Dry Bones Dance

Unprecedented post entirely about technology

My computer had some sort of stroke yesterday. It shut down and refused to start up again, no matter what nasty things I said to it. This has happened twice before, and both times it spontaneously resurrected itself after a few hours. Third time has not been the charm, and at the moment, it's as functional as a doorstop. Fortunately, in a surprising burst of advance planning and responsibility, I backed up everything on an external hard drive on Sunday.

I knew I would need a new computer soon, what with the spontaneous shut downs, and the fact that it kept getting slower and slower and louder and louder. So, rather than lose at least a day of work and income to patch it together for a couple of months, it seemed to make more sense to just buy a new one.

How to Fuck Up

I'm not usually very linky, because what could possibly be more interesting than the inside of my head? However, this is a fabulous post. It is not actually about how to fuck up. I, for one, need no help in that area. It does tell you what to do when you DO fuck up, and if everyone followed this process, the world would be a much happier place.

I'll wait here while you go check it out.

Stream of Consciousness Blogging with no socially redeeming value

I took my Little Sister to a movie on Sunday. (Big Brother/Big Sister Little Sister, not my biological little sister. She makes more money than I do, so she can pay for her own damn movie ticket.) It was a WORLD PREMIER - admittedly one with relatively minor stars, but it involved free tickets and free popcorn, so what's not to love?

Every so often, I find things like this entertaining, but it turns out my little sister is absolutely and utterly uninterested in celebrities. It is terribly refreshing that we have not once had to discuss Lindsay Lohan or the Olsen twins. The movie started late, and we were two rows behind Henry Winkler and one of the lesser Baldwin brothers, so I tried to unsuccessfully explain The Fonz to a 13 year old who had never heard of Happy Days. Then we saw the guy who was in that show with Bob Newhart - not the one with Suzanne Pleshette - the one where they had the inn in Vermont. Before that, he was in Bosom Buddies with Tom Hanks. I tried to explain the plot of Bosom Buddies, but that was a lost cause, and I don't think she really knows who Tom Hanks is anyway. She had certainly never heard of the other guy, who turned out to be Peter Scolari. I know this because I saw it in the movie credits.

Now Taking Suggestions

The theme of this year for me is getting out of survival mode, and I have dubbed 2008 as the "Year of Achieving Financial Solvency." Business is pretty good at the moment, and I have begun saving and chipping away at my credit card debt. However, my current retirement plan is to die young. I have begun to think that this might not be a good idea. Since I am self-employed, I don't have a 401(k) or pension or anything, so I think that having a sit-down with a financial planner-type person is probably an excellent idea.

I'm doing my own research on the subject, but in the interest of being thorough, if any of you have any suggestions for finding a good financial planner and questions I should ask in an initial meeting, by all means, make a note of them in the comments section. I'm looking for someone who won't look at me like I have two heads when I say that I want to be socially responsible in my investments, so if there's an ethical investment network somewhere, it would be great if you could point me in their direction. (It would also be nice if said individual wouldn't take a look at my current paltry retirement portfolio and immediately assume that I must be an idiot. Possibly that is too much to hope for.)

I'm also open to suggestions for any good books on financial planning, saving for retirement, and getting your financial act together generally.

The IRS and enlightenment

I had a moment of epiphany this week. It's how I tend to work, I've found - muddling around for a while and feeling like I'll never figure anything out until one day, something clicks, and I know what to do. In this case, my moment of epiphany was triggered by someone saying something she had said 25 times before, except this time I finally realized that what she was saying was A) right, and B) blindingly obvious. There was also what we shall hereafter refer to as the Income Tax Fiasco of 2008, that was...illuminating. (I would tell you more about it, but that would make me look really really stupid.)

At any rate, I've been sitting with my last post, and knew I needed to let go, but I couldn't figure out what exactly I was holding on to. The IRS is not generally regarded as a mechanism of enlightenment, but this week, I owe my 1040 form and FICA a debt of gratitude for helping me get past my ego long enough for me to be able to hear someone state the aforementioned blindingly obvious truth about myself.

If you are here, you are prepared

I'm still reading Diane Shainberg's Chasing Elephants and came across this quote from Jae Jah Noh:

Even though one may not be prepared to face some form of truth, still, if he is willing, he is ready. Readiness has nothing to do with preparedness. One is never prepared, there is no preparation for life. If you are here, you are prepared.

How do you know when you are ready? You are ready when you are willing to be ready.

I like this, because I don't think I've ever been prepared for anything that was important. I still feel ill-prepared, so I guess I would have made a lousy Boy Scout. But how can I be completely prepared for something I've never done before or don't know how to do? On some level, it's always a surprise. I haven't walked into any job I've had with all the skills or knowledge I needed to it, and for the most part, the training has been, "Hey, we're glad you're here. There's your desk, the coffee's over there, let me know if you have any questions, and good luck to you!" I actually kind of like learning by doing, jumping in and figuring it out as I go along.