Responserbillery.

I'm all grown up now and as such, I'm taking, like, active control of the direction of my life and junk. Parts of it, anyway.

Goal number 89 was to keep detailed accounting data for one month. I've done better - at the beginning of February, I created a budget file in Excel, with two pages. One sheet functions as a checkbook for my debit card, savings account, and credit card, complete with formulas so that I don't screw up the math and a banner at the top that shows all my current balances. The primary sheet, though, I am especially proud of - it aggregates all my purchases into categories, on a week-by-week (and month-by-month) basis, and includes the rough estimates for my budget... because technically, a budget is a PLAN for your money, not just keeping track of where it goes after the fact. I made a category column in the checkbook sheet, so at the end of each week, I go through and add up all the "E"s and "S"s and so forth to track my expenses.

I set fairly liberal spending allowances when I established the budget in February, when I was going out a lot more. I underestimated my income (not by a lot, but about $100 a month at least) and overestimated food and entertainment expenses by a lot, so I could wean myself slowly down to a more savings-oriented fiscal plan (and thus move myself more expediently towards a responsible move to NYC). Here's what the original budget figures were:





As you can see, I also allocated $70 per month for health-related expenses, which would basically encompass everything I would buy at CVS or Walgreens - razor blades are exorbitantly expensive these days. But I also wanted to set it that high in case I needed to go to the doctor and buy medicine in case I got sick, so that I'd know the money would be there without throwing the whole rest of the budget off. Getting my throat swabbed for strep does NOT count as Entertainment, you know? The last column, Leftovers, is additional de facto Savings. The Savings column itself encompasses my Keep the Change transfers, and a monthly $25 scheduled transfer from checking to savings that I set up to avoid monthly fees. SOOO all that money I'm not really spending on health gets saved up, along with all the other money I keep by underspending on food and entertainment. To the right of each month's leftovers, I set up a running "Total Savings" formula, which adds together that month's savings and leftovers and adds it to the previous month's total savings.

It turns out that increasing that single number has been the best motivational tool for me to 1) continue using this sometimes annoying system - Bank of America reformatted their website last month and it's an enormous hassle to do side-by-side windows to input the checkbook data - and 2) cut back my spending, the whole point of setting this goal. I didn't think to add that until mid-April or so, for a solely practical reason: I had too much data for one page and didn't want to have to be scrolling all the time; there is a huge corresponding jump in the amount of Leftovers between March and April, which becomes even more extraordinary when you factor in that I was in NEW YORK CITY at the beginning of April and I ate very well. Anyways! Budget working, ergo, budget goal OFFICIALLY COMPLETE.

Now, a completely different mechanism for getting my adulthood together: I took the LSAT on June 7th. (Goal number... TWO, for those keeping score at home. Yeah, that important.) I could pretend that the five weeks of grueling prep tests I did were the reason I didn't post so much in May, but we all know the real reason is that I'm tremendously lazy. Except for the part where I established a rigorous schedule for practicing, stuck to it, and saw real improvement in my (practice test) scores because of it. I don't get the real score back until the 28th, and I absolutely do not want to jinx it, but I feel safe at least saying that my goal of 167 was definitely reasonably within my reach. I think I qualified that enough to evade the wrath of the jinx demons. I hope.

Well, this is getting long, and I started it at work this afternoon and it is now approaching one in the morning, so, yeah, over and out. OH WAIT no, before I forget, I have another swingset - Colin Park, beachside in Daytona. Squeaky chains, really quite awful as swings go, but it was a clear night and the stars were delightful, making up for it a bit. A daytime picture will be taken sometime in the next three months. Deal. So, what is it, number 8 now?
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St. Patrick's - January 15, 2010

I visited St. Patrick's three weeks ago with my friend Chelsea, approximately two and a half hours after landing at JFK. It was literally that much of a priority for me. Architecture innervates my soul, and, having escaped the suffocating clutches of Daytona for the weekend, it was a delightfully symbolic way to start the trip.

I'd been there once or twice before, years and years and years ago with my family, and when I was twelve, I read this book, a thriller in which a rogue IRA cell takes the cathedral hostage for no apparent reason. Most notable line: the 50/60 something Irish dude tells the young chickadee who seems to be his sidekick, "Girlie, I've been shot at more times than you've had your period." Most notable image: some dude climbs up on of the spires outside, either to light the building on fire, put that fire out, or set up some sort of signal for the cops. It's good times.

