I was thinking about buying a wireless gyration mouse for my notebook from Newegg or CompUSA.

I primarily use my notebook while sitting on the couch, unlike many notebook users who call the porcelain throne their primary use space (that’s my Dragon magazine time). I find it extremely uncomfortable to type on the keyboard while the notebook sits on the TV dinner tray, so I prefer to sit it on my lap. I also don’t like the touchpad at all, prefering a mouse to be connected to the notebook. Well, with the notebook on my lap, I usually have to stretch to reach for the mouse or sometimes contort my arm to reach the mouse (which is what I’m doing now… the mouse is actually *behind* me as I type this entry).

I’ve looked into trays (like the Laptop Desk 2.0) that I could sit on my lap which include a built-in mouse pad. There are two problems with that: 1) they are too expensive for what they do, and 2) they look stupid.

I like the idea of moving the cursor on-screen by moving my hand through the air. I wouldn’t have to stretch or contort my arms any more, and it would make a neat toy to show off. This is a definitely a nice to have and is no where near the top of my list of things to buy. $80 for a mouse, no matter how cool, is rough. I’ll get it eventually though.

Lately, it seems that working with my personal finances is a hobby of mine. I’ve spent a lot of time reading MSN Money’s Top 25 Articles about credit reports, credit scores, and personal finances in general. There is a lot of good information in there, and I was happy to see that I have already started taking some of the steps outlined in the various articles to clean up my credit.

The tools that I use to keep on top of my finances are Microsoft Money 2005 Deluxe and Microsoft Money for Pocket PC 2005. The first link is a free 90-day trial for Money 2006 Deluxe, as Microsoft no longer lists Money 2005 on their site.

I’ve been diligently tracking every dollar that I spend for just under two years now. I find it immensely gratifying to be able to accurately answer questions like “how much money did you spend last year on video games?” From month to month, I generate reports that show me which categories of spending have increased or decreased. Once I see that an unneccesary category has increased, I come up with a plan to reduce that spending. It usually isn’t a formal plan, or even something I write down. It is usually something that I keep in the back of my mind.

To the left is an example of a pie chart generated by MS Money to show how much of your money you put into each category (click the image to display a larger image in a pop-up window).

Whenever I spend any amount of money, I enter the date, payee, category, and amount into my PDA. I do that for up to a week’s worth of transactions before I sync my PDA with my PC. Once every other week, I compare my various account balances in Money with what the online statements show, to ensure that everything matches. Not only does this ensure the accuracy of my records, but it also allows me to use Money’s cash flow feature (more on that in a bit).

The categories of spending I have that are chronoically too high are Food: Dining Out and the Food: Lunch At Work. Unlike the Food: Groceries category, which has a set spending limit that I stick to, I make no real effort to curb spending in aforementioned categories. Nad and I are slowly reducing the amount of times we eat out, so that helps. Additionally, I take lunch to work every day, so that helps a bit, but I have not set an actual limit in either category.

One of the reasons that I allow those two food-related categories go without spending limits is because I am always aware how much I can spend.

To the right is an example of the cash flow feature mentioned earlier (click the image to display a larger image in a pop-up window). I’ve “whited-out” various bits of information from this chart, namely to remove all dollar amounts and other related info. The example chart shows a 90-day forecast. MS Money generates a cash flow for each account based on the both the monthly bills you’ve set up and your spending trends. The program estimates how much you will have on any given day. The chart shows a slump from 8/1 to 8/4, and a spike on 10/1. Armed with this kind of information well in advance, I never have to ask “can I afford to spend X amount of money?” Based on the info provided by MS Money, I can confidently make good financial decsions.

This kind of anal money-tracking has allowed me to stretch a little bit of money a long way. It is one less thing that I have to worry about every day.

Last week, I drove Hotaru in to work. I told Will that there was a Vibe that looked just like Taru, but it wasn’t a GT. Vibe’s aren’t a popular vehicle and a Vibe with a Sport Package is even less popular. So to see any Vibe with a Sport Package is cool to me.

Travelling down Seminary Rd., the Vibe was parked in the Snyder’s Food parking lot. I went in an asked to see the owner of the vehicle so I could get permission to take pictures. The owner was too busy to come down, but he gave me permission to do so anyway. I was bummed not to speak to the owner because I believe that owners who pay the extra money to add the Sport Package is a possible enthusiast and I love to spread the word about meets, websites and such. I thought it was strange to put a Sport Package on an AWD Vibe, but in the end, it is all about utility and individuality.

Will and I took the time to further personalize our Vibe a couple of weeks ago. I won a coupon from Grafxwerks at last year’s Grand Am Meet and after much deliberation, we decided on a color scheme that would work for Hotaru. Will initially wanted to make her a Penguin mobile with yellow, white and black (I am sure he was just doing that to piss me off…), but we decided to take color cues from the car itself and nix the yellow altogether. Besides…we didn’t need the extra horsepower the the yellow vinyl overlays would have provided (in case you didn’t know, in the tuner world yellow can add at least 5 hp every time you use it to color something…watch out for those yellow cars!). Since the interior lights are red, we chose reflective red for all the arrows and the ‘GT’ on the badges. The white pinstriping aided us in chosing reflective white for all the ‘Vibe’ badges. Hotaru was pretty distinct before, but she definitely stands out a lot more now. We have 2 more overlays to add, but one requires tools (the third brake light overlay that says ‘Vibe GT’ when you hit the brakes) and the other is larger than expected (a reflective overlay that says ‘you got beat by a wagon’). We hope to add those eventually.

I did a similar thing to Michiru 2 years ago. I had a tough time choosing a color scheme because her color didn’t work with many of the colors available. If Mimi had been black or white, any color could have been used. I decided to go with a blue and silver theme - it worked pretty well. In addition to the Grafxwerks coupon, I also won a set of silver grills to replace the stock black grill. My brother and I plan to install the grill this summer.

Before:

After:

Visit Hotaru’s gallery to see more.