When I enter the English Building, I usually enter from the side door which is hidden by a bunch of pine trees and air conditioners, down some stairs, and through the computer lab. Well, as I was walking down the stairs, I looked at the pine tree in from of me to see a bra hanging in it. I looked on the ground and there were two other articles of clothing, looking to be from the same set. Now, where that clothing was is not easy to reach so that makes me wonder. Did someone just put them there as a joke or did something actually happen? If something happened, where? Things like this just make me intensely curious since they are so out of the ordinary.
I would have taken pictures, but my camera is at home and my phone isn't good enough. Maybe I'll remember tomorrow and they'll still be there.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Philosophers' Experiment - Unexpected Practice
So, I ran into Charitee as I was waiting for the bus to come home after work. For those of you who don't know her, she's the Student Senate member who spend six hours in the HelpDesk during one day in the summer where I showed her how to transfer files from one computer to another using a flash drive. Yeah....
I didn't really want to talk to her as I had just gotten off of work, but I also didn't want to be an impolite douche, so I decided to try and make a little small talk when she approached me. Then it dawned on me, this was the perfect opportunity to practice my technique. There wouldn't be much of a challenge, but the stakes were little to none and practice is practice.
So I let her talk about herself and prompt her with questions as she does to keep drawing more out of her. I interspersed the conversation with well placed quips when there was a pause or when she asked me a question, but other than that, I said nothing. I gave the minimum of information while still being interesting. The result? Well, the conversation lasted for a little while as we got on the bus together and traveled up towards University. By Springfield, I thought I had her about ready to bust a gut. By the way she was responding, I could tell that I had her practically wrapped around my finger.
Of course, this isn't saying much, considering, but practice is practice and I was still heartened by her warm reaction. Maybe there's hope for me yet.
I didn't really want to talk to her as I had just gotten off of work, but I also didn't want to be an impolite douche, so I decided to try and make a little small talk when she approached me. Then it dawned on me, this was the perfect opportunity to practice my technique. There wouldn't be much of a challenge, but the stakes were little to none and practice is practice.
So I let her talk about herself and prompt her with questions as she does to keep drawing more out of her. I interspersed the conversation with well placed quips when there was a pause or when she asked me a question, but other than that, I said nothing. I gave the minimum of information while still being interesting. The result? Well, the conversation lasted for a little while as we got on the bus together and traveled up towards University. By Springfield, I thought I had her about ready to bust a gut. By the way she was responding, I could tell that I had her practically wrapped around my finger.
Of course, this isn't saying much, considering, but practice is practice and I was still heartened by her warm reaction. Maybe there's hope for me yet.
Philosopher's Experiment - Fatal Flaws
After I made the first step in my experiment, it occurred to me that I had overlooked a fatal flaw in the experiment's design. The personality of the intended target is such that if you get on her bad side at all, you disappear from existence in her mind. It is as if you no longer exist and really never existed in the first place. When forced to acknowledge your existence by engaging her in conversation or by someone else referring to you directly in conversation, she recognizes your existence only marginally - to the minimum extent that it takes to remove you again from existence. I do not think she does this intentionally or maliciously, but as a defense mechanism to deal with stressful and possibly confrontational situations.
What does this mean for me? Well, it means that I picked possibly the worst possible mark for my experiment. Unless I can get her to acknowledge my existence at all, the entire experiment fails right off the bat. However, in order to get her to acknowledge my existence, we would have to be on neutral terms again, therefore effectively undermining the more grand scheme of the experiment.
However, all is not lost. If by using the conventions of the experiment, I can get her from being hostile to neutral, it will still be a success. Unfortunately, that is likely to take several months and I'm not even sure where to begin my work. Therefore, I think a change of goals may be in order. I will not give up on this task, but let it sit on the back burner for now. I think it may be a more important task to hone my approach in the first place. There are quite a few females in the group who are either neutral towards me or have only marginal positive feelings for me. I know that not talking about myself has become very difficult over the past few years (probably stemming from some internal social anxiety to do with unfamiliar territory and the need to feel like I relate to those I talk to.) Some practice speaking only of myself in order to prompt more information from the mark might be in order.
Edit: Decided to try applying this process to an old friend of mine who I haven't talked to in nearly forever, imitating what it would be like to start this process from the beginning. If I can see how it is supposed to run, I should be able to replicate the process in different situations.
Don't ever say I'm no Scientist.
