Tomorrow we dance...

Three weeks with no post, thats impressive. I'm the worst blogger ever.

Tomorrow is the fourth Gatsby Party. It will also be the last. The times are just changing. It seems like the boundless opportunity inspired by the first half of the book has become the doldrums and despair of the last part of the book. What with the economy moving into a recession and my job prospects forever a roll of the die, it makes it difficult to follow through on the planning and investment necessary to put these on. Plus our new place just isn't very party friendly. We lost Gatsby's place, so we're losing Gatsby altogether. Maybe next year we'll have a Hooverville party.

There have been few adventures of late. Lots of planning, or really dreaming. We have discovered that if one were so inclined they might retrace the route of the old Orient Express from Paris to Constantinople by way of four daily scheduled trains. We have considered excursions much closer to home to see the last of L's relatives left in the west. We have even considered, though briefly, what a great vacation it would be to circumnavigate the world. Of course, like I said, these were not so much plans as fantasies. They mostly involved flying, so they weren't great fantasies you see.

Friday is the last Great Gatsby, Tuesday is the Dentist, as is the Thursday falling 9 days later. So, you can see where our travel money went. Perhaps if we were both ever gainfully employed for longer than three months we could put some planning forth.

- S

Progress

Yeah, I don't have the chops to stick with this. Although, I have been writing more, just in a different forum. Since I'm planning on one day making my living as a historian by writing, one would think I would want to express my thoughts more. Or not, you know, TV is on.

So, I'm making progress towards starting this new job. Its probably the most I've had to do in a two week period in years. I have to get ready for my TA job. I have to make some sort of progress on the book. Finally, I have to prepare a syllabus, and schedule, and lectures, for this class at the end of the month. It turns out its extremely time consuming to prepare a lecture. No wonder professors use the same material over and over again for years on end.

Though ask me about the rise of Athens today before the Persian wars and maybe I can tell you something worth listening to.

I have also forgotten how expensive it is to start a new job. Trips to the campus for HR work that are non-reimbursed. New shoes to wear with my old sports coats. I mean, most of my authority comes from my jacket. Its just the way it is. Of course, I had to buy a couple of new shirts too since its not really a good idea to roll in with a Recent Abduction t-shirt on. Expensive fingerprinting to make sure I'm not a criminal is up there as well.

I understand the theory behind the fingerprinting; although I disagree with it so fundamentally its not really worth discussing. Are we ever going to reach a point as a society where we say "wow, I'm pretty safe. I'll go ahead and take it from here?" I doubt it. There is a quote that is probably apocryphal about either having safety or having liberty. I'm pretty sure you can't have both. I get that on a day to day basis I don't really use the liberty that much, and that I probably take the safety for granted; but on the other hand, have you seen the news lately?

Every day the news is one story after another about the things I can't do anymore. I was pretty sure when I was a kid they told me that in this place I was innocent until proven guilty by a jury of my peers. I probably should have been suspicious since the peers of children don't sit on juries, but I digress. Well, I'll tell you what, if you pass enough laws about prevention, then the innocence becomes kind of a moot point. You're not guilty of a real crime against another person, you're simply guilty of considering the crime. Thats conspiracy to commit. I didn't crash my car because I was going too fast, but I'm guilty of going too fast. Its all for safety right? I mean, I can't carry a knife because of what people could do with a knife.

Anyway, I'm not trying to carry a knife. But it irks me a bit that I can't. It irks me a bit that my judgment and character are constantly being called into question not for things I did, but for things someone in my position could potentially do. To make a long story short, the air itself starts to feel a bit heavy on the head. Is this the place that I tell the kids about? Or is it some place that long ago gave up any pretense that being a citizen meant something. Rome did that once, and all that happened was a lot of slaughtered citizens at the hands of the government there to protect them. There's your history lesson. Class dismissed. - S

