The year in review
I've been looking through some old entries here. It's rather sad. One of my old GFs got married to a guy who turned out to be lower than whale $#!+, and did things I would never dream of doing, but fortunately she got free in the end. Another one flaked off. Some others just kind of faded away. In fact, over half my friends here have either switched to Facebook (boo for Mark Suckerberg!) or flaked off completely. I'm kind of part of the problem, since I'm not on here as much as before, though I'm rarely into FB either. And in the past, a lot of these friends I got to see frequently in real life. Imagine that...
Anyway, I've been meaning to do a general update, but been putting this off for a while. So, this is as good a time as any to fill you in on what's been going on with me. Another year has zoomed on by. Here's how it went.
Beginning the year, I had one of my pals over to install a new air conditioning unit, which had been jacked up since the compressor started shorting in September. It is a high-efficiency unit, though alas, it turns out that my power bill has been higher than ever. We also put in an on-demand gas water heater to replace a conventional one that was leaking. That was quite a bit of a pain. It was a good deal; I got it on Craigslist for $200; the regular price is about $1100 or so. But when I went to pick it up, it kind of seemed like a shady deal. And, as it happens, the control unit was missing. We got another one from one of the two places in all of Russia that has replacements for that, and even paid a surcharge for overnight delivery, since the natives were getting pretty restless. Still, all told, the whole thing was about half off the price of a new one.
Some time around the spring, the nice water heater quit working. And the kitchen sink quit working. And the showers quit working. It turns out that the water softener went kaputt, and started putting grit into the water line. Wonderful... I activated the bypass valve to the water softener, but the damage was done. The hot water heater I managed to get fixed by cleaning out the intake filter. (There's more, but it's a long story and I've bored you enough.) I got the shower head cleaned out, but alas, I ended up wrecking it while putting it back on. Fortunately, I got a cheap and very effective replacement at SovMart. The guts of the sink had to be replaced, which is a pain and technically still needs a little work, but the performance is far better than the trickle I was getting before.
As for the AC unit, it ran pretty well, though it did conk out in the middle of the summer. It turns out that it was the high pressure sensor shutting down the condenser. Maybe it kicked in during the middle of the summer because of PV=nRT. (Pressure increases in proportion to temperature, among other things.) I ended up McGyvering it to bypass the relay. Yay cold air!
The new AC unit cost about $6K, causing my debt to hit a high water mark. Fortunately, by working insane hours, I was able to start chipping away at the millstone at an unprecedented rate. Unfortunately, this was not to last...
As for other house stuff, the roaches are vanquished for good. But I ended up getting a gnat infestation. Or itty bitty flies. Or something. At first, it was just a few. Then it became like the plagues of Egypt. I've reduced the problem, but I'm still working on it. Also, I have some floor issues because of cats that don't get the litterbox thing. I tore out a bunch of carpet from the living room, and will do the rest one of these days. I plan to get it all cleaned up, get it properly surfaced (removing the nail strip for the carpets leaves the concrete pitted), then paint it. I'll put down some gray, then get some bright colors and go all modern art on it, then varnish the top. It's going to take a while. Having lots of time at home when I'm not exhausted would help.
Early in the year, I was also working on some new writing projects. One of them is Episode i -- I renamed that from Episode 474, and some of you may recall some parts of a first draft I posted here back in 2008. Yes, it takes me that long to start working on stuff. There isn't too much new material, but I have it polished up well. As much as I wish I could say otherwise, I don't have any further progress on my Big Hank project. That, as you might recall, was the story of Henry VIII retold in a trailer park. Finally, I began what is now Episode 27. It turns out that the project got a lot bigger than I thought it would, and might could end up novel length. I started researching the Gothic language. (Ik frijo þuk, Teresa!) There's even a Wiki site for that; and I was at one time among the most prolific contributors. I stopped when the current honcho drove me crazy with his OCD problem. (Not that I'd call mine better, but still...) Maybe I should post the "Golden Flounce Award" on my own page there, LOL!
I gradually got involved in amateur acting and doing movie reviews. To make a long story short, not too much has come of the acting part yet, but we will see.
In April, I went to the TLA event, but as memory serves, just for a brief appearance. Earlier I had been planning to give it up entirely. But then, I realized that I still wanted to hang out with my peeps there, so I decided to stay longer next time.
During those days, I was working very long hours. I made some nice progress on the bills in the first quarter. But a straight line extrapolation showed that I was in for a long haul even then. Unfortunately, during the second quarter, progress began to slow a bit...
