Moral-Flexibility.Net

Now, you regular visitor types have noticed my slacking off with these posters, and the only defence I can offer is that the last batch was so-so, and I don’t want to feel like I’m obligated to crank these out as they lack the quality of the early ones. So we’ll leave the posters on hold until I get a chance to sit down and crank some proper ones out.

My zombie movie watching has decreased significantly as I’ve been acquiring materials for my home wiring/cctv/intercom upgrade and haven’t been picking up movies as regularly as I used to.

On the plus side, on Piets advice I’ll be writing a bit about the zombocalypse precautions here at Casa Flexibility. Nothing major, our wee generator, the cameras, the wiring project as it progresses and so forth. I feel certain that my three readers will be positively glued to their monitors with anticipation.

-GRIN-

Hang in there. I am.

We own a house, we have a daughter and our finances are still almost entirely separated.

Sure, we have some of each others credit cards programmed into our accounts for ease of payment, but we don’t have direct access to each others money, and there is no joint account. We manage our own money, split the bills and maintain our own accounts.

Why is this?

Some of it’s habit, a good portion is expedience, but truth be told the bulk of it is adherence to the principle “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.“. The arrangement we have at present works fine. We looked into a joint account, but hit some stumbling blocks early on. Lisa deals with one of the “big” banks I despise, and I deal with a small credit union. Neither of our employers payroll departments can direct a percentage of our paycheques to a joint account and the remainder to our personal accounts (which would have been optimal), and finally it was just too much effort to implement any of the “compromise” options when, as I said before, the present arrangment works fine.

What sort of arrangements do you have with your spouse/partner/hamster/imaginary friend?

So the last few nights have seen me killing terrorists online with Mike and Piet playing Rainbow Six: Las Vegas. This has required my purchase of a budget bluetooth to allow me to communicate with people (and not at long distance telephone rates).

While not quite the intense experience that COD4 is the game allows cooperative play, which I’ve enjoyed a lot more than Piet and I running back and forth taking turns killing each other.

So far the only issues have been my almost complete unfamiliarity with the controls and some minor communications issues which have meant that in the game with all three of us only Mike could hear both Piet and I, who could not (or barely) hear each other.

[I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Mike for some in-game tutoring, and Lisa for her patience as I ignore everything else in my pursuit of terrorist splattered mayhem]

Last week was a real bear. Jillian caught some sort of bug and as a result I averaged only a few hours sleep a night. With Jillian constantly waking up and trying to climb into our bed, our efforts to return her to her bed, our eventually caving and allowing her to climb into our bed in the feeble hopes that it would allow a few hours of sleep, instead receiving a few hours of uninterupted kidney kicking, eventually surrender and stumbling into the kitchen to make coffee.

On top of this, as my boss was aware I had purchased a PS3 on Tuesday I could hardly call in sick to work claiming “exhaustion”. Given the circumstances I’m not sure I would believe me.

This weekend offered a respite, as Jilly (while still suffering from the “terrrible threes”) appeared to have recovered, and we had only a few errands to run (including another long overdue family photo – distribution to immediate family to follow).

I’m thinking I need a range trip quite badly.

As a reward for over a month with no smoking (not even any cheating, promise), and because I’ve been meaning to treat myself for some time now, I broke down on Tuesday and purchased myself a new PS3 and a copy of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

All I can say for the moment is;

“WOW”.

Going to have to dedicate some more time to this game. Definately!

(A tip of the hat to Piet for providing the final nudge)

What does your wallet look like?

No, it’s not even close to a rhetorical question. I’m hoping for an answer. Do you have a “George Costanza” wallet with every conceivable piece of paper and plastic stored in it, or are you a minimalist (like my brother Piet who has a drivers licence, a credit card and some cash clipped together in his pocket. Do you have a billfold? A trifold with slots for a gazillion cards? A bifold? Does you wallet have a chain to hold it to your belt, or velcro to hold it closed?

Why do I ask? It’s because at this point in my life I can look back and remember carrying almost every wallet described above, and thinking at the time that each was the “perfect” wallet.

Continue Reading »

So I’m afraid I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew at once, but so far I’m not choking to death.

Quitting smoking was overdue (and we’re still on track there, over 30 days and counting), cutting down on my coffee was a good idea (if poorly timed what with the quitting smoking thing), regular exercise is a habit that’s going to take more some work but a morning regimen of chinups, pushups and situps is in the works. Increasing my water intake daily was good (and actually worked with the “less coffee” thing), and not spending money is always a good idea, but puts pressure on everything else when I forget to bring water or lunch with me because they’re new habits.

The internet is still present in my life, but my thinking is a little scattered right now, and I’ve got a few dozen half finished blog entries that I am having trouble completing. I don’t hold out a lot of hope, but that’s another area that needs some work, no?

No, honestly, it’s not true. I haven’t turned nice, and am not presently rushing around spreading good will and happiness in my wake (at least not on purpose) and I’ve not surrendered to nicotine withdrawl and assaulted the manufacturing facilities of Imperial Tobacco.

I have been rather tired, as nicotine is a stimulant that should not be so shocking to me, but I’ve been dragging my posterior over these last few weeks. I’ve also been obsessing over my almost restored FICO score and our money situation in general (which while far from dire, is less “optimal” than I would like – but mainly because I am now counting Tobacco as a “luxury” and not a “necessity”).

I still launch the odd tirade, but mainly to co-workers and occasionally the unlucky citizen who inevitably seems unsure if they should laugh or file a complaint (they do actually have the option of doing both, surprised it never occurs to them really).

In summary, things are starting to level out. I’m just shy of four weeks of non-smoking, and truthfully I think it’s kicked.

Keep checking, I’m hoping to get back in the sarcastic/zombie/firearm saddle soon.

-GRIN-

[And thanks for the words of support guys, it's appreciated]