Rebirth

The idea of a new year being a chance for resolutions or a new start hasn't been something that I've found myself believing in. However, this past year, I've been feeling more and more like it's time to start doing things a little differently.

I don't want to say that I've been "in a rut" but it definitely feels like it's time to shake things up and see how they settle out.

One of the things I've been thinking about for awhile is a rebirth of this blog. When I registered the domain name and started posting, I had some ideas as to what I wanted it to end up being about but, as with most of the things I start on the internet, I always seem to end up holding back because I know that people in my "real life" (family, friends, employers and such) have seen or may possibly end up finding things I've put up. I still struggle with the issue of keeping my private ideas private and separate from my professional life and I'm sure that I'll always have that struggle. So, I'll take this opportunity to issue a disclaimer that anything here is solely my own opinion. However, there have been things that I've been thinking and would love to put them somewhere. Why not here?

So, as a new start to this blog, here is a list of topics I was planning on working on in my personal life, as well as writing about on my recently retired "motivation" blog:

• eating more healthy / in-season / local food
• cooking at home more
• eating less prepared / fast food
• incorporating more enjoyable physical activity into my life
• finding ways to reduce stress
• worrying less
• meeting new people
• spending more time with family and friends
• keeping in touch with non-local friends
• simplifying and decluttering
• learning new things
• attempting to work on more creative / artistic things
• sharing thoughts and ideas
• starting new hobbies and revisiting old ones
• reading more books
• spending less time in front of TV
• spending less time aimlessly browsing on the internet

The plan, as it stands right now, is to roll the (modified) ideas of that blog into this one and actually share things that I want to share. I'll probably still hold back a little bit, but hopefully be a little more open that I have been in the past.

On life changes.

Long time, no post. To catch up, the past couple years have brought some life changes. I'm a year and nine months or so into a career change to what I actually went to college for. I'm actually somewhat of a computer programmer now. (My official title is Programmer / Analyst.) I spend a lot of my time doing user support and ad-hoc SQL queries to create or update one-off reports. I have done some program feature enhancements and bug fixes but nothing too crazy yet. I still work for the same company that I've been at for the past 11 and a half years or so.

I traded in my grey 2007 Subaru Legacy for a blue 2012 Subaru Impreza because the Legacy was approaching 100,000 miles, had a newly diagnosed but somewhat common leaky head gasket and the new Impreza was touting approximately 7 MPG more than I was getting in the Legacy.

Most recently, I've moved about an hour west of where I spent most of my life to an area I could actually see myself staying for awhile.

All of these things have me feeling like I'm growing up... (I know, I know, I should be mostly grown up already at the age of 33) but I seem to find myself becoming more and more restless.

Now that I'm actually paid to be a programmer, I find myself growing less interested in computers and technology. Sure my interest had already faded some in the 10 years since I finished college while I was occupied with other less technology related employment, but it feels like it's continued at a more accelerated pace lately. I haven't built a computer in a long time. I don't know what the best video card is anymore and don't really want to play any games that would need a good video card. To an extent, I still know what's going on in the consumer technology market but can't help but grumble when people ask what I think about things like iPads and the "cloud". I use off the shelf PC laptops and don't bother upgrading the hardware. I recently purchased a new laptop but only because it wouldn't be much cheaper to put a new battery, decent hard drive and some more memory in the old one and even if I did it probably weighed close to 8 pounds and wasn't very portable, so I didn't even like dragging it out to the couch. All I ever do on a computer at home is listen to music and surf the internet anyway. I probably should have just picked up a tablet and put my music on the "cloud" somewhere... but I hate typing on touchscreens.

My Impreza still has the stock 16" wheels and hasn't had it's first detailing and I've had it since May. What's happening to me?

Also, now that I've moved out of the apartment I've been for the past 5+ years (to a place other than the area I spent the better part of the last 3 decades), I want to actually find a house and spend time doing projects around it. I want to have some space around me, a garden and maybe a garage.

I've recently put some books about gardening and sustainable living on my Amazon wish list and thought about what it would take to grow all the ingredients needed to brew beer. I've debated opening a brew pub. I've had moments where I had a fleeting thought about quitting my job and being a landscaper.

Recently I've actually even caught myself daydreaming about becoming a farmer while driving past various farms on my commute to work. I don't actually think I want to be a farmer... I think I just want to do something different than what I'm doing now. I've been sitting in various office chairs for almost 12 years now and it's getting boring and feels less rewarding than when I first worked my way into the office world.

