So, Tuesday was my busiest day by far. I had two appointments. One with my therapist, the other with my pdoc (psychiatrist).

The therapy appt went well. We talked about how my attorney is planning an appeal (read more about that here), how well Mike and I are doing, my struggles with work, etc. He said I seemed very “off” and not fully there. Which I am. I am very off lately. I can’t describe it. Its like I’m not high on a manic episode, and I’m not riding low in depression. I’m just in the middle but not normal. I’m just here. I told him I wanted to go to work to speak to my old boss. He said I seemed distracted and he’d let me go early so I can get that done.

So, I went to talk to my old boss. A little back story behind this man. He used to be like a second dad to me. He was caring, kind, and understanding of any situation I’ve been in. He used to be my boss when I worked at my job three years ago. He’s not my boss now that I’m back because I’m second shift now. I haven’t seen him since I’ve been back because of my hours. I came in to talk to him. Visit with him. Just see how things are going. Ya know? Show him I still care.

So, we walk in his office and he goes “Ms. Buczek how are you?”

“Things are alright, but I got to be honest, I’m struggling.”

“Please sit down, shut the door.” He pulls out a chair that’s close to him. “Whats going on Nikkole?”

“Things are rough right now. I’m having a hard time doing this job. As you know I have bipolar disorder and its the worse its ever been. I’ve been struggling to cope with it. Things aren’t what they used to be. I can’t file locates the correct way. I can’t get a perfect QA for the life of me. I’m just… just having a real rough time.”

“I had no idea. I’m sorry things are so tough for you. Whats got you hooked? What are you struggling with?”

“Well, to give you an idea of whats happening. When I spell back callers names I’ve always get it wrong. Its like I’m hearing them but its not processing in my head enough to get it written down and spelled back right. Then while, lets say, I’m in the dig location tab and I’m reading off the street names I’ll go in to verbiage. Silly things like that.”

“So you’re not focused. Having a hard time concentrating.”

“Exactly. My mind races with bipolar and I have a hard time focusing on anything I’m doing because things in my head are going so fast.” So, I go on explaining to him what I’m struggling with and how I’m trying to do the best I can and what have you.

He sits forward and looks me in the eyes and goes, “Nikkole, can you do this job?”

“I’d like to think I can do this job.”

“That’s not what I asked you.”

I sit back for a while. A good few minutes pass without a word being said and I look at him and say, “No. I can’t. Not to the standards you’re looking for.”

The next 10-15 minutes or so are blurry to me. I don’t know or remember what was said exactly. Here’s the jist of what is being said.

“What are you doing about this Nikkole?”

“I’m VTOing, a lot. Anytime I feel like I’m getting bad or I can’t take a call or I fear I’m going to get irrate with a caller, I VTO.

He tells me, “I take this as your resignation then. You can’t do your job. Then why are you here. I take that as you’re quitting.”

I’m taken back by this. “I had no intentions of quitting sir. That’s not why I came in here. I just wanted someone to know what was going on in case my tickets weren’t as good as they were when I was last here. I just wanted it to be known.” I’m near tears at this point.

“Well, let me talk to Ben and Kera” Ben is the VP of the company. Kera is head of Human Resouces. “and we’ll go from there. We’ll see what they have to say. Do you want to quit? We’re not doing layoffs for quite some time.”

“I’d much rather you fire me, or lay me off than me quit. My boyfriend would kill me to know that I’m here talking to you about this.”

“I understand completely. Let me talk to them and see what they have to say. You understand my stand point for things. You’re basically telling me you can’t do your job…”

“No. I understand completely. You got to look at this from a business side of view. Just keep in contact with me and let me know what happens.”

With that, we shook hands and I was sent on my merry way. Completely unsure what the hell just happened. I mean, did I just quit my job? Mike is going to kill me. What am I going to do?

I head to Lynn’s (Mike’s Mom) house because she was watching Mikhail for me. I tell her what happened and tell her she’s not allowed to tell Mike. I was beside myself. I didn’t know what to say or do. I was just in complete shock that I just did that. Me and my damn big mouth. Son of a bitch. Now I have no job. Who knows if they’ll welcome me back when MIkhails in school and I can work during the week. Ugh! So, I sit like that for about two hours. Just completely beside myself unsure of whats going to happen or what to do.

