Journey to an Apple

Well, I've bought my apple and lost a few pounds. It was fun but since the goals are met I'm going to close this blog. This will all be left here but I won't be adding any more posts. You can check out my other blogs at http://www.demnos.com/blogs

Posted by Demnos at 08:52 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

You may have noticed the "Black Friday" sale on Apple's website a few days ago. I did. All iMac's and MacBook's were $101 off. I haven't met my savings goal yet but I couldn't pass up this deal. I was up to roughly 50% of my goal and this free $101 put me that much closer. I will however have to keep saving as to pay my checking account back from the loan I took from it for this. I am still trying to lose weight as well. I'm up to 4.5 pounds lost. Not a lot but at least there has been progress. I came through Thanksgiving without gaining any weight. That's certainly a good thing.

Posted by Demnos at 08:45 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

I've been filling out surveys for a few different companies for a while now. NFO, Synovate, HarrisPoll and Zoompanel are the few that I really like. Each of these programs has a good rewards program in place so that you get compensated for the time you give them.

Anyway, I just cashed in my points from the NFO MySurvey program. With this program, for each survey you complete, you get points. Save up those points and you can get cash, raffle tickets, and/or cool gadgets and toys. If you're feeling charitable you can use your points to donate to several different notable charities as well. Anyway, I've been saving up points for a little while now so I thought I'd cash them in. I got myself an extra $30 to add to the pot. Sweet!

Still no real improvement on the weight front though. I haven't had much free time lately so I haven't been on the elliptical machine much at all. The local town fair is this week too and that just means lots of good (and fattening) foods. It only comes once a year so it's ok, right?

If you would like to join the NFO Survey program and get some rewards of your own, please use the link below. It'll give me a few more points and pennies to add to my computer fund. Thanks.

Posted by Demnos at 16:32 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

I've always kept a jar or cup of some kind in my bedroom for a very long time. At the end of the day I put the change in my pockets into the cup. I'm sure many of you do the same thing. Definitely more then a penny a day, but that sounded like a good title. Anyway, once the cup is full I take it to the bank and cash in the change. The cup wasn't quite full but in order to add to the computer fund I took the cup to the bank a few days ago. The contents of the cup gave me a 6% boost toward my goal. Hooray for the cup! Now, if I could only fill that cup up another ten times I might be making some headway, right?

Nothing much to report on the weight loss front. I've perhaps lost a pound or two in the last two weeks but nothing significant. I've taken to eating less, well making a honest effort anyway. My efforts have been halted this past weekend due to a camping trip. It was awesomely fun of course but camping trips with friends always mean lots of good meals and snacks. I've also been real busy lately so I haven't gotten to use the elliptical much. I'm continuing to march forward though. I will lose weight!

Posted by Demnos at 20:34 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Hey all, just thought I would let you know that I just posted my comics collection up for sale on eBay. If you collect comics or know someone who does check out this auction. I don't think I'll make enough to buy the computer but hopefully I'll get something for it. Anyway, thanks for reading the blog and checking out the auction.

Check out the auction here!

Posted by Demnos at 16:56 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Sweet! Without saving any more money myself I am today a couple hundred dollars closer to my goal. Today in the apple store some new iMac models went up for sale. All of the iMac models have been upgraded to the new Intel Core 2 Duo chips. With this upgrade also came a price drop and a new 24-inch model. Click the iMac on the right to check out the new machines. They are pretty sweet.

So anyway, with this change in price I'm now at just over 30% of my goal. I'm going to be selling off my comic collection on eBay to raise some more funds. I'll post a link to the auction on here once I have everything listed. The collection is mostly Marvel stuff like the X-Men, Spider-man, and Iron Man. There are also a lot of Richie Rich comics too. Stay-tuned for the link...

Posted by Demnos at 15:28 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Over the weekend I worked on the bills and such and discovered that my estimate for the amount I currently have saved was a little high. So anyway, the real current status is that I'm 28% of the goal (instead of the 35% I thought I was). Oh well. I also didn't get around to getting on the elliptical machine at all. I did however spend most of the day Monday working outside in the yard. We had a fairly powerful wind storm come through our area this past weekend and it knocked one of our trees down and brought down some rather large branches on others. I had to get the chainsaw out and cut up and haul the broken pieces away. I'm sure that was far more exercise then I would have got on the elliptical anyway.

