Wednesday, January 07, 2009

The New Economy

I love how all of a sudden, everyone is on the "economy" kick. I mean, I really don't love how lots of people are losing jobs, industries are collapsing, and everyone is losing their retirement fund in the stock market, but it does make me laugh that being frugal is now trendy. I laugh (albeit, somewhat bitterly) because we have been living in this mindset for the past three and half years (perhaps not-so-coincidentally when I started grad school and we had no jobs). And we got a little bit of flack for being really really tight with the money. You tend to be so when you need to pay rent, buy food, and yet have zero dollars in income. It happens.

Things are much better for us, relatively speaking, but I think the mindset is still a good one, especially because we are saving up for our house. Be more cautious of what you spend and where you spend it.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Can't wait!

So you guys, I'm getting a new camera! It's already been ordered and whatnot, but I must wait patiently for it to arrive. It's basically the same exact camera as my poor little trusty point-n-shoot, which has been making a very sad sound since August. Autofocuses (autofoci?) do not come cheap, whereas new cameras do. Relatively speaking.

When it comes, I will have to test it out! And post the results! And I can once again resume my spy-cam activities! OK, not really, but my current camera is fondly nicknamed "the spy-cam" because it is so NOT unobtrusive. I have scared more than one person and several little children with it.

I did, however, manage to take a picture of a sleeping fox with it today and the fox did not stir. I think he was VERY tie-tie, because he barely moved at all. Sadly, you all may have to wait for those not-very-good pictures of the fox because I can't seem to find my uploady cord. Just imagine a little red furry blob in the middle of a bunch of leaves and naked trees, and that's about what you would have seen. Also on that inaccessible memory card is a video of a two year old attempting to say "valleculae." That's for my speechie peeps out there :-)

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Happy New Year!

This past year has been better for me than it has for a lot of people (not having much money to begin with helps when the world economy melts down), but I have high hopes that 2009 will be even better. Hopefully by this time next year, I will have finished my master's thesis, graduated, gotten a job, and (fingers crossed) we will have bought a house/condo/other abode.

Most of all, I've gotten even closer to friends and family and recognized how very blessed I am to have such wonderful people in my life.

Resolutions? I've never really been one for official-type resolutions, but I do think it's a good idea to take stock every so often and think about the future, and a new year is a handy time to do so. One thing I'd like to improve on is my blogging. I realized I have about 8 drafts sitting around waiting for me, and only one relatively recent post. Maybe I'll tackle some of those drafts to help spur the thesis writing that must commence quite shortly.

May the coming year be even happier and more enriching in all ways than those that preceded it!