Eliminating Debt

I found this great debt reduction calculator that is free for personal use. It has really helped me to focus. For the first time I have actually made a real list of what I owe. Each time I receive a credit card bill I change the amount owed and watch my total debt fall. It is so encouraging to me.

Previously I was afraid to look at the bills and to see what I actually owed. Of course my bills didn't go away and kept getting larger.

Download the calculator and see if it makes a difference in your fight against debt.

http://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/debt-reduction-calculator.htm

New Year's Resolutions

It's that time of year again and like usual I've decided to set a few goals for this year. They're not quite resolutions because I'm not disciplined enough to actually keep resolutions. They are in fact some things I want to focus on this year to make my life more enjoyable, more productive, and make myself feel better.

1. Healthy lifestyle
This includes the usual lose weight goal but I'm also including healthy habits such as eating more fresh, locally grown food and starting an exercise program.

2. Debt Free lifestyle
My overall goal is to be debt free in two years. I have a huge amount so this will actually take some work. However, it can be done. In order to do that I have to eliminate half my debt this year. In order to do that I will have to cut my living expenses and increase my income. I don't have an extravagant lifestyle right now so it'll be hard to cut expenses so I really need to focus on increasing my income with a second and maybe a third source of income.

3. Artistic lifestyle
I want to increase beauty in my life and increase my creativity. So I am going to focus on both increasing my skills and being more productive. I also want to find creative and inexpensive ways to decorate my apartment.

So there you have it. My New Year's Focus. It'll be interesting to see what the New Year brings and what I can learn this year.

Thank you Rod McKuen

Inspiration of the day is from one of my favorite poets whom I have rediscovered after so many years. As a child I used to read Rod McKuen’s poetry. He inspired me to dream of a world outside of Danielsville, Georgia. A world where I could laugh, dance, and sing without fear of ridicule or embarrassment. I used to dream of traveling to places like London or Copenhagen, or any number of exotic locations. I wanted to climb mountains and fly around the world. Because of his poetry I felt like the whole world was open to me and that I could do anything I wanted to do.

Then I grew up and went to college. There I was so busy reading required material that I had no time for poetry, at least not the poetry that spoke to me. Sure, I read the greats in literature classes but they didn’t inspire me half as much as Mr. McKuen did. As I was struggling to earn my degrees I stopped reading for inspiration and enjoyment. I lost the ability to travel in my mind and in time I lost the ability to dream.

Recently I turned 50. FIFTY. An age that I never thought I would see. As a child 50 was, of course, ancient. In my 20s fifty was the age I gave myself to accomplish my goals. I have to do, fill in the blank, by 50. 50 was the age where I would have a lot of money saved so I could take the six months it requires to hike the Appalachian Trail. 50 was the age when I was going to travel the world. Go around the world on an adventure to rival any of Michael Palin’s adventures. 50 was to be prime me time.

Of course even the best plans don’t always happen. What happened? Life. Economic booms and busts. Greed and Apathy. I spent 11 years working at a great job where I had a nice 401k retirement plan. I was well on my way to saving enough money to enjoy my life after 50 without worrying about how to feed myself. However, forces beyond my control had other desires. I worked at Remington Products which was owned by Victor Kiam. Mr. Kiam was an unusual business owner. Somewhere in all his interests and business deals he had a glimmer of respect for his employees. He rejected numerous offers to sell Remington to a company that would liquidate the company and put his employees out of work. Unfortunately he was mortal. In 2001 he died and the company was sold. Remington was liquidated and hundreds of people were out of work. The name still exists, you see the products in discount stores, and at one time an aging supermodel was doing commercials for the “company” but that’s all you get. A name. The people who made Remington a great company and a great shaver are gone. Now this was not unusual. Sadly it was happening to thousands of other people in this country during 2004 and it would happen to millions more in the next five years.

Back to Rod McKuen. Fast forward five years and I am sitting in Athens, GA, just a few miles from where I grew up. Just a few miles from the land that inspired me to travel and dream in the first place. Just a few miles from where my mother would make sure that I had every opportunity available to this small town kid. And the world comes around full circle. Today I thought about that wonderful book of poetry that I read so many times I knew each poem by heart. So, I searched for Rod McKuen online and found him. I found the words that used to inspire me. I found a little peace today. I found a safe place to land. I will be back. Thank you Mr. McKuen for inspiring me once again.

