I still think they’re on to something

I took the camera with me. Took a few shots of this and that. After I post this I’m going to put some up on the DeviantArt page.

I’m still troubled about that whole GRE thing. The expense in time and money, I feel that could be better spent else where. No. before you ask I don’t know where; if I knew that, I would be there doing that. Whatever it is.

OK. Now I’m just thinking out loud… But, it seems to me priority one has to be getting out of this town. For one thing, there is no guarantee that I’m going to be accepted to any given degree program. I don’t want to jump through all the hoops and still be here. What then?

Am I being belligerently non-conformist again? Meh. Maybe. Every buck makes a difference when you’re making less than $15 an hour though. The $120 plus that the GRE will cost me could be a lot of gas in the new car. It could be the rental of a moving van. It could be most of a new mattress. Something I very dearly need. Or, glasses? I don’t need them to see, but the ones I’ve got now are simply completely unacceptable when it comes time for interviews of any sort, be they academic or job related.

Cost cutting measures are being taken here on the home front. We’re buying groceries more frugally. The cable is being shut off. We’re using the library more often. I’m buying lunch at work less. Hell, we traded in the more gas hungry sedan for a more economical hatchback. We bought that car and filled the tank on the ninth. Today we’re refilling the tank. Yay!

If we could work our will we’d have a little “mom and pop” book, candy (0r baked goods), and gift shop in some major metro area. We’re both tired of academia. We’re both tired of corporate group think. We both believe we have accumulated more than enough debt in the pursuit of education  thank you very much.

I’ll tell you what I want out of life.

• I want to be my own boss.
• I want to, as much as the business in which I am my own boss will allow, make my own schedule.
• I want to work the weekends and have, say, Tuesdays and Wednesdays off. I like that.
• I want to see more of my family than living in central New York State half way between somewhere and nowhere will currently allow. I would like to be able to have Thanksgiving dinner with them and open packages Christmas morning with out having to plan a week’s vacation around either. As if I could get vacation around the holidays in my current situation. Ha.
• I don’t want to rely on charity for any of this, but I am neither proud nor stupid.
• I want the wife to have the time to make her pies and costumes. I want her to have her sculpture studio. All I need is a corner in which to stick my laptop.
• I want to work in the sort of place where wearing said costumes on October thirty-first is acceptable, nay, required.
• I want to sleep eight hours a day whether I need it or not. I’m content with making exceptions for special occasions and including the mid day nap in that eight hour total.
• Did I mention I wanted the opportunity to nap?
• I want the time every morning to make omelets. I am, in fact, OK with that time being on the job. I’m OK with making omelets for other people. Folks want to pay me to do something I love and then save me the caloric intake of eating it myself? How is this not a win-win situation?

I’ll tell you what I don’t want out of life.

• I don’t want to be rich. More money seems to me to only complicate life. I don’t need that. If I need a Personal Data Assistant beyond a hand full of index cards and a paper planner to run my life, I’m doing something wrong.
• I don’t want to be famous.
• I don’t want to write the next great American novel.
• I don’t want to change the world.
• I don’t want to give up any of my personal responsibility (see being my own boss); personal responsibility is the cost of freedom. You can not have mine.
• I don’t want to pay for food I can make myself. Really. The only reason we eat out any more is almost entirely related to the service or the company (as in the companionship, not some cultish brand loyalty).

I think that’s it for now.

PAX!

I think the cats are on to something

Just took an hour nap in a sunbeam.

I feel rejuvenated in a way I haven’t felt in ages. I’m still physically exhausted, still do not want to go to work. However, I’ve come to two epiphanies.

1) I need to figure out a way to make the digital camera a more permanent part of my daily kit.

2) I need to make an appointment to study for the GRE; with out a deadline to hold myself to I don’t think I’ll ever get around to studying it.

I swear, there ought to be a black belt in procrastination. Then I could put off taking the test required for that indefinitely. argh.

I’m not, and have not at any point, made excuses for my lack of motivation and progress on either of these fronts. Other than I simply do not want to go back to school. *petulant foot stomp* Oh. And, maybe I’m a little paranoid about breaking the camera.

However, I’m not going any where with out a better paying job and I’m not getting a better paying job with out going some where. “Tedious” is the word I’m looking for most of the time.

I think I have more to say on this topic, but I want to get the camera and get outside before I have to leave for work.

Still Alive

I’ll not talk about work, except to say that were I to report news of it it would not be bad news.

We’ve got a new car. She’s got new glasses. I got temp IT work (which I’m beginning to despair of ever getting paid for, but hey, you know, live and learn).

It’s been a remarkably busy two weeks here. One of the reasons I chose to skip the MotM this month. I was up in the air about that until the 12th. Honestly, the last few have been posted less than a week after being written. I’ve fallen dreadfully on all my writing projects. Nothing for November is in any state near ready for posting. In most cases, it hasn’t been started yet.

I would love to just blame the busy month, but I had been socking away the posts in advance pretty well there for a while. This one month did not do me in; it was all the ones before it. I can’t blame applications on Facebook either. Much as I would love to do that. Farmville, Happy Aquarium, and Cafe World have stolen my soul, but It isn’t as though I couldn’t play them and be writing at the same time.

Nope. Sometimes when I’m bored doing nothing is exactly what I want to do. Sometimes one needs a break from their hobbies. I think I’ll be back shortly though.

A reminder

Tomorrow is the sixth of October.

That means a Halloween special edition of the Savage Sixth.

Check it out!

http://thesavagesixth.wordpress.com

Virtual Walkabout

I am deleting accounts out there left and right today. Some of you may come looking for me, and for that “some” of you I am posting this explanation.

My life is not meeting my expectations. I have very little control over the parts of it that are failing to meet those aforementioned expectations.

What I can control is how I spend my free time. Of which, given my present part time employment situation, I have a great deal more than I need. In spite of that over abundance, I still manage to waste an embarrassing amount of time.

So, until I can get my head straightened out, I’m going on a sort of virtual walkabout. I’m deleting every account I can that isn’t email, wordpress, or facebook. Some of them, like LinkedIn, I can no longer access because the emails they were attached to are no more, and I can’t recall my passwords, so for those, if I haven’t updated in ages, don’t expect any ever again.

Oh! Keeping my DeviantArt page, too. Maybe with my virtual hermitage thing going on I can make the time to take more photos to post up there. http://peregrine13820.deviantart.com
Probably not, but it would give me something to do in meat space.

OK. I guess that’s it for now. One or few more accounts to purge, then it’s on to my favorites, bookmarks, and lists of daily links. Slash and burn, baby. Slash and burn.

DDO

Well, in theory, I’m trying this out for a while.

EDIT: Success! I don’t know how often I’ll be on, but hey, drop me a line, we’ll hang

I’m unable to log in at the moment; I’ve a message away to support; I’ll check back Tuesday. I’ve got the downloader open, but it isn’t doing a darn thing at the moment.

Frustrating, cause this thing was working fine when I installed it. Thought I would log in quick tonight and see if I could tweak my system and settings for better performance, but no such luck.

Hopefully we can get it worked out. I really want to like this game; Eberron and all. And I could use a cheap distraction these days.

Bedtime. Alice Cooper concert in approximately 16 hours and counting.

Edit: Alice was awesome. Terrific show that felt like it was for the long time fans.

Mark of the Movie 13: The Triple Feature Event

Yar! Ye be here for pirate movies three, do ye? Well, ye’ve come to the right place! Happy Talk like a Pirate Day!

This one be a long one. Three movies. Space Pirates! The Patron Saint of Talk Like a Pirate Day! Italian rebel scum! Ye’ve been warned, yeh scallywags!