Sunday, January 17, 2010

Hey! Earthquake!


So, I said I’d be back here & again to post updates when big stuff happened. Does a 6.5 earthquake count? It does? Good.

Just over a week ago we were rocked by that 6.5 earthquake I mentioned not two seconds ago. I was at work, with two hours left to go, and suddenly the world shook. I’ve seen the security tape, and all I have to say is, it’s amazing the amount of thoughts you can have in such a short amount of time, because in reality the “major” shaking lasted a whopping 5 seconds at best. And anyway I lied; I have more to say than just that.

First thing I thought of? “Why didn’t I get that earthquake insurance on the house. it was offered to us as the house was turned over to us, and we turned it down. At the time we figured the house had already stood strongly for 70 years and survived some big quakes, it seemed like money wasted. But during the shaking, that was suddenly a bad idea. Turns out though, that there’s a good reason we didn’t get it: deductibles of $40-50K. Yeah. You pay the monthly premium, and then you get to pay out-of-pocket $50K before they pitch in. Quite the deal, right?

It makes you realize the fragility of our “modern” society, though. One quick disaster, and everything about us halts. No power? Then no commerce. No gas at the station. Food in the supermarkets & your fridge go bad, and if you don’t have your own self-sustaining supply (read: garden, animals for harvest) then you’re going to be hungry until it’s restored. I could write a whole book on the absurdity of our “modern” existence, about how we’re so disconnected from all that sustains us that it’s not even funny, and that in reality a large percentage of the population is dependent upon technologies they don’t understand to give them things that are so simple they should be doing it themselves, and that one disaster later (a BIG disaster) their very lives are in danger.

Instead, I will just say that I realized that we had been being frugal to a fault. Now, I have no plans to spend more money, but as everyone was freaking out about the possibility of a tsunami coming next, and as I told The Girl to take my truck, load the dogs, and just be prepared to drive “up,” I was thinking about how much gas I had in the tank: less than a quarter-tank. Her truck that she left with me? Less than a quarter tank. Because all these ages ago, we decided to just fill up with the amount of gas we’re actually going to use in our monthly budget. Doesn’t make sense, I argued at the time, to put in $60 of gas near the end of the month if I only plan to do $10 of driving. Because then I’ve killed my budget by $50, and what’s more, now I feel as though I have free gas to burn.

I still plan on doing half-tank driving, but it dawned on me that perhaps the other half-tank is the one to be using; from now on, we’ll be driving on the top-half of the tank, filling up when it gets do half, so there’s always a reserve. 

You know, in case of emergencies. Like 6.5 quakes and possible tsunamis.

Monday, January 4, 2010

New Year's resolution: F*ck the internet


It’s not that I don’t like it. It’s not that I don’t plan to use it still. Hey, a guy needs his porn. Anyway, for me it’s just that I don’t feel like I’m getting my time out of it. 

The internet & Football are the same in that they invariably just suck you in; there you are, on the precipice of doing something wholly productive, and the next thing you know you’re 3 hours into the future and haven’t done a damned thing. And that sucks.

I like to write. But it feels like I have an obligation to it or something when I make myself concerned for the internet. Who cares? My site gets this much traffic a day: 2-7 visits. Wow. And I’m not selling anything. I don’t have anything on the line. And I’m not going to gain in popularity. One common thread I notice among “popular” websites & blogs especially, is that they all focus solely on one, single, solitary thing. I can’t do that. I mean, hey guys & gals, I like my porn, right? I can’t blog about nothing but porn. I’m a ‘jack of all trades’ personality, even in writing.

So my New Year’s resolution is to be less involved in the internet. I may put up a post or two, if I have nothing else to do, my legs are broken, and I’m sick. But otherwise, I think that this time — for real though — I am pretty much saying bon voyage to the dear ol’ internet. You wanna know what the Bob is up to? Gimme a call man. Or Babe (if you’re hot).