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Saturday, December 27, 2008
Mandatory New Years' Resolution Post
Will Take Work on a Daily Basis
  • Finish organizing my photo collection (~17,000 photos). Get at least 1/4 of the way through tagging, rating, and eliminating duplicates.
  • Get a real start on organizing my old design/writing work files.
  • Create a good organizational system for ITP work files.
  • Rate 40 days worth of music.
  • Average one blog post every 3 days.
  • Stay on-budget every month.
  • Make some babies~!
  • Use my 'power tower' (ugh hate the name) Christmas gift. I have yet to determine actual numbered goals. Get more sexy! This involves about 45 minutes of workout per day in 10, 10, and 25 minute sections.
  • Eat well (almost no corn syrum, limited sweets, good snacks like carrots and nuts, more but smaller meals, drinking 2.5 litres of water a day).
  • Take 4,000 photographs, including 400 5-star photos. Post the best to Facebook/Flickr.
  • Consistently shoot 80% on freethrows.
Will Take Work on a Weekly Basis
  • Create a home inventory for insurance purposes, including all photos, reciepts and serial numbers.
  • Finish Ignition. This means professionally mastered and with a new website to promote it.
  • Start re-learning piano and/or theory (haven't set up specific goals for this yet).
  • Go on at least 25 hikes or other outdoor excursions.
  • Consistently (at least 2x a month) do little things for my wife that would make her want to date me if we weren't married.
  • Stay connected to friends via Facebook. Use it to get together with friends while we're still young and sexy.
  • Get a good, highly-productive routine going at work that encourages me to take carpal-tunnel saving breaks and keeps me alert through the day (this relates to the eating and exercising).
Will Take Work on a Monthly Basis
  • Begin to learn PHP in depth, preferably through classes that work pays for...
  • Set up a long series of doctor's appointments to check for just about everything one can be checked for, to deal with any problems I might have before they're problems. That is - abuse the fact that I have a job with semi-decent medical care.
  • Work on some way of respectfully resolving some core differences of belief between me and the in-laws.
  • Get out of town 8 times (including at least 5 to family).
  • Read a book a month.
  • Reaquaint myself with all the outdoors knowledge I had as a Boy Scout.
  • Learn to properly tune up my car.

One-Time Events:

Winter:
  • Pay taxes by Valentine's Day.
  • Visit my co-workers in San Francisco (I work from home 700 miles away and have yet to meet them).
  • Use our new toboggan.
Spring:
  • For the Prius: Replace scratched rear turn signal assembly.
  • Redo my homepage/portfolio again in such a way that it all actually works.
  • Create "A Ninja Wedding"
  • Create the Impulse Nine TF2 frag video
Summer:
  • Get to a water park.
  • Write a short (20-page) religous-political treatise.
VW Work:
  • January: Scrape off all the tar board from the floors and put down rust-preventing primer. Install aluminum side panels.
  • February: Install floor drains. Put down floor lining. Install side brush bars. Install larger brake fluid reservoir.
  • March: Create map pocket and cup holder in side panels. Install fire extinguisher holder.
  • April: Install Dynamat (weather permitting).
  • May: Buffer time.
  • June: Begin working with simple fiberglassing by making rear trunk covers.
  • July: Replace all the wiring with Jordan, adding circuits for all the new stuff to be installed later. Add gravel guards. Replace turn signal. Install air horn.
  • August: Powdercoat rims, bumpers, brush bars, gravel guards, and door panels.
  • September: Buffer time.
  • October: Replace rims and tires. Raise rear suspension.
  • November: Install new headlight system.
  • December: Replace door and window rubber.

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posted by Steve @ 9:38 PM   0 comments
Friday, January 18, 2008
A Clean House
Rachel and I didn't get a chance to go to the Phoenix Suns game today, but strangely I'm glad it didn't happen, because we got a chance to do nothing but clean the place the whole day. We didn't even finish, but we did a lot of the little things that had only been kind-of put away. She sorted out her ribbons with a neat way of hanging them on the wall, and I tied up the wires to the little bedside stereo to be a little less messy, allowing me to have a real place to put my wallet and phone charger at night.

