Jeremy's Weblog » life

Using fuelly.com to track gasoline usage (2009 stats)

Jeremy Olexa — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:42:39 +0000

In June 2009, I started tracking my gasoline usage in my car via fuelly.com. There is no specific reason that I started doing this, just for fun I guess. I kind of like tracking how much I spend on such things in a neat graphical format. So, 2009 stats (since June): 26 fuel-ups, 8,130 miles, $631.50. You can find my current stats here by clicking on the image below.

FL4SH – A new seeqpod

Jeremy Olexa — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:12:14 +0000

It has been months since seeqpod was shutdown. I have finally found fl4sh.com. I took this recommendation/review and went ahead and signed up for an account. After all, I needed a pandora replacement after they limited free listening to 40 hours per month! Now, if I only had my saved seeqpod playlists! Oh well, rock on.

Wisconsin State Canopy Formation Record

Jeremy Olexa — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:50:23 +0000

Over the past weekend, I was at Sky Knights skydiving drop zone near Milwaukee, WI. The main event was the canopy relative work (CRW) state record attempts. I had only participated in approximately 25 CRW jumps before this, but I was able to add another 13 jumps this weekend. The previous state record for CRW in Wisconsin was 14 and this year we completed a 25 way diamond on our second attempt to set the new record. I was able to jump with eight CRW world record holders which was awesome and really helped me improve.

25way CRW formation

I am in the third row from the bottom on the left side. (Photo Credit goes to: Eric Bernetzke)

600 skydives!

Jeremy Olexa — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:05:54 +0000

About a month ago, I hit my 600th skydive. It wasn’t anything special per se as the weather was quite sub-optimal that day. Just a solo from ~3000 ft However, it is a milestone that should not go unmentioned. This puts me at about 80 jumps for the calendar year and it is below my previous year numbers. (I blame the overall weather this year.) Hopefully I can pick it up abit towards the latter half of the year.

Here we go to 700!

Done with Undergrad

Jeremy Olexa — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:37:42 +0000

As seen here, I received my grades a couple weeks ago and I am done with undergrad now (I passed). Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota. Sounds quite cool, eh?

Now…student loans.. >=|

P2P Lending (money) ?!

Jeremy Olexa — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:35:30 +0000

Well…I started “contributing” (read: investing) to a Peer-2-Peer (P2P) lending service, called LendingClub. Lending Club is an interesting little operation that sets up borrowers with a group of lenders. I am doing this for two reasons: 1) The “average return” is 9.05% – this is better than my retirement portfolio in the past short-term (in other words, more diversification) & 2) it gives me the warm fuzzies to know that I am directly helping someone achieve specific goals. LC has rather strict criteria for the loan application and as such it makes me less leary of putting my money out there. Every loan is for 3 years (36 months) and they split the loan types into 7 different categories (A-G) based on risk (and obviously reward too).

My plan is to invest $25 per month with a target (goal) allocation of 75% A Notes, 20% B Notes, and 5% C Notes. After the first year, we will see how it all plays out. I am currently invested with the free $25 dollars for being referred by someone else. The process was smooth albeit somewhat slow. My only note right now is for someone’s living expenses while s/he completes grad school. This is a B4 note with 11.89% interest being charged to the borrower. I am going to receive $0.82 cents every month for 36 months (my pro-rated share of every payment). Add that up, if the loan doesn’t default, and I will get (minux LC’s charges) $29.85. That isn’t half bad

I know, I know, you might be as skeptical as I was at first. If you want a referral for $50 free dollars to invest and try it out, leave a comment (with a valid email address) or let me know. Part of the referral bonus is a $25 kickback to me. The referral program is actually a pyramid scheme, so I will still make something when you refer people. It looks quite nice. Obviously, LC’s motivation with the referral program is to get more money into the system so more loans are satisfied and so they can make more money themselves.

Undergrad is done? w00t!

Jeremy Olexa — Wed, 13 May 2009 04:14:15 +0000

I finished my last final of undergrad last night. More to come on this after I receive my grades.

ING Referral Links

Jeremy Olexa — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:00:53 +0000

After some searching for a new online savings account, I settled on ING Direct. A few reasons include a competitive interest rate, good user interface, ability to create sub-accounts (I use these for different savings goals), & most importantly a $25 bonus from using some one else’s referral link. It took me until the 4th page on google to find a working link.

So, if you are looking for a new savings account or just a quick and easy $25 dollars, do consider using these below. However, you must fund the account with an initial deposit of $250+. As a bonus, you get $25 (an immediate 10% return ) and I get $10.

Referral Link 1 (Expires 5/15/09)

Referral Link 2 (Expires 5/15/09)

Referral Link 3 (Expires 5/15/09)

Referral Link 4 (Expires 5/15/09)

Referral Link 5 (Expires 5/15/09)

Edit: No one used my links, so leave a comment if you want one. thx.

Leave a comment if they appear to be all used up. I will try to monitor it and refresh them as needed.

PS. Welcome to the first post in my new financial catagory. I apologize if it bores some of my regular readers but I plan to journal some of my insights, goals, and financial mishaps here.

Why Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport sucks

Jeremy Olexa — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:08:55 +0000

(This post may come off even more ranty than normally seen here)

Charles de Gaulle Int’l Airport in Paris, France is really bad. CDG is reported to be the busiest airport in Europe. No wonder it sucks. Here is some real life experiences..

It is a freaking maze to get around in the terminals. Different floors to check-in vs security lines, etc. After landing, I am greeted to a bus to bring me to the terminal..lovely. Then you must stand in line for hours to get through customs. This alone is not shocking but the fact that there are no signs in that airport stating where you have to go makes things stressful. In the course of my 2h50min layover, I barely made my connection flight because I had so far to walk (customs only did take an hour or so).
After boarding my plane (for my 1h50min flight), we literally taxied for 20 minutes to get to the active runway. As in, we were moving at 10-20 mph, not stop-n-go. The pilot got on the intercom and said that we were stopped because we were #6 in line to takeoff. At this point, I shut my eyes. Then wake up when I hear the engines come to life because I like to watch the takeoff and to my dismay, we were turning around. I checked the time and it was 40 minutes later. By the way, we were still #6 in line because I could see all the aircraft when we were turning. Apparently, they closed the runway while we were waiting.. So, taxi for another 20 minutes to the new runway and finally take off.
On my return visit back to this crappy place. Same thing, different day. Wheels touch the ground – taxi 20 minutes to the “gate” – take bus to terminal. Walk a mile to get to my check-in spot. Stand in security line for ~50 minutes. Walk a mile to the gate.
Ohh, goody, finally boarding the plane. *Thinks to self* – “My these gates are awfully close to each other – I wonder how they fit planes between them” Bah. Another damn bus. Taxi 20 minutes to runway, take off.

The moral of this story. Leave at least 2.5-30 hours between connecting flights if it is your first time there and you need to traverse customs, and the maze that is CDG. Oh, and get plenty of rest and try to be in a good mood.

PS. Feel free to take a look here and notice the 4 runways in the same direction. WTF.

Vacation: Montpellier, France

Jeremy Olexa — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:36:54 +0000

Spring Break trip this year was to Montpellier, France.

I was in France for 8 days. The whole point of the trip was to see Kelli. She showed me around the city and was my personal tour guide. French towns are very interesting, small streets, 6-spoked intersections (non-right angles), old buildings, etc. I will eventually post pictures of the trip. Overall, great trip. My only complaints are that it wasn’t long enough and everyone there smokes cigarettes.