I fixed all my banking today. Sigh.
I actually have very few expenses, because I don't own a car. I don't say I have small expenses, I just don't have many. No car insurance, no registration, no car payments.
And it's winter. Very very winter. And I haven't biked in a week, which saddens me.
But soon SWDNYHABN and I are off to Germany for two weeks! SO MUCH FUN!
23.2.11
TIME TRAVEL BY JOVE!
PATRON WANTED: I am seekinge a patron to sponsor me in the development of a time travel device, a mechanism if you will. The purpose of this device will be to enable myself to travel BACK IN TIME to a period approximately eight years ago, and punch myself in the gob.
THE PURPOSE thereof is to perhaps instill in my younger self a bit of a sense of humility and an understanding that despite my impression at the time, I was not nearly as brilliant as I thought, and that perhaps being sliiiiightly less satisfied with myself would prevent future turmoil.
PERHAPS THEN I would have talked half as much at half as many people half as loudly about half as many things half as certainly. I calculate that this would create a reduction of at least 24% in moments that would cause me to cringe in the future.
THE PURPOSE thereof is to perhaps instill in my younger self a bit of a sense of humility and an understanding that despite my impression at the time, I was not nearly as brilliant as I thought, and that perhaps being sliiiiightly less satisfied with myself would prevent future turmoil.
PERHAPS THEN I would have talked half as much at half as many people half as loudly about half as many things half as certainly. I calculate that this would create a reduction of at least 24% in moments that would cause me to cringe in the future.
9.2.11
Excelsior!
The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, ‘mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!
They said "pop up the mountain, Charlie
It's lovely up there.
It's an easy walk and you'll love the view,
And then we'll have a party for you"
Excelsior!
And as he climbed, they said, "Hey Chuck,
As soon as you get to the top
There'll be a big party and such"
And then they heard him shout:
Excelsior!
"Oh dear," they said, "you didn't see
You climbed the hill too slowlily
You should have known that from the start
Your climbing wasn't worth a fart"
Excelsior!
How dare you mock by climbing slow
Over the rocky slopes of snow
We are so angry you would try
Now go away, you make us cry
Excelsior!
There in the twilight cold and gray,
Tired, but very cold he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star,
Excelsior!
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, ‘mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!
They said "pop up the mountain, Charlie
It's lovely up there.
It's an easy walk and you'll love the view,
And then we'll have a party for you"
Excelsior!
And as he climbed, they said, "Hey Chuck,
As soon as you get to the top
There'll be a big party and such"
And then they heard him shout:
Excelsior!
"Oh dear," they said, "you didn't see
You climbed the hill too slowlily
You should have known that from the start
Your climbing wasn't worth a fart"
Excelsior!
How dare you mock by climbing slow
Over the rocky slopes of snow
We are so angry you would try
Now go away, you make us cry
Excelsior!
There in the twilight cold and gray,
Tired, but very cold he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star,
Excelsior!
8.2.11
A series of very small thoughts
Goldarned phony-baloney intellectualists, mistaking snarkiness for wit, and rudeness for frankness.
I have been given some amazing things in my life. I'm lucky that I didn't have to earn them first. Doesn't mean I don't have to earn them though.
I am saving lots of money by taking lunches, and by buying two really good beers for SWDNYHABN rather than 6 ok ones.
It's really cold. And my bike is in terrible shape as a result. I wish I could put it in my garage. SOON I DESPERATELY HOPE.
I have been given some amazing things in my life. I'm lucky that I didn't have to earn them first. Doesn't mean I don't have to earn them though.
I am saving lots of money by taking lunches, and by buying two really good beers for SWDNYHABN rather than 6 ok ones.
It's really cold. And my bike is in terrible shape as a result. I wish I could put it in my garage. SOON I DESPERATELY HOPE.
2.2.11
Calories
So an average Canadian is 1.48 metres tall with a BMI of 25.
So that person is 57 Kilos.
And needs to lose... 4 kilos.
Alright, so our average Canadian needs to burn... 30,836 calories.
This overweightness is estimated to cost us, um, holy crap, 4,300,000,000. There are 30,000,000 average canadians, so, that's um, 143$ a person.