Little things like that are why I always have said that it takes a solid year to really move into a new place. Unfortunately, I've paid rent in 11 places in the last 10 years for a variety of reasons:

1. 1998: Moved from home to Cochise dorm. Lived in the funny-smelling place with Eric, and proceeded to do terribly in school. I'm still convinced that my aversion to the lead-tasting water lead to dehydration through the entire year. Moved because I was kicked out of UA for bad grades.
2. 1999: Moved to my first apartment over the summer, and Joe moved in as roommate. It was so very tiny, but he just had a few bags and I didn't have a lot, either. We moved to have our own rooms.
3. 2000: Moved a 2-bedroom place with horrible furniture and a landlady that smoked approximately twenty billion cigarettes. Moved because the landlady was scary.
4. 2001: Moved into a nice 2-bedroom place with a backyard with Joe. Bought my own furniture for the first time, and had one of the better years I've ever had. Tension over my leaving to Japan and not being able to pay rent for summer forced Joe and I to get separate places.
5. 2002: Moved into a small, 1-bedroom place run by a completely neurotic Indian man. Met Rachel that year, who moved in just to avoid my Ex, who was her roommate. Tough times, but made better with Rachel. Moved because the landlord (seriously) wanted to evict us for trimming the bushes that prevented us from getting in the front door.
6. 2003: Joined Rachel in a big house with Sean and Gayle. We were all broke, all the time, but we threw some good parties and had an awesome place. Moved because Rachel and I were getting married.
7. 2004: Lived in a somewhat dilapidated guest house, which was nice except that the landlords were going through a loud, messy divorce, and their favorite place to argue was our front yard. Moved for that reason.
8. 2005: Found a nice duplex in an apartment complex that was nicer than the not-great neighborhood it was in. Had the luxury of sharing the duplex with AZ & Tasha, but were next door neighbors to crack dealers with small children. Moved out of fear.
9. 2006 (1): Lived with Mom while teaching in Phoenix, but that didn't work out and we had to move for two months into a tiny duplex just south of the UA. Only had it during the summer before the new tenants moved in for the school year, but it was a godsend because we were destitute.
10. 2006 (2): After that, we were miraculously making better money and moved into a nice second-floor apartment very close to Rachel's work. Had a very cranky downstairs neighbor, who didn't appreciate our construction projects. Resolved to get a place without stairs and with a carport.
11. 2007: Found a great little duplex that we currently have. It was dirty and had next to no heating, and an absentee landlord, but it feels very much like a home. And now, it's fairly organized, as well! I am fervently hoping that we don't have a reason to move out next summer.

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posted by Steve @ 11:28 PM   0 comments
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Resolution Time!

MMVIII:

  • Average a blog post 3 times a week (157 posts in the year).
  • Finish Ignition.
  • Improve communication with Rachel.
  • Dote on Rachel more.
  • Keep the house clean.
  • No more laundry sorting piles for more than 1 day.
  • Go through sentimental stuff.
  • Develop an easy and automated system for daily scheduling between work, freelance work, and personal stuff to work on my computer and Palm.
  • Finish archiving and organizing old material.
  • Finish archiving old digital photos.
  • Start archiving old analogue photos.
  • Bring a much-improved Leelu to Eastpointe before the school year ends.
  • Bring a much-improved Leelu to Bugtoberfest.
  • Take a lot of good photographs of my friends.
  • Go climbing with Nyssa often enough to be in noticeably better shape.
  • Practice basketball often enough to be in noticeably better shape.
  • Eat a better breakfast and lunch every day.
  • Drink my 8 glasses of water/juice daily.
  • Continue to manage my finances carefully.
  • Improve my rhetoric.
  • Develop a clear understanding of medical insurance.
  • Learn about early child development.
  • Start finishing the three paintings.

