Friday, November 28, 2014

All over the place

Most of the stuff people stress about isn't actionable.

Ferguson, Fukushima, financial meltdown...and that's just a subset of the letter "F."

Oh sure, you can come up with a plan, organize people, make a group. And those are fine behaviors. Good even.

Maintaining your own mental health, confidence, and sense of agency are prerequisites to any sustained external action.
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Not really sure what I want to talk about today. Thinking about Christmas presents. Probably going to make some jam from fresh fruit (boil 1 cup sugar (no water). Add 8 cups fruit. A little lemon peel and OJ. Boil to jam consistency. Put in jars. That simple).



The town I live in is completely empty. It's one of those coastal urban California places that is jam packed during the school year, but on Spring Break (universally known as "Ski Week," here) or holidays, everyone gets on a plane and goes...somewhere. I'll see all the moms next Monday when I take my daughter to school. Basically none of the other dad's exist, they're home 3 nights per week for 3 hours. With a first grader as my oldest, I'm also at least a decade younger than most of these guys at 36.

Our really nice neighbor two doors down has a one year old. Travels the world. Really nice wife. Works for an attorney. Full time nanny. Everyone has a full time nanny.

Lots of bad kids. Openly defiant. No discipline. Embarrassing and upsetting. Not volunteering in the classroom next year because I can't prevent myself from making them behave, and it's going to get me in trouble.

This is the dream. I can't believe these people work so hard for this.

Signing up for Obamacare. It's a horrible scam. Or rather, it's set up so I pay for everyone else, which would be OK if I was buying them medical care and not paying for administrative nonsense. My best option is $850 a month for a family of 4. All expenses out of pocket up to $25K. Over $10K a year for almost literally nothing. The old jacked up system was better, at least for me.

Jam. Played some music last week, super fun and something I need to make an effort to do more. Cool to get my old bandmates together and belt out our greatest hits.

Wrote a check for $365 to the local food bank. $1 a day.

Reviewed my taxes last year. Only donated 3% of my annual income. Shameful.

Went to a Raiders game. Front row. They won. Going again, this time to woo a client. Second row, but 3x as expensive because they are playing the 49ers. Supply, demand, brand.

Always a pleasure, thanks for popping by.