Dumpster Treasure

I found my first article of dumpster furniture today. I got to keep it because my roommates are Mennonites who value simplicity of life, pacifism, nonresistance, and free stuff.

Taking a moment

Continuing the in theme of money (a theme I hold so dear that it has it's own label), this evening I sat down and gave a good and hard look at my finances. I made a preliminary budget for the summer and the next 4 years, and have come up with some conclusions.

1. I, based on my current income, cannot graduate without debt. Selah.
2. In order to graduate without debt at my current job, I'll either have to curtail my entertainment fund and cell phone plan, live on the streets, or work 50 hours a week. I could also get promoted, or move to a higher paying job over the $15/hr mark.
   
3. I never again want an entertainment fund of $20/week like I did for 6 months in Orangeville in 2006, despite the fact that if I did so I would be significantly closer to breaking out of debt. This is because people began to think that I was a seclusive drug-addict. I did not buy new clothes for nearly a year. I became a plain, boring, and bitter person.
   
4. I'm going to go back to my cash only lifestyle. This will help me to keep the tightest hold on cash flows.
   
5. My situation is not as bad as it was on this podcast on August 20, 2006, where no matter what I did I was sinking further and further into debt. Hallelujah!
   
   
   
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6. I want to teach English in South Korea after I'm done school. This is kind of random but I happen to know a small group of people from Korea living in Winnipeg. Last night a native Korean told me that I was the best English teacher he has ever heard, and that he actually knew about me before I knew about him. I plan to capitalize on that and becoming a teaching sensation! I'll let you know how it goes.
   

The dough.

Yesterday I worked for 14 hours and made over $200 (US/CAN). Then I did the happy dance.

I regret that I haven't been posting as regularly because a lot of cool stuff is going on in my life at the moment. However I'm all about recovering paying off debts this season. The stories will continue less frequently but with more quality ;)

Roughin' it

Rough times ahead. I have two midterms at the end of the week. I also accepted two overnight shifts at job I really like. I decided that to indulge the best of both worlds (high marks & money) I would have to start cramming early. I recognize that I'll have to cram even more to retain the information and this isn't nearly as efficient, but it's a sacrifice that I can live with.

I had an excellently productive day of studying from 1:30 to 11 PM, with a break for food and socialization. I also fit in a super study buddy session with Carolyn, who joined me on the second floor of Dafoe just mere meters from where I chucked last week. She kept me focused and in her wisdom supplied some comedic relief when I thought I couldn't go on any further. I provided the Ritz crackers. I did not throw up, even though she's really pretty.

Minimum wage and the highest mark.

I am elated. My first essay of the year got me a 90%, and the highest mark in the class! Since I know you're all dying to read it, I've provided an abstract below to whet your appetite and a link to the PDF. If you do read it, let me know your opinion!

Minimum Wage and Inflation: A vicious
circle surrounding minimum wage,
inflation, and the working poor.

"Setting a minimum wage to help raise lowest paid workers out of poverty is causing more problems than it solves, rendering it more of a burden than a relief. Instead of helping to lift lowest paid workers above the poverty line, the policy instead creates a burden on the economy and small business, causing inflation to rise. Therefore minimum wage policy hurts the workers for whom it is designed to assist. This model of alleviating poverty is not working and new policy that does not contribute towards inflation should be sought."

Want to read more? Click here to access the full quality PDF.

Greenback

Green Energy
Originally uploaded by Michael Tyas.

I had just stepped in the door, having returned from a satisfying grocery shopping expedition, to find an email message in my inbox with the subject "your beautiful photo."

The message was from a design firm in New York. I was being asked if I was interested in letting them use my photo for an upcoming promotion they were working on, and what compensation I would suggest.

When I was a child and I got really excited I would put my arms together from my wrist to my elbow, scrunch my stomach muscles, and jab my elbows deep down into the euphoric stress created. A high pitched gasp would usually accompany this act.

I suggested that $125 US was fair and heard back within the hour. Damn. Next time I'll haggle.

I should stop snorting

I found a funny comment left on this Flickr photo, urging me to stop using drugs. I hope that my gaunt features, pale completion, and dishevelled hair are not leaving a junkie impression on the minds of my viewers. I'm not a druggie! I'm just hungrie! I'm living under a self imposed poverty to ease my debts.

Really, though, on my entertainment budget of $20 per week it would be nearly impossible to keep up even an occasional smoking habit. I have nothing to pawn for instant cash, asides from my laptop/camera. I would sooner go into rehab.

