Reviews and More

If you’re like most people, there are probably times when you have questions or concerns about personal finance issues such as your mortgage, car loan, credit rating, and other debts. Maybe you’re looking for advice on how to handle a particular problem, or maybe you want to hear how other people dealt with similar situations. Either way, you might be reluctant to discuss such sensitive topics with friends or co-workers and are therefore stumped as to where to turn for this type of help.

Well, one place I can recommend is a website called TheFinanceForums.com. This is a free site that consists of several targeted message boards where you can discuss financial issues with other community members. You can post questions, relate personal stories, or give advice to other users. The boards are moderated by TheFinanceForum.com staff members, all of whom work in different areas of the financial services industry. Staff members often chime in with their advice, which I think is a nice benefit to regular users.

I spent some time reading through the various discussions in the credit ratings forum and have to say that I liked what I saw. It seems that the board members are very friendly, knowledgeable, and willing to help each other, which of course is vital to the success of these types of online communities.

I’ll definitely keep visiting TheFinanceForums.com and might even contribute to some of the discussions over there. If you’re interested in either giving or receiving personal finance advice, be sure to stop by!

I apologize for the delay in getting the latest Burn Notice recap posted. I watched the show on time and everything, but then completely forgot to do the write up since I had a bunch of other articles that I had post on my other sites. Anyway, episode 1×04 was called “Old Friends,” and here’s my recap/reaction.

Odd Job of the Week: Michael’s brother Nate (played by Seth Peterson) is responsible for bringing the latest odd job Michael’s way. Nate ran into an old high school friend of theirs named Bill Reese (Eric Lange). Bill’s daughter Jenna (Susie Abromeit) has fallen in with the wrong crowd and Bill believes she’s in danger. She ran away with some kid who said he had contacts in the modeling business, but Bill suspects that’s not really what’s going on. If Michael can bring Jenna back home safely, he’ll get $3,000 (to split with Nate).

Burn Notice Progress: There’s a Czech assassin named Jan Hasech (Ilia Volok) after Michael. They apparently go way back, and Jan wants to kill Michael in order to settle an old score. (He does end up shooting Michael in the back, but it was a ricochet and the bullet didn’t go very deep.) With Fiona’s help, Michael is able to track down Jan to his hotel, sneak into his room, and get a line on what Jan is doing in town. Later, Michael confronts Jan (after sending him into anaphylactic shock first) to try to find out who burned him. He doesn’t get an answer; Jan just says that a lot of people want Michael dead. Ironically, Jan ends up dead after being in FBI custody for a few hours. Someone’s definitely covering their tracks there.

Character Development: We learned a bit more about Michael’s family life with the introduction of his brother Nate. Those two haven’t always gotten along in the past, but seemed to be okay when they worked together to save Jenna. Nate is a compulsive gambler and owes some people a lot of money.

My Reaction: I thought this was a pretty good episode. The OJOTW was fairly well done (although I highly doubt that a couple of pimps like the Wilhelm brothers would simply back off Jenna altogether just because of Michael) and was made even more interesting because of Nate’s presence. I like that character and think he’s worlds better than Fiona. Thankfully we didn’t get very much of her this ep, and I believe that contributed to my enjoyment. (I definitely could have done without her… flirting?? I don’t know what that was… in the hotel when Michael was changing clothes by the ice machine. Gross.)

Anyway, I still like the series as a whole and am looking forward to future eps!

About five years ago, my good friend Allison asked me to go to the local Humane Society with her. She was ready to adopt, but since it would be her first dog, she wanted me to be there in case she had any questions. I guess she figured that I’d be a good source of info since I’d had dogs my entire life. Anyway, Allison had her heart set on a getting a Boston Terrier, and she’d found out that this particular kennel had one available. So off we went.

Allison was pretty excited about the prospect of finally getting a dog, so she basically talked nonstop on the way to the kennel. Actually, I have to admit that I was impressed by all the research she put into her decision. She didn’t just select the breed based on looks or anything like that. She read numerous dog guide books to determine which breed would be best for her lifestyle.

Once she selected the Boston Terrier, she did even more (targeted) research. For example, she read a Boston Terriers Guide article or two on the Internet and even corresponded with a couple of experts via email. In other words, she knew precisely what to expect from this type of dog before she even brought her new pooch home.

I’m happy to say that all of Allison’s research paid off well. She and Spanky are great together, and they couldn’t be happier!

My four-year-old son has been seeing previews for Shrek the Third all summer long and he’s become quite a fan of the big green ogre over the past couple months. He wanted to see the movie, but since his attention span isn’t quite to the point where he can sit still for two hours, I figured it would be better to rent the original Shrek film and watch it at home rather than taking our chances on a good theater experiences. Here’s what I thought of the 2001 Academy Award-winning effort from Dreamworks.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The first character we meet is Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers), an ogre who lives in a swampy area deep in the forest. He is sloppy, dirty, unmannered, and completely happy with his solitary existence.

Then one day, Shrek encounters a talking Donkey (Eddie Murphy) who is trying to escape from a group of armed soldiers. Shrek helps Donkey, and then gets the lowdown on what’s happening: Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) wants to get rid of all the fairy tale creatures from his kingdom, so his minions are busy rounding them up. Shrek doesn’t really care about any of this until the creatures show up in his forest. They’re crowding Shrek and imposing on his lifestyle, which is a completely intolerable situation as far as he’s concerned.

Shrek decides to take care of the problem himself by journeying with Donkey to Lord Farquaad’s kingdom. When they arrive, they walk right into the middle of a tournament that Farquaad is having to determine which brave knight should go and rescue Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz), the woman Farquaad has chosen to marry. Fiona is under an enchantment and is locked away in a distant tower guarded by a fire-breathing dragon, so it’s important to find the best warrior for the mission.

Shrek easily defeats all of Farquaad’s knights, and though Farquaad’s first impulse is to kill the ogre, he decides instead to have Shrek go rescue Fiona. Shrek agrees to do so, provided Farquaad will take back the fairy tale creatures so Shrek can have the forest and swamp to himself again.

The rest of the movie then deals with the rescue mission that Shrek and Donkey undertake. They tame the fire-breathing dragon, rescue the beautiful princess, and discover the true nature of her enchantment as well. Along the way, Shrek learns some important lessons about friendship and love, and undergoes a significant change.

My Reaction: I thought Shrek was a very good movie! It was a lot of fun and contained humor that appealed to both adults and kids. The storyline was simple (my son could follow it for the most part) yet effective, and I thought this movie put a great twist on the whole Prince Charming/Enchanted Princess/happily ever after fairy tale.

I felt that Eddie Murphy did some terrific work here. His Donkey character really stole the show and made the entire film worth watching. I can’t imagine any other actor being as successful in this part as Murphy, so kudos to the casting director for that inspired choice!

One thing I didn’t get at all was why Shrek spoke with an Irish(?) accent the whole time. What was that all about? Surely the script didn’t call for that?! It was distracting and annoying, but fortunately the end result didn’t suffer too much because of it.

Overall, I thought Shrek was an excellent family film that has managed to hold up even after six years. It’s funny, interesting, and, at just 90 minutes long, it doesn’t get sidetracked by stupid subplots. I’m giving this movie 7.5 stars out of 10 and definitely recommend that you see it!