January 8th, 2004:

I can’t even imagine the type of house I could purchase for $415,000. Yet Jeremy is talking about spending that much on the place he’s looking for. The real kicker is that he’s going to spend that much for a 2 bedroom with 2 bathrooms and, hopefully, a 1 car garage. He will most likely not even have air-conditioning. And it won’t even be a house. It’ll be a townhome, or a condo. I remember a few years back I was considering taking a job in the Bay area. Only the job I was looking at paid $90,000/yr. I thought that was pretty good, for me, but, in reality, with the cost of housing being that high, I could barely afford to live. Around here, $150,000 will get you a nice new place in the sticks. $200,000 will get you a really nice place in the sticks, or a modest place in the middle of town. With $250,000 you can get something very large, in a good location, with all the features you could imagine. I think that, even if I were filthy rich, spending more than $350,000 on a home would be absurd. I mean, that place had better be enormous, brand new, and in a great location for that much money.

I knew the cost of living was high out there… I just didn’t realize how high. It’s amazing to me to consider making over $100,000/yr and still having trouble making my house payment.

J’ai besoin de un ami de l’�crit. J’aimerais �crire approximativement une lettre chaque semaine par l’interm�diaire d’email. Si tout va bien, cette personne aurait des capacit�s linguistiques fran�aises fortes. On lirait, �crirait, et parlerait le fran�ais de fa�on r�guli�re. On serait int�ressant et aurait plaisir � aider d’autres. On serait capable d’employer le langue assez simple pour �tre compris par un d�butant tout en exprimant toujours des id�es complexes et int�ressantes. On n’emploierait pas l’argot ou, am�liorent encore, fournirait l’annotation d�finissant les mots d’argot qui ont �t� employ�s. J’essaye d’apprendre la langue fran�aise et je crois qu’ayant cet ami me permettrait d’apprendre plus rapidement.

Si tu aimerais �tre mon correspondant fran�ais, svp faites-moi savoir. Merci.

Notification: Je ne recherche plus un penpal. Merci

Friday night we have tentative plans with Lisa and Mike. I have to call Mike today and confirm them. I haven’t seen them in so long. They live a mere 30 minutes away, while Brad and Morgan live 17 hours away, yet I see them more. Even when Brad and Morgan are in town they are 45+ minutes away. Still further than Lisa and Mike. I guess everyone just gets busy with this and that and it makes it hard to get together. But I’m starting to truly realize the value of good, honest friendships, and don’t want to let them slip away. So, I’m trying to make a greater effort to stay in contact with those people that are important to me and not let the commotion of daily life interfere with those friendships.

Tonight is Brad’s birthday gathering at Dave N’ Buster’s. Brad and Morgan called them ahead of time to inform them that they would be bringing a 20 year old who was married to a 25 year old and wondered what kind of documentation she would need in order to be able to drink (Texas law allows married individuals to drink in the presense of their of-age spouses — I think this is an offshoot of the law that allows children to drink in the presense of thier of-age parent). They stated that, while Texas does indeed observe such a law, they are a nation company with rules of thier own and they do not allow such activity. However, as long as she is in the presence of someone 25 years of age, or older, she will be allowed in, she just can’t drink. It’s all kind of silly if you ask me, but I’m sure they have thier reasons.

I’ve never completely understood why we have age restrictions on anything. If I’m 15 years old and tomorrow is my birthday, I can’t have a driver’s license. But tomorrow, everything changes. Is there some kind of magic that happens over night when an individual becomes 16? There are more restrictions at 18 — like the right to vote, buy tobacco, join the military, and participate in the lottery. Then, at 21, one can buy alcohol. But, everyone does it this way. Sure, the age limits may be different, but all countries and states that I know of use some kind of age-limit to determine whether a person is responsible enough to have a certain privilege. It just seems that, with today’s advancements and technologies, we could come up with a better way. I know 40 year-olds who shouldn’t be trusted with a drop of alcohol, and 15 year-olds who are responsible enough to drink safely and stay out of trouble. It doesn’t really matter though. I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir, here.

I’ve done nothing but sit on my ass since the day we got back from Vermont. We’d go out to dinner, or get coffee, or make dinner at home, or watch TV … but nothing productive has occured. Even my talks with Matt, while very interesting and useful, have yet to lead to any actual work coming out of me. Even at work I’ve done very little, save for handling a few requests that would have caused a lot of trouble if I had delayed them.

It’s only been four days. Jess wasn’t feeling well until last night, and I started to get a slight cold of my own, which I think has passed. We were stuck in the middle of family drama hell for 10 days. But these all seem like excuses. I guess a post-vacation vacation of four days isn’t that bad, but I feel so … blah. I’m hoping to get some stuff going again today.

After all of this discussion with Matt, and others, I have a renewed faith in the power of Inklog, and new acceptance that, despite working alone and without consultation with others for most of the project, I am doing things the right way. I didn’t think I was, at first. I thought I had made a very large mistake in my design somewhere. And, when I first started spelling it all out for Matt, he thought so too. But, when I got deeper into it, I realized, thanks to him, that I had done things the right way, I just wasn’t using them correctly. So, with that idea in mind, I feel like I can make some real progress again. This whole project is almost 2 years in the making, and I know I haven’t put two years of work into it. I’m anxious to get it done and out there so others can benefit from my work, improve it, extend it, and fill a large gap that exists in today’s software. Yes, I have high hopes. Let’s see how it all pans out.