I thought about writing this for a while now, at least on and off for the last few months. Its not really that important of a topic. I can never really remember any Valentine's Day in specific detail. I've never had a long term relationship and I've never had a relationship around February.
Valentine's Day is just a normal day. Nothing really special about it. As a little kid, you just think of that day in elementary school where all the students exchange cards and give each other candy. When you become an adult, it is one of those days where couples get romantic and hook up. If you are alone and have no one to hook up with, you are supposed to feel bitter and miserable.
Supposed to feel bitter and miserable? I've never seen the reason to do that. I can only vaguely remember Valentine's Day of 2012. I remember I had a job interview that day for some lousy sales position at some company. After that, I think I was skating the park with my friends. Around that time, I was excited that Metal Gear Rising: Revengence came out. I had been waiting for that game to release for 2 years. Of course, I didn't buy it. I just watching the game on youtube. And that is all I remember about that Valentine's Day. I wasn't down because of some woman. I remember being stressed out because of unemployment.
I think it was earlier this year that a few people wanted to make February 14th international MGTOW day. Personally, I think a better day for it would have been the independence day of the respective country. Celebrate freedom, that's what I say. Even though I'm indifferent to Valentine's Day, I just didn't like the idea of pooping all over it. I wouldn't like to be the Grinch and ruin something that other people were enjoying. Its for that reason I won't hate on Valentine's Day.
On February 14th 2011, I spent $32 on gas and $1.23 on a container of Tic Tacs. That is the only information I have about that particular day. And that is just because I keep a record of all of my purchases.
But there are some people that get absolutely miserable about being alone on Valentine's Day. I guess this is a common television trope. The first time I remember it was from the cartoon Alvin and the Chipmunks. Man, I must have been only 6 or 7 when I saw it. Alvin was completely torn up about a former girlfriend. I don't remember the rest of the episode though. I think Alvin dressed up in some kind of Zoro costume though.
I guess when you are younger, it is easier to believe in romance. But as you get older and more cynical, any sort of relationship just looks like the exchange of attention and resources for physical intimacy and affection.
This experience ruined a few things for me. One of which is the Goo Goo Dolls. I will admit that I liked a lot of there songs as a little kid. Slide and Iris were the two best. But when I hear them today.... Ok I still like those songs. It is a little bit of a guilty pleasure. However, I know that the songs are just complete nonsense. I like those songs for the nostalgia.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Thursday, August 27, 2015
The best advice no one ever told me: Always have an exit strategy
I have to say, one of the worst feelings in the world is being trapped in something. And then slowly watching the jaws of doom bite out your kidneys. Getting trapped in a situation tends to be more common in long term commitments. Be it a business partnership that goes sour, a marriage that goes sour, a career path that goes sour, all of this can be miserable. For this reason, I remember a quote from some movie that I don't remember.
I never agree to anything that I can't walk away from at the drop of a hat (or maybe it was in 5 minutes). This is why I've never wanted a wife or kids. This is why I reconsidered buying a traditional house. This is why I never dropped a ton of money or took out a ton of debt to finance a business. This is why I haven't invested a ton of money in the stock market or bought 30 year government bonds. But I have taken on a job in a miserable career path.
There are some long term commitments that are a necessary evil. With my current career path, I've had days where I've wanted to shoot myself in the head and days where I've wanted to drive into on coming traffic and I've experienced everything in between.
But whether it is a marriage, job, investment, or any other long term obligation, you will do yourself a favor if you try to keep your options open and have a way to get out of there. Made some dumb financial decisions? There is bankruptcy. Got stuck in a lousy career path? Save up several thousand dollars and find another opportunity. Got trapped in a terrible marriage? Consult a lawyer.
The other important part to this advice is deciding when to execute your exit strategy. A lot of fret and worry is caused by not knowing when to follow through. Make sure to draw that line in the sand ahead of time and execute your leave once that line is crossed.
Hopefully this will prevent you from doing the Smith and Wesson retirement plan.