New Job

So, I got a new job. Or a new second job. I'll be teaching an accelerated Western Civ class at a somewhat local community college at the end of the month. Its a big step career wise as it gives me solo classroom experience at the college level, and it should pay alright. It was pretty obvious during the interview that the prof who did the hiring was giving me and my lack of experience a break with this job. So its appreciated. Now, I just have to prepare 16 3-hour lectures on Western Civ in the next month. You know, its one of those things that I've seen done a bunch of times, but I haven't actually done myself. We'll see how it goes. At the very least, it should help with the summertime money woes. - S

I knew it

I knew I wouldn't keep up with this thing. Of course, nothing too major has happened lately. A couple of small successes and one colossal failure. We beat SDG&E for $15, but we also bought a 42 inch LCD TV. Not that we don't love the thing like a child, and not that we didn't get a great deal, but it kind of blew up our savings.

The thinking went like this: We can't save ourselves out of our summer woes. There was no way to put the needed money away so we didn't have to pick up jobs between our education gigs. So since our entire entertainment world revolves around the screen and the speakers, we decided to risk a little for immediate reward. Is that an example of the delayed gratification we needed? No, but I was feeling really depressed about the whole situation until we got the TV. Now I feel bad about the whole situation, but I have a big TV to watch DVDs on. Such is life.

Monopolistic authority

So, today marks my return to battle with the local gas and electric concern. For those of you not familiar with the story I will relate it here. About six months ago L and I moved out into a house about two blocks from my old place, leaving my brother and a new roommate in the classic 1808. Well, since the power was in my name, I had to call and cancel their service and setup new service for our new place. The local power company got it about half right, they set me up new service, but left the old service in my name. This wasn't a problem until recently when the tenants of the 1808, who no longer included my brother, decided that the bill wasn't for them. This marked $100 of expenses for power I didn't consume, but the power company assures me that I did.

Well, they've been absolutely terrible about this situation, and really, I think this qualifies as a SNAFU for them. While they haven't called me a deadbeat in so many words (and mind you there was one late bill from an address I didn't even live at, in over four years of bills), they did allege my brother committed fraud and that I'm a liar. Well, suffice it to say that after hours of figuring out an alternative to the local power concern I'm probably just going to have to pay the bills for a location I didn't live at.

My real concern here is not the $120 total bills that I was liable for. Its that I was liable at all. If this were a credit card company, or a phone company, I'd leave their service today and switch. But its the electric company, and in California, regulation gives them a monopoly. They remain, however, a private company totally unaccountable to the consumer. I'm not sure why we allow private companies to have a legal monopoly. If we only want one choice, why aren't we running this thing as a government so that at least we could fire the head of the company when they screwed us? As it stands, when they screw us for an extra $100, they are twice rewarded. They make a profit on my $100 for power I didn't consume, and they keep me as a customer because my great state suggested that they can simply be the only going concern.

We'll see how my discussion with Ms. Hines goes today. - S

Laziness and News

Non-salary income is hard to come by. Or at least, its a pain in the arse. I've been subbing for awhile now at a Jr. High that is pretty close to my house. Its a short drive, but a drive, and I have to get up early, and I have to deal with kids, and I have to make a lunch... anyway, there is a whole laundry list of reasons why its a waste of time and I don't like it. Its not that its hard, its just that its a bunch of work for almost no money. It nets $81 a day in pay. Thats before I pay for gas, and the food, and the lost productivity on other projects. This is not to mention that awful commute it makes up to my salary job in La Jolla where I have to drive because there is barely enough time to get from School A to School B. Is it worth the gas and the trip for $81? I'm not sure. It might be, but we'll have to see.

At the end of the month I have to start thinking about summer work. Its going to be tricky (tricker I guess) because of possible contract extensions that will take me into June before I am free of my current job. So, I have to find work that will let me start after this contract extension. Finding work is hard enough, but now I have all these problems with timing. I can't very well quit this other position. Its building my resume, my experience, my connections and references, and its in my field. But, in the best case scenario, it don't pay the rent from June till October. Neither does the aforementioned $81 a day job. Your less than humble hero needs to formulate a plan this month.

