more recent reading

18. I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It, Barbara Sher. Some interesting thought experiments, but it didn't lead me to any great revelations about what I want to do when I grow up. Not that I really expected it to, of course; I think if all it took was a single quick reading of this book to make me figure out the answer to that long-standing question, I probably wasn't all that confused in the first place.


19. What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question, Po Bronson. There were some interesting stories here from people who really did sit down to think about what they really wanted to be doing with their life, whether forced to do so by circumstances or simply because they were feeling discontent. Not so much a self-help sort of thing like the previous book, which is probably good; my tolerance for that genre is reasonably low and I hit my quota quickly.


20. Never Mind the Pollacks: A Rock and Roll Novel, Neal Pollack. After all that big, important contemplation of What I Want to Be When I Grow Up, I really just needed a healthy dose of "WTF?" While organizing the bookshelves in the dining room, ran across this in the "unread" stack and figured it fit the bill. Uh, yeah.

Found money (eventually)

Someone recently mentioned in passing discovering their name and associated money in their state unclaimed property database, and out of curiosity I plugged my name in to http://www.missingmoney.com/ just to see what could be seen. There's at least one entry that looks suspiciously like it could be me (and possibly a second), so I fire off a request at the state treasury department website. Today, I get this:

We received your inquiry and it appears that you may have property to claim. The inquiry will be processed in the order in which it was received. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks for more information to be sent for we are currently experiencing a backlog situation. We hope to correct this situation as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Department of Treasury

Division of Unclaimed Property

Neat. That address is from ten years ago so these days I have no clue what the property in question could possibly be, but I'm expecting it to probably be something like the $5 remnant from a utility deposit. At any rate, it's a pleasant change to get mail indicating someone wants to give me back money rather than take it from me.