Two hours later, he calls me. “Hey Nikkole its _______. I talked to Ben and Kera and I wanted to let you know we feel its best you just continue to VTO when things get rough. You have to promise me you’ll try your hardest and do the best you can. It was a pleasure to see you again Nikkole. I hope things get better for you. Don’t be a stranger to me. Do me one last thing, give Matt a chance.” Matt is my boss. I don’t trust him like I trust Dave. Its not the same to talk to him like I talk to Dave. But I’ll give him a chance. I thanked Dave for everything. Told him I would do my best to work out everything.

I literally fell back and  nearly had a heart attack. I couldn’t believe it. I got to keep my job! Can you believe it?! I couldn’t. I had my job. Now I have to bust my ass to not get fired. Eyes are going to be on me a little more now. They’re going to be watching my every move now. Phew…

After all that excitement I went to my pdoc appointment. This was just a normal appointment. He wanted to start off with getting a profile. Moodswings? Check. Irritability? Check. Depression? Check. Crying Spells? Unable to cry.  Focus? Unable to focus? Staying on task? Unable to. Impulsiveness? Spending. Trouble sleeping? Check. Mind racing? Check.

“Ok Nikkole, what’s going on?”

“How do I say this…?”

“Sexual dysfunction?”

“YES!”

“Unable to climax?”

“Yes! Also low sex drive.”

“It is common with the type of anti-depressant you’re on. We will try Nortriptyline. It shouldn’t give you such harsh effects if any in that department.

Thank god. I haven’t had an orgasm in over two months. Do you know how incredibly frustrating it is to have a high sex drive, whose boyfriend has a high sex drive also, and have the ability to reach orgasm, if not two or three or more every time to go to NOTHING. Ugh! Let me tell you its frustrating as hell!

So now, what medications am I on? This is more for my reference than your knowledge.

AM: 2 lithium, 1 risperidal, 1/2 celexa
PM: 3 lithium, 1 nortriptyline, 2 risperidal, 1 ambien
Next week, I will be eliminating celexa, and adding 1 nortriptyline.

That is my current medication cocktail. So far, that’s whats keeping me sane and from killing my kids. Not literally, but you know what I mean.

Finally, the sims 3. As I wrote in my previous entry Mike bought me two Sims 3 stuff packs. Town Life and High End Loft. Well, High End Loft stuff installed no problems. Fine and dandy, great! I put in Town Life and the disk spun and made really loud noises. It was ridiculous. So I take the game back to Target, and they exchange for a new game. I bring it home, it does the same thing. I do this once more, end result is still the same. Disk is blank.

So, I go to play the Sims, and it says I have an update I have to do. Alright. So, I install the update, and I get an error. It won’t install the update. WTF!? Nothing will work. So, I uninstall the sims. I’ll just reinstall it. While I’m installing it I get a redundancy error. Uh oh! That’s not good. So I’m like, great, I’m going to have to reformat the hard drive and go back to factory settings.

I reformat the hard drive. I go to install the game. I get the redundancy error again! WTF! WHY IS IT DOING THIS?! I reformatted the freakin’ hard drive there is no reason why I should get an error. So I start searching online for tips on how to get through this. I find a post on a message board that says defrag your hard drive and it should work. So, I do this. Remind you I’m on my 2nd day of dealing with this shit. I love this game though I can’t not play… I must play. Defrag doesn’t work.

Alright. I’m going to reformat my hard drive ONE last time. I stay up late, I reformat it. First thing I do when I get the computer back up and running is I install the disk. Nothing but errors. SCREW THIS! I contact EA and tell them what happens. They give me a digital copy of the base game. Saweet. So, all I have to do is download the digital copy and I can install it. If this doesn’t work I’m going to give up on all hope to play the Sims. Which would have made me a VERY sad panda.

