Category: general

Where I put something when I’m too lazy to categorize it.

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throwing away good clothes

Hey poor person, take my old clothes. I deem them unfit for a person of my caliber, but they should be just about perfect for someone like you.
Came back from Santa Barbara a day early, due to some strange sense of responsibility. What I mean is that I just had this creeping feeling that I had so much to get done at work, I couldn’t justify spending the extra day. So we’re back, 6hrs later and some Andersen’s pea soup and grilled cheese fuller. It was a good trip, I got to meet up with my best bud from 5th grade – who I hadn’t seen in about 15 years. It’s strange, but we got off like we just had a long weekend. Funny how little we’ve both really changed, and also funny how we ended up doing and enjoying the same type of things. Just goes to show how much you’re already who you’re gonna be even as far back as the 5th grade. Anyway, it was a good trip even if we did cut it short.

Why does Sharaun always want to throw away my clothes? I mean, I know some of my shirts are old and a tad ratty, but they are perfect boat or hiking or camping shirts. If I get rid of all my old shirts, I’ll have to wear my nice new shirts to do grungy stuff. Do girls not understand that? Guys, or at least me, need a small stable of functional, although perhaps not presentable, vestments. I know it’s threadbare and has hardened and yellowed armpits, but it’s great for mowing. OK, OK, so the threadbare and caked-deodorant armpit ones can be let go, but it makes no sense to throw away good clothes! Read on?

If you can’t tell, we kinda went around on this last night… Sharaun was trying to go through the closet and get rid of anything we don’t wear anymore. It’s a great idea, and I support the concept wholeheartedly. Oh, and before I get into the story let’s preface it with some facts. My “portion” of the closet is two sections, one above the other. Each section is about 3-4ft in length, and I have shirts hung on top and pants on the bottom – neither the top nor bottom is completely filled. And for me, that’s it. Sharaun, on the other hand, has a 6ft side that is packed with clothes. She also has clothes in the other closet too. There, now I’m done with the setup.

So it’s around midnight and she decides she’s gonna sort clothes for removal. Of course, she starts with my stuff – pulling out clothes hanger by hanger and telling me what I do and don’t wear. Strange, since I do wear that shirt with the missing button, quite often in the summer in fact. I quickly realize that if we continue this way, I’ll have nothing left. I instead suggest that I go through my own racks and pull out what I’m willing to part with. Problem is, I’ve done this not too long ago and there’s really not that much left to toss. I mean, comparatively, I only have a third of what she has anyway. Why do we have to throw away all my clothes?

Mostly it went like this: “What about this?, you never wear this.” “Yeah I do, I wear that all the time when we go camping or wakeboarding.” “Yeah but this is disgusting, the neck is all discolored, it’s seven years old, missing buttons, and nasty.” “OK but if I throw it away then what do I wear when I work in the yard and stuff?” “I’ll buy you something new.” Ladies, I’ll tell you right now that this logic does not compute to a male. Buy something new to work in the yard, camp, hike, or wakeboard in? Why?

Beyond that, she just wanted to throw stuff away for no other reason than that it was old. I mean stuff I still wear! Yeah I know I’m wearing this shirt in my class picture from junior year of high school, but it still fits and I like it! Have we become so rich that we are this disposable-minded? I need this shirt to go camping in! It’s been to the top of Half Dome twice. It breathes well, and it’s loose. Plus, I wear it wakeboarding. So what if I don’t wear it to work or to dinner, it’s perfect for recreation. How come you get to keep clothes you bought old at a thrift store, but I have to throw away my clothes because they’ve aged? I buy new stuff and have to throw it away when it gets old, you buy stuff that’s already old and get to keep it? I don’t think I’ll ever understand it. Owell, when it comes down to it I’ll throw away whatever she wants if it makes her happy. Whatever.

OK, I’m outta here. I think I’m gonna clear out some older writing tomorrow, I have a piece on Southern cooking from over the holidays I need to pos – as well as some other odds ‘n’ ends. Betcha can’t wait.

Dave out.

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put on some king crimson

No significance, just a cool lookin' picture.
Thursday crept up fast this week. Tonight is the Decemberists show in San Francisco. It’s at the Bottom of the Hill, which is a tiny little place – not very glamorous at all. Hopefully the music will make up for the seediness. I’m excited about the show, both their albums are excellent and all the show reviews I’ve read say they are a fun live band. Plus they have a chick drummer, and I think that’s cool. Looks like the show is sold out, so it promises to be a fun night. Plus, I had a brilliant idea and I text messaged the directions to nearly every SF venue to my cell phone, so we should never get lost again. Right….