I never agree to anything that I can't walk away from at the drop of a hat (or maybe it was in 5 minutes). This is why I've never wanted a wife or kids. This is why I reconsidered buying a traditional house. This is why I never dropped a ton of money or took out a ton of debt to finance a business. This is why I haven't invested a ton of money in the stock market or bought 30 year government bonds. But I have taken on a job in a miserable career path.
There are some long term commitments that are a necessary evil. With my current career path, I've had days where I've wanted to shoot myself in the head and days where I've wanted to drive into on coming traffic and I've experienced everything in between.
But whether it is a marriage, job, investment, or any other long term obligation, you will do yourself a favor if you try to keep your options open and have a way to get out of there. Made some dumb financial decisions? There is bankruptcy. Got stuck in a lousy career path? Save up several thousand dollars and find another opportunity. Got trapped in a terrible marriage? Consult a lawyer.
The other important part to this advice is deciding when to execute your exit strategy. A lot of fret and worry is caused by not knowing when to follow through. Make sure to draw that line in the sand ahead of time and execute your leave once that line is crossed.
Hopefully this will prevent you from doing the Smith and Wesson retirement plan.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Personal Spending Report: December 2010
For the month of December 2010, I spent a total of $595.79.
$223 was spent on full coverage car insurance
$108 was spent on gas
I spent $100 on a new skateboard
$44 was spent on fast food. I hadn't yet made it a bad habit.
I spent $30 on beer (can't remember if it was at a bar or a case of beer for a party)
$20 was spent on a haircut
$20 was spent on prepaid minutes for my phone (total of 120 minutes)
The rest of money was spent on miscellaneous items.
The most notable change on this month was that my employer at the time brought me on as a full time employee. My time as an independent contractor was over. This did have some pros and cons. The major cons was that withholding from my paycheck started. Had I just worked 40 hours at $12 an hour, I would have made $480. After getting on salary, I started out making $500 a week. After taxes and fica, my take home pay was $400 a week. The pro was the fact that I was expected only to work 8 hours a day and had a set schedule. I was also not required to show up on Saturdays. At this rate, my annual salary was $26000 annually and my take home pay was $21100 (I rounded off the numbers).
This month, I took home $1600. After expenses were deducted, I saved my goal of $1000.
This was one of the worst months of work I can remember. My job duties was to send payments out for child care benefits. While not just processing invoices, I also handled customer service which meant I would get constantly interrupted to talk to the clients.
With it being December, these families depended on getting reimbursed on time to pay for Christmas related expenses. This resulted in some really hostile and nasty phone calls. Constantly I was tempted to tell those jerks that they shouldn't have had kids they couldn't afford but it wouldn't be until a few years later that I realized that those kids were being used as a source of income to gain benefits via the federal government. I think it was December 23rd or 24th that my coworkers were going to go out for lunch after work but I was so pissed off from work that I just left and went home. It was only going to get worse for the next few months.
I used a tracfone for all my phone calls. I had a phone that gave me double minutes for life. It was the same phone I had been using for my last year of college. $20 gave me 120 minutes.
This was also back when I used to go to a barber to cut my have. The hair cut cost $15 each time and I always gave a $5 tip.
This month, I felt kind of secure. I decided to buy a new skateboard as I had been putting it for for some time. I also remember getting some pizza and beer with some friends. Out of the three of us, they both looked at me like I was the successful one of the trio. I was the only one who graduated college at the time and found a white collar job.
I looked up my birthday and saw that I spent no money. I remember my coworkers bought me lunch from Steak and Shake. That evening, my parents took me to Dave and Busters. I remember having one or two 22 ounce Blue Moons. There was some guy playing an acoustic guitar. He was paying a cover of the song "Secret Agent Man".
2010 had been just an absolute miserable year. I was glad to see it go.
$223 was spent on full coverage car insurance
$108 was spent on gas
I spent $100 on a new skateboard
$44 was spent on fast food. I hadn't yet made it a bad habit.