After nearly 9 hours, the download is complete. The game installs flawlessly. VICTORY! So, I excitedly start installing my expansion packs. First one, no problem. Second one, ERRORS! You’ve GOT to be kidding me. So I read on the post on the message boards if when you get the error, you eject the disk, wait a second, insert the disk, wait a few moments then click ok. You keep doing this until the install is done. According to her, her game never crashed once after doing this. So, I do this method, it works. Phew!

So, we go to Target today, and I exchange my other stuff pack for a final time! This will be my FOURTH disk. I tell them, if this doesn’t work, what do I do? She tells me contact the manufacture. Alright. So I come home. I try it. It doesn’t work! UGH! Nothing but problems the last 3 days trying to install the sims. I just want to play my game!!! So, I contact EA again. I tell them whats going on. Every time I buy one of your disks, its blank. Can I have a digital copy of the game? After a little bit of finesse they give in and give me one. So, its finally done. Everything is installed. I have it all on my computer once again. I just have to try playing it to see if it crashes because of doing what I said I did above with the ejecting the disk and such.  I’ll try playing tomorrow. So here’s to crossing fingers and toes to make sure that it works correctly.

Alright folks, I’m awfully tired after wring this long ass post. Thanks in advance for any comments. I’ll try to write back ASAP.

Case-it Binder Dual-100 Dual binder 2-in1 Zipper Binder

LOTS of nine pocket baseball card page protector inserts

Some 4×6″ Photo Protector inserts – unknown where to buy online – I find at Office Depot

I also have a few pages of regular page protectors

I love my binder. I’ve learned that it keeps me far more organized. I’ll explain in detail exactly what you’re seeing above. Each side has a certain things. I have them broken down in several categories, which I’ll list below. Each category has (2-4) nine pocket inserts and (1-2) 4×6″ pocket inserts. It varies as to what I usually have more of as to how many inserts I have per category. For instance: Deodorant always has tons of different coupons, so I have more pages for that then say, bread. With trial and error, you’ll figure out what coupons you’ll use more than others; which ones are more available; which you seem to collect more.

Left Size: Health and Beauty +Household + Rebates

The left side of the binder holds all of my health, beauty, cleaning, household, paper product categories. The categories that you can find in this section are as followed:

1. Baby
2. Deodoran
3. Body Wash & Lotion
4. Razors & Shaving Cream
5. Hair Products – Styling, Shampoo & Conditioner, Dyes
6. Make-Up & Facial Cleaners
7. Dish Soap
8. Cleaning Supplies
9. Laundry Soap
10. Paper Products – Toilet Paper, Paper Towel, Napkins
11. Storage Bags, Tin Foil, etc
12. Medicine
13. First Aid
14. Oral Hygiene
15. Stationary/Misc

At the absolute last page I have my rebate forms. A lot of time in coupon inserts they include forms in which you can receive more money back from buying the product with the coupons provided.

Right Side: Store Policies & Coupons + Food Products

I believe that no matter what store you’re shopping at you should have specified spot with your coupons with a store policy printed out. It’s important to have, especially when you make that shopping trip and the cashier/manager argue with you regarding the coupon you’re using.

On the right hand side, I have my store information. Each and every store I shop at  has these items in this order:

1. Coupon Policy, Notes, Trial Size List, Corporate Phone Numbers, useful information
2. Place for receipts; Save them in you need to return something, rebates, and for your records
3. In-store Coupons – which can only be used at the specific store

After that, I have my food products. I could categorize these in much further depth than I do but my system works for me. I usually tend to organize it in the order in which my store is set up. For instance, when I walk in the first thing I see is the bread and deli department.

1. Bread
2. Condiments
3. Boxed Meals (macaroni and cheese, rice a roni, etc.)
4. Pasta & Sauce
5. Canned Goods – Sorted into: Vegetables, Fruit, Soups, Meals
6. Cereal, Granola Bars, Oatmeal
7. Coffee
8. Beverages – Soda, Juice
9. Baking Goods – cake mixes, seasonings, etc.
10. Refrigerated Foods/Dairy
11. Meats
12. Frozen Food

It is important that you keep up with your binder! Organization and Dedication are key to having and using a successful coupon binder!!!