Did I mention I've also gotten the bug for a big HD TV since Dad bought one? *Sigh, I'm not frugal at all.

Updates to follow on net worth as soon as I pay our bills.

Poor accounting winfall

So, I have in the past purposely fouled up my accounting. I would enter $20 in the register when I really spent $17.63. My goal was to make sure that I always had a buffer, and so that I would never be without gas money or the like. Well, I guess that practice really added up. In fact, it added up to about $100 more than L and I owed on our credit card. So, I have traded extra security and liquidity for less debt. I've paid off our last credit card, leaving us still heavily in debt, but with more manageable debt. We still owe on the car and the student loans.

I can finally start putting a little money in savings without breaking the budget. Once I get us back up to a bit of a cushion, I guess the trick is to start paying down the car faster. Well, of course, we haven't seen one bill from the student loan folks yet either, but we will this year. I'm not enrolled this semester, and by the time June rolls around we'll have the double whammy of student loans and questionable income. Though, for right now, I'm going to revel in the fact that I don't owe visa a dollar.

Getting better

First, I have to say that this post is a blatant topic rip-off, or inspiration if you're feeling generous, from An English Major's Money. She was commenting how she thought things would get better financially over time. Not just idle hope mind you, but hope stemming from her excellent plan. By living frugally now, and building up what I would consider a sizable amount of cash reserves, she will be able to splurge now and again. Its a great idea, and one that is worth the effort.

As for our own efforts, I'm not sure. To live beneath one's means requires income, and hopefully steady income. L and I don't have that yet. We're working on it though. If she picked up the letter I solicited from a former professor today then I can apply for that long shot job. If I got the long shot job we'd be three steps from easy street. So, I should go out and buy the big tv right? Well, maybe I'll wait. I have to plan this lesson for my current job by tonight anyway, so I'll just keep plugging away.

Striking a Balance

Sure, we can't afford to go out right now to nice places. That much is clear. To make matters worse, our work and school schedules seem to place L and I apart from each other a great deal right now. Its very lame. So, while I was sitting around here watching internet TV again yesterday (I'm convinced I'm getting my money's worth from American Telephone & Telegraph right now), it seemed to me that I need to strike a better balance on going out and staying in. I mean, there are only so many netflix movies you can watch in at home before one starts to get the cabin fever. I think we're fast approaching this point. Ergo, I'm setting a goal of the cheap $20 date in the neighborhood this weekend. Thats right folks, the historians are hitting the town!

- S

Updates from the frontline

So, L started her teaching credential program yesterday. Apparently they made the students sit in assigned seats in alphabetical order. When I say students I of course mean L and her cohort. What kind of school is this? Learn by example? Their first assignment was to print out the school's handbook, hole punch it, and, as a group, decide how to divide it with those page dividers they made you buy in junior high. How excellent. To top it off it had to be placed in a 3-ring binder. I told L she should go out and get a name-brand trapperkeeper (an expense I know), and to write "school sucks" on it. That way when they came by to ask about it she could tell them that treating adults like children brings childish responses. The good news is that they're headed down to get their 30-day credentials on Thursday at the SDCOE, which should hopefully alleviate some of the income issues that come with yet more graduate school.

As for myself, I've gotten a couple of more sub days next month over on the island, and I'm using this week of relative inactivity to get ahead. Now, getting ahead in my mind is split between trying to get work in the much larger SD school district, as well as watching Jericho on the internet. I'm mostly done with the TV series. The internet.... what won't they think of next.

- S

Edited: How could I forget. Tia's theme of the week is money and finance. A good friend that Tia.

Is any of it possible?

So I'm sitting here watching the Chargers lose to the Pats, and it got me to questioning the possibility of turning things around. Are some things inevitable? Maybe, maybe not. The Chargers did just take a pick from Brady in the end zone.