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posted by Steve @ 11:53 PM   0 comments
Saturday, December 22, 2007
End-of-the-year To-Do List
So, 2007 has about 10 days remaining. I've drawn up my list of things to do during the winter break. This is becoming a tradition. This year I don't have quite as many days of as I'd like, because the time between the 24th and 1st fit pretty nicely into a work week, and I think of winter vacation being two weeks, not one.

Anyway, the list:
  1. Ship out RMA's of processor fans that didn't work
  2. Buy Caliente a new collar (he's getting pretty good at ditching them).
  3. Clean the patio
  4. Affix the basketball hoop net more effectively.
  5. Replace Leelu's battery (under warranty, thankfully)
  6. Replace stove catch pans.
  7. Check Yoshimi's tire pressure.
  8. Move printer to Rachel's computer (it's so old that Vista won't work with it).
  9. Clean trash around our place.
  10. Put incense in the bathroom.
  11. Get the new Water Pik working.
  12. Clean off Rachel's rolling cart, which is covered in computer parts.
  13. Simultaneously have all of our laundry clean and put a way, and have all of the dishes clean and put away.
  14. Trim bushes
  15. Sell old dryer
  16. Make at least 6 driving mix CDs
  17. Figure out how to make MP3 CDs that will work in the car
  18. Replace kitchen countertop
  19. Install bathroom shelf
  20. Do 2005 tax return (apparently it was misfiled somehow)
  21. Affix lattice
  22. Give the bathroom its hardcore biannual cleaning.
  23. Make mix CDs for John illustrating influences for Ignition
  24. Jam with John
  25. Cook something awesome with Rachel
  26. Tag, rate, date and organize a good amount of my photo archive
  27. Copy a fair amount of old archive CDs
  28. Visit relatives for Christmas
  29. Clean up Rachel's new/my old computer for her use
  30. Finish (could it be?!) organizing the MP3 collection
  31. Clean house thoroughly
  32. Get totally caught up on mail filing
  33. Possibly throw a New Years party

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posted by Steve @ 2:18 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Paradise, Inc.
I just got a lot more serious about that whole Island Thing.

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posted by Steve @ 1:24 AM   0 comments
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Island living
Apparently, buying your own private island is cheaper than I thought. According to Private Islands Online, you can have one for as little as $200k (less, actually, but not for decent-sized ones not in Northern Canada). OK, $200,000 is a lot of money, and the ones I really liked were more in the $600k range. But it's a lot cheaper than I had pictured in my head.

So Rachel and I, if Rudy Giuliani gets elected, are going to leave the country to live on an island. Right on. And actually, we will probably be able to save up for it by the time his first term is up!

Note: This is probably all a pipe dream.

Check this out. Rachel and I want to build a sustainable island community. Each person (assuming 15-20 wage-earners) would need to contribute somewhere between $75k and $200k. That's a lot of money, sure, but it's about as much as mediocre-to-crap house in Tucson. If, as a community, we make money, then we can pay it off like any other loan (I'll get to how we'd make money in a bit).

The goal is a happy life, I guess. Eat well, raise awesome children, enjoy friends and family, improve yourself, waste nothing, and be happy. What else could anyone want?

We'll get 20 adults together. Mostly they'll be people like this guy and others that are interested in the no-impact good life ideal, except without insufferably pretentious people. We'd take certain roles. I would help teach the kids, and keep all the electronics going, and probably do some of the maintenance of machinery. My load would be relatively light because I'd also keep my day job - web design - because I can do that from anywhere on the planet.

Others without the traditional white-collar do-anywhere jobs would be helping grow food, build and maintain stuff, cook, and so on.

