A Major Victory

When I first got out on my own, and when I was still very young, I got myself into a great deal of credit card debt. I was working one dead-end job after another, and falling deeper and deeper into the chasm of debt. I decided that a change was in order.

I began studying programming in a bid to start a career. Very soon I found a @#$%-job working as a programmer, making very little money--but gaining experience. I joined a debt-management company at the same time to pull myself out of debt. In the last 5 years, my career has taken off, and I have been siphoning off huge sums of money each month to pay back my debt. I set for myself the goal that I would be out of debt and into my first home by the time I was 30.

I made my last payment to my debt on June 15th.

I closed on a house yesterday--exactly 1 month prior to my 30th birthday.

This is time of celebration and pride for me, as well as a time to plan my next major goals.

A Salute to Mr. Kilby

I salute you Mr. Kilby. If you are reading this post, or have checked your watch in the last 50 years, or have ever microwaved food, or have done anything at all besides living in a hut in the middle of the forest, you owe this man a great thank you. As inventor of the integrated circuit, he has touched just about every piece of electronic equipment in your life.

A name such as his should not pass into anonymity.

Hallelujah

"Well your faith was strong, but you needed proof,
then you saw her bathing on the roof;
her beauty in the moonlight overthrew ya'.

Then she tied you to her kitchen chair
and she broke your throne and she cut your hair,
and from your lips she drew the 'Hallelujah'

well there was a time when you let me know
what's really going on below
but now you never show that to me do ya'
but remember when i moved in you
and the holy dove was moving too
and every breath we drew was hallelujah ".

--Hallelujah, Leanord Cohen

This song is fabulous. The Jeff Buckley performance is really the best. I love it because it takes a word that normally refers to religious ecstacy and transmutes it an expression of intense, nearly unbearable this-wordly pleasure! Hallelujah!

Update

It's been awhile since I've posted. Things are rockin' and rollin'.

I've been enjoying my summer so far. I've become addicted to the World Of Warcraft MMORPG. I think that this game may server my D&D fix. If I can just get a couple more of my friends playing it, it may replace D&D altogether for me.

In other news, I put an offer on a house yesterday. It's kind of a nerve-wracking experience. If the offer is accepted, I'll have to take complete responsibility for a building. One of the benefits of renting is that if something goes wrong, you just call someone and they fix it. This is a little scary--but I'm ready for it. I've been looking for the right house for the right price for awhile. I think I've found it.

I realized that Jessica has been gone for a year. I've been a single guy for a year. The truth is that the time has gone by very fast. I'm not feeling lonely--and I'm not in a hurry to find/start a new relationship. I'm a happy man living alone with his dogs. I'm sure that this will change at some point, but for now the status quo is good.