I don't actually dislike what I'm doing now. The actual programming is fun. The problem solving and analysis is interesting and rewarding but I'm still just keeping the wheels turning. I rarely work on anything new or exciting and when I do get to work on new things they're almost always rushed. I spend a majority of my time solving problems that could have been avoided if a little more care was put into the planning and getting everyone in the same boat before setting sail... but I don't have a say in that part, so I just sit in my chair and figure out how to undo what I was asked to do... but the "undo" has to happen more quickly than the "do" and the "do" was expected in less time than it should have really taken to get done. So it's a never-ending cycle of chasing my tail.

The problem is, I don't know what I'd rather do.

Thoughts About a Shrinking World

I have just finished reading The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman and SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good by Rosabeth Moss Kantner and noticed some trends that I felt like writing about.

The biggest point that I took from The World is Flat 3.0 is that the overall scale of the world is seemingly shrinking mostly due to the major influences that technology has played in linking different parts of the world together. The bigger the improvements and the greater the advances we make, particularly in the areas of communications, work flow planning, software, information storage and retrieval processes the more the world will seem to shrink.

Friedman calls the shrinking "flattening" which seems to be his way of saying that the proverbial "playing field" is being leveled. Areas of the world that don't have great amounts of natural resources to sell to the rest of the world (particularly oil) are using this technology to start other industries that can leverage their workforce into a competitive force to enable them to become a part of the global supply chain of goods and services.

This shrinking or "flattening" of the world can be used for good or bad. Most technologies are the same way. You can use a delivery van to make deliveries or you can back it through the window of a bank and rob it. You can use the internet to do research for a book report or you can create a "hate site". This is a problem with human nature and not with technology.

Friedman mentioned that terror, war and protectionism are reasons that might be used to put the walls back up and "unflatten" the world but he seems to feel that in most cases everyone involved benefits from a flat world. The benefits aren't limited to improved standard of living, stronger economies and better educational opportunities for countries that are taking on new responsibilities. There are also the benefits of cost reductions, redundant around the clock supply chains and new, large, eager sources of the exact level of labor required for a task for the companies doing the outsourcing.

SuperCorp pointed out many "vanguard" companies that are using their size and global influence to do good things in the world and that as we progress this will become more necessary and almost expected of them.

I can't say that I completely disagree with a lot of the points raised in either book, most of it kind of seems like "common sense" but I was left with a lot of questions about religion, politics and war, "haves versus have nots" and the responsibility of business in the world.

Is outsourcing ultimately good, bad or a shade of gray? Does outsourcing for cost savings really free up money to reinvest in new jobs or does it just go to the bottom line?

Investors always want to see a company that is making more profit than the previous year. At what point does this "growth" become unsustainable?

Are large corporations too powerful? Are they using this power responsibly?

Does human nature ruin everything?

What are the odds?

What are the odds that both the book that I'm reading right now and the one I just finished mention The Research Triangle?

I just finished Generation A by Douglas Coupland a few days ago and just started Makers by Cory Doctorow and both of them mentioned The Research Triangle in North Carolina. It was more involved in the plot of Generation A, but then tonight there it was mentioned in Makers, too.

It's not so weird... Right? ;)

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a huge Douglas Coupland fan... so obviously I'm going to recommend Generation A pretty strongly. Makers was something that I added to my Amazon Wish List on a whim after reading the description and I like it so far.

The lazy days of summer...

Note: This post is going to be a quick recap of my summer. Repeat, this is just a gratuitous catch up post. There is nothing really deep here. I hope to revive my interest in this blog and trying to come up with more thoughtful ideas for it in the not too distant future, but until then, this will have to do. ;)

It always seems that even though I love the summer, I end up being pretty lazy for the majority of it. I end up sitting in the air conditioned splendor of my apartment and not wanting to do much of anything once I get home from work.

Even though it seems like most of my summer was spent sitting on my comfortable couch, with my girlfriend and our laptops, TV shows and books -- we did manage to do some fun stuff.

We went to the Seattle area for a week in the beginning of July to visit my girlfriend's brother, his wife and their son. We had a blast which involved a decent amount of fireworks, drinking, shopping, eating and attempting to stay cool. For a place that has the reputation of being drenched in an almost constant rain, it barely sprinkled only the last morning we were there. It was hot, humid and sunny the entire rest of the week. I learned that if a toddler says "I have idea." to make sure to hold onto the fireplace lighter that you've been using to light fireworks because it will be snatched out of your back pocket. Also, if said toddler comes down from upstairs with his hands behind his back, that there's probably something that he shouldn't have in those hands.

