Conversation with myself goes nowhere,

Says to self, "You're So unorganized at home! You know, you're responsible for so many sucky things in my life.  Why can't you get it together man?"

Replies, "Well, what do you want me to do about it?  If you're so concerned, why don't you do something about it?"

"Because I'm you, and you're not doing anything about it."

Jack of all Trades

I like to think I have many skills, and many hobbies, but it is very hard to make room in the schedule and the budget for all of them.  I mean, I'm a biker, a skater (on the ramps), a golfer, a craftsmen ( in woodworking), a "seamster" (or tailor-however you would call a male sewer), a house maid (can be, but not limited to obsessive compulsive, if  given the time), a chef (maybe just a cook), on the market video game tester (aka: regular video gamer), part time technology expert (where expert = moderately savvy).  Ah, but alas, I have only enough to be one of these at a time.

-Master of  Nothing

Today, I saw woman eating something (probably a muffin) while she was driving.  Just as we drove past her in the oncoming lane, I looked up to see her take a bite, and she had her grrr face (eyebrows & everything), as if she was about to rip some meat off the bone.  The expression was amusing.  :)

I also saw a woman eating chips and dip while driving.  She held the dip and the bottom of the steering wheel awkwardly in one hand and dipped her chips with the other hand.  This juggling act was also amusing.

Annnd

Long winded posts like the one before this aren't as much fun to read, I know.  Sorry, but I think that one post does a pretty good job of summing up a whole year and letting you in on my future plans.

Here's a couple things I didn't mention though: 1. I plan on training for and riding in RAGBRAI.  2. I have a gym membership, but I haven't used it much.  3. Hopefully when I get transferred to the night shift I'll be able to make more time for the gym, golfing, and biking.  Otherwise, I'll be at my second job (*hopes*) during the mornings.

2011: A general Summary, and 2012: Outlook

I hate when people write whole posts about not having blogged enough lately and how sorry they are for not having updated in a while, so I won't say much about it, except I've been in a slump lately and haven't had enough motivation to even clean my room, let alone write on my blog.

My room looks like an episode of hoarders, and that's not me being modest or exaggerating for effect. There is garbage scattered around such as napkins, food wrappers, receipts, and old mail.  I have piles of stuff that should be put away, but I have no storage room for. There's laundry clean and dirty scattered everywhere.  And, I have loads of stuff I may never use or projects I may never get to, realistically.  All signs of a hoarder.  However, I do clean the living room, dining room, and kitchen of my apartment, with which I share among two room mates.  In that respect, I can be practically obsessive compulsive.  Anyway, I feel different today, I should have the room cleaned up by tonight. and maybe I'll start on some projects, if there's time.

To start the summary, I'll go back to January:  For all of January, I worked at Subway part time whilst still living in my college town.  I was looking for a full time job, so I could support myself and start paying down my school loans, but having little success.  Meanwhile, I had accumulated a credit card debt that I couldn't keep up with.  That whole mess was the result of my poor work ethic in school.  I basically failed out in the Fall '10 semester.  For the record, my overall GPA is a 2.00 (or a C), which isn't the worst, but not good enough for my university.  Then, my parents suggested that I come back to live with them, where they could support me for one more year, if I promised to pay plenty on my school loans.

In February, I moved home, and started two jobs, alternating roofing (on Tue & Thur) and furniture delivery (on Mon, Wed & Fri).  Some time during the spring months I began a third job on the weekends working at my old Subway, but the manager didn't have the patients for me, so unfortunately,  that didn't last for long.  By now, I have payed off my credit card debt and had started accumulating a bit of savings.  And when the weather got nice, I switched to roofing, full-time.

In July,   I bought a Specialized Crux Elite (check out the bike here and video of it below).


I finally started to pay on my school loans.  And, I began to think about what I was going to do at the end of the year.  One plan consisted of finding another, more stable (less weather dependent) job in the my hometown.  Then, moving to an apartment or rental house while still paying down my school loans until I was ready to go back to school.  Another idea was to do the same but to do it back in my college town.  The benefit here being one less move, which would allow for ample time to prepare for school way before it began (mentally & physically).  I decided on the second, but made a compromise which I will explain in a minute.

I was telling my plans to my friends (one in particular) as one does when chatting to friends, when he suggested that I join him and his girlfriend in a new lease in Oct. in City x, not too far from my college town (compromise = about 40 minutes away from college town).  This would allow me to live in a nice, yet affordable place and for the two of them to spread out into more square footage for approximately the same price they had been paying.  Win, Win!

I began to save up what I called an income buffer.  There might be a better technical term, but it was just money on which I could support myself after moving, until I found a job in City x.  I managed to save up $1500 dollars though I was shooting for $2000.  I ended up only using $1100 of it before I found a job delivering appliances.  As a bonus, I ended up with about $1 per hr increase from my summer roofing job.

Now I've had a couple months to get on my feet and I've started planning on my future again.  My new plan is to get a second job, and save up enough money by this next Jan. to buy a 'modest dream' car.  I'm looking to buy a Ford Fusion, hopefully an '09 or a '10 model.  According to my calculations, I should be able to afford approximately 7-9 thousand out of pocket if I can stick to my budget and aggressive savings plan.  I'm super excited about it!  As a side thought, I've been thinking, if I can save almost 10k a year on this budget, I'd could have 50k in 5 yrs, which would be a killer down payment on a house... Nah, I'm going back to school though.  The main dilemma I haven't figured out is whether I can afford to keep a car, even after it's bought and paid for.  The problem being, I'll need to pay for insurance, gas (40 min. commute), and I'll need (ideally) some savings set aside for maintenance and repairs to the car.  Meanwhile, I'll lose about $500 per month income when I drop my new second job to make time to go back to school.

And here we are, I worked 5 jobs throughout the year 2011.  I moved twice.  I bought a bike, which I use as transportation to my new job in City x.  In the future, I will get a second job, and start saving for a car.  For fun this summer, I plan to get a golf membership with my room mate.  Also, I'm currently building bedroom furniture such as a desk and a queen bed frame, which can be combined into a bunk bed or left separate.  I'm building dressers, and planning custom shelving in the closets for extra storage.  That should help with the hoarder situation in my room, haha :)

Oh, I almost forgot, this last summer, I acquired a free xbox on account of it having the RROD or Red Ring of Death.  I fixed it for approximately $45 dollars, updated the white case to a black one for $40, had my friend change the LED's to blue in exchange for another free xbox my co-worker gave to me (which was later restored to working order as well) & spent $120 on two new black wireless controllers.  Then, I bought a few games and had just gotten Skyrim (Game Informer's Game of the Year), when the xbox failed again.  Fortunately, I still have one more fix kit, a supposedly better one than the first one I bought, so there is hope that it will work again.

P.S. I apologize for poor grammar and misspellings, there's a lot of text to proofread.  If I messed anything up or it doesn't sound right, feel free to let me know with a comment.