Beginning mid-July, my GF from Petersburg came up for a few weeks. To make a very long story short, this turned into Drama Llama Fest 2012. Things eventually reached DEFCON2, with the high water mark at 950 millistreisands. She is now the Mayor of the Friend Zone, though this fact hasn't fully sunk in yet.
Things were starting to drag at work. Seven days a week, 10+ hours a day is not for the faint of heart. And, some of the cases got gnarly. Lesser mortals would be crushed entirely. Some people told me, "I hope they stop working you so hard!" Unfortunately, that's equivalent to saying, "I hope you start making far less money!" I have an Excel spread where I have my finances figured out nine ways from Sunday. Since all the deductions come out of my first 40 hours (aside from taxes that comes out of everything), then OT is worth a smidge more than three times my ST rate. Unfortunately, all of a sudden, that dried up in a hurry and progress came to a screeching halt in the fall. The Year of the Endless Monday was over, but the balances started to rise higher again... The only good news is that, for the most part, I stopped getting the twitches from sleep deprivation.
In the fall, my mother's health became quite problematic. It looks like the situation is fixed, but not without some aftereffects. For me, this was basically suckus maximus. At least one of you will be able to relate. I took a trip up there to say hi. I should do that more often.
In October, I got to attend pretty much the full TLA event. It was kind of a mixed bag. It was nice to see some of my old pals, and meet some new folks, though there were many I was hoping to see who didn't make it. Unfortunately, one particular individual took to hassling me repeatedly. I hope this doesn't mean that I now have an Inspector Javert type dogging my heels.
Then, in November, the elections. Sigh... Well, most of you are going to disagree with me, but you clicked it anyway. As you know, the great Lightworker was re-elected, 50% to 48%. This was oft trumpeted as a "landslide" -- I can't quite fathom why, but then I'm one of those weird people who think substance is more important than appearance. I'm not sure how that happened after this plastic Messiah, an inexperienced teleprompter jockey who has been in over his head since day one, broke so many campaign promises from the first time around. The public apparently has a short memory. Following the elections, there was a deluge of immodest gloating, including by some of you guys. Now I could understand why people might get excited about Hillary. But no matter how much the media hypes him into a rhinestone saviour figure, BO is still just a mediocre politician with a murky past, whose only business experience involves selling pot in college.
I'm pretty fed up with politics now, but I'm just glad that it's over; maybe I can even look at Facebook one of these days. Anyway, I'm now the proud owner of a new bumper sticker:
http://www.zazzle.com/nixon_now_more_than_ever_bumper_sticker-128398525716610113
Damn, I'm really starting to miss Tricky Dicky.
Late in the year, I started working on Episode 0 in a final push to get it polished and ready to get it out the door. It would be great if it will sell. The odds are against me, unfortunately. In the '60s, even a complete hack could get a book published so long as it had a rocket ship on the cover. By the '80s, the editors became prima donnas, but you could still get lucky and have your story discovered in the slush pile. Or, an easier way to get in the game was with the help of a decent agent, if you didn't mind the agent skimming 10-15% off the top. These days, the editors won't even acknowledge your existence without an agent, and the agents have become prima donnas. All this is an odd attitude to have toward the people who produce the content that is their bread and butter. But they can get away with it because about a half dozen megacorporations control the vast majority of publishing, and the editors use agents their gatekeepers, so where else do you think you're going to go? So a new author's chances are pretty dismal, unless the book has sparkly vampires in it.
Lastly, I survived the holidaze mainly by working like a fiend (more opportunities are coming up, though the future is uncertain) and hiding under a rock. And here we are.
So, in summary... Creatively, I've made some minor advances, though I wish it were more. I'll have to start making better use of my time.
Financially, I've made quite a remarkable amount of gross income by working so much, though I only got to see 57.68% of the fruits of my labors as net income. My plastic is down by only about $5K under the high water mark. Things could be worse -- I stopped the bleeding that characterized 2011, though the recent upward trend is pretty discouraging. And I have made strides on my installment loans and the 401K loans that I had previously used to pay down the plastic. And the highest interest rate is effectively 5%, thanks to log-rolling. Still, I would have liked to see a lot more progress. I'd like to re-fi to a 15 year term on the house, but we'll have to see how that goes. It might mean paying a couple hundred more bucks a month, but it would be great to be done with this thing by the time I turn 0x3C.
As for health, I got a checkup, and I'm not doing too bad for an off season linebacker. Still, being glued to a chair all the time at work does take its toll. I'm planning to go on a health kick, and by the time the spring TLA event rolls around, I hope to be close to where I was when I got my nose drilled, tested, fracked, and completed. And by the fall event, perhaps I'll even be where I was following Operation Wrath of Khan ten years ago.
