Spoke too soon

I'm getting kicked out. I have less than a month.

Call me old fashioned, but if I'm paying RENT to live at home, if I don't get meals cooked for me, if I don't get my laundry done, if I don't get my bathroom cleaned, if I can't fix or maintain my car here, if I don't have any say in where I park, if I have to be available at a whim to let workers into our home...

Basically, if I have no rights or privilages, I shouldn't have to do anything. I'm a busy guy: I've got a lot of projects I'm juggling at any given time.

Current Projects:
1) Catalog my discs. I have over 1300 cds and dvds. I don't always remember what I have and what I don't. I actually rented a movie I already have because I didn't remember. Obviously I have a problem. I need to document all my digital media. And I need to categorize them so I can actually find something instead of just a list. Anime, Hentai, Movies, Appz, Gamez, Old Drivers (for old machines and in case an upgrade fucks things up), Porn, etc.

2) Convert DVDs to MPEG-4. Compressing my large collection of raw DVDs to smaller and more managable video files helps out. It's a space thing. For example, I can put 3 Pia Carrot DVDs on ONE CD without a noticeable loss of quality (because I got a powerful CPU and do a lot of playback post-processing... hey, I don't consider it cheating). I could do the same with some other movies and anime and put maybe a complete series in MPEG-4, complete with english/japanese audio, selectable subtitles, extras, all the bells and whistles, onto ONE 4.5GB DVD. That's spacing savings. The originals? Give them away, store them someplace safe, who knows. Plus it's time savings. I hate having to open my DVD player 8 times if I want to watch the entire TV series of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

3) Catalog my Magic cards. I've got over 6000 cards as part of Magic the Gathering. I had them all well documented and lost the data files with a hard drive crash a few years ago. I need to start over. Cataloging just one box (240 cards, although I think I cram about 260-270 because it's pretty tight) takes about 4 hours.

4) Inventory and clean my computer parts. I've got no fewer than 7 motherboards, 8 CPUs, and a clusterfuck of screws and parts and pieces. I need to know what I have and what I can do without. I don't get rid of a lot of stuff because it's still USEFUL. I'm thinking about converting my notebook computer (the one with a broken screen) to a media player and hook it directly up to a TV. It's a good idea, but I need some parts. Cables. Distribution boxes. Switch boxes. Pretty little lights and speakers to go "boop". This also relates to my MPEG4 conversion project.

5) Developing my site. I did some freelance stuff that didn't really pan out. But if I did everything myself, from design to implementation to installation, I could make sure things get done. If I want to do that, and maybe even work for myself, I need to establish myself NOW. I need to clean up my web site and put information there to sell myself. This includes side projects that aren't obviously work related at first glance. I want to make a checkers game for BWAIN and while at first that may seem extra-curricular, it's because it is experience AND a saleable device AND something I can say "look, punks, I did this."

6) Play games. I call this a priority because it helps me tap into the community consciousness of the world around me. I take enjoyment out of these things and it keeps me pleased with life. Take that away from me and you take away something fundamental to my being and self-worth.

7) Get laid. I like getting action: I'd like to get more of it if I can. And do so ethically. That's important to me. I have to meet people, talk it up, be close, things like that. I also like having friends and feeling valuable. Ok, it's a reach to lump sex with feeling valuable, but it's just because I'm blogging in a stream of consciousness and if you don't like it, well, I don't know what to tell you.

8) Read stuff. I need to be up to date on technology. I need to be up to date on what's coming down the pike. I need to know what's heading my way and what I have to do to prepare for it. I need to prepare because it's my job to know things. Vista's coming out. I need to know what makes programming for it different than for XP than for 2000 than for Me. For example, PC's are moving away from BIOS towards EFI in the next 9 - 12 months. A few computers already exist without BIOS. What does that mean to you? Probably nothing. Consider yourself lucky.

9) Scanning. I bought a scanner 3 years ago with the express purpose of scanning all my magazines and important documents so I can get rid of the originals. I've got boxes of Nintendo Powers. "Just throw them away?" NO! It's historical. Archival. I can't do that. At least not until I scan them. Maybe I've got a complex that I fear I'll need something right after I throw it away.

10) Miscellaneous. I can't burn anything onto my GBA flash cards because I fucked up my drivers. I need to clean out the drivers and find these old drivers and install them. I need to do this in a way that I don't fuck anything else up. It doesn't help that this quasi-legal companies are always on the run and finding drivers, let alone support, is next to impossible.

11) WORK. I need to get paid. I can't become complacent.

Obviously with all these things going on I can't worry about keeping my projects inobtrusive. I've got piles of CDs here. I've got piles of cards there. I've got games partially out. I have papers of notes and sketches and algorithms and stuff and they're around. I can't hide them because then it'd take more time to take it out and put it away when I'm done than time I could devote to actually getting something done.

It will cost me about $3000 to move due to the condition of my existing furniture (which is shit), not including first month and deposits and application fees and whatever bullshit I have to do to prove I'm not Al Qaida. A place in Miami isn't going to be cheaper than $750, and that's for a rat trap. So I'm looking at having $5000 on the ready. Less than 16 days. Yeah, I make money, but a lot of that money is spoken for. I just had to pay my auto insurance this month. $1000: see ya. And I need to find out how to do this stuff while not dipping into my long term savings because I'd like to have something left over in case I DIE after all.

Yeah, you could say I'm a little stressed. I feel better venting here, though.