Money Woes

Well for me it seems to be the recurring soundtrack for every aspect and time in my life. Woes. and more woes. I can't say I can be bothered with it to really be sad or upset about it but i certainly feel constraints that are uncomfortable very very often. i'm not starving, i'm not cold and miserable (well i am cold and miserable but that is because i work in an office with people who have no sense of feeling and think that air conditioning must bring the office to winter temperatures at all times), i have clothes, and my basic necessities are met. Please be aware, that i am aware, and there is just lots of awareness all around, that my "woes" are not that serious.


but you know what IS serious??


my loans.

























i'm like everyone. I budget all the time....

 "budget" you know?

like-

"i can't spend so much money on eating out" (-$0)
"except for today because i promised so-and-so i'd meet up with them since 2 weeks ago" (-$30)
"but i'm SOOOOO hungry and there's nothing in the house" (-$20)
"i bet my mom would really like this, plus we said we'd try it forever ago.." (-$25)
"and then..." (-$15)
"and then..." (-$25)
"and theeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnn" (-$5)



like kutcher, I went to the bank and was all "oh i'd like that please" and "yes, i'll take some of this too if i could"- what a dumb shit. meanwhile the bank is like "and then?..... and then?..... and thennnnnnnn?" start at 1:21 and this is how i feel when the bills just keep coming and coming at me with no end in sight gahhhhh!!!! well, still a dumb shit but at least i'm not ordering any more fortune cookies.




so yeah. Budget.

how'm i gonna do all of this awesomizing you ask?



WELL.........................

i feel like one of those "I've changed. I walk with Jesus now" people

it's the handiest thing i've had in a VERY long time.
i can't tell you everything about it except that it is ridiculously easy (though i'm working through a few quirks it has) and the best thing is that i can see all of the money in my life in one go.


ALL OF THE RED THAT IS~!! (from my loans... you know...)



but you can set goals and BUDGET and blahty blahty blah which is just starting to be offered by one of my banks and sucks at my other banks. Mint is easy to use and easy on the eyes... look at that cool mint green.... tehehehe.





no really, let's look at the sexy cool mint green logo one more time..

anyhow, that's what's up. with Mint in hand, and a mint mojito in my other hand (homemade of course with free ice, and free mint, and some serious bargain booze to fit inside my crisp new budget), i'm gonna be debt free in 38 years!!!!!!









i will drink to that! NOMS indeed this lovely photo from http://lovelyindeed.com/

you scoff at my 38 years but that is fantasmic compared to the 46... because that's how long it would take me to get rid of my debt otherwise... or some OTHER ridiculous number close to half a century... aka the rest of my active life.



But really though, it's less about the debt and more about how to maneuver a very fulfilling life without the unnecessary money leaks that seem to sprout up. everywhere. all. the. time.




So that's what i'm doin. Keeping myself in check.
and i think it's kind of working...

for a VERY minimal cost i've got:

1 gallon blueberry wine fermenting with frozen blueberries that were being wasted just sitting in the freezer.
($7) for gallon jug, airlock, yeast

1 gallon peach wine with this season's picked peaches brought to me by a dear friend
($6) for another gallon jug, siphon hose

2 gallons kombucha brewing with left over tea from my business
($3) for bottle of kombucha for starter SCOBY that i grew myself - for perspective, it costs anywhere between $11.99 from culturesforhealth.com to $24.88 from kombuchakamp.com or $26.97 on sale from $31.91 at getkombucha.com. One $3 bottle of brewed kombucha and two weeks of waiting later, i had a super rich and healthy SCOBY ready to mass produce some delish Booch.

1 gallon worth of kombucha bottled in assorted recycled glass bottles with various fruits grown by me and by local farmers, fermenting a second time to make it all a fizzy fruity bottle of probiotic goodness.
($0)

a wood box shelf in my room for extra storage
($0) pilfered from the side of a local restaurant in a pile for garbage

more wood to make shelving for storage around the house
($0) broken down pallets acquired for freeness from various places around town

solid wood two drawer night stand to be refurb-ed
($13) $8 for the night stand, $3 for half a gallon of oops paint from home depot, and $2 for the trim i'm going to use to jazz up the drawers.

what else what else what else?


What i figure is this.

the plan of action must be:

keep my head down,
keep my projects going,
keep being the recluse that i'm famous for being sometimes,
keep saying no to invitations out for beers and for this and for that and for what-have-yous all over town, and
keep my money on a tight leash with a pinch collar.



because my motorcycle isn't gonna just buy itself and come home to me :P

genocide and a shitty mass grave



look how happy he looks!!

but no. my worms are not like this happy squiggler. I KILLED THEM!!!!!




more accurately, the accursed Apollo killed them. They got too hot. DAMN YOU APOLLO!! but who am i kidding? the blame lies equally with me- i aided the creation of the inescapable, unyielding inferno that my little worm babies were fried in till their dying breaths.....




apparently i was doing it wrong anyway. too much poop to not enough worm ratio.



i underestimated the poopiness of my beloved number 1's poop. thank god i didn't try anything with number 2's!! evilocity plus poop toxicity can only equal zombified worms that can probably open the lid of their own worm bin. before coming into the house to eat our brainzzzzzzzzzzz

"braaaainnnnzzzzzz"

the fact of the matter is i need to step up my game.








worm bin round 2 will be on its way shortly. plan of action? slow and steady will win this race. hopefully only ONE more batch of worms will be needed... with some sage advice from some serious veteran composters and a resolve to brave the nefarious odors of number 1's very special waste I head back into the darkness.

as for the worms in bin 1:

Some things and some other things

Remember that time when there was an abundance of poop?
no?

that's because it's ALWAYS and it is NOW.

never quite in the past tense while this guy's around

Well whatever. My vermicompost bin has been set up for a couple of days now and the poop-that-is-worm-food has been added as well as a cushy home for the new tenants.