What does this mean for me? Well, it means that I picked possibly the worst possible mark for my experiment. Unless I can get her to acknowledge my existence at all, the entire experiment fails right off the bat. However, in order to get her to acknowledge my existence, we would have to be on neutral terms again, therefore effectively undermining the more grand scheme of the experiment.
However, all is not lost. If by using the conventions of the experiment, I can get her from being hostile to neutral, it will still be a success. Unfortunately, that is likely to take several months and I'm not even sure where to begin my work. Therefore, I think a change of goals may be in order. I will not give up on this task, but let it sit on the back burner for now. I think it may be a more important task to hone my approach in the first place. There are quite a few females in the group who are either neutral towards me or have only marginal positive feelings for me. I know that not talking about myself has become very difficult over the past few years (probably stemming from some internal social anxiety to do with unfamiliar territory and the need to feel like I relate to those I talk to.) Some practice speaking only of myself in order to prompt more information from the mark might be in order.
Edit: Decided to try applying this process to an old friend of mine who I haven't talked to in nearly forever, imitating what it would be like to start this process from the beginning. If I can see how it is supposed to run, I should be able to replicate the process in different situations.
Don't ever say I'm no Scientist.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Philosophers' Experiment
My cousin and I are both philosophers, taking the time to analyze and think about the world around us. We have both been able to make great strides in the world of thought and I'm starting to realize that most of that is because of the unique relationship we have with one another.
We were raised separately, him in Maryland and me in Illinois, but we have a connection that I've seen rarely between anyone other than siblings. We think alike, we act alike, we even believe similarly. We have had very different experiences though, giving us very special traits - him, being able to pick up a woman as if it was absolutely nothing; me, being able to keep a relationship going as of I am an expert mechanic working on my favorite car. These different experiences have given us gaps in our philosophies, gaps that we tend to cover for each other.
He IMed me this evening, asking if I had a minute to talk. I had nothing going on, so I said sure. He told me about a serious relationship that he had before which he never told anyone else about before and how it led him down the path of womanizing. I finally understood exactly what compelled him forth.
Our conversation didn't end there though. Not much of it was exciting or important, so I will gloss over it, but eventually we came to a point where we analyzed each others' strengths and our own weaknesses. He told me that he was envious that I could keep a relationship with a woman and turn it into something meaningful because I had patience and persistence. I told him that it wasn't worth much if I didn't have the ability to pick women up in the first place. After all, not being able to pick women up is what led me to relationships and flings like the ones I have had in the past. Even my current beautiful one was more luck than ability.
We talked about this failing of mine for a while and compared it to the ending gays of high school, when I had no problem what-so-ever. What had changed in that short of a time, we asked. I came up with the conclusion that it was because I was quiet and brooding then and had become less so now. We talked about it some more and it was quickly apparent that I was only partly right. It wasn't because I was quiet and brooding; it was simply because I was quiet.
In all of my confusion and annoyance at not being able to attract women, I had forgotten the elemental basics of romance. Rule #1: Let the woman talk about herself. This explained exactly why I was thought as crazy and creepy by so many people, I spoke honestly about myself instead of just listening and offering my understanding to other people.
We discussed a strategy that the both of us had come up with on our own for picking up women (walking up, complimenting them in a memorable way and walking away) and discussed what maves came after the first move. We came up with something reasonably feasible, but something was gnawing at the back of my mind. Sure, the listening approach can work on people you've never met before, but could it work with someone you had already screwed up with? Could it work on aquaintences and friends who already have heard your life story?
Neither one of us could give a concrete answer, so we decided that it would be worth a shot. I proposed an experiment to find out the answer to this. I decided to pick out someone that I wasn't exactly on good terms with (Colleen) and test out the approach. First of all, I would have to get her talking to me in general. I figured that one of the best ways to do this would be to send her a note via facebook with some small talk questions, asking her how school was doing and the like. Then, once I had established communication channels, I would try to get her to talk to be in depth about unimportant things. If I could, that would establish a pattern of her talking to me while I mostly just listened and accepted. And questions directed my way would be answered with short, but interesting and sincere answers if I could help it, emphasizing the short. After that pattern is esablished, it should be no heavy task to get her talking about things that actually are important to her, building her trust in me. If I am able to make that happen, I should be able to reach the goal of my experiment: to make a friend out of an enemy. If I can manage that, it shows great promise with the rest of the group.
Maybe, just maybe, I can stop being the weird one for a change and maybe people will start liking me.
