Tag: blogging

The personal budget

Taylor BurianLeave a comment
Daily writing prompt
Write about your approach to budgeting.
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On the whole, my budgeting sucks, simple as that, but I still have some sort of method to follow.

To start with, I have a spreadsheet that I put all my numbers into for tracking, and I keep it up to date almost daily. In this age of technology, it’s super easy to do with my phone. I can access my bank, credit cards, Paypal, Venmo, etc. so that I can keep tabs on any new transactions. Then I also have access to my spreadsheet through my phone, so it’s just as easy to bounce between the apps.

Each bill or monthly charge is tracked as a line item, and I keep track of each of their relative due dates next to them. Those are the first two columns, and I freeze them in place for scrolling for the next part. The rest of the columns have the Pay Dates for the year and the anticipated amount earned on that check. Then I go through each bill and add the amount due for each pay check that will be closest in date before the bill is due. Everything gets calculated at the bottom, and I have line items for Food/Groceries, Gas, and Savings. Those last three are more fluid because there will be weeks I don’t need to drive as much, or I have extra grocery money because I didn’t need to spend extra on something like bulk laundry detergent. This is where I say my budgeting sucks. Because I don’t do a good job with having the extra money that I don’t ultimately put into savings. I take out cash for the food and gas to try and limit myself, but I will sometimes go over or find myself in a situation where I need to pay for something that I can’t use cash for, so it ends up on the credit card (because the bank account would overdraw otherwise.)

There you go. My brief budget rundown.

The idea of patriotism

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Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?

Honestly, no. And before anyone figuratively jumps down my throat let me explain.

The first entry of the Dictionary.com definition of “patriot” is “a person who loves, supports, and defends their country and its interests with devotion.”

If you were to dissect that definition into discernable criteria then I would only partially represent it. Then again, pieces of that criteria would also be subjective based on someone else’s values and logic.

If I were to take the word “country” out of the definition and replace it with “community” then I might fit more criteria.

Unfortunately, as things stand today, regardless of politics, our country is kind of fucked. We’re fortunate it isn’t worse (no matter what anyone else says) but we could be so much better.

All that being said, the second part of the prompt asks what being patriotic means to me. If I take THAT piece and run with it then I’m left with my own subjective values to define patriotism within the realm of ‘me’.

For me, just “sticking to my values” isn’t enough. I would want to look at the world around me and see that what I’m doing is having a positive impact. To recognize that it isn’t just me in this world, and that while I might be walking a different path in life, I won’t get through life alone. None of us will. We don’t think about it enough that someone, somewhere designed the smartphone I’m using to type this up. Someone else had to make it. Yet another person had to participate in its delivery. When I think about things from that perspective, I don’t automatically apply the word “patriotism” to it but it still feels like that’s what it should be. Love and support the people around you, and the people around them, and so on.

What’s in a name: biography edition

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If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?

This must be like one of those jokes I used to see on social media, like “that’s the name of my next emo band” or “that’s the name of my sex tape”, something like that?

I never got into the habit of making those kinds of jokes or thinking about my life in the context of “name of my next whatever” so I have no idea how I would give an answer.

Let’s name my biography Active Mediocrity.

Why? I don’t know, because my life is mostly unremarkable and I semi-actively maintain a boring and mediocre lifestyle? That’s the best I’ve got at the moment.

Maybe I should ask my friends.

(Also, Active Mediocrity sounds like a good band name, or at least an album. I looked it up, nothing in the top handful of search results for it being used as a name.)

That special dream home

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Write about your dream home.

Everyone has ideas on how they would like to have unique things in their home. I’m no exception. I’ve already talked about the ideal location for where I would like to live, and the ideal office type arrangement, in previous posts. Now I can go through the rest of the house!

I’m not entirely certain I would want some absolutely massive mansion, but depending on the “sum of its parts” it might just turn out that way. The reason I wouldn’t want such a large house is because of the need to clean it. I’m not made of money and can shell out for a cleaning service, but I guess if I had the money for this dream home then I probably have the money for the service.

Anyways, let’s dive in!

The entryway to the home would have a nice open space with a large closet for guests to hang coats, and a couple of chairs or a bench that people can use to sit on when they need to get their shoes on. Oh, and a shoe cubby. Can’t forget the shoe cubby. There would be stairs on one side that go up and stairs on the other side that go down. Not sure of the exact layout or design there but you probably get the idea. Then a couple hallways that branch off.

The kitchen and dining room would share a partially open layout somewhere in the middle of the house down the hall directly ahead of the entryway. A simple living room would be next to that space, and somewhere between the two would be a way to the backyard patio.

The backyard patio would almost be like a large three-season covered space. The walls would be similar to those garages that have the two layer doors where there is an interior one that’s a screen. There would be a section of the patio that is setting up for cooking/grilling with a few different implements. A standard grill, a big flat top, and a smoker to start. There would also be some seating and small tables.