We'd need some things:
  • A good island. At least of the ones I've seen, most of the affordable ones are in the Philippines. A good island will be well above the sea (typhoons aren't fun to watch from underwater), ideally with some cliffs for climbing, diving, and windmills. It should have a decently protected moor for a boat, a place for a small ambphibious plane to be stored in case of a storm. A beach would be nice. Vegetation is also a must. Must also be at least 20 acres.
  • Transportation. Gotta have at a good-sized boat, probably one capable of Atlantic travel. Also, a small amphibious plane. It wouldn't be hard to make the boat self-sufficient with today's power generation (solar, wind generators), and desalinization processes. A 60' ketch should be capable of sailing most anywhere, including crossing the Pacific, but I am waiting on an expert to be sure of that. Making a 'green' aircraft presents a more formidable challenge: you can mix the fuel (20 bio/80 regular), and lower emissions by 50%, in order to use a typical amphibious like a Cessna 208, or hope that the DA42 Twin Star gets a water-landing version with more cargo room. You'd have to get the plane from Japan or the Philippines if you wanted to have an island in the Pacific, though. It's a ridiculous notion, but I'd also want to turn my Baja bug into a biodiesel schwimwagen for diving trips and cruising around the island.
  • Food. If you've got a couple of garden-loving hippies on your crew who want nothing to do with a 'real' job and want to grow stuff for the rest of their lives (and we do), this is mostly taken care of, and they don't mind farming a little extra in exchange for living in paradise. Apparently, most of the vegans we know would be fine owning (and eating) various animals if they did the job themselves. Currently it looks like we'll have a cats (as pets) and chickens and a few cows (as food).
  • Water. Desalinization has come a long, long way. For about $10-20k you can get a salt-water purifier that's about the size of a dorm refrigerator, and it will give you 1,000 gallons of potable water per day. All you'd need is a clean reservoir, a means of getting the ocean to the filter, and a pump. Rainwater collecting has also worked well for humanity for... ever.
  • Fellow colonists. While you don't want to pigeonhole people into jobs that can't be replaced (in case they want to leave), you'd want to be sure to bring people you want to live with. Of course, people will have their own homes and all, but community meals are going to be a big thing here (since it's shared food), so picking your friends will be important. Also, divvying up expenses will be a good thing since maintaining the boat and plane won't be free.
  • Utilities. Power's the easiest thing on the list: solar and wind power is quite effective nowdays, and you'll have lots of both on an island. Use LED lighting, and highly efficient insulation (etc.), and you've got low-enough power usage (even with computers), for solar and wind. You can compost most any waste, and we'd avoid plastics like they were diseased. The only thing that won't be obviously not biodegradable is most of our...
  • Other niceties, like Internet access (now available via satellite), plumbing, stereo systems, computers, swings, scuba gear, a library, a medical room, a distillery (booze!),
It's all doable, though, and there's already a market for pre-made hippies-in-trees commune housing. That helps construction quite a bit (and makes it a lot cheaper as well).

We'd have to get homeowner-type loans to pay for it all, most likely. So how would we pay that off? And what about the cost of upkeep for the vehicles, and occasional supplies?

Well, I work at home anyway. So I can make some money that way. We can also rent out a little vacation spot for rich tourists. $5,000 a week is the usual run, but with a nice place with maids, you can charge $10,000. So I figure we can hire a few local people for $200 a week to live there and keep up the guest place. Usual pay in the Philippines is $200 a month for that work, so we can get some good work for that. Figuring maintenance costs, that leaves about $8,000 a week in profit, and if we keep it occupied half the time, our island makes us $200k per year. That will pay off a $1.5M loan in 10 years, just by itself, and theoretically people should be going into this with cash deposits anyway.

Add in regular income from people like me. Rachel also suggested having a little cottage industry, perhaps selling fruit to nearby islands. Plus, if 20 people are determined, a lot can be done.

Figuring a 10-year, $2M loan and 6.5% interest, monthly payments would be $17,032.20. That's a lot of money - but divide it between ten families, who don't have to pay for electricity, a car payment, food, or a load of other usual expenses. Then you're talking $1,703.22. That's about normal for a mortgage. Just maintain the stuff, and occasionally fly to visit family. So in order to make all this work, each family has to average an annual income of about ... $25k, about $5k above the U.S. poverty line.