Other than that, I haven't been going to social events like I used to. I ended up getting a little burnt out. They ended up reminding me of high school too much, with the cliquishness and popularity BS. I might give it another shot, but we'll have to see.
Anyway, I've been meaning to do a general update, but been putting this off for a while. So, this is as good a time as any to fill you in on what's been going on with me. Another year has zoomed on by. Here's how it went.
Beginning the year, I had one of my pals over to install a new air conditioning unit, which had been jacked up since the compressor started shorting in September. It is a high-efficiency unit, though alas, it turns out that my power bill has been higher than ever. We also put in an on-demand gas water heater to replace a conventional one that was leaking. That was quite a bit of a pain. It was a good deal; I got it on Craigslist for $200; the regular price is about $1100 or so. But when I went to pick it up, it kind of seemed like a shady deal. And, as it happens, the control unit was missing. We got another one from one of the two places in all of Russia that has replacements for that, and even paid a surcharge for overnight delivery, since the natives were getting pretty restless. Still, all told, the whole thing was about half off the price of a new one.
Some time around the spring, the nice water heater quit working. And the kitchen sink quit working. And the showers quit working. It turns out that the water softener went kaputt, and started putting grit into the water line. Wonderful... I activated the bypass valve to the water softener, but the damage was done. The hot water heater I managed to get fixed by cleaning out the intake filter. (There's more, but it's a long story and I've bored you enough.) I got the shower head cleaned out, but alas, I ended up wrecking it while putting it back on. Fortunately, I got a cheap and very effective replacement at SovMart. The guts of the sink had to be replaced, which is a pain and technically still needs a little work, but the performance is far better than the trickle I was getting before.
As for the AC unit, it ran pretty well, though it did conk out in the middle of the summer. It turns out that it was the high pressure sensor shutting down the condenser. Maybe it kicked in during the middle of the summer because of PV=nRT. (Pressure increases in proportion to temperature, among other things.) I ended up McGyvering it to bypass the relay. Yay cold air!
The new AC unit cost about $6K, causing my debt to hit a high water mark. Fortunately, by working insane hours, I was able to start chipping away at the millstone at an unprecedented rate. Unfortunately, this was not to last...
As for other house stuff, the roaches are vanquished for good. But I ended up getting a gnat infestation. Or itty bitty flies. Or something. At first, it was just a few. Then it became like the plagues of Egypt. I've reduced the problem, but I'm still working on it. Also, I have some floor issues because of cats that don't get the litterbox thing. I tore out a bunch of carpet from the living room, and will do the rest one of these days. I plan to get it all cleaned up, get it properly surfaced (removing the nail strip for the carpets leaves the concrete pitted), then paint it. I'll put down some gray, then get some bright colors and go all modern art on it, then varnish the top. It's going to take a while. Having lots of time at home when I'm not exhausted would help.
Early in the year, I was also working on some new writing projects. One of them is Episode i -- I renamed that from Episode 474, and some of you may recall some parts of a first draft I posted here back in 2008. Yes, it takes me that long to start working on stuff. There isn't too much new material, but I have it polished up well. As much as I wish I could say otherwise, I don't have any further progress on my Big Hank project. That, as you might recall, was the story of Henry VIII retold in a trailer park. Finally, I began what is now Episode 27. It turns out that the project got a lot bigger than I thought it would, and might could end up novel length. I started researching the Gothic language. (Ik frijo þuk, Teresa!) There's even a Wiki site for that; and I was at one time among the most prolific contributors. I stopped when the current honcho drove me crazy with his OCD problem. (Not that I'd call mine better, but still...) Maybe I should post the "Golden Flounce Award" on my own page there, LOL!
I gradually got involved in amateur acting and doing movie reviews. To make a long story short, not too much has come of the acting part yet, but we will see.
In April, I went to the TLA event, but as memory serves, just for a brief appearance. Earlier I had been planning to give it up entirely. But then, I realized that I still wanted to hang out with my peeps there, so I decided to stay longer next time.
During those days, I was working very long hours. I made some nice progress on the bills in the first quarter. But a straight line extrapolation showed that I was in for a long haul even then. Unfortunately, during the second quarter, progress began to slow a bit...
Beginning mid-July, my GF from Petersburg came up for a few weeks. To make a very long story short, this turned into Drama Llama Fest 2012. Things eventually reached DEFCON2, with the high water mark at 950 millistreisands. She is now the Mayor of the Friend Zone, though this fact hasn't fully sunk in yet.