Saw Big Fish last night, even if it was a poorly rendered screener rip with the words “for your consideration” emblazoned on the screen at times. It was a really enjoyable movie. The stories were great. There was less of a “Burton” feel to the movie than I expected, but at some points his style definitely showed through. I didn’t cry, but I think that’s because everyone had been telling me they cried at the end. I think I subconsciously steeled myself for the sadness, and when the end came I kept expecting something that would really turn on the tears. Turns out I psyched myself and the thing ended with my eyes were still dry.

So the Ford finally put up its final protest yesterday. I mean, the check engine light has been on in it for months now – and I’ve been ignoring it because I figured it was something stupid like the oxygen sensor and I didn’t really want to spend $100 to find that out. But more than that, the whole electrical system in the car has been acting funky. First the door unlock buttons don’t really unlock the doors but about 1 out of 3 presses. The parking brake light in the console comes on at random times while driving, and goes off in some strange relationship to pressing the gas pedal. Rolling down the windows causes the entire cabin and dash lights to dim, etc. Something is really messed up electrically, and I’ve been trying to ignore it as long as I could. Well yesterday I guess it got tired of being ignored, and the thing just refused to start. Just clicked in that hopeless dead battery sound, although the battery isn’t dead at all. I’m bracing for the estimate from the garage later today. It’s cool though, because our bonuses are coming later this month… there’s no such thing as extra money.

That’s enough for me today. Sorry it’s so “blah.” I’m gonna put on some King Crimson and get some serious work done. Dave out.

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how can that stuff not be interesting?

GIS for jetlag.
Back from Texas and all is well. Funny how two days flying can make you feel like you’ve been gone for a week. I was totally wiped out when I got home tonight (yes I’m writing this last night). A hot shower helped relax me, as I think a lot of my tiredness comes from just the tension associated with flying and wanting to be back home.

As for the presentation, it far exceeded my expectations. It was a large audience, and while they were inquisitive they weren’t aggressive – I think due in part to my being able to answer most questions easily. So my preparation paid off and my presenting-confidence has risen a notch with a very successful effort now under my belt. It’s good, because I’ll be in Taiwan for a week soon giving the same presentation multiple times a day. I feel much better now with today’s run having gone so well. I wasn’t really looking forward to spending another week in Taipei – but I found out that Ben will be there the same week, so at least we can have some crazy adventures in our spare time.

When I was in Houston overnight I did something I haven’t done since college. I used to put an album on each night while falling asleep. I’d usually put it on low and just listen as I fell asleep. I remember looking forward to choosing what I’d listen to each night, and then I’d put it on repeat and just let it go. Sometimes the words in the songs would influence my dreams, or the songs would work their way in somehow. Anyway, I haven’t done it in forever – mostly because I no longer have a stereo in the bedroom, and because Sharaun never really did like it. So Monday night I plugged in the laptop, set to a “I can sleep over this” volume, and queued up Not Exotic by Dolorean. A sleepy little album from an Oregon band, it’s folky hush-music is perfect to drift off to. It was still going when I woke up the next morning. Was kinda nice.

Ben made me kinda jealous the other day, he showed me the new book his reading. Something like “A peoples history of the United States.” It’s basically an account of US history from the peoples’ point of view. It’s all very “college” and highbrow, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t want to run out and get the same book so I could discuss it with him.

Anyway, it did look interesting – if huge. I love learning about history, I always have. Too bad most history classes in school manage to take all the fun out of studying history and reduce it to the ultimately boring task of memorizing dates and facts. To me history is about sentiment and feeling, atmosphere and climate of the times, and human development. How can that stuff not be interesting? That’s just the way it is. The past is interesting, the future is kinda scary but also exciting. What you know is often a source of comfort while what you don’t is often a source of discomfort. At least for me.

OK, I’ve rambled quite enough I think. Dave out.

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houston reminds me of florida

Y'all come back now, y'hear?
Houston reminds me of Florida. The landscape and the weather are Florida all the way. I’m staying in some “executive” suites place where the room is more like a little apartment than a hotel room. I’ve got a kitchen, fridge, etc. At least they have free broadband, that’s cool. Tomorrow’s my presentation – I’m ready and just want to get it through with. Then it’s another six hours of flying and I’m back in time to go to bed. Yeah.

