Might as well buy a house

Well, I don't usually make horrible decisions but I do often make impulsive ones. Put an offer on a house this weekend on the first day that I started looking. We'll see if it sticks. See link for pictures.

The owner bought the house from a foreclosure then re-did almost all the interior and put on a new roof. He's a contractor that a buddy of mine has done a little work with so I think it's probably legit. We'll see after the inspection.

Next step... see if the bank will give me $135k.

Ps, yes, this means I won't be going to Dartmouth (night school at Keene State or Franklin Pierce perhaps, we'll see).

Awesome

Since the last challenge to myself went so well, I've started another.  I will attempt to use the word "awesome" as little as possible this coming week.  The original goal was to not use it at all but in about 12 hours i said it 5 times so we'll go with the weaning approach.

Setting up the twitter tracker I saw this gem (the pandemic has gone worldwide!):

Curious, I first had to sign into twitter to see where he lives (Latvia), check what Latvian's speak (Latvian it turns out), find a translator that works on Latvian (http://translation.babylon.com/Latvian), and of course type this paragraph.  Rough translation: "Fun American movies, where cilēki drunk and leaving home to keep bērnus.Laikam mašīnu.Citreiz even there people are resistant "




ps Bonus website: http://www.mostawesomestthingever.com/ [only worth visiting if you have sound on your computer]

KFC Double Down Experiment

To quote my facebook:

Benjamin Howard Jacobs starting tomorrow i will eat the KFC double down everyday after work and then run 1 mile the following morning before work. I will then log the health effects on my blog. 1 full month. or 1 full week. or 1 full 24 hour period. whichever comes first.

Turns out, 24 hours came first.  And ew.  This experiment is over.  Actually, it wasn't even the kfc that got me, it was the fact that I don't want to run tomorrow morning (and also I ordered two taco bell items when I was at KFC tonight).

Without further ado, here are the results (I had the fried chx last night, ran 1 mile this morning, and the grilled chx tonight):

 

 

 

 

 

In short, I recommend eating the fried double down, it's delicious and will make you happier than running or the grilled double down.

I can't decide if there's no offer!

I've been putting this blog post off for far too long, and now, finally, with a cheap cigar in my mouth, sitting out on the back porch, on a cold April evening (7:30pm), I've finally become motivated.  I'm going to start by writing not about my past events which are fairly well documented, but instead with the impending near future.  Well, actually, the slightly recent past.

Just over 4 months ago I submitted my application to Dartmouth College's (yes, the ivy league) Thayer school of engineering.  To most of you this would come as no surprise as you all seem to have such wonderful amounts of enthusiasm and confidence in me (also most of you already knew this so it really REALLY should come as no surprise).  Meanwhile to others of you (particularly the ones that had contact with me when I half-halfheartedly worked through a semester and a half of grad school at Northeastern), you may wonder why I have chosen to go back to school.

To be honest, I'm still partially undecided (though this may just be a defense mechanism since I haven't received a response from Dartmouth yet).  I feel like I've learned enough mechanical engineering-y stuff to survive in the real world... but really I'm the most interested in learning more about how to set up a business and not only "solve real world solutions" but actually implement those solutions.

Right about now half of you are hoping I don't just ramble on and on... actually, all of you are hoping that, it's just that half of you have already decided not to read this entire letter... so anyway, I'll cut to the point.  I applied to Dartmouth.  They have an "Entrepreneurship Track" where they teach you to set up a business.  I've also applied to the Masters in Engineering Management (M.E.M.) program as sort of a back-up.  If I get into Dartmouth's Ph.D. or Engineering Master's program I'd be doing research and they'd in essence be paying me (and covering the costs of all my classes).  If I just to the M.E.M. program I'd have to take out loans and pay for an overpriced education that I could just as easily teach myself by surfing the web or taking night classes at a community college (the latter of which would obviously be more impressive when job hunting than the former).

I could elaborate more on the details, but I'll spare you from them.  I'm currently living just outside of Hanover, NH waiting to get in to Dartmouth.  If I get in, I'll stay here and start in the fall (still unsure as to when I'd give my notice at my job).  If I don't get in, I'll probably say no to the M.E.M. program which will most likely accept me and I'll move down to Keene to work at my current employer for a while, most likely while taking night classes for an M.B.A. or something (ew).

I think the biggest thing right now is that I can't make any kind of decisions on either future scenario.  If I stay in Hanover I want to buy a more comfortable mattress.  I'm going to be moving to Keene I'd like to buy a house.  There are a lot of other decisions hanging out there waiting to be made, but those are good enough examples.

I think the nicest thing about my life is that I am single and get to make all my decisions based just on my preferences and pseudo-logic.

I know the saddest thing about my life is that I am single and most of my daily decisions are based on which things to check out on the internet, which beer to buy, and which station to set the cable box to.

But enough about "current and future me", next blog let's talk about "past me."

Phone Blog Trial (don't worry, i won't do this often)

An amazing day: up on time, bagel for the drive instead of a pop tart, discount milk, Npr podcasts, 1hr lunch, 1.5 hr mtg, dinner & app trail videos w/ stepbro.

Almost up to snuff

Well, I'm almost where I want to be.  Here's a the general status quo:

I'm relatively on top of:
my workload at my job
Have an interview set up at Dartmouth
Approved for a loan to reduce some of my credit card debt
Will register my car next week
Set-up website and blog sorta.  Started Picasa.  Have Evernote newsfeeds going straight to facebook
Lord of the Rings is my last old book to finish before I start tackling new ones

Need to do soon:
FAFSA / profile
Figure out a vanity plate
Send Holiday letter

Areas in which I'm lacking but don't really care about:
No Girlfriend
No cash (owe Mom a ton)
Old clothing
I cut my own hair
My desktop computer just died again

one more thing

in smaller news: adam and tiff bought their house and paul sold his.