yet. Feel free to click on the link to have an early listen if you want. When I'm fully awake and at my other computer, I'll update the feed. That podcast is basically an optional one that is just a re-introduction of myself. Nothing new on what's going on with me and such. I've saved that one for the next podcast episode.

God, I've got a job interview tomorrow and for some reason my new nurses license isn't in yet (you remember, the one that got lost in the mail). This is going to be trouble. I also have to get a haircut which I honestly don't feel like doing today. I also have to get some pictures taken. So I should be cute enough for passport photos.

After I wake up, I'll be back I guess. I'll try to sleep some more before the sun comes up. Bye now.

Yeah I thought I'd give you something a little more to read than an advertisement on how bad my finances are. I am doing OK more or less. I have a meeting with immigration today so I can't stay too long. This, ladies and gentlemen, will determine if I stay or go. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, a word of advice, smooshing up M&Ms and putting them in pancakes isn't the best idea. Chocolate chips are much better. I had green pancakes for some reason. Gilbert seemed to like them.

I've also been frequenting Yahoo! Answers as of late giving people advice on how to stop getting fat. I am losing a little weight lately despite buying three huge bags of M&Ms. I still have a lot of fat to get rid of on my belly. I wonder what the best way to get rid of that is? (And am I really qualified to give dietary advice.)

I think it's time to put my healthy eating / exercising regime back into place. I'd love to see a good before/after picture of myself.

That's it for now. I'll work on the video today and possibly post it tomorrow or Saturday. :)

Today I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about my finances and what a real-life nightmare it is to get so far in debt that it's not funny. Luckily, I haven't had the opportunity (yet) to throw myself into several tens of thousands of dollars in debt or more. Not saying that I won't because yeah, more loans are coming if I want to go to school next year. Unfortunately, I don't have over $60,000 laying around ready to be spent. So I'm going to have to borrow.

Over the past 10-12 years, I have managed to rack up about $10,000 in debt which I think is pretty good considering that people around my age are up to their ears in debt. No big deal, right? No, wrong!

Too many times I find myself buying things I don't need then figuring out that I didn't really want it that bad. But the fact of the matter is that I can usually pay cash right away and if I can't do that, I have a credit card handy which will take me a few months to sort out. And I'll admit that I have made some pretty stupid purchases like um, laptops that I really don't need. Apple branded ones that used to be about 2x as much as what they're really worth. Gosh, was I stupid!

Being in constant debt is always hard but there are sure-fire ways to handle it. Luckily, debt relief is just around the corner. Why spend most of your life worrying about what kind of financial nightmare you'll get yourself in when you can get some assistance to understand your overall financial health and additionally, ways to improve your financial score?

What I do suggest is to get help and/or assistance before you wrack up hundreds of thousands in debt. And by keeping tabs on your credit score and getting a financial checkup, you'll be able to breathe easier, I bet!

As far as my student loan dilemma goes, I guess I'll have to work like a madman for the next two years. I sort of need to anyway.

I started eating M&Ms when I made this and unfortunately, I don't stop for at least five minutes into making this. I had been on an M&M kick and I got a bargain on 3 big bags of them. So I had to eat them. I noticed that I mentioned some things a lot more than others which is a good indication of what is really bothering me. I really think you could apply this to any podcast episode I do. My whole visa thing has gotten to a horrible stage. Not good. But I'm working on it...

As usual, I bullet almost everything I talk about because I can't seem to dedicate 1 show to like 5 things. I have to sprinkle in like thousands of things to say in case some of my topics aren't things you really want to listen to. That's just me though.

Welcome to one of the very few personal gay podcasts of Melbourne where you get to listen to nonsense such as:

• M&Ms... eating them while I do most of this podcast
• Brandi's wedding plans for me, and if I skip going home...
• Melbourne weather & inescapable drought
• Thanks for new listeners! :)
• Experiments with M&Ms in primary/elementary school & a miracle grab (that burp sounded disgusting that I did)
• Immigration woes continue and continue, where will I be in a month from now?
• Moving plans (if I get to stay) and the house we looked it
• Working Holiday visas are available to Americans now, surprise!
• No one wants to hire me right now, maybe later
• Very behind listening to other podcasters' podcasts
• Can't stomach that I might have to leave...
• How many times has Been said "Ummmm"? or other "favorite sayings"
• Plans for #35: A Reintroduction... (the Why? Who? What? When? and How?)
• Mentions of my picture gallery, a new video is coming and words of advice

25:00 of sugary, sweet joy packed into one unhealthy bag of a podcast episode!

Listen to idioPod 34 here right here, right now or forever hold your Reese's Pieces until they melt in your hands and not in your mouth.

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Ah, August is upon us and a few internal changes are happening here at Ben, Inc. Kind of like today, I get to spend my day looking at houses closer to the school I'll go to. Not my idea of fun and certainly not my idea, really. In fact, I've grown used to hating looking at houses. Sad thing is that about 5 years ago, I used to look at houses to do it. Now I absolutely hate it!

As we've noticed, I have toned down with the number of weblog and podcast updates due to the fact that I must focus my time, energy and love to other areas and projects.

A few things are bothering me lately, mostly to do with the downright stupidity of people in the USA. Again, I've read things like "I can't vote for Obama because he doesn't believe in GOD." There has been more fear tactics happening in the USA and it's incredibly funny how most people fall for it. Of course, where I lived, I heard someone say "I'm going to vote for Bush because he's a Christian." Hello? Is anybody home?! The man is probably the most selfish person I have ever seen... always does things to benefit himself than other people - doesn't care what the majority of the people of the country he's running thinks. And yet, the bastard doesn't get four years, but eight. During my lifetime, he HAS been the worst US president.

I'm not going to say that any president is going to perfect because what they do is spoon-feed and breast-feed everybody. When they're in office, it's speed bump after speed bump and a lot of things they say they're going to do just... well, won't. Obama isn't going to give gay men and women the right to marry. I'd like to see any US president that actually CAN get by with that at the moment. No one is going to be able to restore our reputation and economy. That's just the facts. Why? Because the people of the US has let someone with the IQ of a jar of mayonnaise be president. The damage has been done and I think that it's repairable but it's not going to take 4 years to undo the damage.

I'm so tired of people here when they're telling me that we are complete garbage because of Bush, the war, our crappy dollar and our lackluster economy. I know this. We do need a president who will introduce some kind of change and not some kind of copycat grandpa mime who licks Bush's brown starfish.

God, I've gotten all politics. Uh, ewww. Enough of that.

Podcast next week. On Tuesday possibly. Monday for the US. Sorry for being so mean to you Americans and hardcore Americans. You know I love you. I have to. Sometimes you need tough love. A slap on the butt with a whip or something.

In the spirit of Rosie O'Donnell going on a 'blog vacation, here is my Rosie-like blog to sum this all up:

bush hate him
bad president
obama is a better choice...
definitely
dont b lazy this year vote
new podcast next week

Though that's way too long to be a post by Rosie, I hope you get some kind of fix. Like nicotine.