5. Starts writing songs that start with "woke up this mornin'..."
4. Still doesn't drink ... but understands why people do.
3. Still doesn't smoke ... but understands why people do.
2. New favorite song: Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin
1. "I wonder if Circle K will hire me back"

(Note that #1 hasn't happened yet. Yet.)

Currently listening : Pearl By Janis Joplin

Labels: alcohol, blues, jobs, money, smoking

Per month.
$250 Groceries
$180 Dining Out
$330 For the truck and VW
$1200 Mortgage (30-yr)
$300 House decor/repair
$250 IRA
$350 Savings*
$400 Utilities, bills
$300 Spending*
$1000 Children
$0 Debt payments

$4,560 per month
$54,720 per year.

*~1/3rd used on monthly trip, 1/3 used on annual trip.

This is more than enough for me. We'd have trips monthly to a rollercoaster or off-roading or whatever, and annually could afford a trip just about anywhere. And have a big, fat IRA account when we retire. Of course, sometimes I'd use some of the car budget for the house repair (or whatever) - or maybe go out more one month than usual and pare from the grocery budget. But this really would be all I needed, I'm sure of it. I mean ... after 2 years of this income, I'd be able to do pretty much everything I'd wanted to do to my car, and make some improvements to Rachel's truck as well. After 5 years, I'd definately finish, and we'd probably get our third (and final) car - something like a '55 Nomad to drive the kids around with.

And this all makes me really wonder about the middle class and how I always hear about them trying to live above their means. From where I am, their means are plenty. Why are they killing themselves with debt?

Anyway, this is all wishful thinking at the moment since I'm unemployed. But there is a light at the end of this tunnel. I know that very few graphic designers just start out making $50k a year, but that doesn't bother me. That's fine. Rachel is making about $10k from Bookman's, and we don't have kids. We live in a duplex and so don't need the $300 for home repairs, really, or a mortgage (rent is half what's budgeted there). Actually that whole list is a bit inflated just because this is a fantasy world, and the title of this blog is "everything I ever wanted." Between the all that, we're taking $30k out of the above budget per year - leaving me to get an entry-level job at $20k per year. If I can find one.

Am I really asking for something unreasonable? A $20k per year job for a college grad, with hopes of eventually making about $40-55 in about a decade? Or is a college degree worth that little now?

Edit: heh. Even though it's best if you're listening instead of reading. I'll be singing it on the way to DES.

Currently reading : The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 2: The Magicians of Caprona / Witch Week By Diana Wynne Jones

Labels: cars, debt, idiots, jobs, money, rant, To-Do, truck, true

The most interesting part about it - the part the justifies a blog - is that I realise that there's a striking similarity between DJing a house party and a big club (like my old job at Maloney's). When the presents come out, you have to have the music people want to hear but won't really dance to. You can't have too many big dance songs in a row because people almost never manage to keep their insecurity down for more than 15 minutes (especially high school kids). There is an ebb and flow to be maintained, in every presentation of music in sequence: a rock show, on the radio, in a club, in a house, anywhere. Heh ... and in mix tapes. But if you want to know more about that, watch High Fidelity.

Recent books: Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Fight Club, White Teeth.

Currently reading : The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 1: Charmed Life / The Lives of Christopher Chant By Diana Wynne Jones

Labels: DJ, Maloney's, mixing, music, teenagers

Labels: demo, Impulse Nine, mp3

And at least as exciting as all that is that I got a chance to rework Nine Inch Nails' song Only - and if you ask me, I did a damn fine job. You can find it here, and please don't forget to rank the song however high or low you think it needs to be ranked.

Currently listening : Only By Nine Inch Nails

Labels: Impulse Nine, music, MySpace, nine inch nails

While I do need another job -- still looking -- I'm going to take this opportunity to jump into doing what I lurrrve doing best: making music, showing said music to people, listening to music, talking about music. Doing graphic design, making websites, and being social and a part of the Tucson scene that is quite cool that I've longed for. Until now.

So yesh, here I am - coming down your street. Get the strangest looks from the people I meet ...

Currently listening : White Blood Cells By The White Stripes

Labels: ambition, jobs, Maloney's, work

I told her that, in light of the fact that I'd quit/fired, it was unlikely for a little while. She said she was sorry and that I should apply at the bank. She didn't know how bad at math I am - finance in particular - so I can't blame her. But I wanted to impress upon her exactly how bad an idea this was.

I looked at her with a thoughtful face and, gesturing at her booth, said, "I'm sure that if I did that, I would find a way to collapse the Western World's economy."

She just looked at me, amused and a bit scared.

I perked up - "Have a nice day, though!" - turned, and left.

Labels: Maloney's, money, stories, true

Labels: anecdote, demo, Ignition, Impulse Nine, jazz, music, true

My wife was giving me an example of a person who is (1) completely certain of themselves and (2) dead wrong when she said a co-worker adamantly proclaimed that the Blues came from Jazz.

No. That's like saying that Sumi-e came from Japanese landscapes - yeah, they were done at the same time, and they had some similar ideas, kind-of, but ... no. You're wrong.

However ...

They do tag along together sometimes, and the best example I can think of is the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack(s). There's a lot of versions, and I happen to have all of them. Ranging from Pop to Jazz to Blues to the positively quirky, it's really completely brilliant - not unlike the show, really.

In working on my own music, I've been toying with this sort of cosmo approach to genres, shoving in whatever works for whatever reason, and I'm back to having a good time with music.

