You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2007.
Pay day has come and gone once more. Like the cycle of the seasons each spinning of the wheel brings birth and renewal.. of course in this instance it would be my financial standing that sprouts once again.
I’ve been somewhat bummed out lately about my flagging monetary footing as anyone who has been around me more than a couple of seconds should be able to attest to. After paying for dinner last night at the excellent Red Robin my remaining funds stood right around two dollars.. and not even of my own money. I’ve been relying on my credit cards to see me through far too often this past month and pretty much maxed both of them out. This month, due to it being an extra paycheck month and my overage next week (if all goes as planned), I should move on ahead financially. The only big purchases that I’ll be making are my books, of course, and any supplies that my art class will require, I’m planning to completely pay off my love seat that I bought back in .. March I think, and then I’m going to buy a PS3. Gotta give some love to myself. I’d rephrase that but ..eh. It’ll suffice.
I rarely make nice purchases for myself. This year the only other thing I’ve bought has been my DS Lite. I’ve racked up a robust DS game collection of 7 games so far.. or was it 8.. but other than that I’ve just purchased the odd book here and there. I know what my main problem is: eating out. The once a week thing with the guys is fine for the most part .. so long as I avoid Outback on most occasions; damn good food, damn big bill.. but at work it basically destroys my budget. Spending an average of seven dollars a meal for five days a week comes to an average of .. carry the one.. or load calc, more like.. around one hundred fifty two dollars a month for just eating at work. And that’s without counting the same amount regularly spent on picking up food on the way to work as well. So.. over three hundred dollars a month was going just to feed my feeding habit. That’s pretty patently unacceptable. So, I’m trying to fix that up.
I saw this spifftastic little Excel sheet that was scripted on Lifehacker sometime earlier in the year (or last): PearBudget. It’s pretty simplistic and actually looks like something I should have been using for years. Let’s see if I can stick with it for more than a couple weeks! It’s a process. If I can limit my food budget to something that doesn’t run me broke on a monthly basis I think I can easily get on top of my debt woes.
Today I paid my Citi Financial bill as part of this whole debt reducing policy. Not that it’s really a new part; I’ve been paying extra on it every month since I started it back in November of ‘05. Last month I paid my usual two hundred but, as I was already aware, my next bill wasn’t due until this month. Regardless, like always, I wrote on my check to put the extra against the principle. Kinda covering my anterior region in that respect. So last month my pay off was around fifty five hundred remaining. This month (not counting my current payment) my pay off amount is now around fifty three hundred. So.. I’m making a dent. Last month was a large dent. I can only assume that at this point I’ve essentially crested the whole interest and will now start eating chunks out of my loan debt each month. If I can pay even more than the little extra I have been paying (only around twenty dollars extra to be honest) then I can only assume that I’d be tearing down that wall even faster. With trying to spend less on food, say around a hundred or so less, each month I could put that money against the loan and really destroy it with even handed shredding. Who knows? By this time next year I may have no more debt. ..That’s pretty unlikely, but I may have gotten rid of a good portion of it. I can’t expect anyone to keep me motivated in the right direction, I see people only a couple of times a week, so this is gonna be something I have to push along myself. Kinda prove to myself that I have it in me. Or find out that I don’t. Negative thinking.. yeah, probably something I need to avoid.
On a positive spin I did some minor cleaning recently: I cleaned off my computer desk.. ya know, mostly. It’s not a finished job, of course, I still have some papers and cords on it. And Flonne is there cheering me on, that’s nice. I moved some of the things to my nearby manga shelf that need to be moved right back off to more appropriate places. I still need to get better at my habit of actually folding my laundry when I’m done with it.. free up more floor space and the like. And I have to get things situated to get rid of my dressers and, eventually, the entertainment center.. unless Tuten wants to take it, we did both go in on it, the television, and the DVD player. When I get the PS3 the DVD player (and my PS2, for that matter) will be kind of moot. And next spring when I get my next overage check and my tax return I’m going to jump headfirst into a HD LCD TV. Acronyms ahoy! The one I’m tentatively looking at is a forty inch Samsung beast that would suit me just fine.. but it won’t so much fit into the entertainment center according to Martin. I can see he’s right, though. So, away it will have to go.