Finding Art in Every Day Life

Lunch. Organic beef on a whole wheat English Muffin with cheddar cheese and lettuce. Add a dollop (or two) of my favorite sauce and there's my mastepiece of a lunch.

Week in review

I can hardly believe it 's May already. Classes are ending and my friends who are graduating are starting to leave Athens. Everybody's excited about graduation and busy making plans.

One great thing about May is that the Farmer's Market opens back up. I am looking forward to having another way to purchase fresh produce. Tomorrow is the first day so we'll have to be early. I expect everyone to be sold out by 10 am.

Decided to work on my Etsy store this spring. I want to have some fun making magnets and working with upcycled, recycled items. Here's a pair of earrings I posted tonight. I have always been a baseball fan so spring and summer means watching the Diamond Dogs (UGA) and the Atlanta Braves. These would be fun to wear to the games.

Shelfari bookshelf

I found this cute little widget from Shelfari to display books. I am hoping it helps me with one of my goals this year which is to read more. Actually I started out with the goal of reading the "classics" whatever they were. Then I modified that goal. I think I have modified the goal more times that the number of books that I have read this year. Oh well. That's pretty normal for me.

Just finished reading The Little Guide To Your Well-Read Life by Steve Leveen. I have first heard about this book because I am a customer of his incredible store Levenger. It is THE STORE for anyone who loves to read. I used to love spending time in that store. Forget gold and diamonds, give me fountain pens and bookcases, not to mention the bomber jacket messenger bag. Now that I am back in GA I drool over his catalogs and the pictures on line. Hmmm. I really like Leveen's idea of developing your own List of Candidates instead of sticking to someone else's list. I am going to re-read his book and think about it some more but for now I decided to list some of the books that I've really loved over the years in the hope that they will inspire me today.

Rants for this week

This has been a tough week for us. My brother fell and broke his shoulder. It's been tough on him because he's so active and hates being unable to take care of himself. It's been tough on me because I'm trying to take care of his needs without being annoying and without insulting my big brother. So maybe my lack of sleep has made me less tolerant of some things.

I am so tired of movies and television shows that repeat the same old plots and act like it's new and original. Case in point is The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke. It has gotten rave reviews. I really like Mickey Rourke so I could hardly wait to see it. Since I work evenings there is only one night a week where I could have seen this movie in the theater. Boy am I glad I didn't. There wasn't an original scene in the movie. In fact the best part of the movie was the song at the end. Or maybe to paraphrase William Shatner in that Brad Paisley video, I like the ending. I liked when it ended. It was almost like a parody of sports movies. It's like the writer thought, let's see they haven't done this with a wrestler yet. Gratuitous nudity, lots of blood to show what? How gritty the business is? What lengths these guys go through? I am so glad I never got a chance to see it in the theaters. I would have been so disappointed.

Another case is actually almost anything on television. There's one called Tim Gunn's Guide to Style which claims to be based on a book Gunn and his co-author wrote. Actually it's a rip-off of the show What Not To Wear on TLC which is a bad copy of the BBC show of the same name. All three are tedious and boring. If you've seen one episode you've seen them all.

My last rant will be about that fake news network Fox News or as I've heard it called Faux News. I really don't understand how anybody can watch that network. I actually find myself feeling sick to my stomach when I listen to the drivel that comes out of the on air personalities. So it was frustrating to have to endure Fox not once but twice this week. First I had to sit in a waiting room at the Athens Diagnostic Center while I was waiting on my brother to have his "painless" CT done. Nothing is painless when you have a broken shoulder. Anyway since we were originally the only ones in the office I went to the window to ask if they could change the channel or turn down the sound. I wasn't able to ask because the receptionist answered the phone as she opened the window to talk to me. By the time she got off the phone there were other patients waiting so I was not going to ask. I probably should have. In fact the next day the television in the waiting room at the hospital was turned to the 700 club and thankfully someone else spoke up and asked if we could change that "depressing" channel. We were all relieved when another patient's relative changed it to Sanford and Son. My second Fox news encounter was at the Georgia Power Company offices where I was waiting to pay my light bill. I really shouldn't be surprised that I was subjected to Fox news at a medical facility and a utility company office. Both are overpriced and gouge the average American on a daily basis!!

Okay, there's today's rant. Maybe another day I'll talk aobut the "Hospitality parking" at St. Mary's or the emergency room at Athens Regional.