Woe Owe is me

I came very close, this afternoon, to walking out of the office, taking the train home, getting in my truck, driving to Los Angeles, and never coming back.

That is to say, I thought really hard about it.

My grandmother visited us last night, and because it was too late for her to drive home, she slept at our house. This morning she offered to drive me to the train on her way home.

And she proceeded to badger me about getting a masters degree. Or a law degree. Anything, because "a bachelor's means nothing nowadays."

For those of you without grandmothers, this isn't really the greatest lecture to kick off a typical public transit commute to a mind-numbing, creativity-stealing, free-time-eating job you hate but begrudgingly show up for day-after-day because it's the most practial way to make enough money to buy a house (someday) provide for a family (someday) and maybe, if you're careful, and only two of the kids need braces, and if they all go to state school, maybe, have enough money, or credit, left over to go back to school yourself and get a master's degree.

You could say I started the day off on the wrong foot. (You could probably also say something about using "off on" consecutively.)

I was a little upset... because I think she's right.

But what am I supposed to do? I owe more money on my car loan and oustanding student loans than I have in the bank; I can't save money for big important purchases (goodbye three bed, one-and-a-half bath, in a good school district) if I'm going into debt to finance a degree; and what the hell program am I supposed to register for anyway? What am I supposed to study!?

I hate what I do. I hate it. So I certainly don't want to pursue that! Goodbye MBA.

But without any other experience, how am I to know what else is out there, or how much I'd hate that?

What if I were fresh out of college? What if I hadn't jumped at gainful employment right after graduation? What would I do if I weren't burdened by these practical concerns? Why not major in that?

I'll tell you why: If I were just out of college, if I managed to convince myself to live in the moment and not work for some far-off dreamed-of payoff (in this case, the payoff is a monthly mortgage payment), if I really just wanted to be happy, and nothing else?

I'd scrape together six hundred bucks or so, buy some clunker I could trust to get me cross-country, drive to LA, or however far the car would take me, and then open up a t-shirt printing shop. The equipment's cheap if you get it used, like three thousand bucks. I could make that in a few months as a short order cook, or something.

But now, it doesn't make sense. If I'm to get a master's degree, I'm gonig to need to pay for it, which means keeping this job. Dropping fifteen grand a year to work in a different field I might hate anyway isn't a good bet.

So, woe is me. The life of a steady-income, car-owning, college graduate can be pretty tough. Almost as tough as making excuses when you know, when you know, your grandmother is right.

-t

A.K.A. Copernicus

So, I've been a bit obsessed lately with this new multimedia portable internet device.

Here it is:






It's the Helio Ocean, and it's amazing. Firstly, it has a keypad and a qwerty keyboard. Secondly, IM access. I'm not kidding. IM. I can stop there.

(But I won't, it's also got wireless internet access, email, unlimited txt msgs, stereo bluetooth, sweet user interface, great address book options, mp3 player, camera, video, and one-push uploads to Flickr, MySpace, and YouTube!)

Anyway, it's wicked awesome, and I totally want one, plus they're super cool. Just check out what these guys are saying about it:

The bottom line: The Helio Ocean is a great beginner smart phone, with a fantastic array of multimedia features and Internet capabilities that are sure to please both consumers and mobile professionals. -cnet.com

I'm just going to blurt it out here: I love the Helio Ocean.
-mobileburn.com

It’s a widely functional media device with massive hipster appeal. There is something decidedly cool about whipping it out in public and having people ogle from across the room. -crunchgear.com

Think about it, how awesome would it be to be hanging out at some fantastic party just when something crazy goes down (Donny doing the lawnmower, maybe), and shooting a video and some hilarious pictures with this and then within seconds uploading them to YouTube and Flickr for the whole world to see what they're missing!

IMing people from work! At your desk! Even thought your work sucks and they won't let you go online at all!

Checking the Red Sox/Yankees score at a wedding ceremony in real time!

The possibilities are endless. I will so let you know when I get one.

-t