Tahoe at 120,000 miles
by Chris on May 6, 2012
The Tahoe hit 120,000 miles on my trip back from Stockton.
As long as she can keep running well I’ll keep her. Maybe I’ll see her hit 200k miles?
Bionic Six and GoBots
by Chris on May 5, 2012
When I was young there were two shows I’d watch regularly: the Bionic Six and GoBots. I don’t know how I got introduced to them or why I liked them but when I was in the hospital recovering I wasn’t able to watch them so to cheer me up my parents would buy me the toys.
When I left the hospital the toys just disappeared so later in life I decided to collect them. Although I do collect some toys, a large collection just doesn’t fit so I really only have these two:
Madame-O from Bionic Six and Cop-Tur from Gobots:
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Import Complete
by Chris on April 23, 2012
I found this great WordPress plugin that imported all of my Posterous blog posts in less than 10 minutes. It took quite a bit longer to go through all my posts, re-categorize them and make minor changes but it was worth it. I’ve been randomly blogging since 2006 and on Posterous since 2010 which means I’ve got 4 years more years hidden elsewhere. I know where the posts are, on my Home Server. There’s probably no reason to migrate them over.
The Girls coworkers are all psych’d about a weight loss competition at work which has me thinking I need to get back into working out again. I stopped working out when I started my Open Water Instructor course and only in the last few weeks have I returned. Yet my return has been random and sporadic. Starting tomorrow I’m back on my workout plan, hoping to gain some mass in the next 3 months!
Welcome
by Chris on April 20, 2012
Welcome to the new ChrisKenst.com, a WordPress blog!
The previous version of ChrisKenst.com was powered by flavors.me and is still accessible at this time by browsing to flavors.me/ckenst. In time I will have more posts, some carried over from my Posterous account and still others from my scuba website Search N Recovery. The plan is to take down the scuba site so all my writing will take place here.
I’ll maintain two separate sites, this one and My Technology Fetish for all my testing and technology related posts. In fact I just publish a post called How not to welcome a new customer on my trials and tribulations signing up for iPage which hosts this blog.
Any post made prior to this Welcome post has been moved here from those other sites. The original post dates will be used so they provide an accurate timeline of events.
Withdrawing money from a Roth IRA
by Chris on April 17, 2012
I’ve had a Roth IRA for some time but it’s only been in the last year or so that I’ve actively invested the money. My IRA sat idle for years doing nothing or close to nothing. When I purchased my first home I (briefly) looked into what types of tax-free distributions I could take and in the case of a Roth IRA it’s $10,000 for purchasing a home. Unfortunately that tax-free deduction doesn’t apply to non-owner lived homes (aka investment properties).
Recently I came across a couple of interesting articles talking about withdrawing contributions from an IRA, not earnings.
A Get Rich Slowly article says:
Q: Can I really withdraw money from my Roth IRA without penalty.
A: Yes, up to a point. You may always withdraw your contributions without penalty or taxes. For example, if you contributed $4,000 last year and the IRA is now worth $5,000, you can take $4,000 out of the account (leaving just the $1,000 in earnings) without consequence. There are taxes and penalties, however, for early withdrawal of earnings for non-approved uses. However, it’s important to note that once you withdraw the contributions you have just 60 days to replace them and after that the money can never be replaced again.
Another site called The Investment FAQ has more information on being able to deduct contributions but they also concur with the point made above that you can withdraw contributions tax-free and penalty-free at any time.
Wow. Good to know now.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Karate Action Kickin’ Jason
by Chris on April 11, 2012
Another great toy from the past. It’s called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Karate Action Kickin’ Jason.
