slacking off..

It has been two months without a post and yep I said it, finding time to write a post is me slacking off.

There is so much to do

• house work
• school work
• baby work
• work work
• standby work
• overtime work
• sidejob work

Even my books are no longer balanced don't be fooled though, they are still mostly correct. On the plus side, my postgrad studies has reaped benifits already, I can now easily model my opex and capital requirements and make better decisions. I am now well on my way to paying off my mortgage in maybe 10 years all things remaining equal.

For those of you who may be interested this is what has been terrorizing everyone and everything in my apartment, don't watch the face, she just tasted something bad :p. She has just turned 10 months now and looks like she will soon be ready to start standing on her own for more than 5 seconds at a time.

So what else is new? let me review a few firsts and lasts since my last post two months ago.

FIRSTS:

• I slept at school one night in the post graduate lounge before a morning exam. I was a bit too lazy to drive back home and risk not waking up in time so I just camped out on a couch and slept like a hobo. It's surprising how much activity goes on in the library late at night even when school is off its regular semester.
• Swimming in the pool at school. I now swim there every chance I get, trying to build up my stamina so that one day I can swim the length with ease. I met a fellow blogger there one Saturday too. Hi Gela! come back to the blogshpere.
• I bought a new GPS device. This new gadget+ the jimny and myself will conquer all corners of this land. First stop will be Morant Point.
• Being disengaged at work. Change is the only thing constant at my company and I am now tired of it and their attempts to save every penny at their employees expense. Don't get it twisted, I still love my job and am very grateful for being gainfully employed.
• Thanks to my coworker who didn't mind me swiping his test LG phone for a bit I am now an Android user. It's a nice phone and OS full of features but something doesn't seem right about it. I probably miss at least 10 calls a day due to this phone disconnecting them when I try to answer it. I don't recall having this issue with the bb or palm.
• I was driving through Grants pen at around 11pm one night and the police caught me in their spot check drag net. All of my papers checked out ok but this fool still tried to get me to give him something, a monetary contribution I assume. I just took my papers, drove off and gave him a view of my tail lights.

Some lasts:

• I canceled my last credit card with NCB. It was fun whilst it lasted we have traveled a small section of the world but it was time to part ways. The last thing I bought with it was probably some blank circuit boards from Japan in February.
• The beach.. I cant tell when last I've been there. I miss you mr crab
• ?

I guess the lasts list isnt as large. Anyway cya next month.

just passing time

1. tiny ink stone
2. tiny bowl
3. tiny spoon
4. tiny ink stick
5. tiny brush (x2)
6. tiny rice paper
7. tiny introductory guide to Chinese calligraphy

I got this from the Logos Hope book ship earlier this year and like most other things else I own, it sits idly waiting for me to give it a try. For those of you who think I have given up on blogging, I haven't. I even want to start a photo blog on tumblr. Please correct me if I'm confused though because I probably have only spent exactly 6 minutes scrolling through tumblr and came to the conclusion that it is a blogging site.

So whats new? I still have my job and they attempt to drown me with work. I still manage to keep my head up, I got over 4.5 out of 5 for my annual appraisal, my highest score yet. It is kind of strange that I am getting review scores like these now that I am distracted with the little monster(see below) and school. I still also manage to pass my postgraduate courses as well, so far it seems like I am going with a B+ average.. no distinction there but for the little work that I have been putting in I am pleasantly surprised and more than satisfied. It is ridiculous how much material they expect you to learn in 6 weeks, do a project, presentation, homework then sit an exam and start the process all over again. I can't wait for the two years to be over.

Lastly my little monster.. sigh. Not a bad way to spend my time.

She insists on putting everything in her mouth.. I understand though, I somewhat remember the days when everything was new to me, the good old days. She is 6+ months now and has 6 teeth. She can't move to a sitting position on her own but if she has stuff to grab on she can climb up to a standing position all by herself, of course to create more mischief.

September to remember

I would like to introduce a 36 hour day.

It is now the end of September and this is my first post. The last time I wrote a post I was living at my old apartment, I am now fully moved and almost finished settling in. As with every other procedure that involves the Jamaican government offices I could not get the new place certified in time but I still had to move since I gave notice. I ended up moving into a place with no power and suffering for two weeks.

With no power and no fridge I survived on my tea candles, 3G dongle and my laptop to get me through the nights when I got home from work. For the weekends I crashed at a friend's house and she treated me like a king. Eventually the power service was turned up and I quickly got my security grills and curtains installed, I could now rest with piece of mind and with privacy.

Of course in the mix of everything is still school. I have already completed two courses, submitted one research paper and sat one exam already. The first exam wasn't so bad, I finished with about an hour to spare probably a first for me. Lets hope I passed with flying colors :p. Other than that UWI has changed greatly since I've left. They have added a special section to the library for postgraduates only and I am loving it.

