April 2011 Archives

as the cats race around the apartment in their daily burst of insanity, i'm sitting here quietly celebrating the first time i've been bank loan free in the last ~15 years. hell, it's been so long, i can't even remember when i first started building debt. it was probably 1990 when i filled out that credit card application i found at the Capilano College (now University) campus. oh, how i wish i could go back in time and rip that thing out of my hand...

in the the interest of full disclosure, yes, i still have a car loan. so, i do still owe a bank money; but, i consider that an expense since it's a 0% loan and doesn't exceed the amount i was paying just for repairs for the Golf.

with a lot of hard work and spreadsheet time, i've been on track to pay off the bank for the last couple of years. the purchase of my new car last year threw a bit of a wrench in the plans to be entirely debt-free by this coming summer; but, when i realized that i was literally throwing money away on endless repairs, taking a bit of a detour was worth the delay in debt-freedom. regardless, i did manage to, while making payments on my new car, pay off $13,000 owing to RBC in just 13 months!

i made a lot of sacrifices to get here and i have a fair bit of rebuilding to do before i'm back in what i'd consider a comfortable financial situation, but the psychological payoff is so very worth it.

i will never pay interest again!

pending BIG NEWS to be announced (hopefully) tomorrow, i bring you a list of awesome possible tweets thanks to the That Can Be My Next Tweet generator:

• I REALLY wanted umbrella when i let you hate FAT32?
• I could. can I might explain the mocking. my gallbladder is definitely sick.
• Huh? : - oh! what's for taking him look bad. ; huh? : one will come complete the mocking.
• Busy reading Piers Anthony & zinc and have to acknowledge work emails which i write them ass bars.
• One will make funny faces when i have to arrive. hello inbox zero!
• Dinner when you're late to see SuckerPunch. I got it isn't TPass. - will come fast enough. really.
• I have things which felt weird. the Internet until Amy pushed her sister in, that was a flu, but I like!
• I'm thinking I never know that with five loads of the cattle prod charging all night!
• No coffee tastes gross. coconut flavour. - oh good. epic two-and-a-half-hour nap.
• I'm kinda glad I know, right?
• Current mood huh. sounds like they're having another gall bladder attack or i hope it's going out cats!
• Cats are confused. cats make you thought it both easy and confused. cats don't bother. - nope!
• I'm giddy! really?

because @strombo touched mine!

Kimli took me to see George Stroumboulopoulos at the CBC today. he is shorter than he looks on tv, but nicer, funnier and oh-so-chatty. thanks to Kim & Ed being in line way early and Ed's excellent seat-snagging we were DEAD CENTRE for the taping.

afterwards, we loitered longly in the meet'n'greet so i could do two things: get a photo taken with Canada's Boyfriend and not make a fool of myself asking for either: him to talk to my mom on the phone (she's in love with him) or make a new voicemail message for me. guess which i asked for? sorry, mom!

anyway, i'm super headachy from all the clapping and lack of proper snacks, so this post is short and hyper. but, yeah, i met George and he's really nice.

that bastard.

and here's a photo of me being adorable while George records the above message, taken by the talented and happily handy John Biehler:

(p.s. hey, rss people. there is audio content in this post you must click through to the site to hear. click! go on!)

i originally started composing this post in my head. when i realized that particular grey blob wasn't reliable enough to record all the details, i dictated it to my iphone thinking i'd transcribe it here. upon re-listening to it several weeks later, i came to the conclusion that i didn't want to subject it to the rules of grammar and the inevitable edits and minor adjustments posts go through before, and sometimes after, hitting "post".

it doesn't conclude and it doesn't include a lot of other things i might add if i were to type it out, but that's okay. some things don't need to be finished.

.m4a link because the embedded player broke the internet.

you may never know it, Derek K. Miller, but you've touched my heart. i wish yours nothing but joy in every moment you have left.

update: Derek passed away at home with his family by his side on May 3, 2011. if he wasn't what a great man is supposed to be, i don't know what else to call him. you can read his final post here.