Back inside the house again, the upstairs would have bedrooms with a couple of bathrooms, one of which is in the master suite. The master suite would also be connected to that really cool two story library, which would also be connected at the first floor through the kitchen.

Downstairs would be a large entertaining space with a secondary office for streaming, because honestly if I have the kind of money for this dream house then I probably can afford to stream for fun more. The main area of the downstairs would have all of the tabletop gaming space for my friends and I to play D&D or whatever else (probably Frosthaven, which we still need to start.)

Somewhere in the mix of all of this house would be a fun slide or something, and a couple of secret rooms or passages. That would just be amazing.

Well, I’ll stop there with the dreaming because otherwise I could probably just go on writing about it for ages, and I’ve already tried to keep myself from getting TOO detailed. So that is that. Just going to leave it there for now.

How do you share great news?

Taylor BurianLeave a comment
Daily writing prompt
You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?
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I feel like this prompt approaches the idea too simplistically. Personally, if I’m getting amazing news it would really depend on the kind of news it is to determine what I would do first.

If the news I got was something along the lines of winning tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars from the lottery then I already have a plan thought out, and it wouldn’t involve telling anyone close to me right away. If I found out I was going to be a father (which isn’t likely to ever happen under current circumstances) then I would probably also consider the ramifications of how I got to that place in my life, like if it was an accidental or intentional pregnancy. Do you see where I’m going with all of this?

You can’t just ask people something so vague and open ended without expecting a variety of answers. Unless, of course, someone is at a point in their life where there is literally only one possible thing at that given point in time that would qualify as “great, amazingly fantastic news”. But really, how likely is that?

To be honest, I don’t even know what kind of news I could receive right now that would even be remotely considered to be THAT good, but I can tell you that one of the first things I would do (but maybe not the FIRST first thing, just one of them) is write a post here about it. Unless I won the lottery, because I’m not opening up that Pandora’s Box HERE.

Loss of interest in a hobby

Taylor BurianLeave a comment
Daily writing prompt
Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?
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Thankfully the prompt is automatically at the top of the post or else I would feel the need to start with “Nobody panic, I’m not losing interest in a CURRENT hobby.”

Now, to be honest, I don’t have an exact answer because I’m sure I’ve forgotten some things, but yes there are definitely activities I’ve grown out of over the years. As a kid, I used to love riding my bike all over the place, playing with LEGOs for hours, probably some other things that kids typically lose interest in as they get older. Moving the clock forward to college, there used to be more alcohol in my life. More parties with friends. Not anymore, though, because I had a great (negative) role model about alcohol and I came to realize that I didn’t like the way it made me feel. All of those things are activities or hobbies I outgrew or lost interest in, although I really should consider getting a bicycle again and just riding the bike trail that loops around my city.

Funny enough, there is one hobby that I “outgrew” that ended up coming back. Pokémon cards. Unfortunately, when you’re a kid you don’t have a disposable income, so I couldn’t feed that cardboard crack addiction of buying booster packs. I didn’t come back to the game until more than 20 years later when my niece and nephews started to get into it. I don’t actively buy packs for that game these days, so I guess I still sort of outgrew it, however I do collect and play Magic: The Gathering instead so I would say I came back to the hobby eventually. Just in a different way.

It’s interesting how life changes like that.

Too many inventions too quickly

Taylor BurianLeave a comment
Daily writing prompt
The most important invention in your lifetime is…
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It’s hard to pick an invention from “my lifetime” when I don’t even know what was truly and originally invented IN my lifetime.

When I first started to write out my answer for today’s prompt I had settled on Wireless Technology, but the more I thought about it there are certain elements of “wireless” that are older than any person still living today. So, I stopped writing about it, deleted everything and took a break.

Now, I’m sitting down several hours later to think about it and I realized that technology has advanced so quickly and confidentially that I don’t know what to pick.

I think, just for the sake of putting SOMETHING out there, I’ll stick to an abbreviated version of what I had thought about before regarding wireless technology.

Most people take for granted what is considered “wireless” because they don’t think about them, or because the technology is obsolete and no longer in use. Like TV remotes. Still in use, but people these days probably forgot they existed (until I mentioned them just now) because the vast majority of people probably don’t need them anymore! So, although the TV remote might not have been invented in the last 35 years, wireless technology has continued to evolve. The electromagnetic spectrum, which includes the infrared light TV remotes use (even Nintendo’s Game Boy Color had IR sensors), is the backbone of all wireless communication, and we harness it in so many ways. Between that and the invention of The Internet, they have drastically altered the world we live in today. Broadband and shortwave radio eventually led to Bluetooth technology which is probably the most relevant for today’s prompt because it was invented in my lifetime (but I didn’t want to settle with just Bluetooth because it’s a subset of the wider and more important idea.)

