>** Mental Cleansing Entry **

I’m done with my room, with a little help from Rachel —

It’s all painted and arranged, it finally feels like my room.

There’s still many piles of CDs to sift through, things to find a place for but it looks good.

I bought carpets for the rest of the house, a small step in the right direction for completion of the household. I got frames for posters and various pieces of art I’ve collected, hung them up in my room and in various places throughout the house.

I’ve still got a few select items I’m waiting on, like a loveseat-sized pappa-san among other things.

I’ve finished my year with the satellite internet access, I can now cancel any time. I just got it up and running today to remind myself how useless it is. That’s a bit of a harsh statement, but the proxy creates many many issues that I just don’t want to have to deal with to share my internet connection. File sharing is also one of the casualties of using a proxy — though I did have it running on the main computer, it was impossible to forward the right ports and work with the proxy at the same time.

I’ve got my iMac in my room as well as the PIII 500 (Win2k Pro) which is currently running the satellite, (I was hoping it would do better with sharing the satellite connection, but I’ve since realized it’s just not worth the trouble) with the 19″ Trinitron at the foot of my bed for movies. I’ve put the P4 1.6ghz in the living room with the 21″ for running games and movies on the TV, it’s perfect with the wireless keyboard and mouse, and the monitor is big enough that I can still see it from the couch if the TV is in use.

I’ve still got an old monitor, and a PII 400mhz running XP to spare… maybe I’ll put one in the room upstairs for video… the biggest issue with all this is the power pull. Kristina was using a hair dryer the other day and it blew the fuse — TV, computer, blow dryer, Scott’s computer, and some lights were on. A hair dryer is really high amperage anyhow, but I’d be all set with an extra UPS backup or two. I’ve got one on my main computer (iMac) and I can’t count how many times it’s saved me from losing data.

I feel strapped, I’m not really — but compared to RCN days. I could have a full on $30/day food bill back then. Not so much now… I have to actually watch myself. I’ve figured that I can break even with $10/hour, anything above that is bonus. That will probably be my only criteria. I’m dreading having to pay for school next semester, too — I’ll probably take out my first school loan.

.:sigh:. The house is coming together, and I think that’s the big piece. The more it feels like home, the more I’ll stay here, and the less I’ll spend, past the initial expenditures to get it that way. I’m not really kidding anyone, I’m a shopping addict… destined to spiral downwards into financial oblivion! Or maybe not if the business takes off?

Working on the novel that is my life.