I also turned 30 at the end of July! It was nice and low-key, just like I wanted. My girlfriend cooked me a nice dinner on my actual birthday, her mother took me out to dinner at Brown's on the day after and my family had a BBQ on the day after that. So it was three nice days of birthday celebration, but nothing too crazy.

I purchased an Acer Aspire One 8.9" netbook as an early birthday present for myself and to bring on our trip to WA. It was nice to be able to check mail, pay bills, look for things to do, check plane schedules at the airport, and more all in a tiny, portable little package. I think it was well worth the money I spent on it, even though the battery life (with the 3-cell battery) isn't great and I tend to use my Dell Vostro as my main computer when I'm in the apartment. The display seems bigger and usable than the 8.9" size suggests and it's been trouble free, so far!

I also read some decent books. I picked up a couple books by Christopher Buckley, No Way to Treat a First Lady and Little Green Men: A Novel after reading Boomsday last year. I recommend all three. They were all well written, funny and sarcastic. I also read Steve Wozniak's book iWoz, along with How Walmart Is Destroying America (And the World): And What You Can Do about It by Bill Quinn and Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom. I'm not sure if I'd recommend any of them to people unless they're interested in Apple and/or personal computer history, retailing or marketing and advertising, respectively... ;)

Last weekend we went to The Clark to see the Dove/O'Keeffe: Circles of Influence exhibit. There were a lot of interesting oil paintings, watercolors, pastels and collages there (between Dove and O'Keeffe) with one of the most humorous pairings being Arthur Dove's watercolor Happy Clam Shell next to Georgia O'Keeffe's pastel Slightly Open Clam Shell. The pictures linked above are from this review of the show by Judith H. Dobrzynski on the Arts Journal website. There is also another review for Wall Street Journal by the same author that was interesting.

I also spent some time last weekend doing maintenance on my car that I've been neglecting for a little while. I washed and waxed it and my brother and I put on Akebono ProACT ceramic brake pads, Centric rotors, McGard SplineDrive lug nuts, NGK Iridium spark plugs and NGK plug wires. Next it's getting new Bridgestone Potenza G019 Grid tires as soon as they are shipped to Firestone. (The size I need is on backorder.) The brakes are feeling good so far, the lug nuts are much higher quality than the ones they replaced and I seem to be getting a few more MPG with the fresh spark plugs and the reset computer. (Side notes: I didn't like the BF Goodrich Super Sport A/S tires that I put on last spring/early summer. They wore out extremely quickly and weren't worth the money that I paid for them. I also didn't have good luck with Gorilla spline drive style lug nuts. They only lasted one winter before the chrome was peeling off.)

I also decided to finally kill my MySpace account. I found that I hardly ever logged on and I decided not to keep it around for no reason...

There was some other fun stuff sprinkled in there but those were the big highlights... all in all it was a good summer.

The Ecology of Commerce - Paul Hawken

I just finished reading The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken which my girlfriend bought me for my birthday last week.

It was a good read if you're into economics and the environment and you like to think about shaking things up and making the world a better place. However, I found many of the major concepts in the book to be a little too idealistic to make it to the real world without being forced in some major ways. I'm not sure who could or would step up to the challenge and force some of these concepts into practice, such as a shift toward green taxes in place of income taxes and a large reduction in military spending. If they could be implemented, there is little doubt in my mind that they would help us move towards a more sustainable economy that doesn't completely destroy the planet in the name of ever larger profits, meaningless products and never ending conflicts. Large corporations wield so much power in our current political system that making the large changes that are suggested in the book isn't a likely scenario.

One key part of the plan that doesn't seem practical on a long term basis is the entire concept of green taxes. My particular problem with them is that the government in America seems to be inclined to just keep getting bigger and more out of control and the overwhelming majority of Americans don't care or don't know how to change anything. The idea of adding green taxes into the mix but taking out income taxes in an equal amount to encourage work but discourage the use of resources seems like a good idea on paper. However, I'm sure that instead of taking away income taxes in favor of green taxes, we'll end up with both and much less real money in our pockets which will just hasten the downward spiral.