Today, I had a bad migraine and so sat down to play guitar ('cos I can do it with my eyes closed and sitting up and closing my eyes is the least painful position to be in, for me, when a migraine strikes). Came up with a song that I'll share here with Myspace's new Podcast ability. I'm hoping that with this particular song I will actually meld a bit of Blues and Jazz. Though in its current state, it's much more Blues than Jazz. I'm hoping that with some unusually Jazzy bass guitar, and a more complex rhythm track, I'll have that. (Even though it's already pretty much polyrhythmic; the three instruments are all playing different rhythms - but it works).

The song is named Mars' Dirt. Fair warning - it's (exactly) 10 minutes long and 12 MB. Aaand it's mostly noodling. But I'm happy enough with it to post here. It will be replaced, eventually, with the finished version.

I guess my investigation into Romanian and Eastern European folk songs (i.e., from The Historian, mentioned in a previous entry) will have to wait few more days...

Impulse Nine - Mars' Dirt

Currently listening : Cowboy Bebop By Yoko Kanno

Labels: demo, idiots, Ignition, Impulse Nine, jazz, migraine, music, stories, true

My wife was giving me an example of a person who is (1) completely certain of themselves and (2) dead wrong when she said a co-worker adamantly proclaimed that the Blues came from Jazz.

No. That's like saying that Sumi-e came from Japanese landscapes - yeah, they were done at the same time, and they had some similar ideas, kind-of, but ... no. You're wrong.

However ...

They do tag along together sometimes, and the best example I can think of is the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack(s). There's a lot of versions, and I happen to have all of them. Ranging from Pop to Jazz to Blues to the positively quirky, it's really completely brilliant - not unlike the show, really.

In working on my own music, I've been toying with this sort of cosmo approach to genres, shoving in whatever works for whatever reason, and I'm back to having a good time with music.

Today, I had a bad migraine and so sat down to play guitar ('cos I can do it with my eyes closed and sitting up and closing my eyes is the least painful position to be in, for me, when a migraine strikes). Came up with a song that I'll share here with Myspace's new Podcast ability. I'm hoping that with this particular song I will actually meld a bit of Blues and Jazz. Though in its current state, it's much more Blues than Jazz. I'm hoping that with some unusually Jazzy bass guitar, and a more complex rhythm track, I'll have that. (Even though it's already pretty much polyrhythmic; the three instruments are all playing different rhythms - but it works).

The song is named Mars' Dirt. Fair warning - it's (exactly) 10 minutes long and 12 MB. Aaand it's mostly noodling. But I'm happy enough with it to post here. It will be replaced, eventually, with the finished version.

I guess my investigation into Romanian and Eastern European folk songs (i.e., from The Historian, mentioned in a previous entry) will have to wait few more days...

Impulse Nine - Mars' Dirt

Currently listening : Cowboy Bebop By Yoko Kanno

Labels: idiots, Ignition, Impulse Nine, jazz, migraine, music, stories, true

Today, Rachel got an offer for a credit card. Fine, that happens daily. But I'm pretty sure this was the single worst offer I'd ever seen.

APR (Annual Percentage Rate): 23.99 r> Startup Fee: $50
Monthly (!) Fee: $10.95 ($131.40/yr)
Minimum Finance Charge: $0.50

So, let's say Rachel actually got this and bought one $0.50 popscicle every month for a year with it.

Startup Monthly fees = $181.40
Finance charges = $.50 x 12 = $6
Interest = ~$35

For twelve fifty-cent popscicles ($6 in merchandise), she'd pay about $222. Now, if you could excuse me, I'm going to go and visit the executives at Applied Card Bank, Wilmington DE. With a blunt object.

Currently listening : Cowboy Bebop By Yoko Kanno

Labels: credit, evil, money

So I started thinking about how it must be nice that baseball teams play all the time - sometimes twice a day. But does that make them lesser athletes? Not really - I mean, they train to the highest physical level that they can. That's why they're professionals. There isn't a ton of exercise involved in baseball - it's sitting on the bench or waiting for a pitch. Then I came to a weird conclusion: I bet that baseball players have harder, more exhaustive days on the days that they train - their 'days off' - than days with an actual game. Weird. "Oh, man thank God we have a game today - I could use the break."

Oh yeah and I lost my job. I hated it passionately, so how bad this news is depends on how long it takes to replace said job.

Currently listening : Cowboy Bebop By Yoko Kanno

Labels: exercise, jobs, Maloney's, sports, Suns

I feel really wierd sitting in my own skin, as though it's not my own, like watching a very boring television program. I am simply waiting for the narration to clue me in on my very strange new story. You could call it a Matrix Moment if you'd want, though that's a bit dramatic.

These moments are useful for their disassociated and analytical perspective on my life - conveying the urgency with which I need to get better (I've been sick), get some work done and maybe foremost, get a new but equally well -paid job that I do not loathe.

Of course the irony of it is that I often find the book's world a far more comforting and seductive place than my own; it is a real tragedy that this still applies when I am reading an academic-toned horror story! Its irony is that I do not wish to use that proper and analytical perspective but rather I would curl up and continue reading with my back to my life's continued decay.

Currently reading : The Historian By Elizabeth Kostova

Labels: books, movies, random, sick

On the other hand, I' would probably end up burning everything unfortunate enough to be flat and roughly the size of a letter - including a marriage certificate, our vehicles' titles, etc.

*FWOOM!* YES!

Currently listening : Hello By Poe

Labels: fire, random, work