Things were starting to drag at work. Seven days a week, 10+ hours a day is not for the faint of heart. And, some of the cases got gnarly. Lesser mortals would be crushed entirely. Some people told me, "I hope they stop working you so hard!" Unfortunately, that's equivalent to saying, "I hope you start making far less money!" I have an Excel spread where I have my finances figured out nine ways from Sunday. Since all the deductions come out of my first 40 hours (aside from taxes that comes out of everything), then OT is worth a smidge more than three times my ST rate. Unfortunately, all of a sudden, that dried up in a hurry and progress came to a screeching halt in the fall. The Year of the Endless Monday was over, but the balances started to rise higher again... The only good news is that, for the most part, I stopped getting the twitches from sleep deprivation.
In the fall, my mother's health became quite problematic. It looks like the situation is fixed, but not without some aftereffects. For me, this was basically suckus maximus. At least one of you will be able to relate. I took a trip up there to say hi. I should do that more often.
In October, I got to attend pretty much the full TLA event. It was kind of a mixed bag. It was nice to see some of my old pals, and meet some new folks, though there were many I was hoping to see who didn't make it. Unfortunately, one particular individual took to hassling me repeatedly. I hope this doesn't mean that I now have an Inspector Javert type dogging my heels.
Then, in November, the elections. Sigh... Well, most of you are going to disagree with me, but you clicked it anyway. As you know, the great Lightworker was re-elected, 50% to 48%. This was oft trumpeted as a "landslide" -- I can't quite fathom why, but then I'm one of those weird people who think substance is more important than appearance. I'm not sure how that happened after this plastic Messiah, an inexperienced teleprompter jockey who has been in over his head since day one, broke so many campaign promises from the first time around. The public apparently has a short memory. Following the elections, there was a deluge of immodest gloating, including by some of you guys. Now I could understand why people might get excited about Hillary. But no matter how much the media hypes him into a rhinestone saviour figure, BO is still just a mediocre politician with a murky past, whose only business experience involves selling pot in college.
I'm pretty fed up with politics now, but I'm just glad that it's over; maybe I can even look at Facebook one of these days. Anyway, I'm now the proud owner of a new bumper sticker:
http://www.zazzle.com/nixon_now_more_than_ever_bumper_sticker-128398525716610113
Damn, I'm really starting to miss Tricky Dicky.
Late in the year, I started working on Episode 0 in a final push to get it polished and ready to get it out the door. It would be great if it will sell. The odds are against me, unfortunately. In the '60s, even a complete hack could get a book published so long as it had a rocket ship on the cover. By the '80s, the editors became prima donnas, but you could still get lucky and have your story discovered in the slush pile. Or, an easier way to get in the game was with the help of a decent agent, if you didn't mind the agent skimming 10-15% off the top. These days, the editors won't even acknowledge your existence without an agent, and the agents have become prima donnas. All this is an odd attitude to have toward the people who produce the content that is their bread and butter. But they can get away with it because about a half dozen megacorporations control the vast majority of publishing, and the editors use agents their gatekeepers, so where else do you think you're going to go? So a new author's chances are pretty dismal, unless the book has sparkly vampires in it.
Lastly, I survived the holidaze mainly by working like a fiend (more opportunities are coming up, though the future is uncertain) and hiding under a rock. And here we are.
So, in summary... Creatively, I've made some minor advances, though I wish it were more. I'll have to start making better use of my time.
Financially, I've made quite a remarkable amount of gross income by working so much, though I only got to see 57.68% of the fruits of my labors as net income. My plastic is down by only about $5K under the high water mark. Things could be worse -- I stopped the bleeding that characterized 2011, though the recent upward trend is pretty discouraging. And I have made strides on my installment loans and the 401K loans that I had previously used to pay down the plastic. And the highest interest rate is effectively 5%, thanks to log-rolling. Still, I would have liked to see a lot more progress. I'd like to re-fi to a 15 year term on the house, but we'll have to see how that goes. It might mean paying a couple hundred more bucks a month, but it would be great to be done with this thing by the time I turn 0x3C.
As for health, I got a checkup, and I'm not doing too bad for an off season linebacker. Still, being glued to a chair all the time at work does take its toll. I'm planning to go on a health kick, and by the time the spring TLA event rolls around, I hope to be close to where I was when I got my nose drilled, tested, fracked, and completed. And by the fall event, perhaps I'll even be where I was following Operation Wrath of Khan ten years ago.
Other than that, I haven't been going to social events like I used to. I ended up getting a little burnt out. They ended up reminding me of high school too much, with the cliquishness and popularity BS. I might give it another shot, but we'll have to see.