Continued working on my finances
To keep myself refreshed and motivated, I downloaded all the class lessons from Dave Ramsey's class (www.daveramsey.com) onto my Zune. I was surprised to see that they had them for me to download (perk of going to the class), but was pleased. I re-listened to some of them yesterday, and will keep relistening to them periodically.
Actually going to speak about it at church today (10 minutes max). I was rather surprised when the pastor's wife asked me to (I had sent her an email about how FPU was working out for me, how I paid off my credit cards, and how much farther ahead of schedule I expected to be on getting out of debt).
Google Docs is a supremely useful tool as I can look at, examine and shuffle my budget around most anywhere I'm at. At home? Great. At work during lunch? Easy.
Considering finding a second job, even if its just 8-hours a week. No idea doing WHAT mind you. But even minimum wage ($7.25) for 8 hours a week for a year will garner me $3016 gross. After taxes? Hm... maybe $1500-2000.
Home improvement
Been decluttering like a fiend recently. Shredded several boxes of stuff that I've inexplicably held on to, thrown a bunch of stuff away, and will be getting ready to donate a bunch of stuff, too (books mostly, some clothes, etc). Been giving away games of mine to friends, and will be sending my stick off to a friend on the mainland. Wish I could find a home for my SFAE joystick (PS2 and XB compatible) - too big to ship for free, sadly. Might see if I can pass it on to Salvation Army or some place like that - some bargain hunter would score with that.
Looking at putting down laminate on the floor. I just began tearing out my old carpet (last room in the house that still had carpeting) - stuff was 30+ years old at least and I didn't realize how smelly it was until I hauled it off.
Self-Improvement
Looking at getting some new shoes, a new backpack, and hopefully will begin to regularly walk to work again Tuesdays through Fridays. That's about 3.8 miles round-trip. I need more exercise! Also, looking to having two-thirds of my meals being vegetarian (breakfast and lunch), and that's coming along (although slightly repetitive right now).
I really need to get my diet and exercise under control and improved, as they both contribute to keeping my blood sugar under control. No desire to be diabetic, thank you very much.
I've been very, "I'm not in my 20's anymore, time to start acting like I'm in my 30's" mood lately.
Daydreaming about getting my own place, but that'll be a bit longer term. Directly relates to my financial goals. After I'm out of debt, have 6 months of savings? I'll be starting to work towards getting a down payment on a place. Will likely go for a condo right now, simply because homes here cost so much. But, again, longer term. Don't expect to start working on that until 2012, and I want to get at least a 10%, maybe 20%, down payment. That's going to take a few years ($30-60k). But its nice to dream.
Gaming
Huh? I don't have time right now! :p
Seriously - I'm moving away from console gaming right now. Looking to sell my 360, not planning to replace it with a PS3, either. Re-subscribed to Star Trek Online for the time being. Haven't finished Prototype right now, and I told myself I'm not going to buy any more games until I finish it. Played a little Mirror's Edge and felt a bit sick later... I might have to write off the FPS format for me and gaming if its going to give me motion sickness and headaches. Which is a bit of a bummer.
Already given away all but one of my fighting games (BlazBlue, KOFXI, SFIV). The last one, VF5:Online, will be going with my HORI to a friend in Kansas. Still trying to find homes for the other games; Ridge Racer and Banjo Kazooie can go to my friend Paul (has four kids, plus has gaming at his house regularly). Not sure about the other games just yet. I just don't want them to end up at Gamestop, hence finding "homes" for them.
Whoever buys the 360 (probably $150 - a bit cheaper than Gamestop's price for a used Arcade) will get the 20g HDD plus the games I was given along with it, my VGA adapter, headset and texting keyboard. While I can really charge more, the HDD and games were given to me free by a very generous Gamespotter, the VGA adapter was sold to me at an incredible deal, and the other stuff will be no use to me anyhow.
Update: Talked to my buddy, and will give it to him. If he can get me anything, fine. If not, fine.