Of course, not everyone is going to have a prototypical 'job,' so some of the money has to come from the island or islanders. But between a rental villa and some work-at-home types (web design, graphic design, writers, perhaps musicians, online librarians, etc.), it can be done.

Now the biggest three questions:
1. Can we find fifteen to twenty other people (or ten couples) to go into this?
2. Can we work up the nerve to do it?
3. Can we put together enough cash to get to critical mass?

We'll see, I guess.

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posted by Steve @ 10:38 PM   0 comments
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Moved.
We're finished moving! Finally! The basketball hoop's up, and the place is a mess. I'm sore, Rachel's sore, and I'm worried about the walk-through inspection to happen today. But once I'm done with that, we can concentrate on making this place as awesome as possible!

The housewarming party should be in about two weeks.

To-Do List:
  • Front yard:
    • Hang Sun sculpture
    • Pull weeds
    • Sweep up trash
    • Get a trash can lid
    • Get a porch lamp cover
  • Front room:
    • Paint entertainment center
    • Set up computer
    • Set up desk
    • Hang my paintings
    • Decide on other decor
    • Set up entertainment center
    • Mop
    • Hang red curtain
    • Replace fan light bulbs
    • Dust fan
    • Make/hang bookshelves
    • Vacuum rug
    • Strip couch
    • Paint couch
    • Upholster couch
    • Buy 9V battery
    • Fill hole(s) in grout
  • Kitchen
    • Mop
    • Put away food
    • Decide on and hang decorations
    • Organize and put away cleaning supplies
    • Get slip-covers for chairs
  • Bedroom
    • Finish putting away clothes
    • Fix window that won't close
    • Decide on and hang decorations
    • Set up speakers
    • Sort and get rid of old/non-fitting clothes
  • Back yard
    • Trim both trees
    • Set up a trellis along the gate
    • Set up a barrier for the washer and dryer
    • Put tape down to define basketball 'key'
    • Fix Christmas lights
    • Pull weeds
    • Trim bushes
    • Hang lamp
    • Throw away desk
    • Trim hanging vines
  • Side yard/parking areas
    • Trim bushes
    • Weed out dead branches, bushes
    • Pull out weeds
    • Clear out trash
    • Organize storage
    • Put locks on storage
    • Figure out trellis replacement
  • Other
    • Train cats to use litterbox outside
    • Patch holes in walls

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posted by Steve @ 11:02 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Ambition: Lifelong learning
In a perfect world, I think I'd work about 30 hours a week, and spend the other 10 hours of a normal work week taking classes. Actually, I had hoped to start taking these classes much earlier, right after I got my degree.

I would tell people I couldn't wait to get my degree so that I could start taking classes.

