Working it out

In a massive turn of geekism, I have decided to start planning my New Year’s Resolutions already. At this stage, 2009 is going to be full of win.

Still planning, of course, but so far I’m thinking:

• buy an apartment
• run (and I mean, like, RUN) the City to Surf
• win the [yet to be established] Pulitzer Prize in Blogging.

What do you think, team?

And, in an effort to get off to a running start (there is a pun there, too, just wait for it…) I started the “run 3 times a week” goal YESTERDAY.

I did the first session of DJ Steveboy’s Podrunner: Intervals First Day to 5K — a 10-week interval-training program that gets progressivly hardcore as the weeks go by.

The tempo of the music changes with a kinda comical hooter noise to tell you it’s time to speed up/slow down to guide you through the run, and I think I did alright for the first go!  I fast-walked and jogged on the treadmill with it pumping out my iPod nano for 30 mins and did nearly 3k! Hurrah!

I also signed up at http://www.gyminee.com/ but I do wonder how long I will stick with updating that. It is much prettier than the last social-fitness thing I played with (can’t remember the name) so that will help me be motivated to log on.  If anyone else is on there and wants to be a GymBuddy, let me know.

money, money, money

When I was growing up (in my totally fun immigrant family) we always had to listen to Sinhalese songs on cassettes on any long drives. Lame. My little brother and I never got any of it so we were consequentially deprived of pop-music throughout our youth. (That’s probably why my brother thinks he is/wants to be a brother ie a gangsta rapper.)

Except for ABBA.

For some reason my parents had a couple of their tapes and listened to them sometimes (were they big in Sri Lanka, too?). Yeah, sure, we were growing up in the 90s, but it was nice to be able to know the language of car songs — even if they were from the 70s.

My favourite song is probably Mamma Mia, but everyone seems to be talking about cash and stuff these days, so I am going to go with this:

I work all night I work all day to pay the bills I have to pay
ain’t it sad
and still there never seems to be a single penny left for me
that’s too bad
in my dreams
I have a plan
if I got me a wealthy man
I wouldn’t have to work at all I’d fool around and have a ball

Bless.

But from what I gather, it’s not so fun In A Rich Man’s World at the moment. And it’s probably worse that usual in a less-than-rich person’s, too.

I feel kinda out of the loop, though.

(Until, of course, I get evicted or have my rent spiked,) I don’t have to worry about feeding hungry tummies or paying off mortgages. I never invested in the stock market so the last month has been like very whatevs for me. And I paid off my credit card a couple of pay cheques ago.

So now, I just get more dollars miraculously deposited into my bank account than I actually “need” to spend in a fortnight.

And a wealthy man can go suck it, as I have no interest in (nor prospects of)  being an investment banker/drug dealer’s coke-addled trophy wife.

Because I have plenty of pennies left for me.  And that’s even after my direct debit to UNICEF has gone out.  AND, even though I’ve never reeeally been a good saver, I am also saving 16% (which > 10% suggested amount) of my pay because I’ve set it to be popped over to my savings account by my employer. (Thanks for the tip, Grendel!!!)

I am quite, quite lucky, I know I am. And I know I could lose my job (but frankly… I won’t complain too much right now… hah) and things could get really bad, and stuff, but I am a good Buddhist, I know this too will pass [also apparently a Jewish story??] and I’ll deal with that when I get there.

But what now?

I suppose I could save more (but that’s kinda boring)… or give even more to charity (maybes I can buy two Big Issues a fortnight??).  But with all this talk about consumer confidence dropping and economic stimulus packages and stuff, I’m thinking: welp. Mayhaps I might go get an iPod at lunch time?

BUT I CAN’T GET ONE.

DJ’s and Myer haven’t got the 16GB size I want, JB Hi-Fi haven’t got the right colour (dude, I am not like gonna just throw the cash away on one I don’t actually like!) and the knobs at DigiLife didn’t seem interested in selling me anything either.

W. T. F.

So, back at the office, I tried to order one online, but IT FROZE LIKE 5 TIMES and then when I rang the Apple Store, and patiently went through 3 recorded menus, I was told (by a recorded message, of course) that the Apple Store’s Opening Hours Are — [this is where I slammed the phone down].

Um… hello?

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY IF NO-ONE’S GOING TO LET ME BUY ANYTHING?

I am just trying to be a Good Capitalist Denizen (™).

Why can’t I do that?

What is the universe trying to tell me? That capitalism sucks, or something?

What. What?

OH RLRY?