The way I see it this will free up more of my apartment to actual living space. I’ll get that gone and the bookshelf behind it will be transferred to the wall on the other side of my bed where one of the dressers currently lives. And with the other one no longer taking up space in my closet I’ll have extra closet for my things. I need to trim down my ‘things’ collection too, though. Don’t think I really need an ancient keyboard these days.. and my double bass is somewhat of a dusty space hog. I still have a PS1 sitting in my Q-Bit (also no longer required) that I should divest myself of as well. It, like my budget, is a process. I’ll finish eventually.
My parents bought me a little microwave that fits perfectly beside my rice cooker and toaster. I have the best parents evar.
We’re nearing the end of this months long Blake extravaganza.. so there’s that.
I’m increasingly aware of my low status in my department. The funny thing is that I haven’t the slightest clue as to why. And no one has any intention of enlightening me on the subject. We have multiple people leaving the department in the steps above my level over the next month or so and the powers that be are looking for people to fill those slots. Turns out I’m not even in the running as best as I can tell. Some people who started a little before I did have already moved up and some that have been here less time than me are being looked at for a rise in status. What I don’t get is that I don’t do any less than these other people. Heck, I do more than some who are being looked at from what I can gather. Needless to say, I feel a bit slighted by the whole matter. My current priority is to complete my English degree and see where things go from there but that’s a couple years down the line. I’m just not sure how happy I’ll be with this position if I get stuck in it for too much longer.
I’ve been here since the beginning of May last year. That’s nearly fifteen months ago; a year and a quarter. If I haven’t even been transitioned out of contractor status by the time my second year rolls around I can be fairly certain that I’ll be a good bit less than satisfied with my lot. The problem is that the work isn’t bad for the pay but the pay is cut due to being a contractor. Because I’m a contractor I make a dollar less than regular employees and an additional dollar and change less than second shift is alloted. So it totals out that I’m making a good two something less than I could be. I was led to believe that the whole contractor thing would not be a permanent status here at my work and that I’d be switched over to being a regular employee after some time had passed. While the system works for some it seems to be passing me by. I guess what really bugs me is that there seems to be no reason that I can see for this singling out.
The only thing that’s ever been a problem since I started here was a handful of tardies from the time that I had to move earlier this year. Except for the odd problem (like my car on Tuesday) I’ve been on time each day. I get no complaints for my performance and none for my statistics (I had the highest statistics of all contractors for a couple months after I started). The only thing left is the possibility that someone along the line has decided to not like me all that much. Sure, it’s a bit paranoid, but eh.. I keep having the feeling that I should be particularly aware of any sort of knife/spine convergence.
The truly depressing thing in all of this is that I really don’t have much else I can do. So even if this place never has any intention of transitioning me I have to stick with it. I can’t afford to go back to a lower paying job due to the whole living alone thing and I need something that can work with my school schedule. In those respects this job is perfect. It’s just this bleak pall that rests atop it, a boundary between me and the favored employees. It’s frustrating. And I am increasingly doubtful that it will ever change.
Other than that spat of whining my week has been only moderately eventful. I’ve been living off of Michellina’s microwave meals at work and Pizza Pals and peanut butter sandwiches at home. I’m down to around $10 left till payday due to poor budgeting on my part. And then Monday happened. On Monday I left my apartment around the same time I always do, 2:40-ish, and upon entering my car noticed that it had no power. I checked under the hood and saw that it appeared that my negative battery cable had corroded clean through. I IM’d my work through my phone and managed to get someone to come pick me up. I stood beside my car waiting for my ride till a little after 3:30. So, on Monday, in 100+ degree heat, I’m standing out there in my work clothes. By the time my ride arrived the gel heel insert built into my loafers had melted. Only the right one, though, so it’s a little odd feeling to walk around in. So I hop into the ride from work and buy him a milkshake to compensate (and I was somewhat sun dried myself) and in the process ripped my slacks. It’s not a big hole but it’s still there, right inside the thigh. So here I was: beginning of the week with ripped pants, melted shoes, burned out battery cable, and all in all an hour and a half late for work. Great. I had made sure management was aware of my problem with my car and I was assured that it wouldn’t be held against me. See above for about how much I believe that.