My coupons come on Sunday’s in the newspaper, then again on Wednesday in the mail. I usually sort, clip, organize, and file at least twice a week. I try to do this the night of receiving the coupons. That way I know its done and taken care of, plus it gives me a lot more time to browse deals and coupon-match.

If you don’t keep up with your binder two things are going to happen: 1.) You’re going to become extremely overwhelmed with coupon inserts that need to be clipped, sorted, and filed. Once I had over 30 inserts that needed to be put in. I will never allow that to happen again. 2.) You’ll go shopping thinking that you have all your deals set up, until you realize you have no idea where half your coupons are. Worse – they’re expired!

Like I said before, the coupon binder isn’t for everyone. It works well for me. I love it. If you have any questions; please feel free to leave a comment. I will do my absolute best to help you and give you the answers you need.

I have been using Tumblr for some time now, but just lately have been using it a lot more. Granted, I don’t have hundreds of uploads or “blogs” on Tumblr necessarily but I’ve seen a growing average of usage.

I have discovered that I don’t have to sit there and write lots. I can just post one picture, with no words, and be done with it. No explanation. No reasoning. No captions. Granted yes, I could do that here, but would it work? I mean honestly, would you really want to sit there and click next page, next page, next page… through what will end up being thousands of pages? Doubtful. So the question lies, “Nikkole, why don’t you change it so you show more than one entry per page?” I heard, and I’m not 100% on this, but Google Adsense doesn’t like that. Normally, I have ads on this blog (in hopes I’ll make more than $0.20 on it for some god awful reason) but as of late WordPress doesn’t want to show them (using the pluggin that I have) So whatever, I’m getting off topic – what’s new, right? Tumblr! I have only a few followers – which is fine – but the people I keep coming across really speak to me. Lately I’ve found a few girls that also have bipolar, and everything they post, I can relate to. Its nice to have someone say something that makes complete and utter sense to me; unlike when I try to say it and people are like “Huh?”

Needless to say, I like using it. I, on most occasions, use it for the countless random shit I find on StumbleUpon and feel like I just HAVE to share. Otherwise, I like to reblog a lot of the stuff that my new ‘followees’ are posting because I can relate to the same thing.

Twitter, ahh yes. Who doesn’t love good ol’ Twitter now a days, right? Honestly I tweet about the most random, crazy ass shit there is to say. If it’s on my mind, it gets tweeted. If I need to say something to someone, and can’t say it to their face, it gets tweeted. If I have to scream at the top of my lungs how I feel, it gets tweeted… See the trend? I have also made a lot of really cool friends on there – None in which I will never meet in real life, but they’re interesting people to say the least.

In all honesty, I use Twitter for a lot of different reasons. I read tweets from people that live right in my backyard (in Milwaukee). I love reading about what other people do in this city – what I’m missing out on, and what I don’t need to ever do. I use it to catch a lot of deals and such that you can find in various places online because you never know what kind of shit you can find online dirt cheap. I’ve also used it for the newest sweepstakes. I have a couple of my personal, real life (if you will, make me sound like the biggest computer nerd, having no life kinda person) friends that are on there too.

So, whats the point of this entry? Two things: (1) I have no life. I sit online all day long while I blog, or tweet, or post on Tumblr (not to count the countless shit I also feel the need to share on Facebook. (2) To say that I really do lead two separate lives.

Facebook has all my family and “friends” on it. I don’t want everyone knowing the complete inner workings of Nikkole because they always feel they need to put in their damn two cents. They don’t understand bipolar, they don’t understand anything really. They think they’re helping when in reality they’re making it far worse.

My blog, which isn’t known by anyone personal aside from a few, very few select few. I write long, pointless rants and raves on here. When I really need to get something deep off my chest and it consists more of just one photo, quote, or 140 characters. This has always been my outlet.