We were raised separately, him in Maryland and me in Illinois, but we have a connection that I've seen rarely between anyone other than siblings. We think alike, we act alike, we even believe similarly. We have had very different experiences though, giving us very special traits - him, being able to pick up a woman as if it was absolutely nothing; me, being able to keep a relationship going as of I am an expert mechanic working on my favorite car. These different experiences have given us gaps in our philosophies, gaps that we tend to cover for each other.
He IMed me this evening, asking if I had a minute to talk. I had nothing going on, so I said sure. He told me about a serious relationship that he had before which he never told anyone else about before and how it led him down the path of womanizing. I finally understood exactly what compelled him forth.
Our conversation didn't end there though. Not much of it was exciting or important, so I will gloss over it, but eventually we came to a point where we analyzed each others' strengths and our own weaknesses. He told me that he was envious that I could keep a relationship with a woman and turn it into something meaningful because I had patience and persistence. I told him that it wasn't worth much if I didn't have the ability to pick women up in the first place. After all, not being able to pick women up is what led me to relationships and flings like the ones I have had in the past. Even my current beautiful one was more luck than ability.
We talked about this failing of mine for a while and compared it to the ending gays of high school, when I had no problem what-so-ever. What had changed in that short of a time, we asked. I came up with the conclusion that it was because I was quiet and brooding then and had become less so now. We talked about it some more and it was quickly apparent that I was only partly right. It wasn't because I was quiet and brooding; it was simply because I was quiet.
In all of my confusion and annoyance at not being able to attract women, I had forgotten the elemental basics of romance. Rule #1: Let the woman talk about herself. This explained exactly why I was thought as crazy and creepy by so many people, I spoke honestly about myself instead of just listening and offering my understanding to other people.
We discussed a strategy that the both of us had come up with on our own for picking up women (walking up, complimenting them in a memorable way and walking away) and discussed what maves came after the first move. We came up with something reasonably feasible, but something was gnawing at the back of my mind. Sure, the listening approach can work on people you've never met before, but could it work with someone you had already screwed up with? Could it work on aquaintences and friends who already have heard your life story?
Neither one of us could give a concrete answer, so we decided that it would be worth a shot. I proposed an experiment to find out the answer to this. I decided to pick out someone that I wasn't exactly on good terms with (Colleen) and test out the approach. First of all, I would have to get her talking to me in general. I figured that one of the best ways to do this would be to send her a note via facebook with some small talk questions, asking her how school was doing and the like. Then, once I had established communication channels, I would try to get her to talk to be in depth about unimportant things. If I could, that would establish a pattern of her talking to me while I mostly just listened and accepted. And questions directed my way would be answered with short, but interesting and sincere answers if I could help it, emphasizing the short. After that pattern is esablished, it should be no heavy task to get her talking about things that actually are important to her, building her trust in me. If I am able to make that happen, I should be able to reach the goal of my experiment: to make a friend out of an enemy. If I can manage that, it shows great promise with the rest of the group.
Maybe, just maybe, I can stop being the weird one for a change and maybe people will start liking me.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sinking Deeper into Madness
I think I'm sinking deeper into madness. Fortunately, unlike years part in which I have been a detriment not only to myself, but society in general, I feel that this madness is almost a blessing. It used to be that when confronted with a situation such as I am in now (being without an intimate lover, at least in locational terms) I would start off in a panic and then have an extreme need for contact, creating a primal lust inside me that would nearly tear myself apart. I don't feel that now. Instead of feeling panicked, I feel calm. The only reason that I know that I am still descending into madness is the feelings of my thought processes being all fucked up. I am more passionate than usual, but about random things. My mind makes connections between completely unrelated things and draws out elaborate webs of connections (which seem for the most part to be accurate). I feel like my mind is full of static like a television attuned to no station in particular and every so often, an image pops into my head, telling me what I need to be doing next. For the most part, I don't have a complete and logical reason for the things that I am compelled to do, but I do them anyway. So far, this has worked out pretty well and circumvented a number of disasters. I guess I can't complain.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Fishy Fish Fish, in a Glass
I drank too much last night. Lynley and I went out to stock up on liquor for the year and spent $120 doing so. I hadn't touched any liquor since Renny left because I simply hadn't had the urge to. However in the the well lubricated social situation that was last night, I found myself just letting myself go. I think a major factor in my excessive drinking was just how much I missed Renny. She took off on a plane for Scotland yesterday and I'm not going to be able to hear from her until she has enough time and a computer. I miss her so much. I've never missed anyone as much as her. The fact that not only have I not heard from her, but that I can't just contact her on a whim terrifies me. There's absolutely no way that I can make sure she's okay or comfort her if she's scared or upset. I just feel so impotent.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Quiet
Things are quiet - a little too quiet to be realistic in my opinion. Someone is doing a good job of making sure that everyone keeps their mouths shut tonight. Of course, if they wanted to be realistic, they'd let something slip, allow some sort of radio chatter out as cover, but somehow I think that realism isn't their goal. No matter. This bit of silent persecution isn't apt to topple me over. After all, I can move as silently as they.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Confirmed - Weekend Game
Hi guys, this is my first post to a specific audience. If you got a link to this post from me, that means that I am inviting you to my new Vampire: the Masquerade tabletop game. This game will be played either on the Friday's that we don't have Larp or on Saturdays, depending on what is more convenient for you as my players.