Anyways, Chels and I had an excellent time peering at all the saint shrines, conjecturing about why Catholics light candles for them, sneaking glances at people crossing themselves to find out if it's left-to-right or right-to-left, and, you know, just generally being slightly less respectful of the space than we probably should have been. I took quite a few pictures, most of which did not come out quite as well as I'd have liked because I didn't want to use the flash. I've culled the best and dumped them into a new photobucket. I got bored while I was uploading them so I ran the "old photo" script on my favorite; it is now below the cut and is the link to the full album. If you don't want to flip through all the pictures manually, there's a slideshow before the first one. Technology, woo! I also stuck the SPT from that week below the cut here, since it was taken while I was there and everything. The three subsequent SPTs should be posted before it's time for the next one to be taken. Hopefully.

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Picture Dump

Too tired to narrate. Click for pictures. Soon: SPT 19, Cathedral #1, and, for real, drabbles.


Lost SPT - December 4, 2009

Swingset #6 - Boone Park, Jacksonville, FL

SPT - December 31st

SPT - January 7

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So glad I'm not one of those people who made a goal about posting frequency...

So as it turns out, the business of living my life has actually gotten to the point of interfering with my ability to write about said life. Oops. Here's a quick run-down of the last I-don't-know-how-many-weeks.

• Swingset #5 (picture unavailable) - Ponce Inlet lighthouse playground. Swung late at night, and this set is literally right underneath the lighthouse. There's a large oak(?) tree that was filtering the lights overhead (the lens is fractured, and there are two or three strong beams and four or five thinner ones on each rotation) and it was sort of magical except for the strong odor of fish coming in off the docks across the street.



• I started knitting a yellow cardigan (loosely pictured here) while out at the bar with my friends. I have to date completed the back panel, three quarters of one front panel, and have about seven inches or so (of more than 24) on the second front panel. After that, there will just be the arms and the two buttons/collar strips to complete the front, and sewing it all together. Monday will be the end of the third week I've been working on it, so it should hopefully be done by New Year's. I say hopefully both because Florida's cold season is very very short, and because I promised each of the bartenders who initially made fun of me that I'd knit them something, too - fingerless gloves for Pete and a knit replica of his work t-shirt for Jake, complete with the bar's logo on the front and 'CURRENTLY WORKING OFF MY BAR TAB' on the back.



• Knitting is fun, but it isn't actually progress on goal 40. Luckily, I purchased fabric and a pattern to sew a strapless dress, and it really shouldn't take too long to complete once I actually sit down and get to it. Of course, a dress isn't a whole outfit; I am thinking that if I get really ambitious, I might make a lightweight black trench jacket to go with it. My friend Katelyn insists that I also make the, um, unmentionables to be worn with this outfit... this is already a multi-stage project, so why not?



• As a sort of combo step towards achieving both goals 67 and 79, I did in fact purchase a watercolor journal, paints, and brushes. I won't really say any more about it, other than this: "snails."



• There's an SPT of me in a moose hat, an SPT of me trapped on my camera, and 13904810 SPTs from last night of me acting with a questionable amount of class at a semiformal event. These pictures will hopefully be posted shortly.



• Writing is slow and not actually going where I initially thought, but I am making an effort to at least think about it everyday, if not actually putting words together into real sentences. I just feel like I'm not being very... artful, as though four years of essay and technical writing ruined my imagination. But that's what all this practice is for, right? Right.
  
  On the non-fiction front, I am thinking about writing an alternative history book (a la Lies My History Teacher Told Me) aimed at kids. Or, to be more precise, writing a history book whose primary purpose is not the indoctrination of American children into a brouhaha of blind national pride or Eurocentric elitism. As Joel Stein put it, I love America, like an adult loves another adult - I see her flaws and I desperately want to help her overcome them. I believe in being honest about those flaws, not trying to hide them.
  
  This may or may not be inspired by the fact that my little sister and another girl I met separately who happened to be in her high school class don't know who Nelson Mandela is. Worse, they can't even comprehend why that might be a problem.



• Article reading is still going along nicely, although now that I have paper copies of two of the three magazines, posting links and blurbs seems more trouble than it's worth. Now that I'm, uh, caught up, if there's a particularly interesting thing, I will post about it. Swear. No more batch posts, because that's what seems to be slowing me down. If I like it, I'll post it. End of story.