Twitter and Tumblr – I can be myself. 100%, complete, real, Nikkole. All the bitching, complaining, whining, and non-stop just crap. People always tell me that I’m always negative, I need a positive outlook on life so I can be happy – well folks, I’m sorry but that’s not who I am. I have NEVER been like that. I’m a realist. I look at things REALISTICALLY and think about them LOGICALLY. Although I have my share of ‘haters’ and bastards who can’t keep their words to themselves on Twitter, I can just be me. I can post something I think is cute, funny, heart breaking, and/or true.

So, this leads me to my final note:

I read all these articles about how you should watch what you say online. You don’t want that to come back and haunt you. You need to watch what you say to the world. “Would you stand in front of 300 people in real life and tell them your deepest darkest secrets? No? Then why do you do it online?” I hear these things and realize that online – I’m an open book. I’ve ALWAYS been an open book online. Maybe its because I don’t have someone sitting there in front of me when I break down and start crying uncontrollably. Or they don’t see the rage I get in my eyes when I get so completely pissed off about something I could punch something, and usually do. Its like, screaming into your pillow… its a release, comforting.

Should I be worried that I post, very and extremely openly online my inner, personal thoughts, hopes, wishes, fears, and regrets? Sometimes I do worry, but majority of the time, I think to myself; This is who I am, inside and out. I can be who I am online, without the people in front of me to kick me down. I can push aside words on a screen instead of the words in front of me. I can hide my face, tears, or anger when I am behind my screen, but when you’re standing there watching my ever move – I’m vulnerable. Pretty sad, that I can’t even be ME in front of the people who are here in my life. There are very few, who see it all. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Eternal Amour, and ME … you are true friends. I trust you with my inner most workings, be grateful I choose you to open up to. Maybe not one on one open, but in words…

I sure turned this entry into something completely different, didn’t I. Goodnight folks. Enough random “mindless typing” for the night.

Alright, so we all have our guilty pleasures, right? I have never been one for watching reality tv shows. In fact, I’ve been totally against it. Now, we have DVR (its like tivo, for those who are like, “Uhm? What the hell is D-V-R, Nikkole?”) and usually I never used it on a normal basis. I taped One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl – which are two of my favorite shows. The thing that SUCKS about DVR is that you can only record two shows at once, and you have to be watching one of them. Anyways, the summer is here, new shows are starting for the summer; all the normal shows have ended. So, what does that mean? Time to indulge in a few new guilty pleasures.

On every Friday, I watch “The Soup“, which is one of my new favorite shows. It always recalls the latest and funniest clips from various shows every single week. I’ve noticed that with this thirty minute show, they’re obviously not going to be able to show everything that the shows have to offer sometimes, shows are just so darn stupid that you are going to miss some stuff! So, I’ve decided to just watch some of ‘greatest hits’ and see what else I can catch that is being said.  So, here are a few of my latest Reality Show Guilty Pleasures.

I’m a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here – “Celebrities” are thrown into the wilderness, for three weeks, and told to survive. I say “celebrities” because they aren’t necessarily celebs. Three weeks? Seriously, you couldn’t be out there for three weeks?! Ridiculous!  [Thoughts]Oh. My. God! Okay, I honestly didn’t want to watch this because we ALL KNEW it was going to be ridiculously stupid. Alright, the whole reason as to why I decided I was going to watch this, was simply because Spencer and Heidi from the Hills is on it. If you watch The Soup, you know that they just LOVE to make fun of those two. (For the record, I cannot stand them. I cannot stand the Hills. I think its all ridiculous. They’re pampered and spoiled. For ONE DAY of what they’re living off of, my family could live for 6 months. Stupid celebrities and their ridiculous spending – We’ll save that for another day.) Now, I figured, they wouldn’t be able to catch EVERYTHING these two idiots say on this show; so I’m going to have to watch for myself. I am so happy I did. This is hilarious.