Dang, that's not much money.
Now, how can we burn 30,000 calories?
I'm going to take cycling as activity #1. Cycling burns 450 calories an hour, so after 66 hours of cycling, calories are burned. One more hour of cycling once a week in the summer over 3 years.
Example #2 is more interesting: 234 hours of climbing stairs. Say you go to work, and you take the elevator up one floor. If you walk the stairs, in and out, 5 days a week, that's, um, 10 trips, 30 seconds each trip, 10 minutes a week, 520 minutes a year which is 8.6 hours, you'll burn all those calories in... 27 years.
Damn. I though we could afford and justify this:
EDIT: Ok, so that's 30,000 calories per person, 30,000,000 of us, that's, um, 900,000,000,000 calories, at a cost of $4,300,000,000, so that's 900,000 to $4,300, so 9,000 to $43 (round up for easy math to $45), so it's 1,000 calories need to burned at a cost of $5, or 200 calories burned for a dollar. Every dollar we spend on fitness programming needs to burn more than 200 calories. Huh
So that person is 57 Kilos.
And needs to lose... 4 kilos.
Alright, so our average Canadian needs to burn... 30,836 calories.
This overweightness is estimated to cost us, um, holy crap, 4,300,000,000. There are 30,000,000 average canadians, so, that's um, 143$ a person.
Dang, that's not much money.
Now, how can we burn 30,000 calories?
I'm going to take cycling as activity #1. Cycling burns 450 calories an hour, so after 66 hours of cycling, calories are burned. One more hour of cycling once a week in the summer over 3 years.
Example #2 is more interesting: 234 hours of climbing stairs. Say you go to work, and you take the elevator up one floor. If you walk the stairs, in and out, 5 days a week, that's, um, 10 trips, 30 seconds each trip, 10 minutes a week, 520 minutes a year which is 8.6 hours, you'll burn all those calories in... 27 years.
Damn. I though we could afford and justify this:
EDIT: Ok, so that's 30,000 calories per person, 30,000,000 of us, that's, um, 900,000,000,000 calories, at a cost of $4,300,000,000, so that's 900,000 to $4,300, so 9,000 to $43 (round up for easy math to $45), so it's 1,000 calories need to burned at a cost of $5, or 200 calories burned for a dollar. Every dollar we spend on fitness programming needs to burn more than 200 calories. Huh
27.1.11
Sports and Arts
So a wise woman of my acquaintance postulates the sports and arts have a similarly beneficial effect on your community.
If sports teams provide the same kind of benefit, do they provide them in the same way?
It's good to have an arts scene. It encourages artistic endeavour in community members, it encourages people from afar to come to your community to participate in the arts world, and it challenges, in extreme cases, the community to express itself against repression or intolerance.. Ok, let's do a google for "athletes call for..."
Alright, sports passed that test...
Ok, so it's also good to go and experience the arts. I suspect it exposes you to other cultures, it's likely good for your brain, it probably offsets any number of mental diseases. It lowers blood pressure, it engages passion, etc. Any benefits to being a sports spectator? Well I'll be damned. Also "No results found for "watching sports makes you dumber""
Ok, this next one is a gimme. Supporting culture helps cause all the things above, I'm not even going to bother to google whether supporting sports does the same. So I'll just put this here:
(I'd give him $70)
I'm still not 100% sold. Why do sports not have the same reputation as arts, then? Maybe it's because the 'stereotypical' sports fan does not exemplify the benefits above.
We expect to see the fan on the left, instead of the fans on the right.
Ok, I have to wrap this one u
In summary, sports and arts are equally good for you if you let them be. It's easier with arts because we value the benefits, and recognize them, and celebrate them as the primary reason for the thing. In sports, if we value the benefits above more than we value winning, then we see the benefits, and reap them.
I do not say we have to do away with competition, because I believe that competition is heart and soul to sport (this is not fitness, this is sport!)
Now, for a moment, I was terrified that I had talked myself into supporting the public funding of the downtown arena, but I think I have solved that one too. The downtown arena would be privately owned, and thus not erected for the promotion of the benefits above. So I would support a publicly owned arena. Following up from that, I believe we have a good community-owned arena now, owned by "a non-profit, volunteer organization... founded in 1879, before the official incorporation of the city."
