I've Never Been More Glad I'm Poor

Posted on Nov 20, 2008 in Irony, Money | 1 comment

Have you been watching the markets lately? Of course you have. It seems everyone has.

I know few people at work, because not only am I a contractor, but I’ve also been there a fairly short period of time. But that gives me great freedom to just listen to other’s conversations.

I don’t eavesdrop per se, but my desk is just one cubicle wall separated from a prime loafing and chit-chat zone. And the last few weeks it seems no one is talking about anything but how much money they’re losing.

I just keep my mouth shut. Because you see, I was poor to start with, so the economic downturn isn’t hurting me so bad.

I have no stocks or 401k to wither along with Wall Street. Well I do technically have 1 measly little 401k from a previous employer, but when this whole thing started it wouldn’t have paid for an average laptop, so a 20% loss doesn’t hurt all that much.

I rent, so plummeting home values simply makes it more likely that I’ll be able to buy in the next few years—or it may just be safer to continue renting

And for those of us with little to lose, there is another benefit. Gas is downright cheap again.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t revel in the losses of my co-workers, friends and family. But don’t expect me to cry when your risky investments come crashing down and suddenly you have to live my lifestyle for a year or two.

NaNo Wrap-Up (Almost)

Posted on Nov 20, 2008 in Writing | 0 comments

I really never intended to participate in National Novel Writing Month (their abbreviation: NaNoWriMo, mine: NaNo) this year. I had done it each of the past two years, and while it was generally a good experience, it was also an exhausting one.

And since this year I’m not only starting a new job, but I have a small ensemble of web design clients, I thought I’d take this year off, and just encourage my fellow writers over at Write Anything.

Fate had other ideas. As Halloween night ticked away, exhausted from walking the kids around the neighborhood in my Donald Duck costume, I fell asleep more quickly than normal.

And woke up 45 minutes later.

Unable to get back to sleep I picked up a blank journal I has purchased a few days earlier and one of my favorite rollerballs and thought I’d conjure up a good night’s sleep by writing about a guy who couldn’t sleep.

Six days later I’d slept about 6 hours—total—and had written a little more than 50k words.

Since then, the insomnia has waned a bit. I wouldn’t say I’m sleeping well, but I’m no longer a daytime zombie either. However, my production has waned as well. This weekend will probably be the last days I devote any time to NaNo this year, and I’ll likely wind up somewhere around 90k words.

But the big question…is what I wrote any good?

Yes and No. Starting as I did with no prep work, I had no illusions about the plot. It formed itself in a olive brainstorm, and it’s flaws are apparent. However, the character turned out pretty good, and there are some long passages that will be useful once rewritten. So I guess it turned out alright.

However, I don’t recommend severe sleep deprivation as a tool for tackling NaNo.

I Miss My Papa

Posted on Nov 19, 2008 in Family | 5 comments

As of yesterday, my Papa has been gone for 19 years. I phrase it that way because it seems a little morbid to refer to “anniversaries” of someone’s death. Anyway, I tried not to think about it too much, but I couldn’t seem to shake a low-grade funk all day.

I miss him. It’s such a simple thing to say, but to truly miss someone is a concept we don’t often take the time to understand. When I say I miss him, I don’t just mean that I wish he were still alive. I mean that there are things I’d like to do with him that I can’t. I would like to introduce him to his grandkids (he wouldn’t care about the “step-” any more than I do).

I would like to hear his voice again. I’ve now lived longer without him, than with, and I can’t really remember what he sounded like. I remember him being a very good singer. I was blessed with both parents being exceptionally gifted in the vocal department, and was always being dragged around to different functions (church, barbershop and whatnot) and singing was an integral part of our lives. So it is something fundamental when I say I miss his voice.

I would like him to tease me about my hair going grey (and going away). I would like his advice on parenting.

One of the things I regret most about him dying so young, was that I never got to take him to dinner. I remember the first time I took my Mom to dinner. It wasn’t preplanned that I would pay, but when the bill came I took it, and she didn’t fight. It’s subtle but meaningful step in the relationship between a child and their parent. And I never got to do that with him.

None of this resolves anything. I still miss him, and I guess I always will. And I don’t have a problem with that.

It's the Little Things

Posted on Nov 18, 2008 in Family | 2 comments

When you have a family to take care of, it’s often the little things in life—the incremental luxuries—that get us excited.

When I was a little kid, a quarter, or a tiny piece of candy was a great reward. As I got older it took more to elicit excitement—a new CD or even a CD player for a birthday or Christmas. And when I lived on my own, I could give myself any luxury I could afford, and even some that I couldn’t. But now, with a family, I’m back to being excited by the little things.

You see, yesterday I won an eBay auction for some new eyeglasses…well, eyeglass frames. I’ve been wearing the same pair of glasses for over 5 years now—a condition made possible because the frames are a very bendy metal, so if I fall asleep wearing them I don’t damage them. But now after five years the lenses have begun to deteriorate. As the scratch coating wears off I’m spending my waking hours staring through a pattern of fading coating that looks an awful lot like clear paint peeling away. And frankly it’s giving me a headache.

But these glasses were expensive. Bought when I had very good vision insurance. So I was thrilled when I found a new pair, very similar in style, and made of the same flexible metal. They even came with magnetic sunglasses.

I suppose it doesn’t say much for my lifestyle when winning an eBay auction for a mundane item gets me all excited, but if you don’t understand then you’ve never been a parent on a budget.