Oh! And just to let you know, I could sell my body, but my boney features turn people away at the street corner. Trix aern't for this kid.

Car Park

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I finally parked my car at home, and won't be driving it in the near foreseeable future. I share some thoughts on the losses, and gains, of parking my car.

Music Credit: All Time Low - Emm Gryner

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Windows Media (.wmv)

If I make it through this winter

Today I parked my car indefinitely, and am now living the dream of "Demotorizing My Soul."

If you had the time to listen to my amusing tale a few posts back, you'll remember that I'm flat broke and struggling financially, and my insurance was due today. Had I paid, I would have sunk into more debt than I've ever been, completely undoing all the payments into my debt that I've made since the beginning of the year.

I'm mildly worried about my giving me some problems in the bitter cold...

My parents were recently separated, and the house where I was living is for sale. It will eventually sell, and I had decided months ago that when that happened, I would move into Orangeville and get rid of my car. It would be impossible to pay rent AND insurance AND gasoline AND make monthly debt payments on my current salary. I was living at my Dad's in Shelburne for free, and unfortunately thought that I was saving money because I didn't have to pay for food or rent. I set up a weekly budget for gasoline and essentials and followed it rigidly; $40-$40. It was tight but I was managing, and putting away a large sum of money into my debt on a weekly basis and thinking I was doing fine. However, I wasn't budgeting for my whopping insurance bill. I was unrealistically relying on my line of credit (the very debt I'm trying to pay off) to handle the massive bill and thinking illogically.

I'm very lucky to have my wonderful friends, the Heemskerks, who have let me move into their basement in Orangeville, where I also work. With insurance, maintenance, and gasoline out of the budget, all I have to worry about is rent. My budget is tighter now than before, much tighter, but I won't have a huge surprise bill reminding me how poor I really am coming in the mail any time soon.

I'm going to bike wherever as much as possible until it snows, and then I'm going to walk or take the bus. I bought some warm gloves and long johns and a bank robber winter mask to protect against the stinging freezing rain when I'm whizzing down a hill on my bicycle. Of course I still have my leather bomber to keep me nice and warm. I'm mildly worried about my giving me some problems in the bitter cold, but my anti-malaria pills seem to be helping. It's going to be tough, but in anyone's life journey, you'll always experience offroad adventure.

I'm actually excited, in a way. I've taken control of my life by giving up a freedom, and I'm well on my way to gaining another; financial freedom!

Check out this song all about my situation on CBC Radio 3. It's like it was written about me! And the lyrics ring true: "If I make it through this winter, I'll be OK." -The Paperbacks

It's the end of the world as I know it, and I feel?

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Fakin' It

I discovered a fake $10 bill while on the job this evening. I'm too damned determined to be the best I can be, so I told the customer (a young punk who's wrists were wrapped in bandages for boxing) that he was going to have to take a seat while I called the police. He balked and complained. He told me that if it was a real $10, he was going to get a refund, loudly, while I was on the phone with the police lady. I couldn't hear her over his whining. I glared at him and plugged my one ear. He didn't like this.

I am still sick with the flu (it's been identified), and my body is still wiped out. I need to run to the toilet at odd, inconvenient times. The kid paced around the store hissing "I ain't giving no pig my full name" and then told me he was leaving to get his mom, who was waiting in a minivan outside. It was spitting outside, the little droplets shining and fading in the headlamps of the van. Clearly she expected her son would be in and out, why turn off the ignition? He left, and reassured me "Dude, I'm not leaving, I'm getting my $10 back, this is bullshit!"

It's a crime to hand someone back a bill you believe to be fake. And it's also a crime to pick up and leave without returning once a cashier has alerted you that they are suspicious about some tender you just handed them. My bowels also thought it was a crime to exist at that particular point. In fact, they rejected their purpose in my body and decided to move.

The cop showed up late, apologized, took one look at the bill, and gave me a quick wink while whipping open a pad of paper for questioning. Turns out my hawk eyes are too sharp; my finger pads too sensitive; my intuition too tuned for your phony trickery, fakers!