The book also seemed to place the lion's share of both improving the economy and the condition of the environment upon the idea that business (and the government) had to make gigantic sweeping changes that would (at the very least, in the short term) cause them to lose money. It also made the assumption that human nature was something that could be retrained into a state where people didn't over-consume and would be satisfied with a more simple life. I'm not sure that there is any way to go back to a more simple life at this stage of the game.

My views on the future are not all gloom and doom, though. I do think that we do need to start heading toward a direction where our progress into the future is much more sustainable. However, I am coming to the point of understanding that little changes that individuals can make such as separating out their recyclables and driving hybrid cars hundreds of miles to work aren't enough to do much good in the big picture. We do need to work out ways of improving the world we live in that do more than put a little dent in the problem. We need to start looking at the bigger picture.

More thoughts on fewer choices

Earlier this year I read a book by Barry Schwartz called The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less and gave a quick overview of it.

I've been thinking about this book (and some of the main ideas in it) more and more over the past few weeks and I wanted to write down a few more thoughts on the whole concept of simplification and having fewer choices.

Like most people I have things that I care about and want to have tons of choices and things that I just want to be simple that I don't have to put a lot of thought behind.

I looked at reviews on hundreds of different tires before I picked the set I wanted. However, walking down the cereal aisle in the supermarket and being presented with plain Cheerios^® in three different sized boxes (8.9, 14 & 18 oz.) just seems a tad ridiculous to me. How much of a waste is it to have three different package sizes, three different cases that have to be shipped to the store, three different spots on a shelf that have to be stocked, three different UPC's that have to be maintained in computer systems and on and on... all for the SAME EXACT product. Now expand this thinking to all of the other cereals... and then on to all of the other products available in a typical supermarket.

Do stores really need to carry a half dozen or so different brands of pasta? (I've never had pasta that tasted any different than any other pasta.) How is "pizza sauce" different from "pasta sauce" or "tomato sauce"? Aren't they all just basically tomatoes and spices? I'm not going to lie and say that I don't have preferences or favorite products and foods but I'm usually so overwhelmed when I walk in the supermarket that I don't pay attention to different prices or sizes and just grab what I'm used to eating but I can spend many hours spread over a few months researching tires for my car beginning months before they're even ready to be replaced.

I don't really know how to justify what I'm thinking and I'm sure that Cheerios^®, pasta and various sauces are important to some people in the same way that tires are important to me. I wouldn't just walk into a tire store and say: "I'd like to buy some tires." the same way I walk into the supermarket and grab a random box of rotini and jar of Prego^®. However, I think I'd have a meltdown if I tried to compare Prego^® to Ragu^® to Bertolli^® to Classico^® to Emerill's^® to Hunt's^® to Newman's Own^® to Muir Glen^® to Gia Russa^® to the store brand (and I could go on and on and on here...) the same way I obsessed about tires.

The whole concept of having too many choices is such a tricky situation that we've gotten ourselves into in pursuit of the almighty dollar... everything is a balancing act. Retailers don't want to piss off customers by taking away their choices and they want to keep adding new products to their lineup to relieve you of some of your cash while you're picking up your necessities but at the same time they want to save money and increase their profits. New brands pop up to take a share of your pasta sauce budget. Retail stores just keep getting bigger and more overwhelming. At many Wal-Mart stores you can have your car's oil changed while you purchase Miller Lite, shrimp, boxer shorts and a big screen TV.

I know there are other people out there that feel a lot like I do. The same simplification argument applies to pretty much everything from the supermarket example to computer software user interfaces. Sometimes having too many choices is overwhelming and wasteful... but how do we go back to a more simple existence? How do we remove choices without taking away a person's freedom to choose?

Is this the end, suburbia?

I read an article this morning on BusinessWeek entitled "Good-Bye, Cheap Oil. So Long, Suburbia?" that seemed to be right up the alley of my blog.

The article is about the predictions of a writer named James Kunstler who lives in nearby Saratoga Springs, NY. Mr. Kunstler seems to believe that the increase in oil prices is going to bring an abrupt end to suburban sprawl, strip malls and Wal-Mart.

As much as I feel that the suburban way of life is doing massive damage to our planet, I'm not sure that it's just going to end because of gas/oil prices. I'm sure that there will still be people that feel safer in a small neighborhood away from large amounts of other people. How many families will want to sell their property in the suburbs and a move into an apartment or house on a tiny city lot and send their kids to inner city schools and to play in public parks and community swimming pools instead of letting them play in their reasonably safe back yard? How many people will change jobs to be closer to work if the company they work for is located in a city with a higher cost of living or higher crime rates than their current suburb? (Or the business is located in an industrial park in a different suburban area?)

