I’m in a super depressed mood today. I should be excited, after all, it is payday. Except for one HUGE issue. Even though I logged 91 hours on my last time card, yes that’s my normal 80 hours plus 11 of overtime, and have worked for close to the last 3 weeks straight, my last FULL day off being MLK day, I’m still staring at my bank account and wondering how the hell I’m going to survive the next 2 weeks….when I turn in another timecard that’s going to have I think 90 hours on it.

Let’s see… Payday was today…

That’s + $914.41 into my bank account. (Previous balance was ~$400)

…but rent is due, that’s $502.50 for my half of the apartment

…and so is my car payment, $185.65

…and I need to pay my student loans… $158.12 to one loan from my checking account. My other loan is payed differently, I’ll touch on that in a second.

Which leaves me with $68.14 from this paycheck.

And that’s not including the $100 I sent towards the balance on one credit card. The others have later due dates and will have to wait the 2 weeks until they get paid. As will my cell phone and internet bills, I think. Though I’ll have to crunch the numbers on when they’re due, because they might need to go on one of the credit cards so they’re paid on-time.

And notice at no point was I able to save any of my paycheck. If I were following the normally recommended method of putting 10% of my normal pay into my savings account, that’d be $77 a paycheck, and as you can see, after paying bills I DON’T HAVE THAT! I have ~$370 for the next 2 weeks to buy groceries and whatever else comes up with. Oh and if I go under $300, I start to incur service fees on the account because it’s not at the stupid-high minimum balance.

2009 killed me in terms of finances. Because Emalee and I broke up in late 2008, and she moved out, I was stuck with an apartment I couldn’t afford. Plus add to that the furloughs that I had to do in Q1 & Q2 of 2009, and the fact that I got virtually NO overtime last year means my savings account, which had $1700 or so in it to start 2009, which expanded to well over $3,000 after I got my tax return, has been run dry. I ended 2009 with $256.52 in there. That’s how bad 2009 was for me. And I haven’t been able to rebuild it at all. There’s just been no money to do that. Even with having a roommate, theoretically less in the amount of bills, etc.

And it’s not really things like credit-card debt that’s my mega issue. It’s that I have a certified shit-ton in student loans.

As of right now, I still owe $15,658.58 on my federal student loans. That’s the loan I referenced above that I paid from this paycheck. I have another student loan, a private one, that I still owe them $35,493.93, which comes out to about $479.30 a month. The good news is that on this loan, going into college, the parents agreed to help pay part of it. So I get a good chunk of the money that goes to that loan from them at the moment.

The other stuff I currently owe on at the moment:

Credit Card Balances: $139.39 on one, $1,035.53 on the second one, and $31.60 on the third one.

Car: $4,312.85

Everything else is the recurring expenses I have every month.

And I’ve cut-out just about everything I could. I’ve stopped eating out as much as I possibly can, though with my schedule, sometimes that’s not something I can avoid doing. Avatar was the last movie I’ve seen in ages in a theater (previously was the current Harry Potter) AND I went to the 2D version because it was $9 as opposed to the $15 for the 3D or $20ish for the IMAX.

So yeah, I don’t go out, I don’t practically do anything anymore that requires spending money. I work my ass off and have practically nothing to show for it.

Ugh! I’m so sick of this. Anyone have contacts in NYC or LA that they’re willing to share with me?

Comments

Posted in Life

My predictions for 2010:

In technology:

• Android will gain enough market share to pose a serious threat to Apple.  Blackberry, while still relevant in the enterprise, will quickly lose on the consumer side of the market.
• Because of Android, and to a lesser extent Blackberry, Apple will be forced to make changes to the iPhone…

1. They will end AT&T exclusivity.  Unfortunately the only other carrier that will offer the iPhone will be T-Mobile because they will not produce a CDMA version.  T-Mo’s 3G network, will also disappoint iPhone users.  Verizon, Sprint, US Cell, et. al. won’t offer it for a few more years when their LTE networks, and the 4G iPhone become available.
2. They will be forced to abandon the App approval process, thereby opening up the iPhone platform to more developers in response to the sharp increase in available Android apps & Cydia apps for Jailbroken iPhones.
3. They will abandon the notification system in the iPhone OS in favor of true background apps.  In typical Apple fashion, though, this will only be available to people who own 3GS and the new 3GS+ iPhones, leaving 2G and 3G users behind.