• Book reading is going okay, too, but I keep getting sidetracked by new books and going out and knitting and... well... I haven't actually finished a book in over a month. I'm about halfway through three, and started two others, if that makes any difference. I really want to finish the Terry Prachett book I'm in the middle of, The Wyrd Sisters, before Christmas. New mini-goal. Woot.

Can't really think of anything else I was in the middle of... Free Rice has sort of faded back into obscurity, it's the wrong season for Walks for the Cure, and Rosetta Stone is still on hold. Oh! I did get an email from Donors Choose, with a follow-up thank you letter and pictures from the teacher of the class I donated the Scholastic Weeklies to a couple months ago. Second graders are ADORABLE and curious and their teacher says they were ecstatic to learn that the magazines are theirs to keep and take home. I'm so glad that they have a new outlet for that inquisitive energy, and hopefully it will inspire them keep researching things they're interested in outside of the classroom. So anyway, that's that. Pictures soon. Articles in the next week, as they become interesting. And, maybe possibly soon I'll finally get the confidence to post my two-month-old drabble.
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Surprises

1. New hair in SPT 13; SPT 12 is still in transit.

2. Short-chained swingset = lots and lots and lots of fun.

That is all; see below.

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ENID: It’s probably the slang.

Still busy busy busy. Last weekend I swung swingset #4, a picture of which should hopefully be uploaded shortly. So too will last week's SPT, after my friend whose camera such a picture should be on uploads them to Facebook. The past two weeks, my drabble has turned into the inkling of a Something, and it's up to about 400 words now. (That doesn't sound too impressive, but keep in mind that a drabble is only supposed to be 100 words and an attempt at a semi-self-contained short story to keep your creative juices going.) It's using the same character as the last Oversized Serious drabble I wrote over a month ago, which I will post tomorrow or Friday, and then after a suitable period of introspective judgment, I'll post this current one, too.

I also began knitting a grocery bag, although I have three sweater patterns that I really want to get to work on. I just needed something a bit more simple to get back into it. I unfortunately did not buy a watercolor journal last week as I said I was going to, because Michael's ended up being on a different (and much further away) street than I thought and I was in a rush to meet a friend for his going away party. I could have bought it by now at Walmart, but I'd prefer not to feed the giant - and, it turns out, there's one even closer than where I was going to go that is legitimately local, Southern Paint and Supply. They supply Actual! watercolor tubes, so I can use something other than a dinky little Crayola tray. Not that I'm knocking my mad elementary school art skillz or anything, but... yeah. I want rich colors, ergo, real paint.

In terms of wine connoisseurship, yesterday I got a call from my mom asking me which I'd prefer to drink with Thanksgiving dinner. When I replied, "Oh, um, well, like, pinot grigio, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon. I can bring my own," she asked, "What brand is that?" Long story short, I popped a quarter mile down the road to the grocery store to help her find something to drink that isn't white zinfandel or blackberry Manischewitz. We got a pinot noir and a beaujolais, and I also picked up two bottles of Spanish wine I had over the weekend for my own nefarious purposes. Mission successful. Sorta.

That's about it. I forgot to keep all the links for articles last week, so below are the four I found most memorable.

"Lunch with M." is purportedly the first-ever meeting between a journalist and a Michelin restaurant "inspector." It really isn't an interview, because the inspector cannot divulge any identifying details - even her parents aren't supposed to know her real occupation, lest they boast to their friends; the New Yorker reporter just sits down with the head of the Michelin guides and a woman who would just like to be called "M." For all that he's not allowed to tell us about their conversation, it is a surprisingly comprehensive exposé of the Michelin organization as a whole and the incredible shroud Kevlar vest of secrecy they've built up to protect it.

As we all know, the shuttle fleet is retiring next year and the new Orion capsules aren't due to come online until the middle of the next decade. At least. "Is this the end for human space flight?" Inquiring minds want to know, so the science editor of The Daily Mail (seriously?) and a science journalist in residence at some college in Canada argue about it. The former says, yes, we're done with space, because no president will take the Kennedyesque step of committing resources to something that may or may not pan out three administrations down the road. The latter says, no-well-maybe; humans are creatures of conquering exploring and inquiring stock, and we really really WANT to see what's out in space. All I have to say about it is this.

"Four ways to feed the world" provides NS readers with a very simple plan for feeding the extra 3 billion or so people who will be on the Earth in the next 15 years, in addition to the 17% of those already here who are chronically starving. It's simple, really; grow more high-yielding crops on the same amount of farmland with less water, and build more roads to move the harvest around. Genius. Why has no one thought of this before??? This is the sort of quality reporting that drew me to NS in the first place.

