Debt free!
I’m totally debt free for the first time in over 12 years!
The feeling is indescribable. It’s something that I never thought would ever happen, like bending over superman and turning him into the man-of-squeal (and getting it on camera).
Welcome 2008
It always takes me like a month and a bit to get used to a new year. Okay, I’m finally used to it. It’s 2008, I’ll be turning 32 this year and… damn, I feel like I’m behind on almost everything.
I was hoping to post for like a week and a half the announcement that my wife and I are out of debt, as in all of it, gone, kaput, no more. But the checks just keep floating around in limbo as they transfer from one place to another. So, I’ll do a more anti-climactic announcement when it’s truly official. Hopefully before 2009.
Hope all of you have been having a great 2008 so far. My bitching above aside, it’s been the start of the best year yet for me.
Short Hibernation, continued
It’s easy to see, by the dates of post, when a blog is hibernation. I decided to publicly state that the hibernation is continuing for a bit longer. Good things to come, some a long time in the works.
Republican for a month
Today I defected to the Republican party. Just in time for the California primaries. Just in time to cast my vote for Ron Paul.
Will one vote make a difference? I don’t know. But doing things I believe in helps me sleep better at night. That’s worth it to me.
Here’s to having a Grand Old Party for a month!
Anti-social networking continued
As a child I hated this time of year. Family and friends had provided me with some material Christmas goodies, New Year’s meant school was about to start again, and my thank you cards remained unwritten. Not a very difficult choice for me as a young boy. I could read about elves and dwarves kicking evil orc ass, play Yar’s Revenge on my Atari, watch the end of year continuous marathon of black-and-white Twilight Zones, or take a couple of hours to write Thank You cards.
Me totally ungrateful? Not in thought, although in action…. My Thank You cards usually arrived around Valentines day on a good year.
Now today, I have so many options. Given that story, you’d think someone like me would like the simplicity of facebook and MySpace. Such an easy way to automate life, no? Exhibit A: the SuperPoke application. All I have to do is load the application into my facebook profile and scroll down to it.
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Click on the “Mass Poke!” link in the upper left and bring up the giant potential poking list.
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It’s so easy to be in the Christmas spirit, and since all of my friends really are my friends on social networking sites, I’ll simply click that glowing red “Select All” button and scroll down to the many different canned messages.
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SuperPoke you’re my hero! So many choices you offer me to truly communicate. You even offer me the option to thank all of my friends with the push of a button. Were I to be less coherent, nay even doing some uninhibited drunken surfing (oh no, I never do things like that), the greatest idea of the moment might be to “have a spot of tea” with my entire social circle. But no, this is Christmas, it’s the time of year to slam those Thank Yous out through my computer port and move on with my life.
I deleted SuperPoke and returned my facebook profile to it’s former naked plainness.
Something must have changed in my lifelong search for simplicity where everything could be magically accomplished by double-clicking on, “Yes, please send out my Thank You form letter.” Never able to get enough of what I don’t really want? Probably. Growing up and maturing and finding out what’s really important? EEEK! The M-word, but yeah, that’s closer to it.
I’m going back to card and letter writing, on that cardstock and paper stuff for some messages. Heck, any of you guys want a card or a letter, let me know. Why? Just because.
Blog changes
This blog is about a year old. After the busy, successful year I’ve decided to make some changes. The first change is how my content on this blog is licensed.
As a person writing fiction novels, I see the use, even necessity, for a Copyright on those particular works.
But this blog has turned into my online voice and persona. It’s a medium for my ideas, a place for me to contribute to the greater social conversation available throughout the web. Treating this blog the way I treat my fiction occurs to me as inappropriate.
As of this moment, and barring the few exceptions noted in specific posts, my blog has been opened up under the Creative Commons license listed in my License page.
I believe that the majority of my content on my blog should be available for use by anyone who might find it useful, whether that be a single person or a large corporation.
Consider the change of license proactive, not reactive.
Antisocial networking
Enough, I’ve had enough. I just deleted my old Friendster and Tribe.net accounts. I deleted a bunch of “friends” who I’ve never met in my Myspace life. I was close to deleting my whole Myspace account, that poor excuse for ad dispersal. Myspace will go in the next couple of months if [Rupert] doesn’t clean up [Rupert]’s act.
Thought I had more to say, but I really don’t. Less is more.
[Edit: Plaxo now gone, too.]
[Another Edit: MySpace = gone.]
[Edit 18.December.2007: Just deleted my 43things account. Less is still more.]
Short term memory loss can be humorous
Fell off my bike and landed my face last night. Managed to smack a curb (so I’m told) with a majority of unprotected face. How I didn’t slide around I don’t know, and I suffered only minimal road rash. The impact severely jarred my short-term memory and led me to saying the same things over and over last night in the emergency room.
My wife, found me and drove me to the emergency room. I kept telling them that I had received a concussion before, that there really wasn’t anything to worry about, and that I hoped I was the most difficult thing they had to deal with. Other than repeating myself over and over, the scene (so I’m told) was like the wounded consoling the doctors.
My wife informed me that she knew I was coming around when the nurse asked me:
“So, what do you like to do besides mountain biking?”
“My wife,” I said.
Janna and nurse start laughing at my obvious positive improvement in health.
My fascination with Alan Rickman
Looking over IMDB.com, I see that he has a future movie based on the Napa Valley wine industry. Yes, I’m going to watch this movie.
Ich wuensche Deutsch gesprechen
Wenn ich studiert im Universitaet, ich studiert Deutsch. Heute, sehe ich ein gute Deutsche filme rennt “Der Krieger und die Kaiserin.”
Anyway, I miss speaking German, and I miss the people I met while traveling in Germany.