I don’t know what it is about this room, but it makes me feel lonely. I think because it’s kind of like a little living quarters, it makes me miss Sharaun. It seems too long-term or something, glad I’m only here for one night. I shouldn’t be tired, since I slept on both legs of the flight out here this morning, but for some reason I’m sleepy right now. It’s nearly midnight Houston time, so I guess that’s a good thing since I have to be up early tomorrow. I should probably turn in and get some rest, I plan to be up early to run through my presentation one last time.

I like being up high. My room is on the fourth floor. Even when I was an apartment-dweller in college, I always wanted a place above the ground floor. To me it provides an element of safety, and I also think it’s neat to be able to “look out” over things. I’m sitting here looking at a pair of golden arches through the fog, kinda nice. I used to love the 5th floor condo we had when we first moved to Florida. Frank and I would sit out on the balcony and watch the birds dive into the waves to catch fish. Sometimes I’d look at the ships that were just dots on the horizon and wonder who was on them. High places are good thinkin’ places. Maybe that’s why gurus in cartoons are always on top of mountains. Hmmm…

Goodnight all. I did my best to come up with three paragraphs. I guess I’ve kinda stopped pre-writing blogs way ahead of time. Now it seems I mostly write day-to-day, which most likely makes these entries less and less exciting to read. I’ve got plenty of stories left, and lots of ideas to write – I guess I’ve just been busy lately. I’ll try and step it up a notch so I don’t lose my entire audience. Until then, keep reading and I’ll keep writing.

From Texas, Dave out.

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another thing to work on

The boy's got the devin in 'em and it needs to come out!
I watched the collectors edition five-disc version of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on Friday afternoon while Sharaun was busy at a salon of some sort. The additional scenes were absolutely excellent, and really aide in conveying the spirit of the story. I wish I could’ve had Sharaun see this extended version first, as it helps to explain things much better for those who may have not read the books. Though I doubt I’ll be able to convince her to watch it again now that she’s sat through the screener version I originally downloaded. Although, she did say she really enjoyed the non-extended version. Anthony and I have talked about having an all day marathon when the last dvd set comes out. Starting in the morning and watching until the end. I heard that the Return of the King dvd cut will clock in at four and half hours, that means watching all of them in a row would amount to something like eleven hours of movie. I’m up for it, and I think it’d be an awesome experience to watch them all in sequence as a whole. I know it’s because I enjoy the story so much, but I honestly think the films are some of my favorites; ever.

I’ve found my next frivolous project.

Friday night we also played some more DDR over at Anthony’s place, and I’ve got the totally busted calf muscles to prove it. I’ve been considering downloading the game for the Xbox and then buying a couple dancepads, since that’d be the cheapest option. However, during our Friday night DDR playing, Ben managed to find a few open-source DDR emulators online. A couple seemed really good, but StepMania seemed to be the best. So, Saturday I BitTorrent’d the complete DDR mix package for StepMania. With over 1000 songs, you get a lot more variety than just having the Xbox game. All you need is a computer plugged into your TV and some dancepads. I picked up some PlayStation dancepads and ordered a PS-USB converter so I can use them on the PC with StepMania. I’ve already started on the project, because it kills two projects with one stone. Lemme explain:

I want to create a complete console emulation machine. A small computer that plugs into the TV and has joysticks and can play all the old console games from Nintendo, N64, Super Nintendo, Genesis, etc. It’s actually a relatively easy thing to do, since the emulators and ROMs for most consoles are readily available and work really well. I’ve been messing with Nintendo and Genesis emulators since college, and am really familiar with them. Cool thing is, the emulation machine and the StepMania machine mentioned above can be the same machine. Throw it all in a small-form-factor PC case and hook it up to my wireless network, and maintenance becomes a breeze. Anyway, the emulation and output-to-TV parts are already working, and I just need the PS-USB converter to make the StepMania portion work. Now all I need is a pretty frontend menu system to choose what games you wanna play, and it’s done! All in a couple days, not bad.

Well, I wrote a lot over the weekend when we got back from vacation – so I’m basically just cutting and pasting a bunch of paragraphs per day of pre-written blog. I do “proofread” it and add up-to-date stuff here and there, but for the most part it’s canned for the next couple days. Sorry this entry comes so late, but at least it’s here.

Dave out.

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time and money

money money money...
Welcome to 2004 y’alls.