I spent $30 on beer (can't remember if it was at a bar or a case of beer for a party)
$20 was spent on a haircut
$20 was spent on prepaid minutes for my phone (total of 120 minutes)
The rest of money was spent on miscellaneous items.
The most notable change on this month was that my employer at the time brought me on as a full time employee. My time as an independent contractor was over. This did have some pros and cons. The major cons was that withholding from my paycheck started. Had I just worked 40 hours at $12 an hour, I would have made $480. After getting on salary, I started out making $500 a week. After taxes and fica, my take home pay was $400 a week. The pro was the fact that I was expected only to work 8 hours a day and had a set schedule. I was also not required to show up on Saturdays. At this rate, my annual salary was $26000 annually and my take home pay was $21100 (I rounded off the numbers).
This month, I took home $1600. After expenses were deducted, I saved my goal of $1000.
This was one of the worst months of work I can remember. My job duties was to send payments out for child care benefits. While not just processing invoices, I also handled customer service which meant I would get constantly interrupted to talk to the clients.
With it being December, these families depended on getting reimbursed on time to pay for Christmas related expenses. This resulted in some really hostile and nasty phone calls. Constantly I was tempted to tell those jerks that they shouldn't have had kids they couldn't afford but it wouldn't be until a few years later that I realized that those kids were being used as a source of income to gain benefits via the federal government. I think it was December 23rd or 24th that my coworkers were going to go out for lunch after work but I was so pissed off from work that I just left and went home. It was only going to get worse for the next few months.
I used a tracfone for all my phone calls. I had a phone that gave me double minutes for life. It was the same phone I had been using for my last year of college. $20 gave me 120 minutes.
This was also back when I used to go to a barber to cut my have. The hair cut cost $15 each time and I always gave a $5 tip.
This month, I felt kind of secure. I decided to buy a new skateboard as I had been putting it for for some time. I also remember getting some pizza and beer with some friends. Out of the three of us, they both looked at me like I was the successful one of the trio. I was the only one who graduated college at the time and found a white collar job.
I looked up my birthday and saw that I spent no money. I remember my coworkers bought me lunch from Steak and Shake. That evening, my parents took me to Dave and Busters. I remember having one or two 22 ounce Blue Moons. There was some guy playing an acoustic guitar. He was paying a cover of the song "Secret Agent Man".
2010 had been just an absolute miserable year. I was glad to see it go.
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Dragonball Z linked to Body Building Confirmed
I started lifting weights when I was 14 just because of all the DBZ I watched as a little kid. Although, at the time, I thought it was because I was just some kind of nerdy otaku.
I just came across this video where George Leeman was deadlifting 800 lbs multiple times. Apparently he was a big DBZ fan when he was younger too. He says this around 7 minutes and 30 seconds into the video. I know it is just an anecdote but hearing him say that is just too priceless. And man, this guy is jacked.
I just came across this video where George Leeman was deadlifting 800 lbs multiple times. Apparently he was a big DBZ fan when he was younger too. He says this around 7 minutes and 30 seconds into the video. I know it is just an anecdote but hearing him say that is just too priceless. And man, this guy is jacked.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Personal Spending Report November 2010
One of the things that kids don't really learn about is how much stuff costs. If a kid wanted to make estimates about cost of living, it will be kind of tricky because of a lack of real world experience. Since everyone is different, everyone will spend different amounts of money on different items. For this reason, there is no real book a man can read to find out what the cost of living is. It is here where I would like to lend some assistance.
Ever since October of 2010, I've recorded all the stuff I've purchased into logs in order to know how and where I spend my money. I've created detailed reports for myself and put my life down on spreadsheets. In this chain of posts, I'll report real data of all the stuff I've bought over the last few years and how much it cost. All this is done to provide information for how much stuff costs in the real world for kids that haven't entered the working world yet. The other reason for this is for me to remember my journey for the last few years.
Here is where I was in November of 2010.
In November of 2010, I was working my first job fresh out of college. At the time, I was being paid $12 an hour as an independent contractor and I didn't have a cap on the amount of hours I worked. Because of this, I was happy to work more than 40 hours each week. With the timing of the paychecks, I earned a little more than $2700 that month.