Here Come The Newlyweds – 2nd Season – A group of nine newlyweds are throw into a house together, diverse and competive. Its like, Big Brother but with newly wed couples. [Thoughts] I LOVE this show. I didn’t watch it last year, and am SO happy I caught it this year. It is absolutely hilarious. I was laughing until the tears were rolling down my cheeks yesterday watching it.  They had a “butt” challenge where the women were blindfolded, the men took turns getting their butt’s grabbed. The women then had to pick which one was her husband’s butt. There is one Mormon couple, who didn’t have any sexual relations prior to saying I do. They are the only ones that they’ve ever been with. So, when she had the chance to grab a lot of different guy’s butts, she was so excited! All in all, it is hilarious. One of the best parts is when the couples are in bed talking with each other after the day is through; Some of the conversations are just out there! LOL Mike and I really enjoy watching this one.

Jon and Kate: Plus 8 – A couple has a set of twins, then three years later has sextuplets. The mom is neurotic and thedad basically bites his tongue. They’re in the media everywhere now because well, they’re a lot more famous than they thought they ever would be. [Thoughts] My guiltiest pleasure of them all. Gwenn got me addicted to this show. Kate annoys the hell out of me. I honestly think that if Jon did cheat, I would understand why. I don’t believe in cheating, nor believe that people have excuses to do so, BUT I can understand what drove him to do it, if he did it. Kate, in my eyes, cares nothing about anything BUT the fame and fortune of it all. The money went to her head. You can see it from the beginning of the show until now. She went from looking homely, he had to force her to buy clothes that weren’t black or dark. Now, she goes shopping all the time. Her spray tan can’t be ANY more orange, and her damn hair, don’t even get me started. — Regardless of the drama, the kids are darn cute. I love this show.

I like to watch tv a lot more now than ever before. Maybe its because I want to escape reality … with watching reality shows? That’s kind of ironic. I can’t think of any other shows I currently watch that I can call a guity pleasure.

What is your guiltiest tv show pleasure? Do you induldge in reality shows? If so, which ones?

Coffee ‘n Coupons – It’s slowly coming together folks! I’ve been working extremely hard on it and nearly everyone that has seen it so far, has said that hard work will pay off. I have to admit – I’ve been slacking with the motivation to absolutely complete and open it at this point. The whole site is about clippin’ coupons, finding deals, saving money. I almost feel like a hypocrite because I don’t even go shopping due to the fact I have no way to get too and from the stores! Mike doesn’t have all the patience in the world so when it comes to patience to go grocery shopping, with a book of coupons, and I’m sitting there looking at prices, amounts, deals, and calculating stuff in my head and in front of him. He hates it. LOL I have a few more pages to work on yet. I’m currently working on making some printable worksheets and cheatsheets to use when you actually go to the store and create your coupon binder. All in all, its going to be a pretty darn good site, if I can say so myself. It’s my latest addiction because I spend so much gosh darn time on it! But, if your a web designer/developer, you know best; the number one site you see the most, is your own.

The Sims 3 – This game, is amazing! We’re not going to discuss on how I know this, I just do. I have ALWAYS been a huge fan of the Sims games. I own ALL of Sims 1 including all the expansion packs (By the way, Gwenn… if you’re not using those, lemme have them back. Sentimental reasons. Thank you for understanding.) I have ALL of the Sims 2 including all the expansion packs and stuff packs. Now, Sims 3 and you best believe I will have all the expansions and stuff and whatever else they do for this game. I absolutely love love love the Sims.The Sims 3 is different from the first two, but same at the same time. If that makes any sense at all. The game play is still there; You create your person, make them happy, grow relationships, go to work, etc. BUT in this version of the game you’re able to click “Walk here” and go ring your neighbor’s doorbell! How freakin’ awesome is that! I could talk for HOURS about this game. I more than likely will start posting a few blogs about it.

Toxel – Toxel, Toxel, Toxel, how I love you so. This site is really neat. Not only is it inspirational to get your creative juices flowing, but they have a lot of really neat stuff! I mean, where else can you find Modern and Creative Bookshelves in the shape of a polar bear!? There’s this other article, really really neat in my eyes. I would have never thought a sheet of paper with circles and x’s would be so neat to me… The School of Art and Design has a Creativity Test in which they have sheets of paper with nothing but a bunch of circles. You’re supposed to think of as many random things you can draw with those circles. This site is really inspirational in my book. Not necessarily in the web design concept, but in every day life.  They do include some web design articles as well. (Check out their <a href=”http://www.toxel.com/design/2008/08/06/24-high-quality-free-wordpress-themes/”>24 High Quality FREE WordPress Themes</a>) Who knows what they’ll come up with next!