Hitch-Hike

I picked up a hitchhiker a few evenings ago. Some young teen punk with fur on his coat hood and a ball cap, all gangster and 'yo yo'. I usually don't pick up hitchhikers, because in my area they're usually missing limbs or all 'beardy' and I'm usually alone in my car. I almost mistook his fur hood for a beard. I told him this when he jumped into the car, that he should somehow hide his hood or take off his hat to reveal his socially acceptable facial hairless face. He shoved a warm $5 bill into my hand and said 'thanks' and we drove out from the frozen night. I happened to be going in his direction so he was pretty lucky. I played Radio 3 and he 'felt the mellow.'

I though it was great that I earned an extra $5 out of nowhere. That's, like, my my daily budget man! That's food for the day!!!

The next morning, I met up with a few more friends and we went on 'Mike's Hike' as it's come to be known. Significant, because I've never been known for especially physically exhaustive things whatsoever. I powered up the side of the escarpment, the equivalent of a 15 story building, and barely lost my breath. My friends were impressed, and that's always good.

My poor hand, my left pinkey finger, is inflamed. Why, oh body, do you afflict me so?

Negative Progression

I visited my rheumatologist today and received some bad news. And then some more.

Trip to Kenya, anybody? I'm ready, apparently.

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Jeremy's short lived visit comes to an end.

Jeremy

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Jeremy was home for the week, and he's a hot commodity. I'm glad that I got to spend some quality time.

Warning Light

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In the continuing saga of my financial discontent, I am further buried 'neath unrelenting circumstance.

I'm poor, shoot me

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Look at us. Suddenly we're all freelance photographers?

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I was interviewed for a Macleans article on the new narcissism. It took a while to get to me, and I haven't actually seen the article on paper at the time of this post. Josh Leo read the article before I even knew it was online...he's the only reason I know it exists!

I would like to clear up that:

• I am a shift supervisor in a popular restaurant chain and NOT a full time freelance photographer, as this article would suggest.
• the only reason I generate ad sales on my website is to help alleviate the costs incurred google & blip.tv, and not to become rich or market my life in a monitarily profitable way. I am in fact surprised that I have made $8.49 at all. And if I ever get cut a big fat cheque, I'll probably give it to charity or take my friends out for dinner. So if you know me in 10-17 years from now, expect a dinner date.
• when I called myself marketable, it wasn't in regards to money. I said, "It's a very positive thing to like yourself and think you're marketable enough to put your face out there...as if to say 'hi, this is me, and I think you'll like getting to know me. Leave a comment, and I'd like to get to know you as well..." I invest in this website because meeting new people enriches my life! It's you! The viewer, the commenter, my untradeable commodity!
  

This leads me to wonder why I was in fact interviewed for an article that seems to end on a low note, warning of "solipsism -- the inability to recognize the existence of another viewpoint." I just so happen to be in the midst of learning a new language and have every intention of returning to school for a degree in International Studies. I listen to War News Radio and the CBC podcasts on CD in the car, and read the newspaper (the paper kind) every single day.

Was I really the wrong guy? Perhaps. I personally don't feel like I bring much credibility to the issue. But I'm ok with being a weak argument, really. I'm not OK, however, with being so poorly described in two paragraphs.

Also, in regards to blip.tv, I would never call it a "new vanity product...to make the narcissist feel important." Blip is so much more than a self centred entertainment outlet. I can watch someone else's point of view on the other side of the world, or raise up a banner for any cause worth shouting about. New products like blip.tv are begining to give the world a very loud voice, opening up forms of mass communication for the common middle class that has never been available before. Did we miss the real story here folks? For crying out loud, never before in history has such a mass communication medium been available to the masses!

Are we really on the brink of a solopsistic society brought on by cherished memories and dull moments available online? I don't think I am, I'm too involved in getting to know other people ....but I understand your viewpoint if you think otherwise ;p

PEACE!

P.S. I always thought it would be cool to make a site around my remarkably EXTRAordinary exsistance, let the records show.

Leaving for the West

Getting ready to leave
Originally uploaded by Michael Tyas.

My two brothers and two friends (one not present) are leaving today for Alberta, to go to their friend's wedding and then find good paying work in the Western Opportunity. I hope they never come back, because I love them and know they could start a brand new life out there, and then I can come visit. Good luck and God bless guys!

Change of fate

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Toni asked Jeremy and I to help her pick out a new laptop for her own use on Thursday afternoon. Sometimes fate has a funny way of making things better.

P.S. I made this video large on purpose. I can't decide if I want to go back to 15 fps just yet. Is the video size giving anybody problems? Do you prefer 30fps? Let me know if you must.

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