A few classes I'd like to take from this year's course catalogue from Pima:
  • ACC101 Financial Accounting
  • ACC204 Individual Tax Accounting
  • ART128 Digital Photography I
  • ART232 Digital Photography II
  • ART160 Ceramics I (Took this a long time ago, but I was awful at it, mostly because I didn't really have the time to do it properly)
  • ART215 Painting II (to finish the paintings I've already started)
  • AUT129 Automotive Electrical Fundamentals and Applications
  • BCT101 Principles of Construction
  • BCT114 Blueprint Reading
  • BUS100 Introduction to Busines
  • BUS125 eCommerce
  • CUL140 Culinary Principles (there are other cooking classes in the 'personal development' category)
  • DAR111 Typography
  • DAR115 Digital Video Editing
  • DAR122 Desktop Graphics: Adobe Illustrator
  • DAR124 Writing for Film and Television
  • DAR175 Cinematography
  • DAR215 Advanced Cinematography
  • DAR218 Introduction to Film Music
  • Early Childhood Education - basically everything not related to running a day care
    • ECE107 Human Development and Relations
    • ECE108 Literature/Social Studies for Children
    • ECE117 Child Growth and Development
    • ECE124 Math and Science for Children
    • ECE125 Nutrition, Health, and Safety for the Young Child
    • ECE211 Inclusion of Young Children with Special Needs
    • ECE240 Assessment of Young Children
  • Various EDU classes relating to getting my teacher's certification in Arizona
  • FSS126 Intermediate Basketball
  • FSS127 Advanced Basketball
  • HIS114 Japanese Civilization
  • HUM131 Mythology
  • IDE100 Introduction to Interior Design
  • IDE111 Fundamentals of Interior Design
  • IDE155 Space Planning I
  • JPN101 Elementary Japanese I
  • JPN102 Elementary Japanese II
  • JPN108 Japanese Anime
  • JPN201 Intermediate Japanese I
  • JPN202 Intermediate Japanese II
  • LIT261 Modern Literature
  • LIT262 American Poets
  • MUS127 Aural Perception I (took this a long time ago...)
  • MUS129 Aural Perception II
  • MUS154 Jazz Improvisation
  • MUS224 Aural Perception III
  • MUS225 Aural Perception IV
  • MUS257 Music Recording and Production
  • MUP162 Guitar I
  • MUP172 Guitar II
  • MUP262 Guitar III
  • MUP272 Guitar IV
  • MUP164 Piano I
  • MUP174 Piano II
  • MUP264 Piano III
  • MUP274 Piano IV
  • MUP166 Voice I
  • MUP176 Voice II
  • MUP266 Voice III
  • MUP276 Voice IV
  • PHI120 Introduction to Logic
  • REL130 Asian Religions
  • REL234 Islam
  • SPA201 Intermediate Spanish I
  • SPA202 Intermediate Spanish II
  • THE149 Introduction to Acting I
  • THE151 Introduction to Acting II
  • WLD110 Basic Arc and Oxyacetylene Welding
  • WLD160 Arc Welding
  • WRT126 Basics of Short Story Writing
  • WRT206 Short Story Writing

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posted by Steve @ 4:22 PM   0 comments
Thursday, June 21, 2007
LePlan, part 2
It feels like it was forever ago, but at one point in my life, I was so strapped for cash that I had to make an elaborate plan to get out of the country.

No joke.

I had a hard time keeping all of the people involved in my head, and had to write it all down on a timetable in Excel. I called the file, 'leplan.xls.'

Fast forward a few years, and I'm in a much more comfortable place, and now have drawn this Georgia-time (i.e., casually-paced) plan:

  1. Re-wire the truck's entire electrical system with my awesome in-laws up in Prescott. Escape the heat, work online there, help them build their house, and get the truck to never-imagined levels of awesome.
  2. Look up a new house to live in that has a yard, laundry machine, a place to work on the fiberglass dash I need to put into Rachel's truck, isn' insanely expensive, and is close enough to Bookman's that Rachel can walk. The discount we get for not driving to work (either of us) is nice.
  3. Rent the place two weeks into August, and take those two weeks to move. Catalogue every last item. We'll be listing every item we own, and decide if we need it. If not, it's donated or sold. Keep the list for our house insurance, and update it as life goes on.
  4. Rachel takes her last class for her Bachelor's Degrees in Creative Writing and English Literature (fall semester). She drives her amazingly well-running truck.
  5. In January, I either get promoted to full-time at ITP, or keep working part time and begin finishing my teaching certificate. Either way, Rachel starts her graduate program classes in Library Science.
  6. After that, things get a bit fuzzy, but for now:
    If we can afford it, sometime in Fall '08 or Spring '09, buy an RV, give the truck back to the in-laws for a while, tow the Bug and live on the road for about 3 months. Make a time-lapse video of the entire thing. Explore the entire United States, and decide on a place to settle down for the next few years. In all likelihood it will be in Arizona, but why not find out for sure? Living without regrets is a part of freedom.
  7. Reproduce on the road! Our kids will not know exactly where they were conceived, and I think that's vaguely awesome.
  8. Have kids. Name the girls Méria Jael and Artemis Ella; name the boys Aaron Isaac and Michael David.
  9. Buy a house.
  10. Live well.
The dining roomRachel and I also bought an awesome floor carpet today. We're moving out in a few months, and so Rachel will be taking stuff off of the walls and packing her books to ease the move. Still, for a few glorious weeks, we'll have the place basically 'right,' and that's awesome.