What I need you to do is reply back to me either via PM on the Larp forum, email me at blackromance@gmail.com, or reply to this post with a scale of the following:
3: prefered time slot to play
2: Can play in this time slot
1: Cannot play in this time slot/not interested
The time slots are as follows:
Friday: 6:30-midnight
Saturday: 10:00-4:00
Saturday: noon-6:00
Saturday: 2:00-8:00
Just so you know, I haven't finished reading the rulebook just yet, but I hope to be finished by the end of next week. However, I want to spend at least a couple hours with each person doing character creation and the Prelude (creating the background of their character and fleshing it out through a little one on one roleplaying.)
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I am more than happy to talk about anything regarding this game (or anything at all, really).
(Note 1: the following has absolutely nothing at all to do with WoD canon and it will probably stay that way. Some things from canon may be included, some may not, but unless you are told specifically about anything, you probably won't know more than the basics of history. I'm going to try and write up some so that there is some to know.)
(Note 2: I am a new ST and by such plan to read up on the rules and such, but I may get things wrong. Forgive me. I welcome all kinds of constructive criticism and if you wish to point out a rule that I've bungled, do so and give me a page number for reference. The books that we will be using are the core books only. I may use some information from the other books, but it will be at my discrection and I will not require you to know anything from the additional books. I will even try and write up the information that you will need from the core books into a cheatsheet.)
Kindred,
Up until about thirty years ago, the Vampire infestation of North America had been contained pretty much within the United States and Mexico. Very few Vampires ventured into Canada because of rumors of a growing Werewolf infestation. However, in the late 70s, the Camarilla managed to secure a decent presence within Vancouver, British Columbia because it is so close to the United States border. That presence continued to grow until earlier this year when all communications with Vancouver stopped dead.
You are a group of Thirteenth Generation vampires who have been embraced within the last ten years. You have the honor of having been selected by the Camarilla in order to scout out the situation and find out what happened.
Your mission is as follows:
- Secure cover identities in Vancouver using your abilities and mingle with the community.
- Use your new found connections to investigate the drop in communications.
- Try to contact any Camarilla Vampires remaining in Vancouver.
- Be on the watch for Werewolves and Sabbat. Even though it would have been likely for us to hear if either had been the cause of disrupted communication, it should not be taken for granted.
- Report your findings back to the Camarilla Prince of Seattle.
Thank you and I wish you the best of luck and speed,
Fransisco Demetre
Toreador Justicar
What I need you to do is reply back to me either via PM on the Larp forum, email me at blackromance@gmail.com, or reply to this post with a scale of the following:
3: prefered time slot to play
2: Can play in this time slot
1: Cannot play in this time slot/not interested
The time slots are as follows:
Friday: 6:30-midnight
Saturday: 10:00-4:00
Saturday: noon-6:00
Saturday: 2:00-8:00
Just so you know, I haven't finished reading the rulebook just yet, but I hope to be finished by the end of next week. However, I want to spend at least a couple hours with each person doing character creation and the Prelude (creating the background of their character and fleshing it out through a little one on one roleplaying.)
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I am more than happy to talk about anything regarding this game (or anything at all, really).
(Note 1: the following has absolutely nothing at all to do with WoD canon and it will probably stay that way. Some things from canon may be included, some may not, but unless you are told specifically about anything, you probably won't know more than the basics of history. I'm going to try and write up some so that there is some to know.)
(Note 2: I am a new ST and by such plan to read up on the rules and such, but I may get things wrong. Forgive me. I welcome all kinds of constructive criticism and if you wish to point out a rule that I've bungled, do so and give me a page number for reference. The books that we will be using are the core books only. I may use some information from the other books, but it will be at my discrection and I will not require you to know anything from the additional books. I will even try and write up the information that you will need from the core books into a cheatsheet.)
