Archive for the 'Life' Category

Bye Bye 2008

Published
by
Jon
on December 31, 2008
in Life
. 0 Comments

2008 Yes, I have been massively slacking on my blog as of late. Mostly because the majority of what I was writing was politically themed and I was getting burnt out. Thankfully the election went well and my man won in a landslide.

I am not going to get into some long winded recap of the ups and downs of the year for the country or anything like that. Unless you have been living under a fucking rock you should already know.

It is probably cliche to say the year flew by, but 2008 really did. I remember early on in January 2008 getting excited about the upcoming primaries. Then I remember getting excited at the warm weather. Then the summer. Next thing I knew it was Christmas.

I really did not do much in 2008 which is disappointing. I had a few pet projects I had planned on working on this year, but between my little one, work, and being lazy and uninspired I did not advance my personal projects much.

So as the tradition goes, New Year’s Eve is the time we take to reflect on the past year, both the good and the bad, and make our resolutions for the upcoming year.

I really did not spend much time reflecting today as I tend to dwell on the same life shit every day I wake up, but I did make a few resolutions for 2009.

First off, my health. I started the past couple of months (lost 32 pounds to date), but I really plan to focus on living a healthier lifestyle in 2009. Eating less junk, more exercise, and eating better overall. More time outdoors.

Secondly, a renewed focus on my side projects. Some writing projects, some coding projects, and a couple of entrepreneurial ventures I want to try my hand at. These are projects that may or may not be financially rewarding but really I don’t give a shit about that. It would be nice, but I think just doing these projects will be rewarding enough. When I do pet projects like these I tend to do them for myself.

And last but not least I want to learn something new in 2009. Whether it be a foreign language, programming language, martial art or something I really want to do something new this year. One of the things I have been thinking about is how I really pretty much do the same shit all the time. I need to make some changes in my life - not because there is anything wrong but mostly because I need different perspective to hopefully open up my creative side more. A large reason I did not do much the past year is lack of inspiration.

So as we close out 2008 and head into 2009 I wish each and every one of you a Happy New Year and hope 2009 finds you happy, healthy, and prosperous!

Cheers!

–Jon

Habits That Are Hard To Break

Published
by
Jon
on November 15, 2007
in Life
. 0 Comments

We all have our vices. For some it’s TV. Others it may be alcohol or drugs. Some people even get so addicted to video games that it ruins their life.

What’s my vice? None other than Starbucks. I never really gave much thought about going to Starbucks on the way to work in the morning and plunking down four bucks for a venti mocha.

But it was not just the morning. I would also get one around lunch time. And if it was one of those slow days I would get yet another. At an average of four bucks a pop, that is twelve dollars spent per day.

Do the math over the course of a week, and then over a month, and then over a year. It is amazing how quick it adds up.

It finally registered for me when I was looking at my bank statements online and saw this pie chart for my expenditures last year. There was this relatively small slice of the pie that was there nonetheless - it was Starbucks. Sure enough, over the course of 2006 I managed to spend over $2,200 dollars just buying mochas! Needless to say I was displeased when I realized this. Think of what you can do with an extra $2,200 a year. Four bucks here, four bucks there, and damn - the little things DO add up, painfully hehe.

Empowered with this knowledge I have since started scaling back. I went down to two a day a couple of weeks ago, and now I am doing about 1.5 a day averaged out. Hopefully by next spring it will be an occasional “treat” as opposed to a staple of my diet.

Here is a sample of what last week looked like:

A week worth of mochas

So yeah, take my advice. Sometimes making a seemingly small change can make a big change down the road. Money saved from less mochas will lead to a new laptop for me :)

–Jon