Information Archive

Nothing about lakorns here, nothing about Thai celebrities, just a personal question about your finances. I been getting the impression lately from some of my co-workers and a few friends that I am abnormal for always balancing my checkbook. In a way, my methods are old-fashion.

I  bounce my checkbook to the penny. There is no ifs or buts or any form of procrastination, I just do it. Every time I make a payment or use my debit card, I balance my checkbook. I mark everything down, I know exactly how much I have in my checking account at all times. A trip to Walmart, to Giants Supermarket, to Old Navy, to the Gap, come home, put my purchases away, and start going through the receipts. I have always thought this was a common practice amongst everyone.  After speaking with some of my co-workers, apparently, it’s not.

In today’s modern world, we have online banking, we have a technology that does our banking for us, thus a few of my acquaintances do not bother to balance their checkbook. Being a penny or a few dollars off is no big deal.  And they wonder why they overdraft on their checking accounts. “I have an idea how much I have,” I heard from someone. “The ATM balance is always right,” said another. Seriously dude?

I remember a former college classmate telling she overdrafted on her checking account because a check she wrote took forever to clear. And I thought what does that have to do with anything, don’t you mark it off once you write the check, cause I do. She gave me a disapproving uncomfortable look and said no, once the check is cleared then she would mark it off. O_o

To me, once you write a check, that amount on that check is no longer yours, you best mark it off before you forget and suffer the consequences of a potential overdraft fee.

More info about my finance habits, like the rest of the world, I don’t write checks often. Writing a check has become an archaic practice, sometimes I do feel weird writing one. I write about 6 checks per year–two for my biannual car insurance payment, 4 for our water bill that comes every 3 months. I don’t carry cash either, I use my debit card only. I do use online banking and I also have a paper checkbook (as you already know) to verify everything and compare.

I just want to know, I can’t be the only one. Do you? Balance your checkbook to the penny always??

January 12th 2008 marks the birth of I ♥ lakorns. It has been a good 3 years.

Year 0-1, I ♥ lakorns was known as the ‘lakorns’ blog at wordpress. A very basic blog about Thai celebrities and lakorns run by a person who didn’t know what the heck she was doing and had no clue the direction of her blog.

Year 1-2, ‘lakorns’ wordpress blog transformed into ‘lakorncentral.com’. It lasted a few months until server and tech issues arose beyond this blogger’s knowledge. Helped was needed. Tina, from Etinament who is more tech savvy than this blogger, offered a helping hand and ‘lakorncentral.com’ became ‘I ♥ lakorns’. This period represented our growth, discovering our niche–discovering the identity of this blog.

Year 2-3, the slow down. Nothing really changed. I didn’t blog as much. At this point, I realized what I wanted to do with this blog, which was to keep it simple. No franchising, no trying to get big, no doing things beyond my abilities. No stupid ads suddenly appearing from nowhere, I don’t know why some bloggers do that.

Some thanks:

Thank you for the readers who have stuck by me from my move, through my tech issues, through the years, you guys have been great. This blog is nothing without the people who visit, who contribute by adding comments. Your thoughts, your wits are greatly appreciated. I’m just the blah person who provides the content, you guys provide the spice with your opinions, your arguments, your humor. You guys make me laugh, you make this blog come alive. Thank you!

To Tina from Etinament, thank you for handling all my tech issues and providing me with a server. You have been awesome these past 2 years.

To Cecilia (Ateam forum) and Sarn (from Sarnworld or Asianfuse now), I remember distinctly you two were the first to comment on my blog and got the interaction ball rolling. Thank you for that.

Our Stats:
Total comments: roughly 30,000
Total posts: 1,669
Visitors: 4,649,896
Page Views: 12,658,938

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Beeep, beep, beeeeeeeeeep, bep!!!! Last night, I got the “black screen of death” on my Toshiba laptop. I couldn’t boot to Window Vistas. It was just a black screen with a white cursor. You can move the cursor around but nothing appears, no icons, nada.

Anyone want to help? Or can help.

Probably won’t be doing anything until I resolve this issue. AHHHHHHHHHHhh!!! This sucks big time!!!

UPDATE:

Rejoice!!!!! I don’t think anyone cares, hehehehe…I got it working. It was really simple, I just did a system restore to an earlier date. I didn’t have to re-install Vista or reboot doing this and that, stuff I didn’t understand.

Absolutely cool! I high-five my dad’s stomach and slapped my e-mother on the arm when she was talking on the phone. My e-mother laughed at me, she said, I was cheap. I’m not cheap, if you can fix it, why buy a new one. Plus, I’m poor, I got retardo bills to pay. It just seems like I’m working just to pay off bills.