Brain Dump

So it's time for a new high interest money market account, as my old one, GMAC Bank, well, it ain't so high no more. 4.5% APY is fairly pedestrian; they had good rates for a while, now have a customer base and would appear to be content to drive that base off. Very well. Though CountryWide Bank's 5.3% APY doesn't seem that much higher, it is $8 per $1000 you have with them; it can add up if that's where you keep your war chest of spare pennies. I haven't went to CountryWide's site to see if their site has a decent enough interface to qualify, but if so, I think I'll open an account.

It is worth noting that you need not fear the current "CountryWide Stigma" as that should only be associated with the mortgage lender. The bank is (probably) a separate entity and all deposits are FDIC insured after all. In case you fear the worse, realize that on September 30th the Internet's oldest bank, NetBank, went belly up; all those with money totalling less than $100k had access to their money, via ING Direct, within about a day.

Let's see, running .. didn't do any! The wind and the cold (I know, I know, it is much colder in other places, but it was chilly for Texas) scared me off from my most favorite speed workout; four repeats of 3 minutes hard, 3 minutes easy. Tomorrow the weather be damned, I must run! Either the speed workout or a tempo run with Felix.

I purchased an IPod shuffle tonight; sweet! Combine that with my other self-gift of laptop speakers (portable Logitechs powered off the USB port; I'm very pleased with the sound), and I suppose it has been an audiophile kind of Christmas. I'm busy backing up my laptop (something I'm proud to say I now to monthly), so no playing with the IPod just yet.