At this time, I was still living with my parents as it was my intention to save up enough money to buy a house with 100% cash in order to avoid taking out a mortgage. As soon as I started working, I made the decision to never get married or have kids. I did still want a house. My parents encouraged me to live with them in order to not waste money on rent. I was glad to do so.
I had no girlfriend and made no real effort to date. The furthest extent to finding a woman was to reach out to maybe one or two girls I remembered in college.
My work site was the closest I ever had. It was more than 11 miles away but less than 20 miles. I had no reason to take the highways.
Lastly, in my free time, I would play videogames, skateboard, and lift weights.
The car that I was driving was given to me by my father. I had no car note. Speaking of loans, I had none. I came out of college with no debts. I had merit based scholarship that paid for my tuition.
I was in a very good position for where I was. Even though I would eventually be working for a salary of less than $30,000 a year, I was still able to save $1000 each month because of how little I spent.
For November 2010, I spent a total of $478.20.
The biggest expense I had was my car insurance. I spent $222.75. My premium was expenses but I did have full coverage.
My gas expense was only $61 for this month. Normally, gas would have cost me over $100 however my dad filled up my tank because we took a trip to South Carolina to visit relatives.
I spent $51.79 on fast food. I got fast food 7 times this month which would average about $7 per visit. In later months, I would spend way to much money at Krystal because it was the closest restaurant to my work site.
I gave my dad $40 for some reason. I can't really remember why though.
I went out to two restaurants with some friends. I spent $40 at the Vortex with two friends from church. On a different occasion, I spent $8.50 getting pizza and beer with my two bros.
This month, I spent a total of $35.53 on CD's and DVD's. I think I bought the second season of Metalocalypse because I saw it at a Walmart. I also picked up the Demon Days album by Gorillaz at some music shop.
In November 2010, I spent less than $500 and it would be a long time before I subbed $500 again. The first few months after graduating college were incredibly bad. I had the nervous compulsion about spending as little money as possible. In later months, I felt like I could relax a little and spend a little more money.
I also get the feeling that recording all my transactions made me spend less month than I otherwise would have.
Ever since October of 2010, I've recorded all the stuff I've purchased into logs in order to know how and where I spend my money. I've created detailed reports for myself and put my life down on spreadsheets. In this chain of posts, I'll report real data of all the stuff I've bought over the last few years and how much it cost. All this is done to provide information for how much stuff costs in the real world for kids that haven't entered the working world yet. The other reason for this is for me to remember my journey for the last few years.
Here is where I was in November of 2010.
In November of 2010, I was working my first job fresh out of college. At the time, I was being paid $12 an hour as an independent contractor and I didn't have a cap on the amount of hours I worked. Because of this, I was happy to work more than 40 hours each week. With the timing of the paychecks, I earned a little more than $2700 that month.
At this time, I was still living with my parents as it was my intention to save up enough money to buy a house with 100% cash in order to avoid taking out a mortgage. As soon as I started working, I made the decision to never get married or have kids. I did still want a house. My parents encouraged me to live with them in order to not waste money on rent. I was glad to do so.
I had no girlfriend and made no real effort to date. The furthest extent to finding a woman was to reach out to maybe one or two girls I remembered in college.
My work site was the closest I ever had. It was more than 11 miles away but less than 20 miles. I had no reason to take the highways.
Lastly, in my free time, I would play videogames, skateboard, and lift weights.
The car that I was driving was given to me by my father. I had no car note. Speaking of loans, I had none. I came out of college with no debts. I had merit based scholarship that paid for my tuition.
I was in a very good position for where I was. Even though I would eventually be working for a salary of less than $30,000 a year, I was still able to save $1000 each month because of how little I spent.
For November 2010, I spent a total of $478.20.
The biggest expense I had was my car insurance. I spent $222.75. My premium was expenses but I did have full coverage.
My gas expense was only $61 for this month. Normally, gas would have cost me over $100 however my dad filled up my tank because we took a trip to South Carolina to visit relatives.
