Got my mind on my time and my time on my mind

First of all, at the bottom of this post are a few baby pictures to tide you over until I get a decent baby post worked up.

For the last 5 year, I've dedicated considerable efforts to my finances. Using a strategy oddly resembling A Christmas Carol, I worked on the financial problems on my past, evaluated how I was today, and tried to protect and set myself up for the future. Thankfully, I've succeded - for the most part, anyway, and learned a lot.

Earlier today, I was reflecting on similarities between my past (read: ignorant) spending habits and how they resemble how I spend some of my freetime during weeknights.

Time and money have always been closely connected, from cliches to how we get paid in money per time ratios. I had never really lent much thought to this connection until today. Time is spent, just like money, and should be controlled and managed so you can realize it's fullest potential. I suspect you're with me here, so I'm not going to go all "infomercial" on you - save for a few ideas I had.

For now, I just want to focus on weekdays. Most of my day is accounted for. From the time I get up, which is as late as possible but still in time to get to work on time, to the time I get home - usually around 6-8 at night, I have little control over my time. At night, however, I have many hours, usually three to six hours, that I have to work with. Let's average that out and say I have a budget of 4.5 hours each weeknight. Here's how I usually spend my time now:

Making, eating, cleaning up dinner: 0.75
Chores, errands: 0.25
Time with James and Bets until bedtime: 0.75
Leisure (TV, Video Games, Reading,cooking): 2.75
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4.50

Clearly, I don't need almost three hours of vegging out time. I used to spend money on things like computers, movies, restaurants for the same reason: I had extra resources and I wasted them because I made lazy and "American" choices. Nowthat I fixed that with my finances long ago, it's now time to work on my time budget.

Here's my new time budget for the evenings:
Making, eating, cleaning up dinner: 0.50
Chores, errands: 0.50
Time with James and Bets until bedtime: 1.00
Leisure (TV, Video Games, Reading,cooking): 1.50
Studying 0.50
Sleep! 0.50
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4.50

I'm investing a small percentage my time for the future by studying more than I usually do doing during the day. I also am spending more time sleeping and working on my household. Doing these household thing (cleaning, bills, fixup projects) wont' be fun, but will reduce my stress and make me happier in the long run, I expect.

After two months, I'll take a look at how this went and maybe even start in on my weekends.

For fun, try see if you can translate financial terms like CD's and interest into time matters. This is particularly effective if you're trying to fall asleep at night.

Resuming service with nonsense about gaming

First things first; you may have noticed the scarcity of posts recently. The road to procrastination is laid with best intentions and all that. But, in addition to today's post, I have a couple more cookin' on the back burners, so you should hear from me plenty in the next week or so. I also have a major baby update to post online next, so keep an eye out for that baby lovers.




My unwinding mechanism of choice these days is a computer game called Counter Strike. Usually, my brother, Dan, and I hook up on Skype and play together defeating endless wave of terrorist attacks.

I recently changed my internet connection to allow people to log into my CS server, allowing them to play along with us with no password - meaning the whole internet now has access to my game server. I love the variety of having the wide range of Internet users (ie 13 year old dorky boys) logging on to play with us. I laugh, though, when I see some of the names they have chosen. They are always in l33t speak, you never see a Tom, Jerry, or Helen. Here are some examples...

S0rdidC@det (Sordid Cadet): This gentleman wants everyone to know that he is, perhaps, enlisted in the armed services and that his defining characteristic is dirty and foul, maybe to better frighten his opponents.

PieceOƒRo_no (Piece of Round): Equating yourself to meat is uncommon, but should be taken seriously, like his penchance for killing. Or perhaps he is referring to a round, or bullet, but not the whole thing. Oh no, just a piece. Modesty is important in killing your opponent.

§up@f£yHor§eman (SupaflyHorseman): Probably a reference to the four horseman of the apocolypse, and also that this individual is fly. But wait, no, he's better than just fly...he's supafly. Sadly, he was not fly enough to afford typing the "er" in super and had to settle for just the "a" in supa.

-3art0ƒoeer (Heart of Beer): I think I can sum this one up using mathematical terms. If Beer = Cool and Heart > than elbow (or most body parts, for that matter), then Heart + (or filled with) beer = Cooler than an elbow with no beer. I'll let you manipulate that further.

And my favorite...

Fis7Full0fCu7thr0at "First Full of Cut Throat": If you could materialize an adjective - for example - be able to put 17 angries into a basket made of prudents, then why couldn't you have a fist full of cut throat? What would that look like? I imagine that Mr. Fis7Full0fCu7thr0at would expect you to fear that particular image heading your way. Ooooooo....

And finally, I'd like to add that, since my IP address for my CS server changes all the time, I've decided to keep it on this site on the right side of the page. I'll keep that up to date until I tire of the game and bring down the server.

UPDATE: Oh, and how cool is this?