Today marks the one year anniversary of my working for the Department of Defense. It's been an interesting year. The main thing I like about it is getting to work with people.
Owning my own business was awesome in so very many ways. To me, though, the main downside was that people interact with you differently when you are not only the boss, but you own the company. I always enjoyed interacting with my coworkers when I worked a job. So, that part is great, now. I have awesome coworkers and really can't complain about the people where I work at all. It's actually a little surprising how much I enjoy the people I work with.
Today is furlough day 9. Really, it's day day 4 for most workers, but I took mine off in a big chunk to give me time to move and sell stuff. Taking this time off was a good idea. I needed some time away. I was starting to get burned out a little bit. I was able to settle in to the new condo, and sell off a big chunk of stuff on Craigslist, which more than covered the loss of income from the furlough.
I'm trying very hard to simplify my life. I've accumulated a lot of stuff over the years. Now that I'm in a condo, I just don't have the room I had in my house. I don't know if I'll ever have a big house like that again, but I doubt it. By the time I'm ready to afford another big house, my son will probably be off to college. There just wouldn't be a point to it.
So, there's just no good reason to have a lot of this stuff around. I may also be moving a few times in the foreseeable future and there's no reason to keep moving this stuff from location to location.
About the only extravagance I can foresee would be a music room of some sort. A little studio where I could play music without disturbing anybody. That will have to wait until I'm no longer living in a condo, though.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Making the Best of this Nice Glass of Ferlot
I'm taking the second chunk of my furlough and it's been really nice. Basically, we're supposed to try to take two furlough days per 2-week pay period. So, I took 2 days at the end of the last pay period and 2 days at the start of this one, giving me a total of 6 days off with the weekend.
My first furlough chunk was 5 days taken off so I could move to my condo. At the time, we were told this was okay, but have since gotten guidance that they'd rather we didn't do this. It came in handy: I needed every day to complete the move and recover, physically, from the move.
This chunk is a bit more relaxed. I've been doing craigslist selling. I've been organizing the condo and the storage areas. So far, so good.
It looks like we may be headed for a full-blown government shutdown on October 1, though, which is even worse than a furlough. We'd be talking about zero pay until they get the thing resolved. If you're wondering whether this is causing me to have second thoughts about my government job, the answer is yes. Yes it does.
Although I've made some money with the craigslist selling, unfortunately, I've spent a chunk of it. It's not a life-altering sum of money I've spent, but it's several hundred bucks. That's something I would never have given a second thought to in my old life, but in this life, every dollar counts.
The first thing I spent money on is some components for my computers. I've got more cable channels, now, and I miss having a DVR. Renting the box from the cable company or going with Tivo runs around $15 - 20 a month and personally, I think that's a total rip-off.
So, with an abundance of old, useless computers around the house, I'm installing components to turn them into media centers. The components, by themselves, are pretty cheap. We're talking things like video cards for $35 or TV tuner cards for $70. But when you order a few of them at once, it adds up. Again, nothing too expensive, but it's a few hundred bucks at a time when I'm trying to save as much money as I can.
In the end, though, it'll beat buying a Tivo and subscription, or renting a box from the cable company. Not sure how many of my computers I'll turn into media centers. Mostly, I'll start with one for now. I guess I have 3 old desktops I could do this with. Yeah, 3 desktops sounds extravagant, but consider that they're very, very, very old and probably worth, at most, maybe $50, each if I were to try and sell them. The stuff I'll be adding to them will exceed the value of the computers, themselves.
I got a lot of help for this project from my friend, Tom Meunier. He pointed me to some great articles in lifehacker that show how to do this sort of thing:
http://lifehacker.com/5900626/create-a-kickass-seamless-play+everything-media-center-the-complete-guide
http://lifehacker.com/5936546/how-i-built-the-media-center-of-my-dreams-for-under-500
The other thing I sprang for is a nice weight bench. I know the perils of home exercise equipment, but I've always gotten reasonable use out of a weight set and treadmill. On the AF base, I have access to the largest gyms I've ever seen. So, when I'm in Dayton, I'm good to go. I just need something here for the weekends and such. Still don't know where I'll set up my treadmill. However, I think I have my basement empty enough that with just a little more organizing, I can get my weights set up down there.
Lastly, just in the past couple of days, I've tried to remind myself that although this is my worst-case scenario, it's really not that bad. Yeah, I make less than half what I used to make during good years as an entrepreneur. But I also make more than I made during bad years.
My pay is a matter of public record, but basically, in round terms, I make about $70,000 a year. (We have our basic GS pay, but then "locality pay" and I get $10,000 student loan payments every year.)