I spent $51.79 on fast food. I got fast food 7 times this month which would average about $7 per visit. In later months, I would spend way to much money at Krystal because it was the closest restaurant to my work site.
I gave my dad $40 for some reason. I can't really remember why though.
I went out to two restaurants with some friends. I spent $40 at the Vortex with two friends from church. On a different occasion, I spent $8.50 getting pizza and beer with my two bros.
This month, I spent a total of $35.53 on CD's and DVD's. I think I bought the second season of Metalocalypse because I saw it at a Walmart. I also picked up the Demon Days album by Gorillaz at some music shop.
In November 2010, I spent less than $500 and it would be a long time before I subbed $500 again. The first few months after graduating college were incredibly bad. I had the nervous compulsion about spending as little money as possible. In later months, I felt like I could relax a little and spend a little more money.
I also get the feeling that recording all my transactions made me spend less month than I otherwise would have.
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Will Rob Fedders Return?
With a vast amount of information available at the fingertips, the average Joe can find information about almost any topic. Need to find out the actors in some obscure black and white file from the 50's? Just Google it an you will know the answer in a second. Curious if there is a good Chinese place in 20 miles? You can find that too. It seems like most of the wonder and whim has been removed with this amount of information available. However, there are still some mysteries out there.
There is a movement out there where men have decided to reject the traditional "American Dream" in order to pursue their own goals and interests without considering what society thinks. Of course, there have always been men doing this however this movement didn't really have a name until about 2001. The name was simply "men going their own way". What does it mean? It depends on who you ask.
Today, the most prominent figures are Stardusk and Barbarossa and a lot of people would believe they came up with the label however these two have only been around making content since about 2009 or 2010. There channels are currently up and you can see their earliest videos. You can hear their voice and in rare instances you can see their face. Both can be reached by email or easily reached on some sort of social media. You can probably interact with them. However, they didn't create the label. I wanted to know where the label came from.
There is a video on youtube where Rocking Mr E interviews two of the founders, Ragnar and Solaris. In this skype conversation, you can hear their voice and their story. However, after listening to podcasts from Davis Aurini and Matt Forney, I heard one name that kept being repeated. His name was Rob Fedders.
Rob Fedders wrote the No Ma'am blog. I don't think he ever released any videos or podcasts so I have never seen or heard this guy before. All that remains is his writing. That is all that remains as Rob Fedders died in 2013. The death was tragic but at least the guy had a good run.
According to this report, Rob Fedders was being chased by about 30 middle aged women wearing bridal dresses who were infected with baby rabies. Their eyes locked on to Rob Fedders and they demanded that Rob Fedders would marry each one of them, produce each one a kid, and subject himself to a life of servitude so that all these women could sit in McMansions while drinking flirtinis and watching reruns of Sex in the City and Roundhouse Kicking Chick Cop Show on the weekend.
As the 30 bridezillas chased Rob Fedders, Rob Fedders was chased into a corner. Almost captured, he ran up the brick wall and did like 3 backflips and landed on the opposite side of the gold diggers. He ran with all his fury towards a cliff and started shimmying down a vine as the gaggle of women stopped at the top of the cliff.
He thought he was in the clear but he was mistaken. Below him, there was a priest and a lawyer cutting off his escape. Both demanded and threatened that Rob Fedders marry all 30 women as it was his duty tocreate more people to perpetuate the welfare state be a productive member of society.
"Rob Fedders, your days are numbered. Stop running like a coward and submit your life to those with the correct genitalia."
With the blood thirsty resource sucking vampires above him and the traitorous white knights below him, he did the only logical thing any freedom loving individual would. He pulled out his emergency ham and cheese on rye sandwich and ate it. And it was delicious.
With that job taken care of, Rob Fedders flung himself off the cliff and exploded in a giant fireball of fury and freedom. Oh yea, and did I mention that he strapped a whole bunch of C4 to his body? That part is kind of important otherwise that fireball of freedom and fury wouldn't make much sense.