Tuesday I have my father look at it and with some minor tinkering and tightening of my positive battery cable my car is back up and running. All except the air conditioner. In the middle of the hottest the summer has been in ages. Record breaking (or tying) highs. Only two more days before I get paid. All I have to do is make it till Friday.. or so I’ll keep telling myself.
Tomorrow should be a hanging out day. That could be fun.
So.. yeah. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?
This summer’s been eventful, but only in a mundane way. My brother visited from Japan for a few weeks in July. That was entertaining; sorta. His first week here I had two days off in a row to hang out with him so that was good; after that my schedule returned to the normal Tuesday/Thursday off for the first time in what seemed like almost a month. This turned out well since my folks planned a special beach/dive trip for him that stretched from, originally, Tuesday to Wednesday. So, despite the fact that I *could* have most likely switched my days off to go with them they didn’t really put that forward as an option even though I was sitting across the table from them as they made the reservations. Anyway. They switched the days to Wednesday/Thursday due to the dive part that my brother was gonna do alone (while the folks wandered the beaches, etc.) not getting enough people for the boat to actually motor out on Wednesday. Again, not invited. Ah well, I know they didn’t mean anything by not asking me along; it probably just didn’t occur to them that I could try and get my schedule changed. And as anyone who knows me can say I of course hate travel and the ocean. Yeah.
All in all, due to my nighttime tendencies and such I got to see my brother for maybe 4 partial days. Ah well, he’s only in Japan.. maybe I’ll get to visit sometime. Or he might be back again in a year or so. We’ll see. At least it was good seeing him for the time that I could.
That’s really the only thing of note for my entire summer thus far. The next thing on the list is classes starting again on August 23rd. A Thursday, whee. My Tuesday/Thursday schedule at USC runs with a nice gap between my morning art class and my afternoon classes. I don’t get out of class those days until after 4 PM. My Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes are a bit.. odd. On Monday and Wednesday I have Japanese in the morning and History in the afternoon; again with a 3 hour gap between classes. The thing is that History lets out at 2:15.. leaving me a whooping 45 minutes to get to work from school. Looks like I’ll be using parking at USC at least twice a week so I get to work on time. Figure that I can afford the $1 worth of parking that should run a week for the Pickens garage. I just have to change into work attire before History and drive back to school. Woo. The upside to all this is that I’m over halfway complete with my English degree. Also I get a nice overage check.
My overage check is something to truly look forward to these days. On one hand it’ll help me get my bills back in order. Something I feel pretty alright about is that after living alone for about half a year I still have managed to keep on top of bills for the most part. Turns out I went over the limit on one of my credit cards last month, though. So, my finances are catching up to me slowly. The overage will help disperse some of the pressure and also will allow me some leeway to do a little bit of wanted purchasing on top of buying my books and supplies. I’m gonna get me a PS3.
A lot of people have a heap of disdain for the PS3 but I have to say it’s the system that I have the most interest in. For one the 360 is more geared towards FPS and sports games instead of RPGs and SRPGs; both some of my favorite gaming styles. With games like FFXIII and Disgaea 3, among others, coming to the system I can say that my interest is piqued. The HOME thing looks like a fascinating idea; I really want to see how that’ll pan out. And, somewhat sadly, the Eye game with the CCG involved tickles me in ways that I shouldn’t really mention in a semi-public forum such as this. Oops, mentioned it. And with the 5 Blue Ray movies for free with PS3s until the end of September as well as the 80G PS3 coming out sometime next month it seems like a good candidate for my gaming upgrade. In the spring when I get my next overage check and my tax return under my belt I’ll be looking to get a HDTV as well to really put a nice setup together. That’s a bit further afield though.
My gaming these past few months has been interesting to say the least: getting in on the Quake Wars beta, M:tG 10th edition, Etrian Odyssey, and almost Disgaea-like levels of playing Pokemon Pearl (180+ hours so far..). I have plenty I need to ramble about on my other blog. Maybe I’ll get to that later today. Maybe.