I'm definitely not anti-city. However, the argument can be made that the draw of "suburbia" isn't going to end just because gasoline is expensive. At least around here suburban neighborhoods have schools with better reputations. Residential property values are higher and seem to retain their value better. Crime rates are lower. Many large local businesses have offices that are outside of downtown areas probably because commercial property values are lower. Two income families have to find a central location between both people's respective jobs which, quite often it seems, are in different directions. Some cities have higher tax rates than many suburbs.

I guess what I'm saying that when the company I work for relocates to a nearby city (from the suburb it's in now) in about a year and a half I would love to move to a house in that city that I can walk to work from. However, that would still leave my girlfriend with a commute that's about the same distance as mine is now. We'd be saving a the equivalent of a 20 minute car ride (her approximate current daily round trip commute) for more crime, lower property values, less personal space, higher taxes, etc.

I just don't think that suburbia is going to end any time soon.

The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less

I haven't posted much up here lately. I've been very busy at work and when I'm home I've been keeping myself pretty busy doing things around the apartment. When I haven't been painting, cleaning or buying things for the apartment I've been reading a lot of books instead of spending as much time as usual on the internet.

One of the books I read last week is: The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz.

It's an excellent book and I highly recommend it.

The central idea of the book is that there are too many choices available for practically everything in our lives. In contradiction to what you might expect, this freedom of choice doesn't seem to be making us happier overall. Instead, we seem to feel overwhelmed that everything is a choice where there are a large amount of options that have to be considered. When all is said and done and the decision is made we tend to feel like there's still something better out there. (A lot of this also ties in to my views on how advertising promotes this feeling of never being satisfied with things that merely meet your needs because there is always something cooler, better or newer available.)

I found the book to be well written and somewhat funny at times and I blew through reading it very quickly.

For anyone who is interested, I came across a preview of the book. (Note: It is deliberately missing pages for copyright reasons but it should give you a little bit of a feel for the book.)

I also JUST came across a video of a Google TechTalk presentation by Barry Schwartz that I haven't had a chance to watch yet... but I thought I'd link it up here anyway.

The World Without Us

I was just flipping past Current TV and caught a mention of a book by Alan Weisman called The World Without Us.

The brief description that I was able to catch on Current was VERY interesting to me, so I immediately went to the website for the book. The basic idea of the book is what the world would look like if we were no longer here and how long it would take for all traces of our civilization to disappear. This is something that I don't really find myself thinking about but I must admit that I found the whole premise of the book fascinating.

The website also included a link to a segment from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart which I thought was pretty funny...

Anyway, I guess the purpose of this blog entry is to say that I found yet ANOTHER book to add to my Amazon.com wishlist.

Affluenza and more.

First let me start out with a quick update to my last post: The scale at work is definitely broken. I might have lost a few pounds... but not anywhere near 15. I'm still trying to eat a little better and exercise a bit more, though.

This weekend was pretty good. I guess it felt more busy than it really was, though. I spent most of Saturday hanging out with my family and washing & waxing my car. (It was FILTHY!) I went to a BBQ at a friend's apartment on Sunday. Great food and awesome friends always makes for a good time. Yesterday morning we picked up our roommate from the airport and then spent most of the rest of the day relaxing for the most part. I read a little more of Affluenza before bed. I'm slightly into the third section which deals with ways to cure affluenza. So, expect to see some entries in this here blog thingy about that in the near future as I finish up the book. So far I've found it well written and funny. Most of the stuff they're saying makes sense to me but I'm hoping that they have some real ways to cure the problem written in the end. I'm afraid it's going to fizzle with no real solutions...

I was talking with my mom on Saturday and the topic of having a vegetable garden came up. She was saying that she missed having really fresh tomatoes after I mentioned that I don't like tomatoes anymore. I remember liking tomato sandwiches as a kid... but now I even pick tomatoes off my $0.99 Wendy's Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers. We used to have a garden when I was growing up and I remember picking and eating fresh snow peas, green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and much much more. So, I'm trying to talk her into starting a garden at her house next year. My parents definitely have enough room for a decent sized garden there... I think the main issue that I'm going to run into is the fact that my father has been busy working on my sister's house the past year and they still have a lot left to go there. I know it's going to be a TON of hard work but it'll be good exercise and hopefully we'll get some good fresh vegetables out of it. At the very least I'll spend more time with my family and hopefully learn something about gardening, canning and cooking.

