Yesterday we downgraded from our digital 200+ channel cable package down to the most basic (26 channels) package. So I am in a state of semi-mourning: no more CNN, MSNBC, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, History, Food Network, etc... At least a lot of these channels have shows that are available online or via podcast, but it's not the same.
It's just one step among many that we're taking to try and cut costs where we can. I buy my gas at Stop & Shop with my savings card. I've stopped paying into my 403B retirement account every week (new tax laws now make it that I can no longer pay into the plan via payroll deduction anyway). I turned my cell phone off years ago. I stopped playing FFXI online. We're emptying our storage and putting our stuff in a friend's basement (Thank you, Kryston!)
I've been forced to take these steps not just because it's tougher to make ends meet here at home but my job is feeling the squeeze too. I am no longer able to accumulate overtime without prior approval from my supervisor with the goal of all non-clinical employees having zero overtime per week. Less than a year ago I was averaging 8 hours a week of overtime.
Not that I'm complaining though... Don't get me wrong. I can still run to grab some fast food when we don't feel like cooking and we still splurge on Chinese food once in a while. We are not suffering by any means even if we have had to make sacrifices here and there. Make no mistake though, I am not happy that I cannot gleefully laugh along with John Stewart and Stephen Colbert every night.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
1st post
So, new blog... not my first turn at blogging but I haven't done this in a long time. So why start again?
I have no idea... but it helpful to have an outlet of some kind.
First and foremost in my mind is the upcoming election. America is standing at a fork in the road. We've been following the same road for 8 years now. We can look past those 8 years to the time when we decided to hang a right onto this road... it seemed like a good idea to a whole of people at the time, but not me. We could have voted for the guy we wanted to have a beer with or the guy who was probably a geek in school, was picked on and doesn't really seem to have much of a sense of humor. America went with the guy with whom they wanted to have a beer. I was not among them...
Within a year of being elected, W was tested. He faced the biggest challenge of perhaps any president in our history. A direct attack against us on our own soil. Not since the founding of our country has any other power brought the fight to our home turf. Someone knocked on our door and punched us in the nose when we opened the door.
The whole world's collective heart went out to us. Even countries that do not exactly like us spoke out against the attacks. We found out who did and we took the fight to them. And then, all of a sudden we were attacking Iraq. Iraq had no connection to the terrorists who attacked us; Iraq had no WMD's; Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. Yet there we were and there we still are. Years later with thousands of Americans dead because of a war that we did not need to fight. Over 88,000 dead Iraqis; the Geneva Convention pissed on; Habeus Corpus thrown out the window; unlawful detention; torture; unprecedented sacrifice of our liberties and privacy; the Constitution trampled upon as power is dangerously concentrated into the executive branch... what the hell happened to us? How did we allow this to happen?
At the end of this year Mr. Bush goes back to his cushy life in Crawford, TX and leaves the country to his successor in considerably worse shape than he found it. In three days we have a chance to choose who gets to pick up the pieces and tries to patch things back together. I've made up my mind who I want to take over but I am shocked to see the polls still so close because the choice is so clear to me.
Who do you think is the guy for the job? The thoughtful, well-educated guy with the funny name or the one who jokingly sang "Bomb Iran" to the tune of Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys?
I have no idea... but it helpful to have an outlet of some kind.
First and foremost in my mind is the upcoming election. America is standing at a fork in the road. We've been following the same road for 8 years now. We can look past those 8 years to the time when we decided to hang a right onto this road... it seemed like a good idea to a whole of people at the time, but not me. We could have voted for the guy we wanted to have a beer with or the guy who was probably a geek in school, was picked on and doesn't really seem to have much of a sense of humor. America went with the guy with whom they wanted to have a beer. I was not among them...
Within a year of being elected, W was tested. He faced the biggest challenge of perhaps any president in our history. A direct attack against us on our own soil. Not since the founding of our country has any other power brought the fight to our home turf. Someone knocked on our door and punched us in the nose when we opened the door.
The whole world's collective heart went out to us. Even countries that do not exactly like us spoke out against the attacks. We found out who did and we took the fight to them. And then, all of a sudden we were attacking Iraq. Iraq had no connection to the terrorists who attacked us; Iraq had no WMD's; Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. Yet there we were and there we still are. Years later with thousands of Americans dead because of a war that we did not need to fight. Over 88,000 dead Iraqis; the Geneva Convention pissed on; Habeus Corpus thrown out the window; unlawful detention; torture; unprecedented sacrifice of our liberties and privacy; the Constitution trampled upon as power is dangerously concentrated into the executive branch... what the hell happened to us? How did we allow this to happen?
At the end of this year Mr. Bush goes back to his cushy life in Crawford, TX and leaves the country to his successor in considerably worse shape than he found it. In three days we have a chance to choose who gets to pick up the pieces and tries to patch things back together. I've made up my mind who I want to take over but I am shocked to see the polls still so close because the choice is so clear to me.
Who do you think is the guy for the job? The thoughtful, well-educated guy with the funny name or the one who jokingly sang "Bomb Iran" to the tune of Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys?
Sunday, July 7, 2002
Thursday, July 4, 2002
bigmisterc.com is dead - for now...
Brenda and I are living on a shoe string budget and just barely making it as I look for a new job. One of the areas where we had to cut back was webhosting.
So for now, no font site, no journal, no portfolio or design ideas put online, no online resume - i'm stuck for now with a blog on blog spot...
Thursday, October 25, 2001
Wow... I never thought I would be getting traffic from Ultrashock, a Flash resource/community site, but I got quite a nice little spike in hits on my log the other day when they linked to my fonts.
Tuesday, October 23, 2001
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
New splash page up. Check it out if you have only this page bookmarked.
I needed something to do... I haven't touched PhotoShop in so long I had to open it up and play around with it just to convince myself I actually know how to use the program still...
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