Kindred,
Up until about thirty years ago, the Vampire infestation of North America had been contained pretty much within the United States and Mexico. Very few Vampires ventured into Canada because of rumors of a growing Werewolf infestation. However, in the late 70s, the Camarilla managed to secure a decent presence within Vancouver, British Columbia because it is so close to the United States border. That presence continued to grow until earlier this year when all communications with Vancouver stopped dead.
You are a group of Thirteenth Generation vampires who have been embraced within the last ten years. You have the honor of having been selected by the Camarilla in order to scout out the situation and find out what happened.
Your mission is as follows:
- Secure cover identities in Vancouver using your abilities and mingle with the community.
- Use your new found connections to investigate the drop in communications.
- Try to contact any Camarilla Vampires remaining in Vancouver.
- Be on the watch for Werewolves and Sabbat. Even though it would have been likely for us to hear if either had been the cause of disrupted communication, it should not be taken for granted.
- Report your findings back to the Camarilla Prince of Seattle.
Thank you and I wish you the best of luck and speed,
Fransisco Demetre
Toreador Justicar
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Problems with Gmail
I don't know if Gmail recently updated their software or something, but over the past few days, gmail has been flaky at best. It won't load my accounts reliably, it freezes my desktop computer, even using the html only view isn't working properly. I really don't get it.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Vampire: the Masquerade Weekend Game?
I've been considering running a Vampire: the Masquerade tabletop game on the weekends (since last night when I played in Lynley's and had a bunch of fun), so I thought I'd post the premise here to see what you thought.
---
Kindred,
Up until about thirty years ago, the Vampire infestation of North America had been contained pretty much within the United States and Mexico. Very few Vampires ventured into Canada because of rumors of a growing Werewolf infestation. However, in the late 70s, the Camarilla managed to secure a decent presence within Vancouver, British Columbia because it is so close to the United States border. That presence continued to grow until earlier this year when all communications with Vancouver stopped dead.
You are a group of Thirteenth Generation vampires who have been embraced within the last ten years. You have the honor of having been selected by the Camarilla in order to scout out the situation and find out what happened.
Your mission is as follows:
- Secure cover identities in Vancouver using your abilities and mingle with the community.
- Use your new found connections to investigate the drop in communications.
- Try to contact any Camarilla Vampires remaining in Vancouver.
- Be on the watch for Werewolves and Sabbat. Even though it would have been likely for us to hear if either had been the cause of disrupted communication, it should not be taken for granted.
- Report your findings back to the Camarilla Prince of Seattle.
Thank you and I wish you the best of luck and speed,
Fransisco Demetre
Toreador Justicar
---
Kindred,
Up until about thirty years ago, the Vampire infestation of North America had been contained pretty much within the United States and Mexico. Very few Vampires ventured into Canada because of rumors of a growing Werewolf infestation. However, in the late 70s, the Camarilla managed to secure a decent presence within Vancouver, British Columbia because it is so close to the United States border. That presence continued to grow until earlier this year when all communications with Vancouver stopped dead.
You are a group of Thirteenth Generation vampires who have been embraced within the last ten years. You have the honor of having been selected by the Camarilla in order to scout out the situation and find out what happened.
Your mission is as follows:
- Secure cover identities in Vancouver using your abilities and mingle with the community.
- Use your new found connections to investigate the drop in communications.
- Try to contact any Camarilla Vampires remaining in Vancouver.
- Be on the watch for Werewolves and Sabbat. Even though it would have been likely for us to hear if either had been the cause of disrupted communication, it should not be taken for granted.
- Report your findings back to the Camarilla Prince of Seattle.
Thank you and I wish you the best of luck and speed,
Fransisco Demetre
Toreador Justicar
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Observations
Woke up at eight this morning and haven't been able to go back to sleep. I'm not really tird, but have enough of that sleepy residue that I want to wash away. I should probably do some of my homework readings, but since that's what I plan on doing all day, I'm in no hurry.
Happened to log into Google AdSense yesterday on a whim and I noticed that I made $3.02 off of my other two blogs in the past week after a few months of nothing. Talk about weird. The majority of it was through The Screaming Eye, my editorial news blog and had something to do with this guy named Edward Maltass. Seems like some people were searching for him plus the keywords of "scam" and "lawsuit." The other prominant search term was "dinarbank scam" which I assume refers to his website, dinarbank.com. I wonder if maybe I judged him correctly when I warned people against him.