Anyways, this is all just my opinion, so whatever. Wireless Technology is the most important invention of multiple lifetimes.

My ideal day needs more hours

Taylor BurianLeave a comment
Daily writing prompt
Describe your most ideal day from beginning to end.
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There really aren’t enough hours in the day. So, let’s change that!

My ideal day would be like 36 hours long, at least. I know the Earth’s rotation won’t allow that and our bodies aren’t accustomed to it, but that’s okay. This is all purely hypothetical.

So, 36 hours. How do I fill that to make MY ideal day? I’d start by sleeping in and getting about 12 hours of sleep. I love sleep so much, but I have to respect the order of the world we live in by having a job and paying bills.

After I wake up I would probably eat a small breakfast on the patio while I watch the sunrise, about an hour at most spent here. (I don’t currently HAVE a patio that faces East, but if we’re making the day 36 hours long then I can live anywhere I want.)

After breakfast would be some game time. Not sure what I would play, but I would probably spend 4 hours on that? Maybe 6? Followed by lunch, and then back to gaming for another 4-6 hours. Let’s say that puts us at 25 hours. 11 hours to go!

The last 11-13 hours would be running around doing chores around the house or running errands, followed by dinner, and then ending with a couple more hours of game time.

Super simple and fairly straightforward. Although, the most important part of all of this is just that I would have 36 hours in the day. I could totally spend half a day hiking, have a light lunch at the top of the mountain, and then the rest be roughly the same. If I still worked 8 hours in the day I would have a ton of time to fit in all the things I would want to do.

Wait, I forgot to include writing! I would definitely cut out one of the time slots for gaming and swap in writing for 4-6 hours. This still assumes that I have a regular job, though. If writing was my full time job then it would just replace that for 8 hours.

Either way, my body would hate me for being up for 24 hours.

Time changes everything

Taylor BurianLeave a comment

How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?

Wow, this prompt could get deep!

First off, just because I thought it was amusing, I wanted to share that I spent a good minute or so trying to think of a title for today’s post. Soap Opera titles like Days of Our Lives and As the World Turns came to mind because the names of these shows are so simple yet so fitting, and the content of these shows is relevant to the general question of the prompt. (For the record, I don’t watch these shows, I just know they exist because my Mom watched them.) Then I thought of the line Fry from Futurama uses in regards to the yogurt in his baseball cap. “Ya see, it used to be milk. And well, time makes fools of us all.” That’s when I decided to keep things a little higher level for my answer, rather than deep dive into my past to try and self-evaluate who I am today.

Time really does make fools of us all. Children look at the world very differently than adults, but they too eventually become adults and see the folly of their naivety.

For myself as a child the world was in some ways full of promise. Until Mom passed away. That’s the kind of major life event that drastically changes a kid. I was only 12, and while I had the concept of death in my head it didn’t seem REAL until it hit my family in such a strong way. I didn’t really know what to think after that, but the world became a little more grey and uncertain.

Then a couple years later, my Dad remarried. A few years later and we moved several hundred miles away. Two important things were instilled in me through those events. Relationships can change, and people need to keep moving forward. As much as Dad loved my Mom, he needed a partner to keep him going, and as strong a bond as I may have had with friends, those friendships couldn’t last.

As an adult I take those two things to heart. Friends have come and gone, some due to differences of opinions and others because of life choices/directions. I don’t like to think of it as “moving on” but rather “moving forward” because there’s no going back.

From To-Do to To-Someday

Taylor BurianLeave a comment

Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.

That title is a bit of a mouthful! I also toyed with the idea of borrowing a line from Strong Bad Email #61 to go with “To-Do List this Sunday, Sunday, Someday” or something like that.

Anyways, on to today’s prompt.

I use Google Calendar all the time, and I have the Google Tasks widget on my phone’s secondary home screen. The neat thing about this widget is I can check things off the list based on what tasks are pre scheduled on my Calendar AND I can add my own items directly in the widget. Makes it easy to add things on the fly if I need to remind myself of something that needs doing. Unfortunately, if something has a due date assigned then it appears in the list chronologically, and anything without a date appears at the bottom. So as it stands, I have several items at the bottom of the list that I forget exist. Just simple reminders of things I can or should be doing with my time.

  • Books
  • Games
  • Gym routine/schedule
  • Lifestyle plan? (And yes, it has the question mark)
  • Meal Plan
  • Minis

Technically the items Books, Games, and Minis are more like suggestions while the rest are actual To-Do items. I like to keep them on the list anyway.

So, as you can see in the list there are a few “planning” items and they never seem to get done…

For those that are curious, the “Lifestyle Plan?” To-Do item is there to remind me that I need to take some time to reconsider how I structure my use of time every day and my priorities if I want to achieve goals. Sadly, I also avoid it because lifestyle changes are difficult.

I’ll get to them eventually.