Sunday, January 25, 2009

Target, BMW ZipCars, Saving, Taxes, Comic Books, Trader Joes, Travel

As you can see from the title, I've got a ton of stuff on my mind today.

I got up today and yapped with the family for a bit, then headed off to Target to get some necessities. In true "stop spending so much money on restaurants"-style, I bought a toasted sandwich maker, a cheese slicer, and some other useful house-related stuff.

To balance this, in a non-frugal style, I rented a BMW ZipCar today!! It was sweet. It was actually the only spare one from the rental location I was booking from, so I didn't have any cheaper options. Still in the grand scheme of things, having a ZipCar is so insanely cheap compared to actually owning a car... but... man that $14/hour sure is nuts! And, of course by "nuts", I actually mean "insanely cheap and awesome". I love ZipCar.

I also noticed Trader Joes while driving around the city today and figured I needed to pick up some groceries... did I ever! Turns out they still have totally amazing stuff there, and I really miss shopping at a decent grocery store like TJ's where you get awesome food, good quality, interesting/unusual stuff, and it doesn't cost 100 bazillion dollah-dollah billz, y'all. I think I am gonna start going there rather than the usual (Safeway) cause it's really a lot more interesting and better for the kind of food I get. I got some great fresh mozarella, fresh basil and fancy tomatoes to make caprese salad, and it was all super cheap. They have brie there that's like half the price of my neighbourhood grocery store. It's nuts. Also I got some interesting Indian stir fry sauces so I can try making some curry myself rather than ordering all the time. I have a rice cooker now too, and just opened it to realize that there is a steamer included in it, which is cool. Maybe I can make those freakin' tasty dumplings like they had in Waterloo?!!

So along with the better food preparation at home comes some of the other goals I am aiming for. I am saving a lot cause I'm going to get the new Canon SLR whenever it comes out, presumably it's called the Canon Rebel TSi or something like that, and articles online say it has 720p video like the Nikon D90 which would be SWEET. I want to stick with Canon, so hopefully they release this camera soon so I can get it and start practicing before all the trips coming up! I want to get practicing and also enrol in a camera course so I can learn a whole bunch and become somewhat reasonable so I can take some nice photos on some upcoming trips. Hopefully I'll get to go to Siggraph in New Orleans in August which would be AMAZING!!!!!! Then in October my best friend Matt is getting married back in Canada, so I am gonna head back to Canada for the wedding. It would be nice to take some good photos at the wedding. And then in December/January I am starting to get the ball rolling for a trip to Japan and South Korea! So of course I want to be a good photographer by then, too!

Tax season is coming up! Why am I excited? I don't know. This will be the first year I've had a full-time job for the whole 12-months of a year. In the past when I've gotten huge tax returns back, it's usually because I've been going to school at the same time as earning just a small amount, and paying most of it to tuition. So I guess it would be totally amazing to get a decent return back this year, but I'm not expecting anything major. If it's a few hundred bucks though, that would still be sweet (and I'll put it right into my savings account towards my Japan trip) :)

Hmm what else. I've started reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, which I think is sortof about the origins of the Comic Book industry in the US. Pretty cool. I think it's gonna be amazing, I just gotta keep at it. In the past I haven't been very good at reading often (possibly due to my over-indulgences in computer-land), so I'm doing my best to rock that out more often.

Well that's what's going on lately. Work is AMAZING, lots of cool and exciting stuff going on as usual!

Ok a few more things... new Dave Matthews Band CD in April! I can't wait. Also looks like there is a book called The Art of Pixar Short Films coming out next month, guess I'd better make sure to get that. Oscar Nominations were amazing and psyched to see Wall-E and Iron Man on the list of nominees.

Movies I want to see at the moment:
  • Slumdog Millionaire
  • Bolt
  • Milk
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • The Year My Parents Went On Vacation
  • Happy-Go-Lucky

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