A bit of everything!
Basically I have a number of offshoot things to talk about, but don't want to spam Twitter. So instead I'm going to ramble my head off here, and link to it from twitter! :D
New Year's Resolutions
So every year people come up with resolutions for the new year that they plan on keeping, and unfortunately fail most of the time. Things like losing weight, eating less, not spending so much money, etc. Noble things to do, definitely hard if it's something you're very used to doing normally, and unfortunately Thanksgiving ruins two of those :P So I figure why make resolutions I may be hard-pressed to keep without serious lifestyle changes (that I need to make anyway, but not going to just crash-course into because that's recipe for failure) when I can make resolutions that I'm guaranteed to keep? Or if I've a habit of breaking resolutions then I could also go the route of making resolutions I want to break, like not win the next Powerball I enter :D
But before I go into that, a random thought paradox! What if.. for some silly reason (because I am silly!) I decided to have only two resolutions? These resolutions would be "I will break at least 1 resolution", and "I will watch my spending for the year." So now what? Obviously if I don't watch my spending, I've satisfied the first resolution. Yay! But what if I do watch my spending successfully? Will I have broken the first resolution? Before you answer that, think of this. By breaking the first resolution, I'll have actually met that particular goal. But then I haven't broken it because I met it. Of course there's the problem of having met the goal I've not broken the resolution, which does not meet the outlined goals, therefore breaking it, meeting it, and I think you get my drift.
Anyway, before I break my brain running through that going back to my New Year Resolutions. I resolve to, in no particular order:
1. To not blow up the world
2. To not rob a bank
3. To not scale Mount Everest (although I'd not object to breaking that one, if I can do so without killing myself :P)
4. To not be the cause of a nuclear war resulting in throwing us into the next Ice Age early.
5. (Suggested by a friend) To not spontaneously combust!
And that's about it. Of course, it would be hilariously horrific if I came real close to breaking the first one and last two!
I really really want to get my own place so I can do woodworking crafts. Like desks and TV stands and the like. I have ideas that I would love to put into notion regarding those. Oh sure anyone can build a desk. Almost anyone. But can almost anyone build a desk with power hookups, as well as USB ports and VGA/DVI/HDMI hookups for the monitor, so you don't have to dig around behind the PC to find that damned port? Or find out you just don't have enough cable to put things where you want! I think it would be awesome to build a computer desk where you hook up the PC to the desk itself via ports and plugs right next to the case, that then extend to the desk top (hurr hurr desktop :D) so you can plug things in right there. Have a couple power ports for the monitor and printer, with USB and video ports about rear center for optimum placement of those devices. Maybe a USB interface underneath or on the side of the desk as well for peripherals, like external drives (with an extra power port for those of course), flash drives, game controllers, and the like. Also speaker outputs/microphone inputs. It is a real pain in the ass digging around in back for some of those things when I want/need to change out an external device. Another thing I'd like to do is take an internal CD drive and mount it cleverly on the desk somewhere where it's out of the way, but very easy to insert/remove optical media without having to fumble around for the thing on the desktop, which will be cleverly put out of the way. Perhaps even a switch to power down non-necessities like the printer/monitor/speakers/lighting (which would be hard-wired into the desk itself somehow) without killing power to the PC and drives, if you're one of those who likes to run the computer 24/7.
As for the TV stand, same principle, except it'd have some extra Composite/Component/HDMI ports near the TV inputs that lead to ports near your peripherals, like game consoles and DVD players and sound systems and such. Merely to cut down on the tangled nightmare that is the back of an entertainment stand.
I don't think I'd actually make a business out of this, simply because I'd be more likely to lose interest after a while, but I would love to do it for just me. I doubt I'll be able to do any of this until I can get my own place, simply because where do I even plug in a power saw without getting into trouble in an apartment building I don't work for in any way, shape, or form?