Posted by Demnos at 11:02 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

At least a week has gone by now since I last visited the elliptical machine. I've just been so busy with one thing or another. Losing weight sure isn't going to happen just sittin' down huh? It looks like the rest of this week is out of the question too. I have dinner at the parents tonight, a meeting tomorrow night, and the weekend always brings lots of other stuff to do as well. Perhaps on Saturday after all the mowing is done. Well, here's hoping.

On another note, I've sold some of my old stuff to friends and on eBay and have managed to raise approximately $300 extra toward a new apple. That'll bring me to somewhere around $700. So the journey continues...

Posted by Demnos at 15:45 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

So, whenever I have a free evening I like to get some exercise in. Lately, I've been watching Smallville while on our elliptical machine (what's an elliptical?). I find that watching TV while exercising is really good for me because I tend to exercise longer this way. The time goes by so much quicker if I'm distracted by something. I've tried exercising with nothing to entertain me but I get really bored and tired quickly. I'm currently waiting for the release of 24: Season Five on DVD. I think it is supposed to come out early in October. I'll probably pick that up and watch through those episodes while exercising. 24 is really good for making me exercise more because I really want to find out what happens to Jack Bauer next. Each episode seems to end on a climax so you just have to keep watching. This is also the reason that I hate to watch this show while it is airing on TV. I just hate to have to wait a whole week to see what happens next. Hopefully all this exercise will be an aid in losing weight. I guess eating better would be a good start too. Went to a baseball game last night and had pizza, french fries, and ice cream. Real good way to lose weight there huh? :)

Posted by Demnos at 09:27 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Well, this is technically not the absolute begining of the journey, but it's not very far into it. I've begun saving up to get an apple computer. Most likely an nice iMac as opposed to a full Mac Pro. Anyway, I kinda decided a while back that I should start saving for a new computer as the one I am on now is getting a little dated and slow. I brought up this issue with my wife and didn't get much sympathy. You see my wife does use the computer a little but isn't quite as enthusiastic about new technology as I am. Computers are my career as well so having an old run down PC does not sit well with me. I've always liked the Mac OS but just never had the funds to purchase a new apple system. A few years ago though I picked up an old Mac G3 system from eBay running OS X 10.2 and I've been in love ever since.

Anyway, in talking with my wife we decided that if we got rid of our cable tv we could put the money that would normally go into that towards a new computer. I wasn't willing to get rid of my high speed cable internet though so the savings only amounted to thirty dollars a month. It's not much but it's something at least. This has been running for many months now and we are up to a whopping $400 saved toward a new computer of which will probably cost somewhere around $2000. So, at $30/month this will take us another 54 months to save up enough for a new system. Well, that's obviously not going to work so I've been thinking of other ways to raise money. In talking with my wife again I got her to agree to a plan that would benefit us both. I would lose weight with computer money as an incentive. Haha, sounds odd I know, but let me explain. I'm not crazy overweight or anything but I could certainly stand to lose this belly of mine. So, in order to raise money for a computer we are going to put twenty five dollars per pound that I lose into a computer fund. I weigh 195 now, so in order to raise enough for a new computer I would have to lose 64 pounds. That would put me at 131 pounds. Well, that's another thing that's not going to happen and I don't think that is a healthy weight for me either. So, this weight loss thing isn't going to get me a new computer but it'll certainly get me closer. I'm actually hopeing to get to more of a 160-170 pound range. I'm also hopeing to lose this weight by exercising more and by eating just a little less. Fad diets and starving aren't something I plan on getting into so the weight loss might take some time but I'm sure it's healthier that way.

I also plan on raising money while doing computer work for people during my spare time. Again, not a real money-maker but it'll help. My goal is to definitely have this new machine by summer of next year and with some good luck and hard work maybe sooner then that.

So, stay tuned and join me in the journey of saving money and losing weight. It'll be an interesting time these next many months. Maybe this sounds like a dumb idea to you or maybe you'll find it interesting. It'll really just be a help to me to write my progress down. That'll just motivate me further because I know others are reading this. Well, that it for now...

Posted by Demnos at 15:46 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post