I don't even know what this is but the best way I can think to describe it is "forcibly stripping the porn out of the porno script" (pun fully intended). It made me giggle, anyway, if mostly in a WTF-am-I-reading way.
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pictures pictures pictures

It's incredibly late and I'm incredibly tired, but below the cut lie not only this week's SPT, but also photographic proof that I swung on swingsets numbers two and three today - if you recall, I have not actually posted a picture of the first swingset yet because... I fail. Whatever. Number 2 is at Wadsworth Park in Flagler Beach, and Number 3 is just up the highway at Holland Memorial Park in Palm Coast. Number 2, as you will see shortly, has an interesting architecture going for it, but has pretty short chains... still, in all, a very nice swinging experience. Meanwhile, I was far more pleased with the longer chains at Number 3, except that half of them were too long and, mysteriously, could not be rolled up. Very good afternoon, though :)

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Tallies

I realized this weekend that I have a lot of goals that have cumulative totals - donate this much money, swing on this many swingsets, you know - and that, rather than cluttering up the Master List with all of their progress tallies, I should create a separate post where they can all aspire to be completed together, as one big happy family. I have been updating the "Charity" post every night this week after I finish with my Free Rice learnin', and I will continue to do that in addition to this new post. This post, however, has the advantage of being privileged enough to get a coveted spot in the prestigious and exclusive Quick Links sidebar.

And remember! This is not a complete list of goals in progress, just those that have specific tallies associated with them. You can always see all of the officially In Progress goals by viewing the master list and seeking out the terra cotta colored goals, or get more detailed progress reports by clicking the "In Progress" tag on the sidebar.



4. Discover AND LIKE 101 new bands or solo artists.

New artists approved of: 7

12. Rosetta Stone: Spanish

Lessons completed through: Level 2, Unit 1, Lesson 3

16. Donate at least $500.50 on Donors Choose.

Amount donated: $100.00

23. Visit at least 25 cathedrals.

Cathedrals admired: 1

24. Swing on 101 unique swingsets.

Swingsets swung: 8

38. Volunteer at least 101 hours with Habitat for Humanity.

Hours completed: 4

44. Raise $500.50 by doing Walks for the Cure.

Amount donated: $23.00

54. Finish the Discworld series.

Books read: 5

55. (re)Read the complete works of Tennessee Williams.

Plays read: 0.66

58. Read the complete works of Salman Rushdie.

Rushdies read: 1

59. Read every book on the shelf that has not yet been so.

Backlog finished: 3

68. Loan $101 on Kiva; recycle all repayments.

Loaned out: $25 Recycled: $0

70. Achieve 500,000 grains of rice on Free Rice for Spanish vocabulary.

Grains donated: 2500

71. Achieve 500,000 grains of rice in all other subjects.

Grains donated: 14790

73. Write 101 letters to Washington.

Complaints lodged: 4

78. Accumulate 101 postcards.

Postcards owned: 25

84. Go to ten special exhibitions at museums.

Exhibitions visited: 1

85. Read ten books that are recommended to me.

Recommended reading completed: 2

86. Watch 25 of the Greatest Movies of All Time Ever that I've never before seen.

Movies Consumed: 2

93. Learn to identify at least ten things under the hood of a car and how you can tell when they break.

Car Parts Understood: 0.2 (Yeah zero point two, I know an engine when I see it.)
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Travel Goals

5. Go to the Continent.
6. Go to Alaska.
7. Go to Indonesia.
23. Visit at least 25 cathedrals.
24. Swing on 101 unique swing sets.
26. Spend at least 24 consecutive hours on an Amtrak train.
27. Go to Antigua.
30. Go to Islands of Adventure.
32. Go to Big Sur.
60. Stand at the foot of a mountain. Possibly climb up it a little bit.

Details

Posts detailing my progress on any goal in this category will receive the "Travel" tag. Only goals 23 and 24, cathedrals and swingsets, will have their own additional tags.

5. Go to the Continent.

Aside from the Caribbean and the Gulf coast of Mexico, the only place outside the US that I've been to is London. Seriously, not even anywhere else in England. I first spent three weeks on vacation there during the (epic heat wave) summer of 2006, and later returned to study for the fall semester of 2007 at Queen Mary University in the East End. While most of my fellow students were flying off on Ryanair every weekend to spend 36 hours in some other European city, I decided that I was in London to be in London. While I don't regret that decision at all, I do still want to get to continental Europe sometime in the next two-point-seven-five years. This goal will be fulfilled if I am able to spend at least 72 consecutive hours somewhere between Portugal and the Ukraine, though preferably I would like to do this for longer, or more than once.

