abstraction

here's a random picture that looks cool. can you guess what it is?

well, since no one reads this, it's window blinds behind a window, hence the blue over glow and the green is just the wall in there... looks cool so i posted it

Saving for the trip

To start, here's a random picture.

So as many, if any of you know, I'm planning on taking a trip with my girlfriend to tour the world, or at least a large part of it.

We're thinking at least India, the Phillipines, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

The biggest thing is of course saving money. How can I possible afford such a grandiose trip, especially when my plan is to have $10,000 for the trip AFTER all the primary expenses are covered.

Well, the obvious advantage I have is that I have a steady stream of income thanks to education and a willingness to go out of my way to get that. (I'm not being holier-than-thou, the fact is its better on the money saving scale to get that income close to home so you can walk to work.)

The first thing I've done is almost completely reduce my discretionary spending. Prior to my decision to save, I literraly had nothing to show for being here, other then, a growing stack of newspapers I'd produced. I've cut out drinking, going out for dinner, and just general spending on stuff like snacks and whatnot.

On food, the system is to just make enough food at dinner for lunch. Simple, and it saves me at least $10 a day if you think about it.

Also quitting smoking has probably saved me hundreds of dollars. I quit about Feb. 16 ish. To say I've quit is a stretch I'll admit, considering I smoked for... 8 or 9 years. But regardless it's a huge way of saving money.

The main reason I'm doing this is to go on that trip. You can really decide you want to save for anything, but the end result will be the same: you'll get something you really want. A car, a house, a trip, a dirtbike, a camera, you'll get it if you stop spending money on the petty things.

Anyway, I've talked about this a hald dozen times. I just thought I'd remind people.

I'm still too far away from the trip to tell you about it, so right now the focus shall remain on how I'm saving the money.

The next stage of the plan is: super repair my car, then buy a bike.

almost a year

I've been here for almost a year! can you my few, if any readers, believe that?

Basically, this picture is the culmination, the totality of my time here -1 which I am missing.

I will have been a year on May 12.

Let's take a minute to figure out some accomplisments in the last 12 monts

-This is the longest job I've ever had
-I won an AWNA Award for second best feature picture
-I graduated College
...
That's about it. Really the time just flies by. I hope all you crazy cats are keepin it real out there and have done something in the time since I've seen you last.

Pictures...

Today I was backing up photos I've taken. Since coming to Alberta, it would appear that I've taken at least 13,204 photos. Probably... less than 300 have been published. Most of them are kind of stupid random photos and only like... less than 50 are on this website. Isn't that crazy?

Anyway here's a photo I took a while and saw while doing the back-up.-->

On backing up:
It's obviously important to back-up files. I'd recommend having them in at least two physical places (ie an external harddrive and a CD) before you delete them off your memory card because unfortunately, you'll never get them back and in today's world, you'll probably never look at them anyway, since you won't go through the effort of processing the photos.

Backing my photos in going to take 53 minutes. Crazy once again, but then I'll have them forever.

As for my trip, I've managed to save a (whopping) $50. Incredible. Truthfully, the way it worked was that my girlfriend spotted me the money to pay of my credit card and now I'm just paying off her and saving on the interest. It's worked so far. Coupled with my iPhone budget application, I've been managing to live of LESS than $400 a month. I get paid roughly $2000/month and my bills come out to... roughly $1000. that's $600 a month for savings!

Plus I did my own taxes (with the gf's help) and got $2100 back! that's incredible. Plus when I move out I'll have the security deposit back and a deposit for my gas bill back too. That means I'm now jumping into the positives for my savings. Sweeeeet.

I'm probably going to buy a back-pack soon for my trip to keep me motivated, so I'll post some picks of that when I get it.

Anyway... I doubt anyone actually cares about this so... enjoy the pic.