Since The Screaming Eye is making money again, I'm considering writing in it some more. The only problem with it is that it takes so much research and time to even write a short article. Maybe I'll start stressing more on the Editoral side of things instead of stressing so hard on the News side. After all, the Daily Buzz does this and has a huge readership. The only question is what to write about. I have a hard enough time talking about my daily life.
Speaking of my daily life, I thought I should mention that I have two weeks of school down and fourteen left, I think. If these past two weeks have taught me anything, they have taught me that I didn't actually get dumber when I went off to college, I just hadn't been managing my time appropriately. I thought it would be really hard to take fifteen credit hours worth of classes and work twenty hours a week, but I was pleasantly surprised. My classes are easy as hell with the amount of studying that I'm doing, the studying isn't taking too very long, and work - though stressful - is really easy. I actually have a ton of free time now. I guess it helps that I only have to worry about myself and my schedule for a change. I miss having Renny around, but this amount of absolute freedom is really helping me get the amount of work that I need to done.
I have already started doing research on houses in the local area that might be up for sale when I graduate. Mom found one on realtor.com that seems to really fit my specifications. It's a four-bed, three-bath former duplex with wooden floors that is over one hundred years old for less than $100,000. Sounds like it'll be a real fixer upper for that price, but it also sounds like it could be a diamond in the rough. I plan to go take a look at it at some point today, probably before work. I contacted the Realtor to have them contact me with more information, but they haven't gotten back to me. Hopefully that's not a bad omen.
I'm not set like concrete on this house, obviously, since I haven't even seen it yet, but I really like the sound of it. The only problem, I realize is raising enough money for a down payment. At $100,000, a five percent down payment on a mortgage is five grand. Believe it or not, I don't have five grand just sitting around. I calculated it out that if I work through all my breaks and pinch pennies like hell, I can raise a total of just over $4000, closer to $4500. Of course, I'm sure that's being optamistic, but it's still short. Hopefully I can work out some deal with the Realtor/bank. I've never done this before, so I don't exactly know how to go about doing it. I guess I'll find out first hand, eh?
Happened to log into Google AdSense yesterday on a whim and I noticed that I made $3.02 off of my other two blogs in the past week after a few months of nothing. Talk about weird. The majority of it was through The Screaming Eye, my editorial news blog and had something to do with this guy named Edward Maltass. Seems like some people were searching for him plus the keywords of "scam" and "lawsuit." The other prominant search term was "dinarbank scam" which I assume refers to his website, dinarbank.com. I wonder if maybe I judged him correctly when I warned people against him.
Since The Screaming Eye is making money again, I'm considering writing in it some more. The only problem with it is that it takes so much research and time to even write a short article. Maybe I'll start stressing more on the Editoral side of things instead of stressing so hard on the News side. After all, the Daily Buzz does this and has a huge readership. The only question is what to write about. I have a hard enough time talking about my daily life.
Speaking of my daily life, I thought I should mention that I have two weeks of school down and fourteen left, I think. If these past two weeks have taught me anything, they have taught me that I didn't actually get dumber when I went off to college, I just hadn't been managing my time appropriately. I thought it would be really hard to take fifteen credit hours worth of classes and work twenty hours a week, but I was pleasantly surprised. My classes are easy as hell with the amount of studying that I'm doing, the studying isn't taking too very long, and work - though stressful - is really easy. I actually have a ton of free time now. I guess it helps that I only have to worry about myself and my schedule for a change. I miss having Renny around, but this amount of absolute freedom is really helping me get the amount of work that I need to done.
I have already started doing research on houses in the local area that might be up for sale when I graduate. Mom found one on realtor.com that seems to really fit my specifications. It's a four-bed, three-bath former duplex with wooden floors that is over one hundred years old for less than $100,000. Sounds like it'll be a real fixer upper for that price, but it also sounds like it could be a diamond in the rough. I plan to go take a look at it at some point today, probably before work. I contacted the Realtor to have them contact me with more information, but they haven't gotten back to me. Hopefully that's not a bad omen.
I'm not set like concrete on this house, obviously, since I haven't even seen it yet, but I really like the sound of it. The only problem, I realize is raising enough money for a down payment. At $100,000, a five percent down payment on a mortgage is five grand. Believe it or not, I don't have five grand just sitting around. I calculated it out that if I work through all my breaks and pinch pennies like hell, I can raise a total of just over $4000, closer to $4500. Of course, I'm sure that's being optamistic, but it's still short. Hopefully I can work out some deal with the Realtor/bank. I've never done this before, so I don't exactly know how to go about doing it. I guess I'll find out first hand, eh?
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