Between the school tuition, moving to a larger apartment, having three mouths to feed and general homeowner expenses has put me in a situation I have not been in for a while.. broke. It is just really a matter of cash flow and normally it wouldn't be much of an issue but I am looking to upgrade my couch and I saw a really nice three piece leather living room set that is now haunting my day dreams. I quickly wrote it off as being unaffordable but I saw in a magazine today the price has been slashed by over 20% to something more acceptable. It's time to reshuffle the budget to get in on these sales prices!

August updates

Oh blog how I have forsaken you.

Time is not on my side, there have been many things to do.

1. Tie up loose ends with the old landlord
2. Get electrician to re-certify new house then get power supply activated
3. Get metalwork contractors to install security grills in the new house, a must in Jamaica.
4. Buying baby stuff to quell the irate pregnant girl.
5. Get curtains made to stop new neighbours on spying on me.
6. Homework. OMG going back school is crazy.. I have to suffer two more years of this.
7. The side job. I will probably lose this work given the amount of time I put into it last week.
8. Bills. I paid all of my July credit card and utility bills late not because I didn't have the money, because I didn't have the time.
9. Day job. Two people doing the job of six? a recipe for delayed but sure disaster.

I plan to try and get two days departmental leave this week to handle some of the monster tasks that are yet to be completed. Wish me luck because I don't think my boss will be too happy with this.

On a side note, I like the finer things in life, I can't afford them but I will admire from far. One of these items are watches and last week my coworker reminded me of this when he left his watch on his desk and asked us to secure it for him. I dropped it in my desk draw and locked it without much thought but when I didn't see him the next day I popped it out to further inspect it since I knew that he liked to collect nice watches. It was a very nice auto winding mechanical watch, I couldn't tell when was the last time I saw one of these. After a quick google search it turned out that the watch could buy my car, they start off at $5000USD and go up to $90,000 depending on the casing and options. I promptly took off my watch and wore his watch for the rest of the day until he popped up. Ahh the finer things.

a time to catch up

Where does the time go? I took this week off to catch a breath and it's almost Thursday already! not to mention it's almost December.. but the year just started. I have observed that as I get older my perception of time speeds up. *sigh* I just googled it and apparently I am not the only one. I haven't read that article though, it looks pretty depressing for me to stop and read now, it will probably change the whole tone of this post. So what have I been up to? time to make another list

• I got myself a 22" wide screen LCD for my computer and it's officially larger and much prettier than my 21" regular tv that I am now ignoring for several reasons. This larger monitor is great for editing photos and watching HD video :D
  
• I went to the UWI to get information on their post graduate degrees. All the kids there look so young and it's only been 4 years since I've left that campus :-(. I am looking forward to going back to school again, it should be interesting trying to fit classes, exams and projects into my busy work schedule. yay!
• I got a call from a guy in my section on Monday, he just came back from vacation and got his walking papers from our HOD. So my section now has 4 members.. I am not looking forward to that extra work. I like my work though, I hope they keep me.
• It's all gravy. 11 months ago I made a resolution to spend more. I checked my finance app and I have spent a bit more than the same period last year but I am still way ahead of my end of year savings target.. so far ahead I can cut a check and pay for my post graduate degree in full and still be within my budget. I guess I can mark that down as a failed resolution.
• I viewed a townhouse in New Kingston and an apartment in Kingston 8. I loved the location for the New Kingston place but the 18yo place left a lot to be desired in terms of maintenance, if a next real estate agent says bachelor pad I will know to lower my expectations. The uptown apartment was absolutely gorgeous! It's not in my ideal area[right in the middle of things] but I made an offer a little shy of the asking price, I hope I don't get it. I don't know whats wrong with me, I want to hold out until I can find the ideal place in the perfect area.

Let's hope I get some rest and post some more before I go back to the rat race.

jutc has a website?

So I am back in New Kingston again for training this week and the training center does not validate parking. Needless to say everyone that goes to that facility is not pleased with shelling out $200 a day for parking in a KSAC parking lot. When I used to work in that parking challenged section of the city I used to arrive at work before 7:00am just to squeeze into the last available free parking on the road in front of my office but that is no longer an option as I am now spoiled and probably wont leave my house that early just to wait and the NWA has now re-zoned the parking spaces into roadway.

Class was really boring and while spacing out I came up with the bright idea of taking the bus for a few days this week. The bus stop is less than a minutes walk from my house and I would only need one short $50 bus ride to reach the hip strip! I always thought my location made it so easy to get around but never really felt the need to hop on a bus before until I had to face these daily parking fees. Other than that it's totally not worth it.

What is funny to me is that I always cuss about Jamaica's public transport system being outdated and unreliable but my quick google search today brought me to JUTC's website with route information and all! My jaw hit the ground.. the site is ugly, the buses are probably still late but this was a step in the right direction. Maybe if my stint with JUTC works out for this week then I can look into using them some more.