Figuring out my finances is confusing. I've finally got it planned out up until mid-May (this does not include finances like eating. This is purely monthly bills that need to be paid) but I'm rather confused. Not once does any of my weekly totals dip into the red. Heck, I'm fairly certain nothing even dips below $100. Yet my spreadsheet says my bills amass to more than I earn in a 4 week period (since most months are 4 weeks.) by around $180. So how is it I'm not anywhere near in the red? There's only one 5-payday month within this period of time! Granted that's an extra $400, but even so that should leave me $300 behind. Finances are confusing! D:
On the job front there's unfortunately not a lot to report. I'm still working a crap job, around 45 hours a week (sometimes 48 but that's a bit rare lately since the company's entered penny-pinching mode.), bringing home about $400 a week (well, more like $450 but I plan for $400 since I usually wind up spending about $50 in gas just to get to/from work), and nobody wants to hire me. Likely because of that DOT reportable 23 months ago. I've tried for numerous linehaul jobs with limited success, and it's starting to look like most of them won't even consider me if I have a DOT reportable under 2-3 years old. I tried Roehl for something a little more regional (out a week, home 2 days) and discovered they won't even touch me until 5 years have passed since that accident. Not given up hope though! I've got a shot at a milk hauling job where I'm out 5 days driving a tanker to NJ and back through a hiring agency, I'm applying for a local bus driving job for the city (studying for my P endorsement this weekend, taking the test Monday), and I've applied for a fuel hauler position today. It'd be nice to get a tanker job so I don't have that time and money I spent getting the N endorsement go to waste :P Fuel tanker so I can justify spending the $80 or so just to have renewed my hazmat back in 2010, and again in 2014. Valley Transit (bus line) job simply because 1.) it's a government job. If I'm not mistaken (I'll have to look this up again) if I work a government job for 8-10 years without falling behind on my student loans they'll "forgive" the rest of my debt... although come to think of it in 8-10 years it'll be paid off so blah :P But government jobs have some damned fine benefits (when the governor isn't cutting them anyway!). 2.) It's very local! True I have to do a bit of driving just to get to the garage, but I work in the Fox Valley area! And no I can't take the bus, because who's going to drive the bus drivers to work, when they're the ones who have to drive the bus in the first place? :P I'm fairly certain I had a 3.) as well, but I can't remember it. Unless it was the thought about meeting all kinds of people, and better getting to know the area. Either way I need to get that P endorsement right away because the job offer expires I believe on the 7th of January. Either that or some time the following week. Don't have a lot of time either way, and I don't want to apply and not have the endorsement since I obviously can't legally drive a bus without it! Hard to do the job if you can't do it legally! Will be awesome to have all the endorsements I can have for commercial driving though! Except for S(chool bus). Turns out I can't get that unless I take a driving test in a school bus. I'm not forking money over to do that, especially since I plan on never driving a school bus ever. I don't even want kids! Why would I want a daily reminder of why? :P (Not to say all kids are bad! I just get super nervous around them :C)
New Year's Resolutions
So every year people come up with resolutions for the new year that they plan on keeping, and unfortunately fail most of the time. Things like losing weight, eating less, not spending so much money, etc. Noble things to do, definitely hard if it's something you're very used to doing normally, and unfortunately Thanksgiving ruins two of those :P So I figure why make resolutions I may be hard-pressed to keep without serious lifestyle changes (that I need to make anyway, but not going to just crash-course into because that's recipe for failure) when I can make resolutions that I'm guaranteed to keep? Or if I've a habit of breaking resolutions then I could also go the route of making resolutions I want to break, like not win the next Powerball I enter :D
But before I go into that, a random thought paradox! What if.. for some silly reason (because I am silly!) I decided to have only two resolutions? These resolutions would be "I will break at least 1 resolution", and "I will watch my spending for the year." So now what? Obviously if I don't watch my spending, I've satisfied the first resolution. Yay! But what if I do watch my spending successfully? Will I have broken the first resolution? Before you answer that, think of this. By breaking the first resolution, I'll have actually met that particular goal. But then I haven't broken it because I met it. Of course there's the problem of having met the goal I've not broken the resolution, which does not meet the outlined goals, therefore breaking it, meeting it, and I think you get my drift.
Anyway, before I break my brain running through that going back to my New Year Resolutions. I resolve to, in no particular order:
1. To not blow up the world
2. To not rob a bank
3. To not scale Mount Everest (although I'd not object to breaking that one, if I can do so without killing myself :P)
4. To not be the cause of a nuclear war resulting in throwing us into the next Ice Age early.
5. (Suggested by a friend) To not spontaneously combust!
And that's about it. Of course, it would be hilariously horrific if I came real close to breaking the first one and last two!