CssTricks – Love, LOVE, LOVE this site. There are loads, and I mean, LOADS of tutorials to teach you the latest and greatest CSS Tricks out there. There are over #63 different video tutorials that are available too! I don’t know about a lot of you, but when I’m learning new programs, tricks, and other stuff, reading tutorials ALL DAY LONG really does put a strain on the brain, and you get overwhelmed. I often just sit back while I’m eating dinner and watch a tutorial. What’s really awesome about the video tutorials available on the site, you can download them! I have downloaded some of my favorites and the ones I really want to work on and threw them on my external hard drive. Now, when I’m up north, or offline, or away from the internet, I can just watch a tutorial video and work on it. If you’re interested in working on your CSS experience and knowledge, I definitely recommend this site.

That is all for today. I was going to post five, but I’ve grown bored and tired. Check out these sites. Let me know what you think!

Got an amazing site to recommend to me? Let me know! Leave me a comment here or you can Stalk, err I mean, Contact me. I’ll review it and I just might pick it to be in my next “Latest Addiction” segment.

Sweeties Sweeps – My biggest addiction of all right now would be Sweeties Sweeps.  This is where I go to find all the latest winnable sweepstakes. Thanks to Wendy’s site, I have won over ten times, worth approximately $110 worth of sweepstakes! Not only does she post the sweepstakes that you can actually win, but she has a second site called: Sweeties Swag that shows where you can find a bunch of freebies.  You can find me most often in the chatroom she has on the site; I’m addicted. Check it out, maybe you’ll win big too. There have been many big winners from using her tips and tricks to filling out sweepstakes. Melanie, our most recent winner, won a car! They gave her the option of taking $16,000 instead. Now that’s an instant win!

Noupe – A web development/design blog that I read all the time. They have some amazing articles for the latest tips and tricks for building a better website. I am in the process of learning everything and anything I can get my hands across.  My addiction is mainly on their icon, wordpress, and best-of categories. I love a lot of what they post, and find it all very educational and inspirational. There are loads of articles and links to other design websites/blogs. Be warned, if you’re interested in being a better developer/designer; you’ll be on here for hours.

Woot - Ahh yes, woot.com. You’ve probably heard me talk about this often on Twitter. Basically the deal is this: They post one deal per day. That’s it. Every day at midnight, it resets and a new product is put up. If at 12:05am it sells out, that’s it for the day. You have to wait until midnight for the next deal. Currently there is a “Woot-Off” going on. This is a special occasion when they have non-stop deals coming in. There is one deal, once it sells out, the next deal comes up. These usually run for 24-48 hours at a time. They only happen every few months. Of course, there’s always the chance you can get yourself a “bag of crap”. Which is a random ‘grab bag’ which costs you $1 + $5 shipping and can be anything from a couple of pencils to a 60″ LCD TV. Ahhh, how I love my woot.

Deal Dump – One stop place to find all the latest and best deals. This site doesn’t post ALL of them, but they have a really good selection of what’s going on.  Basically it takes a recap of the latest ten deals from a lot of popular sites like SlickDeals.net, TechBargins.com, and AntiRebate.com – They’re not the best looking sites, but if you like to find the cheapest deals while online shopping. I know it might seem like a pain to read through each description, “its not very pretty” and I find myself finding that hard too. I’m more  of a visual type of person. All the categories have links to the site they’re getting them off of. So check ‘em out.

This Inspires Me – I have recently stumbled upon this really neat site. It has LOADS of links and resources for hundred of sites that will give you inspiration for a really cool website. Like I said, I’ve been addicted to knowing everything there is to know about web design and development lately. This is definitely one that I look at daily now.  It really gives you an idea of what is popular in the world right now