Also, I'm also in the beginning stages of a hunt for a new apartment. I have no idea where we'll end up as of January 1st... but we'll still be in the Albany/Troy general area. I'm taking Friday off to look at a few different complexes and I guess we'll go from there. Once we get closer I'm going to look into some private owner type apartments, too. I'm also thinking that we should try to negotiate with our current place to see if they'll lower our rent to be more competitive with other places that are including heat, hot water, plus cable and internet! I kind of like our current apartment but it's going to get too expensive once our roommate moves out in the end of December.

Books and eBay.

I finished reading The Working Poor by David K. Shipler on Saturday. I must say that it did end up being a somewhat depressing book. It was basically a collection of stories about the histories, circumstances and lives of people who were attempting to work their way off of welfare or who were forced to get off welfare. I was hoping that it would have a lot of insight into how to work your way out of the "working poor" trap but I didn't really find too much that was helpful (especially to me). The people in the book did run into some good people who helped but it sounded like the basic tenets of the book were:
* don't drop out of high school and go to college if you can (a degree is almost a necessity these days to get a "decent" job)
* vocational training should have less of a stigma attached (we're always going to need people who work in trades like plumbing and carpentry)
* don't do drugs
* health care shouldn't be so much of a burden for people with low incomes (but maybe making it a government responsibility isn't a good idea either)
* if you're poor don't get sick because you'll get poor care and if you're really sick chances are pretty good it will ruin you financially
* doctors who work with lawyers and case workers tend to get more accomplished in the overall situation of poor children. (They can sic the lawyers on the parties responsible for poor housing conditions and for denying aid to people who are qualified, etc.)
* be a good parent to your children because if you're not you'll fuck them up for life and they'll end up stuck in the same trap
* it's extremely helpful to have a strong support system of friends and family to help out

Other than those obvious things I picked out of the book there really wasn't too much meat there... just a bunch of sad stories about people who were in horrible situations.

The next book I started to read last night was Affluenza by John de Graaf, David Wann and Thomas H. Naylor. I think that I'm going to like this book a lot better than "The Working Poor". For one thing it's written in a sarcastic, funny style. I laughed out loud dozens of times in the first few chapters and I had to read half a dozen things to my girlfriend as I was reading them... but at the same time it has very serious information in it that makes you think...

Yesterday I put some CDs, a book and some random stuff up on eBay. I'm hoping to get some of my computer guts and other stuff on there tonight...

The Working Poor.

I decided to start reading The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler first out of the three new books that I picked up in the past two days with my birthday gift card from my parents.

Last night when I was just starting the book my girlfriend asked if I found it depressing and wondered how I could read it?

I didn't even have to think about the answer to her question: "Yes, it's depressing... it's about me. I'm one of the working poor." On paper I might make a little more money than some of the people that are normally thought of as 'poor' but I left my first college after two years with no degree, about $20,000 in student loans and no idea what I wanted to really do with my life. I was stressed out over my lack of direction but I decided I needed to keep going to school or I would never go back. I put my next two years of college at a local community college on my credit cards along with all of the necessary books, supplies, etc. I spent the money I made working crappy jobs on minimum payments and living expenses.

Fast forward about 6 years.

I'm working in an office that has nothing to do with my AAS degree in Computer Information Systems. I'm still neck deep in debt from college, my ridiculous overspending and a few other unforeseen events that were completely unavoidable. My bills just about equal my pay. I understand, though, that I am where I am because of choices I've made. I don't think that anyone has held me back besides myself.

I'm hoping to finally find what it is I want to do with the rest of my life.

I'm trying to get myself motivated to learn new things and take more chances at what might be better opportunities.

I am attempting to curb my overspending and to find a way to live within my means. (No more buying toys that I don't need, no matter how much I talk myself into thinking I need them.)

I'm trying to talk myself into selling things that I never use like my guitar equipment (three guitars, amplifier & effects pedals), books I've already read and won't read again, CD's I don't listen to, sporting goods I won't ever use again (snowboard, skis, golf clubs, freestyle bike, rollerblades), computer parts, car parts, bike parts and MUCH MUCH more.

On top of all that I'm probably going to get a second job (at least for now until I figure out what I want to do next).

I have a feeling I'll be posting a lot in this vein in the near future. Hopefully I'll continue feeling like I need to correct the mistakes I've made in the past and work on improving my situation instead of just writing about it...

