Published on Saturday January 28, 2006 .
A couple of days ago, Kim told me that her mother was going to change real estate agencies because she found a company that can offer her 100% commission. She has been with the same company for 15 years or so and has many established clients and has considered how much money she could be making if she was able to take home all of her comission (she sold 3 million dollars worth of houses last year). Basically, she interviewed this other company and has decided to go with them.
As a joke, I started propositioning Kim to ask her mother to sell a house just for us. She sells so many houses, maybe she’d sell one and it would be particularly easy, then she could just pretend she didn’t work for it at all and just give us the comission. It’s not like Kim asks for anything from her parents anyway, if her mom sold one million dollar house out in King’s Grant or something, she could just give us whatever the comission was and Kim and I could split it and pay off some of our bills.
Then I started thinking more seriously. What if something like that happened? What if my student loans just disappeared? What the hell would I do with my life? I must admit, knowing that there is this gigantic $150k+ debt out there waiting for me is my main motivation in life, right now. It’s the reason I am going to school for Network Security. If it were suddenly gone, I’m not sure what I would do with myself. I take comfort in the fact that I have a couple of years of school before I need to think about where I will work, where I will live, and what I will do with my life once I get there. Knowing that I have that time, is what makes me feel good about going to the gym, I feel like I have a head start on my new life when I finally get started with it– that “new life” also including being in better shape and more healthy.
If my loans were suddenly gone, I am not so sure I would be as motivated to go to ECPI. I probably still would, but I don’t think I’d feel as focused on it. It’s funny how I talk about how much I’d like to be out from under that debt, but really I just want to be out from under it in my own terms.
Published on Friday January 27, 2006 .
Yesterday Kim and I heard 96X (a local radio station) promote an “All 90’s Rock Weekend.” Kim got excited, and I shook my head.
“You know, this is what it’s gonna be like,” I said. “when we’re fifty.”
“What do you mean?”
“You flip on the oldies station and then it’s ‘Mommy, mommy? What’s that weird instrument’? and you have to tell them, ‘That’s Ben Folds, he played the grand piano. It was like a keyboard but it had strings in it.’ ”
or perhaps…
“Momma what’s that bad man doing to that guitar?”
“That’s no bad man, that’s Thurston Moore, and he’s smashing the shit out of that guitar.”
or maybe…
“Why does that weird man sing like that?”
“That’s Billy Corgan. I have no fucking idea. Go back to bed.”
(everybody come with your own example of explaining 90’s rock to your kids in the style that I am using)
Published on Wednesday January 25, 2006 .
I just received a Berkleemusic.com post concerning a band looking for a bassist, I’d like to share it with the world:
I have a trio called ############### and our bassist is going to be moving to New York soon, so we’re looking to replace him and possibly add another member as well. We’re based right outside of Boston, approx. 5 minutes from the city. We have plenty of original material but would welcome any originals you’ve been working on. Our main influences include The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and the Foo Fighters among many others. We’re looking to really make a statement on the music world. If you’re between 18-24, reply if interested.
All jibes at the Boston music scene aside, (I don’t there have been many recent statements made to the music world from Boston– unless you count Godsmack) I can’t help it laugh at the list of influences. Not to say that there is anything wrong with any of those fabulous musicians, they are all legends– and I’m even including the Foo Fighters who I see as a viable force in rock music today. The thing is, how can you claim to make a bold musical statement by regurgitating the same three “safe” acts that have been included in “musicians wanted” ads since 1970? My favorite part is the age requirement at the end. So I have to be a kid that fits some kind of commercially-aimed demographic, but I have to want to play old music my dad grew up with?
I could go on for hours with this, but I’m not going to.
