Wednesday, January 21, 2009

While Married, I Find This Advice To Single Guys Hilarious, AND TRUE!

Found this through a pastor friend of mine who sent me a small snippet of the talk. If for nothing else, watch it for it's entertainment value.


Beautiful_02- Single Guys Outtake from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Okay, So I've Not Blogged In Awhile

Sue me! It's the American Way, afterall! No seriously, though....

So yah, it's been awhile since I've blogged. A few people have wondered where I've been, if I died, been sick, or what?
Well, to answer these...I've been here, no, no, and who knows.

As I told Godfather here not that long ago, my motivation has been somewhat lacking. I hadn't found anything inspiring or entertaining to write about as of late. And while I've kept up reading everyone's blog, I've contented myself to sit back and watch other reader's commentary than provide much of my own. Maybe it's this wintertime crap. Subzero temperatures, even lower windchill variants, too much snow and ice, lots of cloudy days, and many of them I've been stuck working. I guess my creative mind has shut down a bit for a little hibernation of its own, as well as trying to squeeze in a little extra sleep (my coworkers and alarm companies havent been very cooperative in giving me my naps during worktime).

And I also suffer from some serious pseudo-medical maladies. The first and foremost is known as Laziness. I think about doing some things...but my body refuses to cooperate. Another thing that has taken its toll on me is called Old-Age. Now, some of you are probably reading this with incredulity, knowing I wont even be 30 years old until April. Well let me tell you...when you treat your body like I do...crap diet, little physical activity, smoking, little sleep.....you age yourself a lot quicker than just the time spent doing it. So while I may only be just shy of 30, I sometimes feel like I'm closer to getting my full-fledged AARP membership benefits.

This weekend didnt help any at all. Apparently my diet and eating habits in general decided to send me a message. While I wasn't sick, my infrastructure had some issues resulting in a LOT of pain. The last time I felt that kind of pain was a little over 9 years ago. And back then, I went to the doctor to spend hundreds of dollars to find out I could've fixed myself without their expertise. So this time, while I was in such excruciating pain, sleep was a luxury to achieve, I decided to be my own diagnosing doctor....and then made my wife take care of me a bit...or rather she took pity on me, and to keep me from being a useless and maximum pain in the ass, she made me do things I didnt care for to make sure I was going to return back to normal...in other words, my usual level of a pain in the ass, but somewhat useful on occasion. While the worst has passed, and (not to get into too much detail)I have retained the services of the Raisin Bran Regulatory Commission, I am still a bit of a flip flopper in my gut.

Getting old sucks.....to think that I probably have to use a fiber supplement to make sure I dont get into a position where I'd rather kill myself than put up with the temporary pain, pains me deeply. I pride myself on having a near perfect immune system, and while slightly more gelatinous than solidly muscular, having an optimum physique (slightly round so as to remain structurally intact in the event of a powerful midwestern earthquake), and a (mostly) sound mind. Admitting any sense of weakness, or need for help, is hard for me to do. But I suppose, in order to overcome the gradual aging process, I will have to first defeat the Lazy Disorder. Maybe I'll make that a New Year's Resolution in 2010! But so as not to be hasty in our decisions, we'll re-evaluate that as the time nears. WE may have to shop around for a consultant to do a few studies over the next few years to find the proper response to this all.

And as that which also comes with the aging male, the mini-midlife crisis has hit my mentality. Years ago, as a child, I saw myself pretty much ruling the world. Now before you get any ideas, I do rule a good portion of it....no mob hits happen to this day without my approval (of course, my approval comes after consulting with the Godfather....I don't need to get whacked yet, I'm not so stupid as to cut him out of the loop of credit here). Where was I? Oh yeah..midlife crisis..blah blah blah....mob hits, yada yada yada...So, here I am, not quite ruling the world as I had envisioned in my early years. And unlike my early years, I also have no dog. I have my cat, and the Colonel is great, but I grew up with BIG dogs, and like the idea of a dog. But, our landlords don't allow dogs. The few in the area that allow dogs, are either too expensive for my taste (if I'm gonna pay out the big dough, I'd beter own the damn place), or have restrictions on the size of dog....and I'm not a lover of small dogs. They're fine for other people to own, but not for me. So I started looking at the local area housing market. With the so-called "housing bubble", you'd think a house might be affordable for someone who makes less than $100,000 a year. Apparently the only thing the housing bubble caused was foreclosures, some bankruptcies, and some financial issues. But the housing prices overall have remained the same. Multiple houses are still being offered at multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars. Crap house still are close to $100k. Anything less will require massive cash amounts to fix up to code. It's a strange idea that noone can buy houses, and yet no concessions on prices are made to actually help these houses mvoe through the market to keep the system going. So anyways, I set a limit on houses I would consider, and even found a few decent looking ones (that even included ALL the appliances! Imagine, laundry getting done without having to procure rolls upon rolls of quarters!) nearby that would be big enough. Afterall this apartment is quite expensive for being a small space in a property that is poorly constructed and maintained, especially for a family of four, and the eventuality of a 3rd child. but the mortgage payments for anything decent....well let's just say, I'd need to work twice as much to make it feasible. I'm not looking for the 10,000 sq foot mansions in the elite neighborhoods...I'm talking simple $150,000 split levels, two sotry, and ranch style homes. Neverminding any of the utilities, and property taxes, plus costs for any repairs needed...the monthly payments are WAY above what I'm paying for this craphole of an apartment. And Apparently I was raised with some common sense and looked into the creative financing options, like those gambles of interest only loans....yuck. So for now, until we create a bigger cashflow stream, I guess we'll have to settle for what we have. But I still REALLY want a dog.....(hey, at least I'm not the guy with the midlife crisis who boes out and buys a corvette, a speedboat, takes up skiing and motorcycling, leaves his wife for a girl half his age [wow..a teenage girl...yuck}) I just want space for all of us and our stuff (mostly books and pictures)....and a dog!