More new books.

I stopped at Borders on the way home to return the ridiculously overpriced PHP book that I bought last night and picked up The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler and Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins.

While I was at Borders my freshman year roommate from Clarkson called. It was good to hear from him and it sounds like he's doing pretty well.

Amazon wish list.

I started an amazon.com wish list last night and I think it's getting out of hand already...

This all started because I put all of my accumulated pennies, nickels and dimes for the past couple months into a Coinstar machine and it was free to change it into a merchandise certificate for a few businesses such as amazon.com or iTunes. I still had $13 credit in my iTunes account (from birthday gifts) so I decided to go with amazon this time. I ended up with $24.94 to spend there. (I should have just rolled the change and brought it to the bank... but where is the fun in that?)

Anyway, I'm going to stop at Borders tonight and return the overpriced PHP book I bought last night with the gift card my parents got me and hopefully pick up a couple of the other books on my wish list and then I'll use the Coinstar certificate to get a couple more from amazon. After this I'll have books to read for the next year or so...

Any other recommendations for good books while I'm on a spending spree?

[05/19/2026: Removed wish list link.]

New books, strange new people and work.

I went to Borders after work today to spend the gift card that my parents gave me for my birthday. I picked up Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic by John de Graaf, David Wann and Thomas H Naylor and PHP for the World Wide Web by Larry Ullman.

Hopefully I'll get to put the PHP one to use on my website soon. I actually think I'm going to return it and get it on amazon for 1/2 of what I paid at Borders, though.

I met a strange guy at the bookstore tonight. He seemed really friendly but I think he is going to try to get me to sell energy drinks. We talked for a few minutes about our histories and he asked if I was interested in doing work outside of my current job and I said "possibly" when I should have said "no". He ended up giving me his business card and when I looked up his website when I got home it looked like a generic template that you get when you pay into one of those businesses that let you resell their crap products.

My supervisor came back to work today, too. I NEVER thought I'd think this... but I'm glad she's back from vacation. Today was a million times more productive than any of the days last week. My phone didn't ring off the hook. It actually didn't ring that much at all. I have a meeting with my newest boss on Wednesday. Hopefully that goes well...

Vacation Recap

Well, the "vacation" part of my vacation is over. One more day to relax and get shit done before work on Monday. Here's a QUICK recap.

* Monday - The drive up to Hampton Beach, NH was smooth with no traffic. Checking into our hotel, the Boardwalk Inn, was pretty painless. Our room for the first 3 nights was right at the top of the stairs from the hotel side entrance. The room was basically a big, squishy bed and a TINY bathroom. The description of "Ocean View" was a little bit of a stretch. If you stood in the corner of the room and looked at an angle through the window you could see a sliver of ocean. The air was VERY hazy on Monday but we walked the beach for a little while after we checked in to the hotel, anyway. We had dinner at our hotel's restaurant. One thing I did notice right away is that the New England coast isn't a good place to be someone who doesn't like seafood. ;)

* Tuesday - At midnight my girlfriend let me open most of my birthday presents. She got me three AWESOME books of art (Tragic Kingdom, The Saddest Place on Earth and The Magic Bottle by one of my favorite artists, Camille Rose Garcia, a print of a robot with headphones and ORANGE paint to repaint my bike like I have been talking about for awhile. Slept. Woke up. Spent some time on the beach. Went out to a nice birthday dinner at the Ashworth by the Sea Hotel Dining Room. I ended up having a turkey dinner that made it feel like Thanksgiving. Overall it was a very nice birthday. :)

* Wednesday - Basically just hung out at the beach and the "boardwalk". We watched the fireworks on the beach from The Purple Urchin restaurant across the street from the beach. The food there was great and the service was good, too!

* Thursday - For Thursday night we switched to an ocean front room with a balcony at the same hotel. The room was bigger and nicer... and quieter, even... If we go back next year this is probably the room we'll try to get for the whole week. Thursday night we drove up to Wells, ME to go to The Steakhouse. It definitely lived up to the hype surrounding it. I had to park next door to the restaurant because the parking lot was more than full and we had to wait for almost an hour for a table but the food was amazing! It was well worth the wait.

* Friday - We checked out of the hotel and walked around the boardwalk for 40 minutes and decided it was too hot (95+ and humid) to walk across the hot sand on the beach and down to the water. I didn't want to be all hot and nasty for the start of the 3.5 hour drive home. The drive home wasn't bad, though. There were a couple spots of traffic here an there but nothing too bad.

