Bumper Stickers & Baseball Bats
I really hate bumper sticker politics. In a lot of ways I subscribe to the whole “Obviously but maybe” theory that Louis C.K. espoused so effectively on HBO one time. Feel free to Google. So many local political things going on right now (Medical marijuana, Sunday sales, etc) and everybody wants to distill it down to a bumper sticker. Yeah right.
To return to the subject of budgeting, its pretty fascinating to me that I have blown my budget both months since I installed it. Pretty badly at that but both times was with good reason that will bear future dividends. I am ok with that. The really fascinating thing to me is how easy it is to blow your budget. Either way I am still coming out ‘ahead’ in a very general sense.
Last month I received a used macbook pro. I had forgotten just how polished the whole OSX experience is to use. Its simply much more polished than any of the competitors even if it isn’t as powerful. Whatever that exactly means at the end of the day. harder to get to the guts I suppose. I have a lot of complaints with their hardware choices but I still think they are a very very functional machine. Odds are good that within a few months that macbook will be my primary personal use computer for day to day stuff (not gaming of course). Also its really fucking nice to have a laptop again.
I have been reading like a madman recently. I have read something like 20+ books in about the last month. nothing particularly noteworthy other than the sheer volume of books that I have been reading. Unfortunately I have fallen into the habit of not reading what I should have been reading. One book I did read however was The Four Hour Work Week. Its pretty fascinating to me to see what can be taken from it and also what I think doesn’t really apply to anybody or anything. There were two things I really got out of it (both of which I knew to some extent already): time management is what you make of it & side hustles don’t hurt. I suppose arguably the methods of limiting communication were interesting but I do that already anyway. Overall I think the amazon reviews are pretty accurate.
A side effect of doing all of that reading is that I have been playing less video games lately. Not that I played much already but it has generally been cut down. Rogue Legacy and Arkham Origins are about it. I have to wonder whether in the future I will even bother to buy a PS4/XBONE/Gaming PC. It simply seems less important as a means to spend my time. Part of that however might be the spring being here and the fact that I am going outside more as a result. It was such a miserable winter that its nice to be outside and doing something, anything, instead.
I heard recently that everybody is the average of the 5 people that they spend the most time with. I suppose that I am the average of the lady and then 4 different versions of myself as of right now. The simple fact of the matter is that, as a terminally ill man said ‘I am leading a quieter life now’ which seems actually quite fine. I have started associating with a different group of people than the guys who hang out at the bar 4 to 7 nights a week. It has nothing to do with alcohol, instead it has everything to do with the fact that its just not very interesting anymore. Also I pretty much hate wilful ignorance and that seems to be a common theme with bar flys. Might be a harsh judgement I suppose but I think there is at least some validity there. In other words I am in the process of finding a few new people to become the average of. Raise the bar son.
I have considered going a bit ‘Donner Party’ on my group of friends. That is strictly metaphorical by the way, I am not considering actual cannibalism. Unless I get hungry enough I suppose…. But regardless I am a bit tired of feeling like I am one of the people putting in all of the work for some friends. We’ll see whether that lasts or whether others start to exert some effort. I kinda doubt it but that happens as we get older I suppose.
I have taken on a few new projects recently as well as restarted a few older projects. However in the interest of not doing what I have done in the past I am not telling people what they are nor when they can expect t be finished. The reasoning behind that can be found here but the short version is this: Some people get motivated by telling people what you are going to do and being held accountable. Some people get less motivated because they receive some of the psychological satisfaction from simply telling people their intentions. I am not sure whether I fall into either of these categories but I don’t feel like being held accountable for things I want to do myself. I would instead rather hold myself accountable and either succeed or fail on my own merits here. If there is something worth announcing I will do it on my own schedule and my own terms.
That reminds me that I need to schedule my skydiving day.
Other than that…. 8feet has slowed down in updates but I think its probably to something a lot more manageable at the end of the day. I like where its at now and think I will probably stick there.
We went to Florida a month or so ago for my birthday. It was pretty awesome to get the hell away. Especially since i have had to postpone my European trip this year, probably for at least an additional year. The reasons might be acceptable but still, its kind of irritating to postpone something that I was looking forward to. The good news is that I am out no money whatsoever since the situation changed prior to me spending a single dime on anything. Take the small blessings where you can find them I suppose.
I think that’s enough rambling for the moment.