I've never BEEN more excited about poop and worms. it's a little bit disturbing but bear with me here.

>>>UPDATE (aug 19, 2013): i just checked my bin yesterday and after aerating and twirling all the nasty rotty stuff around I am happy to report.... IT'S HEALTHY!! AND HAPPY!! AND OH GOODNESS THE REEK IS GONE THE REEK IS GONE! I'll still be throwing in some red wiggler cocoons when they arrive. hollaaaaaa~


Another bit of news... I'm happy to report my new cat that I finally got (knowing full well of their evilocity of course) is getting along famously with Mori..... ish. there is still a little bit of cat/dog sentiments that come out once in a while but that has more to do with the fact that as a tiny little critter the cat gets under the super energetic and strong massive paws of the dog and then there's cat's panic of life almost having ended and dog's thoughts of "is this going to be a chase game!? yaaaayyyy!!"

I do catch them snuggling and snuffling and playing with the same toys and whatnot but it will probably still be some time before the cat will want to sit on Mori's head like i want him to. and then it will be a skip and hop away from.....


THE CIRCUS!!!!






Did i mention the cat's name? I gave my brother the honor of naming the kitteh and the decision landed on Memento. So now we have a Memento and a Mori roaming around the house but more intimately they are known as Memmie and Mo.

sleep ovah heeeere

sleep ovah theeeeere

watch a little teeeeveeeeeee

ALSO new- my wine making endeavors. Trial 1 = blueberry wine wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~~





So far so good. Four days into the yeasting process it smells decidedly boozey. and soon when it's ready i'll drink and be a shameless floozey. cuz i'm not choozey. when it comes to wine- that's a dooooooozey.

see what i did there?
did you?

you did?
yeah you did.


seriously. it's happening.



What else is going on...... {tap chin} hmmmmmmmmm...



I tink i tink dat's all folks! Now i just wait for my worms to get here, then i'm also going to make some Mead and then i'm also planning a little welcome home party for my faaaavorite mom :P

Shit. I think I have worms

If you know me in real life, you've probably heard me talk about poop. I talk about poop regularly. Probably because it is a mystery to me as I don't do it.... {crickets chirping} Now is the time to stop reading this post if solid waste is a sensitive subject for you.


You've been warned.

Sexy like Brew-lesque

Last time i was jazzed about kombucha i made a big batch that turned out pretty decent and saved my alien SCOBY from my efforts. recently i was cleaning out my fridge and threw my baby away. why? because i just didn't feel like it was still very healthy and happy. so back to the drawing board.

New SCOBYs are on their way as i test between a tea mixture of both black and green tea as well as a straight black tea; home brewed kombucha from a farmer's market and a store bought bottle.  in a week's time they should be half formed.

or maybe only one will be.

maybe neither will survive....

who knows?


it's exciting either way because i'm soon going to be on my way for some home brewed Sooch Booch :)

see with i did there?

huh??
huuh?


:P

Let's go to the Movies!

Movies are coming back into my life in full force. A couple from recommendation, a couple from a long line of netflix dvds waiting to be discharged, and a couple weekend flicks to hang out with new and not so new friends.

Of course, watching movies means not doing other things so my garden work is slowing down, my physical fitness schedule is non-existent, I'm pretty much doing absolutely nothing productive other than spending time with people and in my own head. Which is pretty productive actually, just not in a way you can see it visibly.

Researching some movie or other the trailer for Blue Jasmine came up. I love Cate Blanchett. The movie is directed by Woody Allen and truthfully, while I'd heard the name a bunch of times, I'd never really associated name with any particular movie other than that he has directed a lot. For some reason directorial info has started to stick in my brain more than the usual "it was directed... by someone i'm sure..." as it once did with my slight infatuation with Sidney Lumet.





check my little gold man bitchessssss~

"hey hey! you!  quit that shit. quit. that. shit."

what a badass director. There was a time when Sean Connery guffawed on my blog. Well this would be Lumet guffawing at Connery. that's how bad ass he is.






"did someone say badass? yes, that would be me.. yes. guffaw."


I had just finished reading his book "Making Movies" on his experiences becoming the most successful director of his time and still. "Master of Cinema" says IMDB and I would agree. If you read "Making Movies" you'll be completely absorbed by the reasons for his direction, for his choice in camera angling, for the lighting compensation.

mmm yeah work that angle....

 But really, he was a master of getting actors to do what they're supposed to do- follow his direction.

many times that required encouragement like: "you really ARE the best looking guy on this set. really. look at me- look at me! I want you to focus now... no don't look away. the best. i mean it"

the things i have to do around here.

I'd read the book immediately before the Black Period i went through a couple of years ago so that by the time i sank into mental and emotional oblivion, i was ready to sit and absorb all of his movies in one fell, greasy, starving, smelly, bed-ridden swoop. And watch I did. 12 Angry Men; Long Day's Journey into Night; Murder on the Orient Express; Dog Day Afternoon; Network. then the love story bug bit and i switched gears for movies before I got to Serpico or The Verdict or some of his other stuff...

Anyhow the love story bug is back... a little loopy from some dope I'd wager. The next director I think I'd like to get into is Woody Allen. I've already got a head start based on his filmography but the kick off for actively checking some films off will be.....