I think true economic freedom, from a personal finance aspect, has a lot to do with the decoupling of time and money. For me, money and time are still tightly coupled, and very much dependent on each other. At certain times, my money situation is rosy – other times, not so rosy. We’re never really “broke” like warming-by-the-fire-in-a-trashcan broke, but we do have peaks and valleys – which are mostly dependent on time.

Sometimes spending equal amounts of money becomes either acceptable or unacceptable based on when the spending will occur. That’s the difference between going out and buying $10 worth of pizza or burritos from a restaurant for dinner, or staying home and cooking $10 worth of pasta or meat that was purchased at the grocery store. See, the stuff in the pantry or freezer at home was purchased at a time when there was $10 to spend. Whereas it may not be the best time to drop the $10 for the restaurant meal. So yes, it’s the same amount of money being used – a wash as far as the bottom line is concerned. But it still makes a difference. Even tho it’s the same total monthly/weekly/daily pool of funds – the exact time of expenditure ends up mattering.

The coupling of money and time is used to fool consumers all the time. Car salesmen use time to distort the amount of money you’ll pay over the term of a loan. People who measure money only in terms of present-day output are relieved when the salesman tells them they can lower their payments by $100 a month, even though they’ve just bought thousands more in interest over time. In some ways I envy the ignorance of people who don’t realize that less money over more time is actually a worse deal. I mean, what would it matter if I died having never paid back my school loans. Other than the weight of my conscience telling me I stole an education, a debt on my head when I’m buried and gone means little to me.

When money is no longer coupled to time, I imagine we’ll be able to spend whatever we want whenever we want. But for now, it’s still very much cyclical. As we spend these initial years of married life climbing out from under the shadow of college debt, we’re still basically living paycheck to paycheck – the paychecks are just a lot bigger than they used to be. Perhaps that’s a sign of poor budgeting or management, I’m not sure. All I know is that we’ve managed to make impressive strides in reducing debt, while still managing to have fun and maintain a nice “entertainment” budget.

My approach to personal finance is pretty simple. Pay off debts, save and invest, and most of all have fun. I’ve also decided it’s important to realize that there’s no such thing as “extra” money. “Extra” money is always balanced out by “unexpected” expenses. If you find a $100 bill, chances are you’ll lock yourself out of the house and have to pay $100 to get back in. For all the time I spend worrying and thinking about money and finances and budgets and debt, I spend way more thinking about sunshine and music and food and nothing at all. So I think I have a pretty healthy handle on the whole money thing, and I’m not too terribly obsessive.

OK I’m going to publish this without even re-reading it. Sorry if it makes no sense and sucks.

Dave out.

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great gifts all around

Off we go into the wild blue!
This blog upload comes a little later than usual, but here it is.

So, Christmas Eve. Sharaun and I exchanged presents today rather than pack all our gifts round trip to FL just to unwrap them. We both made out really well. I got the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers extreme collectors edition, with the little Gollum figurine and all. Five dvds worth of stuff, yeehaw. I think we were both happy with the loot. Last night we tried to get into the Christmas spirit: we drove around town looking at Christmas lights, and then came back and watched both Charlie Brown Christmas specials on dvd. It was fun.

Today will be spent cleaning and packing for the trip. We leave tonight at 10 o’clock. Heard on the news that some flights from France to LA were canceled for security reasons, great. If you hear anything on the news about Delta 1124 or 329, that’s us. Hopefully the only news story will be about how the crew gave out $500 to each passenger or something. I’m sure it will be plenty uneventful, and hopefully I can get some sleep. We get into Orlando around 7:45am on Christmas morning, talk about crappy flying times – but hey, it was dirt cheap. We should be at Sharaun’s folks’ place by 9ish, and we’ll do presents then.

For Christmas gifts thus far, it’s been a great year for me. Great gifts all around. I got a flask, that’s right! A real-deal drinkin’ flask like honest-to-goodness priests carry at all times. I got some homestar runner figurines. I got an *awesome* all-in-one Namco game controller. You know the kind you plug into the AV inputs on the TV, and all it is is a joystick, but the joystick contains five classic Namco games – including Pac-Man. How awesome is that!? I got a boatload of clothes, more books in the current series I’m reading, a much-needed umbrella, and more. Plus my folks got us an awesome set of Henckel knives for the house, because our old knife set is totally busted. All in all it’s been an awesome year for both giving and getting.

Well, Merry Christmas erryone. Hope you all keep it sincerely crunk for your holiday celebrations. I know we will do our best.

Dave.