• The iSlate will be a disappointment.  It will feature a “new” OS that won’t run any iPhone OS or Mac OS apps.
• A revised Apple TV, Roku and Boxee boxes will gain market share and start to eat away at the cable companies, especially after the FCC releases new guidelines for set-top boxes.  The pending merger of NBC & Comcast will become meaningless by the end of the year.

In politics:

• The FCC will pass net neutrality.  It will be completely not what AT&T et al want and will actually provide reasonable consumer protections.
• After passing NN, the FCC will turn to abolishing consumption based billing for internet access as they reclassify ISPs as “common carriers.”
• To spur rural broadband build-outs, the FCC will begin the process to force the separation of ISP from the lines coming into the house.  This will allow third parties to build the rural networks without telco intervention.   Congress will pass legislation to provide these companies subsidies, and money from the USF, to build the networks.
• …however, the FCC will fuck up the last two royally.
• We will see countless delays in the ENDA, and repeals of DoMA and DADT.  Because the Republicans will gain a few seats in the Senate we’ll see them crammed through and passed in the legislative session between the elections in November and when the new members take over.
• Health Reform will pass both chambers of congress after going through conference committee.  Unfortunately, the bill will look a lot like the Senate’s version of the bill, will contain Stupak, and no public option.
• However, in exchange for the public option in the bill, House Democrats will demand, and get, the following:

1. A mid 2010 start date for the mandates that drop pre-existing conditions, demand equal coverage, etc.
2. An immediate start to the “exchanges” by utilizing the existing exchange that is set up for Federal employees
3. A version of Medicare-for-all in the exchange, that is basically the public option they dropped from the bill

• On the plus side of all of this, there will be a swift rift that forms in the Republican party in this election cycle dividing the Beck/Palin supporters with the rest of the Party, Dems will make substantial gains in the House of Representatives, and the Republican party will be severely wounded as they go into the primary season for the 2012 Presidential elections.

Entertainment:

• We will see at least one television network go bust by the end of 2010.
• Or it will decide to drop it’s affiliates and go direct-to-cable
• Leno-in-primetime will not be renewed.  NBC will trade out the 10pm hour to affiliates for a 5th hour of Today.
• Most NBC stations will move their 11pm news up to 10pm. Some will expand it to 1:35, as NBC will keep the start time of Conan at 11:35.

Personally:

• I will either change jobs or finally get my own production house off the ground.

Technorati Tags: 2010, predictions

Comments

Posted in Commentary

On his email list, he pushed out an email today asking readers to respond to the following questions:

1. Is Facebook clueless, unethical or just unlucky? Why?

Facebook is VERY clueless here. Just like beacon, the splitting of the news and live feeds, etc. They’ve made it seemike they’ve listened to their users, but they haven’t. If they had, they’d of noticed the groups that have popped up demanding that we go back to the old privacy system.

I know that at least for me, it DID NOT default to wide open. But then again, I had a fairly locked down profile to start with. You couldn’t search me or even *see* that I existed on there. Why did I do this? Well, I’m in the job search and I’d rather not have someone see me. Not that I have anything remotely bad on my profile… But I don’t trust friends to not tag me in a photo that could be embarrassing. (Trust me, I just untagged myself from a few pictures taken at a business social function because I had a red cup in my hand which could be seen as I was drinking something other than Diet Coke.)

The only good thing to come out of this? Per-item privacy controls.

2. Will Facebook’s latest behavior result in more lawsuits and/or
industry regulation?

I don’t neccesarily think so. But then again, lawyers in this country can be sue-happy sometimes. And I also wonder if there is anything in this change that may have run afowl of California state privacy laws.

3. Do you trust Facebook with your information?

Absolutely not. In fact, since this change, I’ve removed all pictures but my current profile picture, I’ve deleted all of my shared links, and I’m working on deleting all of my notes that were imported from my blog.

If they don’t want to allow me to control how my data is seen, then I don’t want it to be on there. Plain and simple.

Final thoughts…

I think this will be a wakeup call for Facebook. I think there will be a mass revolt from the users. (In fact I know a couple of users who are seriously considering deleting their profiles.)

Where will they run to? I have no clue. I doubt, though, that it will be MySpace or Twitter.

Sent from my iPhone

Technorati Tags: facebook, technology

Comments

Posted in Internet