Overall it was a amazing and relaxing week! The weather was much better than we expected. My birthday was very nice. Everything was great. I'm not looking forward to going back to work.

(Broken links removed February 7, 2017.)

I'm finally starting...

I'm finally getting around to doing one of the big tasks that I've been avoiding for quite awhile... I'm finally going through some of my accumulated junk that has been stored in my old place, my parent's house and my current apartment. This morning I threw out 2 garbage bags full of random shit like notes and assignments from college courses and random stuff that I've accumulated over the years. I have a bunch more stuff to go through and then hopefully by tomorrow night I'll have a flurry of stuff for sale on eBay.

I'm going to be selling my old digital camera, some misc. computer and car parts, maybe some CD's, DVD's and books and possibly some old bike parts.

I'm sick of having my stuff strewn about in three different places and I don't use most of the stuff that I have all over the place. It would also be nice to make a few bucks on stuff I never use since I'm probably still paying for some of it. (Fuck credit cards!)

My new camera came!

My Canon A640 digital camera that I mentioned in my last post came last night. I messed around with it for a little while last night and it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. I only had the 32MB SD card that came with it, though, and that holds about 8 pictures at "superfine" full resolution... and you can't really do too much messing around in 8 pictures. ;) I can't wait to get the 2GB SD cards that I ordered on eBay for $18 each (shipped) and get out and actually start taking some pictures with it. :)

I think this weekend I'm also going to take pictures of all of the stuff I have sitting around my apartment waiting to go on eBay... I'm probably going to put a bunch of it up on our local craigslist first and then what doesn't move in a week or so there will go to eBay.

I think my Best Motoring - American Touge 2 DVD (which I ordered on May 3rd) should have FINALLY come today, so I'll probably watch that tonight. I've also been reading Dreaming in Code by Scott Rosenberg over the past few nights. I'm going to attempt to take another chunk out of that tonight, too. It's pretty good but I think it's appeal is very much limited to computer programmers, IT management and related "geeky" fields. I'm finding it very well written with great background information and research but I think it only really appeals to me because I am interested in programming and have done some programming in the past. I (unfortunately) don't think I'd recommend it to anyone who's not in an IT related field even though it does explain technical things pretty well and it doesn't delve too deep into the actual nuts and bolts of code.

Anyway, that's pretty much where I'm at right now... a few little new and exciting things and the rest of my life is pretty much the same.

Douglas Coupland books & my to do list

There's really not too much new to report here. It's been cold and wintery out here lately and when it gets cold out I really don't feel like doing much of anything... so I haven't really been doing too much of anything. ;)

I did manage to pry myself away from crappy TV shows for long enough to read Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland over a couple nights last week. I found it in Barnes & Noble's Bargain Books section for less than $5 the last time I was in there. I was a little nervous about this one because the last Coupland book I picked up from the bargain bin (Miss Wyoming) was less than impressive. It was the first Coupland book that I haven't managed to finish. I've put it down, unfinished, at least three times since I bought it. Anyway, Hey Nostradamus! turned out to be a pretty decent book. It's nowhere near my favorites Microserfs, jPod, Shampoo Planet and All Families are Psychotic but I wasn't disappointed.

Also, I started to paint another painting on Sunday night, too. It started out COMPLETELY different from it's current state but it seems to be going in a good direction. I have no training in painting and VERY LITTLE art background overall but I love to sit in front of a blank canvas or piece of paper and just start painting. It's sounds cliche, but it really is therapeutic.

I haven't started on my other projects that I've been procrastinating on for awhile now. I hope to find some motivation to at least start one of these soon:

1) finish cleaning up all my junk at the apartment
2) refinish an old coffee table to bring to the apartment
3) get my parent's old orange chair over to my apartment
4) pull my mountain bike apart, repaint the frame and overhaul the rest
5) go through my accumulated bike parts and sell/donate what I'm never going to use
6) finish selling off the misc. car parts I've accumulated over the past 5 years that don't fit my current car
7) sell off my small guitar practice amp, distortion pedal and cables that I never use
8) (maybe: get rid of one of my guitars)
9) (maybe: go through my CD's and sell off the ones I'm never going to listen to)
10) (maybe: build a new "entertainment center" that isn't ugly and has room for the TV and all of the electronics)

Anyway, that's all for now.