6. Go to Alaska.

My idea of a dream vacation is a week-long stay in any city with a history that reaches back to ancient times. If that includes a daytrip out to the surrounding countryside, awesome, but if not (as happened in London), no biggie. I'll entertain myself either way. Alaska is on my list because I want to make nature the primary destination of my trip. Whether I fulfill this goal by taking a cruise, flying directly there to visit extended family, or get kidnapped by Todd Palin and a band of Alaskan Independence Party freedom fighter/snowmobilers, as long as I spend at least 72 hours there and am able to see a glacier, it's all good.

7. Go to Indonesia.

Not only is Indonesia probably the diametric opposite of both Alaska and Rome, it is also not a destination that was on my radar a year or two ago. After reading Cradle of Flavor, a combination cookbook and travelogue about Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia, I've been completely fascinated by the fusion of cultures there. Yes, I would like to visit India, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka... all of those places are on my lifelong travel wishlist. But right now, Indonesia is the most compelling nation on my list.

23. Visit at least 25 cathedrals.

When I took Art History in my freshman year of college, 90% of the reason why was because I wanted to take the 200 level course on the history of architecture which required it as a prerequisite. I didn't end up taking the class, due to scheduling issues sophomore year, but about one fifth of the introductory class was devoted to the great works of architecture in the ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and modern eras. It made me happy. Instead of just vaguely enjoying or disapproving of a building that I see now, I take notice of the form and structure of it, and consciously note the way the component parts fit together to make an elegant or awkward building.

In particular, I love to be inside of cathedrals. I think they're wonderful. I fell in love with Vassar because its library reminded me of a cathedral. I've been inside the National Cathedral in Washington, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's, and Southwark Cathedral in London, and I yearn to see more. While 25 is a tall order, especially because there are very few cathedrals of note in the United States, I hope that if I can spend at least a week in Europe, I will be able to almost fulfill this goal. I will also count trips to mosques, synagogues, and Asian temples of any sort to this goal because discrimination is bad for your health, and also, I love mosaic tiles, menorahs, and bells.

Cathedrals admired: 1

24. Swing on 101 unique swing sets.

I'm not a religious person. My undying love for cathedrals is purely architectural. The closest I ever come to what might be described as a "spiritual experience" happens when I'm on the swings. Ridiculous though that may sound, it's true. Point is, I want to seek out 101 new "spiritual experiences" and swing on 101 unique swingsets anywhere in the world. I'll post pictures and a short blurb about the location of each venture under the "Swingsets" tag.

Swingsets swung: 8

26. Spend at least 24 consecutive hours on an Amtrak train.

Manifest destiny.

27. Go to Antigua.

Perhaps it's just the postcolonial scholar in me, but I really want to visit Antigua. I've been to the Bahamas, and I want to go to Martinique, eventually, but since reading two of Jamaica Kindcaid's books, I have felt drawn to explore the streets of St. Johns and the beaches and just. Be there. As with Alaska, I will consider a cruise stop on Antigua fulfillment of this goal, but I would prefer to fly and stay a few nights, something I think will be much easier to do in the next six months as I'll already be in Florida.

30. Go to Islands of Adventure.

Again, something to do while I'm in Florida. I grew up an hour from the Orlando theme parks, and three hours from Busch Gardens in Tampa. I have been to Disney World more times than I can count, and for two years my family had season passes to Sea World and Busch Gardens. I have never been to Universal Studios, nor to its sister park, Islands of Adventure. I'm not entirely sure why, but since they have a fine array of roller coasters and other Fun Things To Do, I'm sure it won't be that hard to make it over.

32. Go to Big Sur.

A Confederate General from Big Sur. Read it; love it.

60. Stand at the foot of a mountain. Possibly climb up it a little bit.

I think there is something uniquely powerful about standing at the bottom of a mountain and looking up, rather than the other way around. I'm sure it feels perfectly wonderful to feel as though you've conquered the entire world, but I'm being realistic here. I don't think I have the constitution for mountain climbing, and I think that's okay. I still want to visit a mountain (with a prominence of at least 2000 meters) and stand next to it and feel very small and human.

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