Nothing to get too excited about, but still a lot of folks would be happy to be in my shoes. I just couldn't help but feel bad this past year that I had fallen so far in life. In the grand scheme of things, though, things could be worse. I think the thing I feel worst about is my time away from Logan, but some of that was going to happen after the divorce, anyway.
As for my career, it isn't bad by a long stretch. Plus, I have the potential for opportunities, both within the government and in the actual economy. Yeah, the economy sucks and nobody wants a worker my age, but still, I've got a lot of working years ahead of me and in a lot of ways I'm better than I ever was before.
Despite those worthless, shit-for-brains, total jackass morons in the House and Senate (said the federal employee), this is still America. If you have your health, a keen mind and a strong work ethic, your limitations and biggest obstacles will always come only from yourself.
If you're really bored and want to know what I bought, it's this stuff:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004I8W4VI/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004N3BH0C/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136268
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148902
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116028
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145278
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A3EQ7YG/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
My first furlough chunk was 5 days taken off so I could move to my condo. At the time, we were told this was okay, but have since gotten guidance that they'd rather we didn't do this. It came in handy: I needed every day to complete the move and recover, physically, from the move.
This chunk is a bit more relaxed. I've been doing craigslist selling. I've been organizing the condo and the storage areas. So far, so good.
It looks like we may be headed for a full-blown government shutdown on October 1, though, which is even worse than a furlough. We'd be talking about zero pay until they get the thing resolved. If you're wondering whether this is causing me to have second thoughts about my government job, the answer is yes. Yes it does.
Although I've made some money with the craigslist selling, unfortunately, I've spent a chunk of it. It's not a life-altering sum of money I've spent, but it's several hundred bucks. That's something I would never have given a second thought to in my old life, but in this life, every dollar counts.
The first thing I spent money on is some components for my computers. I've got more cable channels, now, and I miss having a DVR. Renting the box from the cable company or going with Tivo runs around $15 - 20 a month and personally, I think that's a total rip-off.
So, with an abundance of old, useless computers around the house, I'm installing components to turn them into media centers. The components, by themselves, are pretty cheap. We're talking things like video cards for $35 or TV tuner cards for $70. But when you order a few of them at once, it adds up. Again, nothing too expensive, but it's a few hundred bucks at a time when I'm trying to save as much money as I can.
In the end, though, it'll beat buying a Tivo and subscription, or renting a box from the cable company. Not sure how many of my computers I'll turn into media centers. Mostly, I'll start with one for now. I guess I have 3 old desktops I could do this with. Yeah, 3 desktops sounds extravagant, but consider that they're very, very, very old and probably worth, at most, maybe $50, each if I were to try and sell them. The stuff I'll be adding to them will exceed the value of the computers, themselves.
I got a lot of help for this project from my friend, Tom Meunier. He pointed me to some great articles in lifehacker that show how to do this sort of thing:
http://lifehacker.com/5900626/create-a-kickass-seamless-play+everything-media-center-the-complete-guide
http://lifehacker.com/5936546/how-i-built-the-media-center-of-my-dreams-for-under-500
The other thing I sprang for is a nice weight bench. I know the perils of home exercise equipment, but I've always gotten reasonable use out of a weight set and treadmill. On the AF base, I have access to the largest gyms I've ever seen. So, when I'm in Dayton, I'm good to go. I just need something here for the weekends and such. Still don't know where I'll set up my treadmill. However, I think I have my basement empty enough that with just a little more organizing, I can get my weights set up down there.
Lastly, just in the past couple of days, I've tried to remind myself that although this is my worst-case scenario, it's really not that bad. Yeah, I make less than half what I used to make during good years as an entrepreneur. But I also make more than I made during bad years.
My pay is a matter of public record, but basically, in round terms, I make about $70,000 a year. (We have our basic GS pay, but then "locality pay" and I get $10,000 student loan payments every year.)
Nothing to get too excited about, but still a lot of folks would be happy to be in my shoes. I just couldn't help but feel bad this past year that I had fallen so far in life. In the grand scheme of things, though, things could be worse. I think the thing I feel worst about is my time away from Logan, but some of that was going to happen after the divorce, anyway.
As for my career, it isn't bad by a long stretch. Plus, I have the potential for opportunities, both within the government and in the actual economy. Yeah, the economy sucks and nobody wants a worker my age, but still, I've got a lot of working years ahead of me and in a lot of ways I'm better than I ever was before.
Despite those worthless, shit-for-brains, total jackass morons in the House and Senate (said the federal employee), this is still America. If you have your health, a keen mind and a strong work ethic, your limitations and biggest obstacles will always come only from yourself.
If you're really bored and want to know what I bought, it's this stuff:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004I8W4VI/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004N3BH0C/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136268
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148902
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116028
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145278
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A3EQ7YG/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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