New Car, Money, and the Future

IT'S TIME FOR A CAR FROM THIS CENTURY. I put in an order for a new car. I'm (hopefully) getting a 2012 Subaru Impreza 5 door with some pretty nice bells and whistles. This comes to about $24,500 before tax and licensing. I'm probably going to have a car payment of about $350-$400 a month, depending on interest rate. But, I'll have a dependable car for the next 5+ years. And, I'll be getting significantly better gas mileage and I will have AWD.

My car will look something like this:


All this talking about car stuff got me thinking about house stuff too. So, I've been talking to my good friend Swap about houses, as he just bought one. He pointed me to this site. It helps you calculate how much house you can afford. Time to start saving for a downpayment and looking into areas I might want to live. I think that in the next 1-3 years may be a good time to get something, especially if interest rates stay so low.

The future is exciting.

New Year's Resolutions

Brain dump for New Year's Resolutions.

Now, I'm not usually the type to make resolutions, but I feel that setting some goals for myself will be advantageous. They're not going to be big and hopefully they'll be obtainable.

1. Exercise at least 3 days a week for at least 30 minutes. I need to start exercising more. I've intended to start exercising in the morning before work for several months now. I just can't seem to pull myself out of bed early enough. Hopefully I can find time 3 days a week.

2. Eat healthier. More vegetables, less sweets/pop. With my stomach problems over the past 2 years, I've tended to eat lots of sweets. "This ice cream will make my stomach feel better" is a bad approach to food consumption. Also, with full time employment, I haven't always found the time to eat healthy meals.

3. Find more hobbies. I feel stuck in a rut. I always talk about all of the hobbies I have had in the past. Over the last few years, I haven't made time for any hobbies. I'd like to start painting again, maybe go skiing a few times this winter, and look into joining some sort of musical ensemble or at least try to make music on my own.

4. Learn new things outside of work. Now that I am no longer a student, I don't have new knowledge poured into me constantly. I need to start seeking this in places other than my job. Perhaps picking up interesting books from the library or store every month would be a reasonable goal. These would be topics related to my job or my hobbies.

5. Empty my closets. I have too much crap. Time to get rid of the things I never use. This includes clothes, video games, computer parts, and hobby gear.

6. Make time to do things with my family. Now that I'm not living with my family, I need to make time to do things with them. Especially with my mother moving soon, I need to make sure I spend as much time with her as I can when she is only 2 hours away instead of several. Also, my sister is done with school now and I'm not sure how long she'll be in Minneapolis/Minnesota. They're all I have left. I need to make sure they are a part of my life.

7. Complain less. I find myself complaining a lot, and it bugs me. I'm sure it also bugs the people around me. This includes "I'm hungry," "My *insert body part here* hurts," "Oh yeah? Well I have it worse than you...," and "I'm tired."

New Job n Stuff

I've been rather busy the last few days, but I've got a few minutes so I figured I'd write a little bit about my new job.

On Monday I started work as an intern for a company that designs, builds, and manufactures rapid prototyping machines. These machines are essentially ink jet printers that instead of giving you a 2D picture on paper give you a 3D plastic model. Pretty interesting stuff. They brought me on this summer after experiencing layoffs in February and needing more help with projects. In my first two days, I've received a whirlwind tour of the facilities and an overview of the technology. I'm still a little confused, but as I get more in depth with my work, hopefully things will become more clear.

The worst part about my job is the commute. I hate driving in the metropolitan area, and I generally avoid traveling at rush hour at all costs. The freeways are packed, the cars are occupied solely by the driver, people are on cell phones... I hate it. Unfortunately, I must drive what is normally a 25 minute drive every morning and every evening. I believe it is approximately 40 miles round trip. On my first day (Monday), I left early. The traffic wasn't terrible... but it was bad enough to cause me to slam on my brakes, giving the ambulance traveling behind me the opportunity to see if it liked how my bumper tasted. It gave it a lick, but found the paint unappealing. After assuring the ambulance driver that I was indeed okay, I made it to work. I also faced rush hour on the way home from work as well, needing to leave at precisely 5pm. One thing they never tell you is that "Minnesota Nice" does not apply when driving and when given the opportunity, drivers are asses. Highway 62E has a stretch of one-lane traffic due to road construction. Miles leading up to this juncture are slow going, sometimes crawling more slowly than my speedometer cares to register. Upon reaching the bottleneck, traffic moves freely at a normal 40-60mph. If everyone obeyed the merge signs properly and cordially, perhaps it would not be as much of a hold up.

Anyway, I'm done ranting. I've got to get to work!

pssst... LAN PARTY THIS WEEKEND YAY!

A New Blog, A New Adventure

Today is Friday, January 30th, 2009. It is 11:53am CST. I am writing a blog.

I have kept many blogs over the years on various sites. Most of them erased with the sands of the internet. (After all, what is the internet but a large etch-a-sketch with way too many knobs?) In fact, I had a blog on this very website 3 years ago. It is probably gone because of the google takeover. So it goes.

I will mostly use this blog to keep track of the happenings of my life. There have been a number of radical (and, yes also rad) changes in my life since September 08.

• I started grad school at the University of Minnesota. I have joined a lab group that studies digital logic synthesis and synthetic biology (think: computing with biochemical reactions). I have enjoyed this new work and I look forward to possibly completing my Ph.D. in the next five years. Only time will tell.
• I ended a long-term relationship. I am single for the first time since starting college. This is very confusing for me, but on the other hand, my life has been new and exciting. I am also very happy with myself, my new friends, and my new life.
• I came back to Minneapolis after spending a long summer with my parents. There were a number of reasons I left the city that has been my home for four years for the one that was my home for eighteen. I may write blogs about this later. For now, let's just say it was an eye opening experience that sparked lots of the recent changes in my life.

With these three major changes in my life, I have transformed. I'd like to say I became roach, but that metaphor doesn't quite work in this situation. I'd like to say I'm a butterfly or something poetic like that, but I'm not quite so eloquent. Let's just say I opened my eyes for the first time in years.

With this blog, I will keep track of my "new" life and hopefully remember all of the lessons I have learned during past twenty two years. Additionally, I will keep track of the new lessons I learn along the way.