I really really want to get my own place so I can do woodworking crafts. Like desks and TV stands and the like. I have ideas that I would love to put into notion regarding those. Oh sure anyone can build a desk. Almost anyone. But can almost anyone build a desk with power hookups, as well as USB ports and VGA/DVI/HDMI hookups for the monitor, so you don't have to dig around behind the PC to find that damned port? Or find out you just don't have enough cable to put things where you want! I think it would be awesome to build a computer desk where you hook up the PC to the desk itself via ports and plugs right next to the case, that then extend to the desk top (hurr hurr desktop :D) so you can plug things in right there. Have a couple power ports for the monitor and printer, with USB and video ports about rear center for optimum placement of those devices. Maybe a USB interface underneath or on the side of the desk as well for peripherals, like external drives (with an extra power port for those of course), flash drives, game controllers, and the like. Also speaker outputs/microphone inputs. It is a real pain in the ass digging around in back for some of those things when I want/need to change out an external device. Another thing I'd like to do is take an internal CD drive and mount it cleverly on the desk somewhere where it's out of the way, but very easy to insert/remove optical media without having to fumble around for the thing on the desktop, which will be cleverly put out of the way. Perhaps even a switch to power down non-necessities like the printer/monitor/speakers/lighting (which would be hard-wired into the desk itself somehow) without killing power to the PC and drives, if you're one of those who likes to run the computer 24/7.
As for the TV stand, same principle, except it'd have some extra Composite/Component/HDMI ports near the TV inputs that lead to ports near your peripherals, like game consoles and DVD players and sound systems and such. Merely to cut down on the tangled nightmare that is the back of an entertainment stand.
I don't think I'd actually make a business out of this, simply because I'd be more likely to lose interest after a while, but I would love to do it for just me. I doubt I'll be able to do any of this until I can get my own place, simply because where do I even plug in a power saw without getting into trouble in an apartment building I don't work for in any way, shape, or form?
Figuring out my finances is confusing. I've finally got it planned out up until mid-May (this does not include finances like eating. This is purely monthly bills that need to be paid) but I'm rather confused. Not once does any of my weekly totals dip into the red. Heck, I'm fairly certain nothing even dips below $100. Yet my spreadsheet says my bills amass to more than I earn in a 4 week period (since most months are 4 weeks.) by around $180. So how is it I'm not anywhere near in the red? There's only one 5-payday month within this period of time! Granted that's an extra $400, but even so that should leave me $300 behind. Finances are confusing! D:
On the job front there's unfortunately not a lot to report. I'm still working a crap job, around 45 hours a week (sometimes 48 but that's a bit rare lately since the company's entered penny-pinching mode.), bringing home about $400 a week (well, more like $450 but I plan for $400 since I usually wind up spending about $50 in gas just to get to/from work), and nobody wants to hire me. Likely because of that DOT reportable 23 months ago. I've tried for numerous linehaul jobs with limited success, and it's starting to look like most of them won't even consider me if I have a DOT reportable under 2-3 years old. I tried Roehl for something a little more regional (out a week, home 2 days) and discovered they won't even touch me until 5 years have passed since that accident. Not given up hope though! I've got a shot at a milk hauling job where I'm out 5 days driving a tanker to NJ and back through a hiring agency, I'm applying for a local bus driving job for the city (studying for my P endorsement this weekend, taking the test Monday), and I've applied for a fuel hauler position today. It'd be nice to get a tanker job so I don't have that time and money I spent getting the N endorsement go to waste :P Fuel tanker so I can justify spending the $80 or so just to have renewed my hazmat back in 2010, and again in 2014. Valley Transit (bus line) job simply because 1.) it's a government job. If I'm not mistaken (I'll have to look this up again) if I work a government job for 8-10 years without falling behind on my student loans they'll "forgive" the rest of my debt... although come to think of it in 8-10 years it'll be paid off so blah :P But government jobs have some damned fine benefits (when the governor isn't cutting them anyway!). 2.) It's very local! True I have to do a bit of driving just to get to the garage, but I work in the Fox Valley area! And no I can't take the bus, because who's going to drive the bus drivers to work, when they're the ones who have to drive the bus in the first place? :P I'm fairly certain I had a 3.) as well, but I can't remember it. Unless it was the thought about meeting all kinds of people, and better getting to know the area. Either way I need to get that P endorsement right away because the job offer expires I believe on the 7th of January. Either that or some time the following week. Don't have a lot of time either way, and I don't want to apply and not have the endorsement since I obviously can't legally drive a bus without it! Hard to do the job if you can't do it legally! Will be awesome to have all the endorsements I can have for commercial driving though! Except for S(chool bus). Turns out I can't get that unless I take a driving test in a school bus. I'm not forking money over to do that, especially since I plan on never driving a school bus ever. I don't even want kids! Why would I want a daily reminder of why? :P (Not to say all kids are bad! I just get super nervous around them :C)