I am struggling with whether or not to start karate again. I worked out for over 8 years, and then 4 years ago walked away. I know now that I left because it was no longer satisfying. The situation wasn’t fulfilling my needs anymore. However, since I didn’t have good closure with it I still feel the urge to put the gi back on and return to active status. This could be an incredible god idea, or a really bad one. I need to spend some more time sorting this out to know for sure.
The Illinois State government is going to change in a big way outwardly this January. A democrat was elected for the first time in years. Due to budget cuts there are massive early retirements happening between now and January 1. The retirements are going to cause ripples as people move around to take advantage of openings. The new administration will cause still more ripples as all the agency heads will be replaced, and then the top staff at each agency will shift. As a consultant I get a front row seat to the show; I only hope that it doesn’t spill over into my section of the audience.
I am thinking of selling my Audi TT again. I tried this in August but since it still has two years to run on the lease the buyout is too high to sell it out right. This time I am planning on selling the right to assume the lease. You have to be an Illinois resident, as the leasing company won’t transfer across state lines due to tax reasons. And there is a total of $740 in fees to be paid. It would be nice to get out of this lease and use the saved $550 each month to pay off the Lexus sooner.
For the first time in weeks I didn’t check all the online auction sites for Apple Powerbooks yesterday. I’ll have to check them all twice today. Ha! Michele and I are very seriously considering switching from Windows and Intel to Mac OS X and PowerPC. She wants to make DVD copies of all her “I Love Lucy” episodes (180 of them), and she feels that the reduced virus threat on Mac will make her feel safer about internet surfing. I like the stability of a Unix based OS, along with the elegance of a world-class user interface. Also the form-factor of the Powerbook just can’t be beat. I think we’ll start the switch in the spring with an eMac for her and then a Powerbook for me.
I’m thinking about paying the nominal fee to moveable type, the content management software that I use for this site. I want to due this for a couple of reasons. First, it is very well written software and it has made my site much easier to maintain. Second, I get free exposure on their site each time I update my blog. I currently average about 12-15 hits per week on my site. I suspect that most of these are search engine bots, and or myself. I would like to have more people see and respond to my postings. It’s no fun exposing yourself in public if no one’s looking.