What did I miss?
If sports teams provide the same kind of benefit, do they provide them in the same way?
It's good to have an arts scene. It encourages artistic endeavour in community members, it encourages people from afar to come to your community to participate in the arts world, and it challenges, in extreme cases, the community to express itself against repression or intolerance.. Ok, let's do a google for "athletes call for..."
Alright, sports passed that test...
Ok, so it's also good to go and experience the arts. I suspect it exposes you to other cultures, it's likely good for your brain, it probably offsets any number of mental diseases. It lowers blood pressure, it engages passion, etc. Any benefits to being a sports spectator? Well I'll be damned. Also "No results found for "watching sports makes you dumber""
Ok, this next one is a gimme. Supporting culture helps cause all the things above, I'm not even going to bother to google whether supporting sports does the same. So I'll just put this here:
(I'd give him $70)
I'm still not 100% sold. Why do sports not have the same reputation as arts, then? Maybe it's because the 'stereotypical' sports fan does not exemplify the benefits above.
We expect to see the fan on the left, instead of the fans on the right. Ok, I have to wrap this one u
In summary, sports and arts are equally good for you if you let them be. It's easier with arts because we value the benefits, and recognize them, and celebrate them as the primary reason for the thing. In sports, if we value the benefits above more than we value winning, then we see the benefits, and reap them.
I do not say we have to do away with competition, because I believe that competition is heart and soul to sport (this is not fitness, this is sport!)
Now, for a moment, I was terrified that I had talked myself into supporting the public funding of the downtown arena, but I think I have solved that one too. The downtown arena would be privately owned, and thus not erected for the promotion of the benefits above. So I would support a publicly owned arena. Following up from that, I believe we have a good community-owned arena now, owned by "a non-profit, volunteer organization... founded in 1879, before the official incorporation of the city."
What did I miss?
26.1.11
Finances
So I do some pretty detailed analysis of my spending on an ongoing basis.
Now that 2010 is over, I have some interesting numbers:
I spent $2,633 on groceries; about $8 a day. So far this year, I have spent $278, which is about $10 a day. Expected net result, spending will be up $730 this year.
I spent $3,550 dining out; about $10 a day. So far this year I have spent $178 dining out; about $7 a day. Expected net result, spending will drop $1,095.
Hey, so far I'm up $300 on the year! Taking my lunch FTW! The downside is that by the time lunch-time gets here, I'm hungry! I don't like being hungry.
I spent... um... sigh... $1,377 on alcohol, or about $4 a day. So far this year I have spent $192 on booze, about $8 a day. DING DONG CRAP. However.... if I eliminate one very high end purchase, it's only $5 a day, so a yearly increase on this of $365.
The last of my top-four discretionary expenses is... shall we say a particularly popular northern coffee emporium? Last year I paid $496 for their delicious delicious coffee, or about $1.50 a day. This year I have successfully cut it down to $1 a day so far...
So so far, breaking even! Or so.
:)
Now that 2010 is over, I have some interesting numbers:
I spent $2,633 on groceries; about $8 a day. So far this year, I have spent $278, which is about $10 a day. Expected net result, spending will be up $730 this year.
I spent $3,550 dining out; about $10 a day. So far this year I have spent $178 dining out; about $7 a day. Expected net result, spending will drop $1,095.
Hey, so far I'm up $300 on the year! Taking my lunch FTW! The downside is that by the time lunch-time gets here, I'm hungry! I don't like being hungry.
I spent... um... sigh... $1,377 on alcohol, or about $4 a day. So far this year I have spent $192 on booze, about $8 a day. DING DONG CRAP. However.... if I eliminate one very high end purchase, it's only $5 a day, so a yearly increase on this of $365.
The last of my top-four discretionary expenses is... shall we say a particularly popular northern coffee emporium? Last year I paid $496 for their delicious delicious coffee, or about $1.50 a day. This year I have successfully cut it down to $1 a day so far...
So so far, breaking even! Or so.
:)
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