Benjamin Clark

I am working on updating the content and theme of this website. If you encounter a missing page or "unauthorized" errors, know that this is only temporary. In the meantime, the Twitter updates should still display and the blog archive will remain intact.

This is my first Drupal-powered blog post here at benclark.com, and I'm proud to report that it posted just fine.

It would seem that I am going on a cruise in late October. This will be my first ever cruise. We are leaving out of Miami for 7 days around the eastern Caribbean.

The trip was masterminded by Nick and Roberta, my married friends who live in D.C., and I will (quite unfortunately) be going unaccompanied. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to a great time and an even greater bill.

If anyone has been on a cruise, I'd love some pointers. I'm a noob.

People throw around the word "neglect" so much that it loses all meaning. Yeah, yeah, I haven't updated this blog in a month or so. I feel your pain. I just haven't had a whole heck of a lot to update about. Here's a real brief overview of what's been going on:

(1) Work is the same, good or bad. I'm settling in to the day-to-day patterns.

(2) I went to visit some friends in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area one weekend this past month, and I spent some time contemplating a move up there. I'm still thinking very seriously of it, and more to be updated on that subject later on.

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Every few weeks or so, I remember that I have a blog here. There's only a handful of people who read this, but that doesn't mean I should treat you like second-class citizens, right? Exactly. Yeah, I'm just not good at this.

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When I bite into an Apple iPhone, I get the sensation that I'm flying high above the clouds on a magic carpet powered by technological superiority.

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I have stumbled upon probably the best collection of inspirational web designs I've ever seen. I wish I had the command over color that some of these designers have (see example, right). Maybe I should just pair up with a talented graphic designer, and together we can take over the world.

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Okay, so I drop off the face of the planet for what seems like a few days, and suddenly it's November. And not just 'November,' but smack dab in the middle of November.

I've created a new WordPress theme. You're (probably) seeing it right now. I like it. No B.S. like fonts, colors, or graphics -- just pure fixed-width text goodness. I call it alt.newsgroup.theme in honor of the bygone years of Usenet, UNIX terminals, and dial-in BBSes. Feel free to use it on your own site.

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There was a recent Newsweek article published on the topic of Netflix Guilt:

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If so, fueleconomy.gov has a service for you. My MPG allows you to track the fuel consumption of your vehicle(s), and by contributing to the database of real world fuel economy, you can see how your vehicle ranks amongst others of varying models and years. I'll start logging as soon as I fill up again, which in my V6 Toyota Tacoma pickup shouldn't be much more than a few days from now.

This is part one of what I suspect will be many posts referring to my personal finances. The gist of the situation is that I've been taking some things--student loans, credit cards--for granted over the last few years as I completed degree after degree, but now I've entered the workforce as a non-student and I'm finding that I'm lagging behind my peers in financial confidence. As such, I'm utilizing the power of the Internet to play catch-up. I've been finding some great advice all over the Web, and today's find was no exception.

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