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).
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]
Benjamin Howard Jacobsstarting 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'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."
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.
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
Alright, I know I said I was going to start blogging more / at all so I feel a need to update this little thing before I go out tonight.
Today I....
woke up on the couch at JJ and Adrienne's.
I drank some leftover, watered down soda from mcdonalds.
We watched The Ugly Truth during which JJ made an egg sandwich by cooking the egg in the microwave and then adding cream cheese. I must have looked hungry because he gave me half.
Drove to my mom's while texting and driving about the stories from last night
Played around on the internet figuring out how to use RSS feeds from blogs and evernotes to facebook and back. and that led to reading stuff on google reader. basically all caught up on my friend's posts now. amazing. to give you a sense of how wasteful these 5 hours of my life were, here's the final video i watched:
and, in case you were wondering, here are the stories from last night (a girl i knew asked and wanted to know):
4:28 PM me: phew... long list of them
at the risk of ruining my conversationalism tonight
...
go from work to vendetta instead of amherst which was originally my plan (my brother closed on his house and had people over earlier in the day)
4:29 PM have 4 beers with a guy i sort of know there. def a cool cat. spacing it on his name
6', white, skinny i think? mustache-predominant beard
anyway
4:30 PM friend: Dave?
me: from there, go to cobblestone because i've never been there when amanda works there
yeah, dave i think! maybe.
friend: lol
Where is cobblestone?
4:31 PM me: old sports bar next to athens
anyway, get there, barely know anyone
but i check facebook and will huttwelker was ready to go out
him: "where ya at?"
me: cobblestone
him: "sweet, that's where i'm going"
4:32 PM i don't know if i trust him on that, but it did work out
so while waiting i sit at the bar and begin to hit on this girl there alone
friend: what is her name?
me: me: "waiting here for someone?"
no clue
friend: lol
me: we talk for maybe 5 minutes
will comes in and says hello to her first
4:33 PM apparently they know each other (no, he was not who she was waiting for)
her friend came in shortly after. i bought us all slim jims
friend: what are slim jims?
the meat thing
me: WTF?
me: yes the meat thing
4:34 PM imagine a dog treat
now imagine it slightly better
friend: oh ok... just making sure it's not a drink
they sell those at cobblestone?
me: it's not as good as you're now imagining
apparently!
friend: what kind of bar is it??
me: i even cried earlier this week on facebook because i ate my last slimjim
friend: HEY I LOVE SLIM JIMS!
lol
me: me too!
4:35 PM anyway, from there we went to lab for a few more drinks. met up and played pool with those girls for a bit
started to black out, decided to get back to the V because jj was my ride
4:36 PM a bunch of people i knew where there
proceeded to get sloshed
friend: did you get lucky with the girl???
me: at one point i was flipping my phone like the coaster flipping game
off of a full beer
it spilled
friend: oh god!
me: i don't even remember saying goodnight to them
4:37 PM so i don't think so
my friends quote me later in the night [in reference to another conversation i had with some random]: "my name is ben. want to go home with me?"
4:38 PM oh, after the full beer spill i was cut off for a bit which is probably why i sorta remember that period of time
but then i was allowed to start drinking again
hurray!
jj drove my car to mcdonalds around midnight and i slept on their couch
4:39 PM i remember leaving the bar and everything after but there were def some stories i forget
friend: lol
4:40 PM me: like "kicking the chair like a little child because [i] didn't want to go to kilkenny's"
friend: well i don't blame you there!
me: i got my way
that group left without me
so how was your night?
FINAL THOUGHT: a slimjim drink would be amazing and dovetail nicely with the spicy italian and white pizza
Ok, it's a tad late, but time for New Year's Resolutions:
1. stop worrying so much about arbitrary dates
2. continue to have fun
3. blog / update websites more often
4. take a risk and succeed this year (at something big)
5. make decisions based on wisdom not desires
6. stop being so lazy (less tv and more stuff)
7. pay off credit cards
8. donate blood successfully once
9. practice things i'm not very good at yet (guitar, art, harmonica, etc)