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posted by Steve @ 5:20 PM   0 comments
Monday, January 01, 2007
Things to do before the 8th
This is a list of things I need to do before I go back to my 12-hour-a-day jobs. I wanted to start in on them last week, but spent most of it working or being with my family.

  1. Set up the stereo so that it has a line going to the bedroom speakers, for night-time music as well as wake-up music.
  2. Finish sorting paper. I have a box full of mostly financial files that need to be sorted and filed. Finished in May
  3. Find a new host for my homepages.
  4. Empty out the 401k from my old school.
  5. E-Mail and/or find a bunch of people I've lost touch with: Marla, Stephanie, Dave, Eric, Jen, Chris, and Joe at the least.
  6. Do some credit card balance juggling. Yay?
  7. Call PrivacySource; they have good services (relating to one's credit rating) but they charged a full years' service at once when they said they'd do it in increments. Turns out it's because of the way I signed up - but they were very nice and arranged to have it set up in payments and to refund the money. Yay for corporations that take care of their customers!
  8. Update and/or dispute various information on my credit report. Done in May
  9. Re-enter a few years' worth of financial data from the Discover card into Money. Done in May.
  10. Look into getting the truck's gas tank cleaned. Performance Radiator does it for $85, but I'll have to detach it myself. 3-5 day turnaround.
  11. Fix Leelu's clutch cable and starter.
  12. Record the vocals for the song Caravaggio.
  13. Record the vocals for the song Heathen.
  14. Pick up the basketball game and holiday photos from Walmart.
  15. Make a maintenance schedule for both vehicles: when to replace, fill or otherwise maintain everything in both cars (brakes, oil, as well as a list of all pertinent phone numbers such as tow numbers, insurance, et cetera). Finished in June (!)
  16. Post and sell/give away our filing cabinet, ceiling fan, printer, and monitor. Sold!
  17. Record our old cassette tapes into the computer.
  18. Sell the cassette player, refurbished chest, small white chair, and large blue chair to Bookmans.
  19. Use Bookman's trade to buy Rachel's computer.
  20. Put on the VW's white seat covers.
  21. Get at least 90% of my homepage set up.
  22. Get my Impulse Designs page set up.
  23. Update Outlook to include my friends' and relatives' birthdays.
  24. Go through the boxes of sentimental stuff in the closet and purge.
  25. Wash and waxbothvehicles; they haven't had a good wax in forever.Leelu
  26. Make a cathouse for the kitties out on the patio.
  27. Clean the patio.
  28. Do the dishes.
  29. Do some serious grocery shopping.
  30. Vacuum the apartment.
  31. Do the laundry.
  32. Post my previous blogs to this blog. Finished in June (!)

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posted by Steve @ 9:17 PM   0 comments
Monday, January 30, 2006
Random Thought no. 18: Everything I ever wanted.
My job search goes poorly. I'm headed to the unemployment office after this, and have my few last tricks up my sleeve. This is tremendously frustrating, though, because I don't really want much. I can't claim I wouldn't like having a few billion dollars to toss around, but I want to be middle class. And actually, I know that Rachel would refuse point-blank to be rich. At the moment, middle class is being defined as somewhere between $35k and $65k per year. I'm fine with about $50k. If I made that much money, I'd have everything I ever really wanted. This is why:

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.

Edit 2: Everything enumerated.


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

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posted by Steve @ 12:54 PM   0 comments
 
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Name: Steve
Home: Tucson, Arizona, United States
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