I need, need, need my finance management software. I like to know exactly where every penny is being spent and exactly how much liquidity/debt I have at any given moment. This is the accountant in me speaking. So to find out Microsoft Money was not available for Mac was very disappointing.

I’ve used Money to manage my finances ever since I bought my very first computer back in 1994. It was bundled with Microsoft Works (old school!) and I thought it was just the most useful little app this side of the Pacific Ocean. In more recent years, I’ve tried other programs, like Quicken, but in the end, I always turned back to Money.

Until I got my Mac.

I searched high and low for a Mac version of Money but the only thing I found was a disclaimer that Money was not available for Mac. What was I to do? How would I manage my finances? I needed a replacement app and I needed it fast.

I tried Quicken for Mac but it was totally foreign to me. Perhaps all those years of Money had tainted my view of any other finance software but I didn’t like the taste Quicken left in my mouth. I tried to find other apps (most notably Cha-Ching, which didn’t meet my needs) But because there was nothing else available, I begrudgingly accepted Quicken to by my finance app of choice for the Mac. That is, until I found Moneydance.

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It was raining today so I decided to do home stuff. All I planned on doing was moving some things around in the garage so it would be easier to take my motorcycle out. I ended up cleaning out the garage and throwing a ton of my old crap out.

I had boxes and boxes of school stuff, dating back all the way to my high school years (10+ years, scary!). I even had most of my college textbooks. Why I bothered to keep everything, I’m not quite sure, but it probably had to do with the fact that I thought maybe some day, I would need to reference them again. I realized today that I do not.

Boxed school stuff, dating all the way back to 1996…

Going through the boxes of school stuff was like a short trip through memory lane. I came across old reports of mine, old textbooks that are severly outdated, and even notes from classes that I don’t even remember taking. Cinema Studies? Really?? Going through all the old stuff also served to remind me of how technology has made such a huge impact. During the days when I went to high school, I didn’t have a computer. I had to do all my reports with a typewriter. Yeah, a typewriter. Imagine how efficient I’d be in high school now. My reports all had Courier New font and sweet black & white photocopied pictures (colour printers were things of dreams back then). I even had each typed page in some glossy protective sleeve, to make it look professional. It’s funny.

Cleaning out my educational past was relaxing. It gave me a sense of exactly how I got to the point I am at right now in life. If I didn’t take a particular course, how different would my life be? Did Cinema Studies somehow play a major role in my mental development? I can’t say for certain, but I do have a great appreciation for Charlie Chaplin. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a few yearbooks from high school that I want to look through and think to myself, Oh my god, I was such a loser.

Five months ago, I left my job. During that time, I got some much needed R&R and I made a trip to the UK and Europe. When I came back, I bought a new MacBook Pro and then I found myself with no money left. That’s when I knew I had to find work again.The whole thought of the job application process was not appealing to me. It took a week for me to even update my resume and post it online. Within two weeks, I had an interview set up with a company. I didn’t even have to look through job postings, they came looking for me. A second interview was not necessary and I was offered the position three days after the interview. Now those are results I can live with.Last week was my first week at work and on Day 2, they already had me on a site visit to Kamloops. I was there for three days and back in Vancouver on Friday. So far, everthing’s been going well. The only thing is that I’m not very busy right now (even though it’s month-end). I’ve done everything that’s been tasked to me, but with people in and out of the office, there’s not as much training as I had hoped for and thus not as much work. I never thought I’d be complaining about not having anything to do! I’m sure that will change next week.

Along with a regular paycheque again, other perks with this new position include my own laptop and a 20″ widescreen display (for my cubicle in the office). I didn’t have either at my old job. However, my new cubicle doesn’t have a window, which I did at my old job. You can decide if that’s an equal trade. My thoughts go like this: private corner office > private office > cubicle with window > personal notebook > widescreen display. I’m going down the perks chain, that’s not good. However, I do have a speakerphone now, which was something I had asked for repeatedly at my old job. There’s just something about being able to talk on the phone as I’m working; it’s like I’m too busy to even hold the phone to talk.I’m still the new guy but I’m starting to get to know people in the office. Hopefully the people here will be just as good as the people from my old job.

So I just got home from a disappointing evening watching the Canucks lose yet another game. Tonight was especially painful because we are now officially eliminated from the playoffs. I had such high hopes at the beginning of the season but as games were played and injuries were compiled, my high hopes began to fade. Still, I had faith in my boys pulling it out at the end of the season. Even when we lost those three games in a row, a little part of me still thought that our last four games of the season would be the saving grace. Afterall, we were at home and we were awesome. The first game bolstered my confidence in the Canucks, when we laid the smackdown on Calgary. But then two nights later, we got owned by Colorado. But still, we had two games left against Edmonton and Calgary. Surely, we could win those.

Nope.

Edmonton, already out of the playoffs, played better than us tonight and they looked like the team trying to make it into the playoffs (even though it was really us). I guess we don’t deserve to be in the playoffs; during that last stretch, we just didn’t look like we wanted it enough. Hopefully this will give the Canucks a kick in the ass and they do much better next year. Although seriously, that won’t happen unless we do some major moves in the off-season. Nonis, I’m looking at you.

The only silver lining I see in tonight’s loss (and the elimination from the playoffs) is that hopefully I move up quite a bit on the waiting list for season tickets. The Canucks might not play like they want it, but I’ll still support the home team because “we are all Canucks”.

Much like the Canucks this off-season, I’ll be playing a lot of golf (of the virtual variety).

There’s a lot of neat software out there for Apple computers. The latest one I found (and the one I’m having the most fun with at the moment) is Delicious Library.

Delicious Library - catalog software for all your books, movies, music, and video games.

Delicious Library allows you to catalog all your books, music, movies, and video games. Simply enter the item into the Library and it will automatically pull all sorts of details from Amazon (such as release date, author, actors, MSRP, images, etc.) and attach it to your item in your library. You can rate your items and attach notes and keywords. Since I like to keep databases and catalogs, this was a great piece of software for me (also because I have a lot of movies and music). Now, why I think this program is so cool is not the fact that it automatically gets item details from Amazon, it’s the fact that to enter items into your library, you simply use the iSight camera and scan the barcodes.

Scan items into your library with an iSight camera.

Isn’t that cool?? In less than 5 minutes, I was able to scan over 35 items into my library. And if you come across a certain item in your library that isn’t scanning, you can manually input the ISBN and it works just the same. Other features including syncing your library onto your iPod, printing out your catalog, and keeping track of what items your friends have currently borrowed.

Delicious Library is available as shareware and the full version is only $40. Who knew scanning barcodes could be this fun?

Images obtained from the Delicious Library website.