What really got me to thinking was this article from Alternet. Its about the economy under the current administration. To make a long story short, the article suggests that if you're like me, a working person in their twenties, you may very well be on an unalterable path to failure. [Scifers punts, so they can't capitalize] The story goes like this... try to think of something the United States produces anymore. I mean, something where you could go down and get a job manufacturing it. Can you think of anything? I can't. The author suggests that we start developing alternative energy, medicine, infrastructure and other ideas. I'd like to see that. Presumably there are things this country can do well. Things that you and I can do well, if only we could afford to get it going. Thus I try to pay off the debt.

I don't know about you loyal reader, but I'm very concerned about the fate of our generation. It appears that the Babyboomers have been marked by mediocrity. What have they accomplished? What will we accomplish? Give me five years to get it all together. I'll let you know.

- S

P.S. Oh, and silver was up to $16.20 an ounce today. Amazing. Ron Paul might have a point.

The Two Job Phenomenon

Just to be clear, while two jobs for two broke historians would on average mean one job per historian, this is not the actual distribution of jobs. So, yesterday I began my long days of substitute teaching in the morning for some extra money and then racing up to the University to sit through the lecture that I'm on salary to sit through. Let me tell you it was a close call. The jr. high ends classes at 3:00PM and the University lecture is at 4:00PM. Your intrepid hero made it at 3:55. Whew.

Was it worth it? I'm not sure yet. The extra money is going to help pay down that credit card debt, which in the long run will save us money, or rather will allow us to save money. We also have to be honest, for all the cat wrangling involved, being a substitute teacher is a pretty easy gig. There is no boss in the room, no customers, no phone calls to answer, and at the end of the day there really isn't a quota to have met. So, its pretty easy stuff. Its just a long day that begins at 8:00 and ends at 5:00PM. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking "S, those are normal business hours." To you I'd say yeah, but I'm a teacher and an academic, and I'm not supposed to have to do things like that. Boo hoo for me. - S

Chasing rates

So, I was reading on another blog how Washington Mutual, a bank where I already hold accounts, will give you a 4.75% rate. Now, that bests the 4.10% that is given by ING. It sounded good. L and I need a joint checking account anyway, this savings account has to be tied to a new checking account, so it seemed win-win. I signed up, put in the info, and told them to transfer $100 into each new account from my current WAMU savings. Seemed great. Well, then came the questions. Who was my first born? Is Pluto a planet or a planetoid? Who holds your student loans? How much do you pay?
Okay, so I had trouble with the last two, and thats, well, troubling. Who does hold my student loans? I haven't seen any literature from anyone on those in years, and the ways I figure it, they'll be coming due some time in summer. Or at least I'll start making payments on that gargantuan debt. So, thanks WAMU for making me realize that I need to figure out what the heck is going on with, by far, the largest and most important debt to my name. Between L & I, these loans make up the majority of our debt. About $38,000 worth. Its scary to think I don't have the slightest idea how they work at all. - S

Learning valuable lessons

So, I decided the other day to role the dice with my meager retirement savings through the UC system just to see what would happen. Or rather with 44% of it anyway. I bought into a long range fund managed by the UC system, and it immediately lost money. I went from having $411 in my retirement to $409. Stupid stock market. Why did I choose to buy into a retirement based on stocks during the worst starting weeks for the market in 17 years? Who knows. What I did learn is that investing is a long term process. I'm already rallying. When I checked it today, it was up to $410.95. Yeah, I'm going to be on easy street. - S

First Post

I've been reading a lot of different blogs lately. Most about personal finance, but some just about the tribulations of making life simply go. I've always liked the idea behind a blog. A journal to record the brilliant thoughts and adventures of life, but with the ability to share them with the world (and of course by world I mean the 1 person who might one day stumble upon this web address). Mostly, it seems like it might be cathartic to publish the attempt of two historians trying to make their way in the world. Can we stay afloat financially? Can we get into Ph.D. programs within a reasonable distance of one another? Can we eventually get work in our chosen field? Who knows!?! We'll find out together - S