So ends his story. Or does it? Rob Fedders is dead but he was just a figment of the imagination of the man who ran the No Ma'am blog. Either the imagination or alter ego. It is for this reason that he is so mysterious. I don't know who Rob Fedders really was. Maybe it was Ragnar or Solaris. I don't even know how to go about identifying who Rob Fedders is. I don't think Matt Forney even knows.
Most of the founders abandoned their blogs however No Ma'am is still up. I subscribed to it and noticed that the last update was years ago. However I saw some new activity in the last few weeks. It makes me wonder if Rob Fedders really died in 2013. Maybe he found some kind of submarine as he hit the rocky waters below the cliff. Maybe he will come back.
There is a movement out there where men have decided to reject the traditional "American Dream" in order to pursue their own goals and interests without considering what society thinks. Of course, there have always been men doing this however this movement didn't really have a name until about 2001. The name was simply "men going their own way". What does it mean? It depends on who you ask.
Today, the most prominent figures are Stardusk and Barbarossa and a lot of people would believe they came up with the label however these two have only been around making content since about 2009 or 2010. There channels are currently up and you can see their earliest videos. You can hear their voice and in rare instances you can see their face. Both can be reached by email or easily reached on some sort of social media. You can probably interact with them. However, they didn't create the label. I wanted to know where the label came from.
There is a video on youtube where Rocking Mr E interviews two of the founders, Ragnar and Solaris. In this skype conversation, you can hear their voice and their story. However, after listening to podcasts from Davis Aurini and Matt Forney, I heard one name that kept being repeated. His name was Rob Fedders.
Rob Fedders wrote the No Ma'am blog. I don't think he ever released any videos or podcasts so I have never seen or heard this guy before. All that remains is his writing. That is all that remains as Rob Fedders died in 2013. The death was tragic but at least the guy had a good run.
According to this report, Rob Fedders was being chased by about 30 middle aged women wearing bridal dresses who were infected with baby rabies. Their eyes locked on to Rob Fedders and they demanded that Rob Fedders would marry each one of them, produce each one a kid, and subject himself to a life of servitude so that all these women could sit in McMansions while drinking flirtinis and watching reruns of Sex in the City and Roundhouse Kicking Chick Cop Show on the weekend.
As the 30 bridezillas chased Rob Fedders, Rob Fedders was chased into a corner. Almost captured, he ran up the brick wall and did like 3 backflips and landed on the opposite side of the gold diggers. He ran with all his fury towards a cliff and started shimmying down a vine as the gaggle of women stopped at the top of the cliff.
He thought he was in the clear but he was mistaken. Below him, there was a priest and a lawyer cutting off his escape. Both demanded and threatened that Rob Fedders marry all 30 women as it was his duty to
"Rob Fedders, your days are numbered. Stop running like a coward and submit your life to those with the correct genitalia."
With the blood thirsty resource sucking vampires above him and the traitorous white knights below him, he did the only logical thing any freedom loving individual would. He pulled out his emergency ham and cheese on rye sandwich and ate it. And it was delicious.
With that job taken care of, Rob Fedders flung himself off the cliff and exploded in a giant fireball of fury and freedom. Oh yea, and did I mention that he strapped a whole bunch of C4 to his body? That part is kind of important otherwise that fireball of freedom and fury wouldn't make much sense.
So ends his story. Or does it? Rob Fedders is dead but he was just a figment of the imagination of the man who ran the No Ma'am blog. Either the imagination or alter ego. It is for this reason that he is so mysterious. I don't know who Rob Fedders really was. Maybe it was Ragnar or Solaris. I don't even know how to go about identifying who Rob Fedders is. I don't think Matt Forney even knows.
Most of the founders abandoned their blogs however No Ma'am is still up. I subscribed to it and noticed that the last update was years ago. However I saw some new activity in the last few weeks. It makes me wonder if Rob Fedders really died in 2013. Maybe he found some kind of submarine as he hit the rocky waters below the cliff. Maybe he will come back.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
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