Just discovered this post.



Best wishes on this, Ben. Incidentally, I got canned from my hellish job involuntarily on July 7th, and since then I've cashed in on my Employee Stock Purchase Plan and am now liquidating one of the 401(k) plans I contributed to to keep the Slack Express rolling.

I bring this up only because I'm in a similar state: squandering savings to put off Working For A Living. Since yours seems to be better planned, it qualifies as what some wag called an "anti-sabbatical" (extended period of working and saving to fund an extended period of unemployment).

Here are some minor things I've discovered:

1.) [b]Have a budget, and for Pete's sake keep track of it.[/b] Nothing depletes reserves of cash faster than an optimistic or haphazard plan for the months ahead.

2.) [b]Have some sort of goals in mind: [/b] If I hadn't taken that summer school course, I might not be en route to finishing my degree. Since that course, some bad writing attempts, and a whole hell of a lot of Civilization II were the only three things I accomplished in the past two months, I shudder to think how low my spirits would have fallen without some sort of concrete achievement to show for it.

2a.) [Addendum to above] [i][b]Do not get addicted to Civ II.[/b][/i] I'm serious. Really. It's like my own personal struggle with heroin, and even though I can now kick the computer's ass on "Deity" Level, it still whispers to me in the darkness, in my moments of weakness. I've dodged the Civ III bullet solely by not upgrading my crappy Celeron 500.

3.) [b]A mortgage, what with property taxes and insurance and utilities, can really eat up funds[/b]. I keep thinking that if it was a year ago and I had no plans to buy a house, the money I've spent would have lasted out a hell of a lot of sofa-surfin'. Sounds like you've got this one under control.


This advice and three dollars will buy you a cup of coffee. But still, it's what I found out the hard way.

I seriously do wish you all the best, and I hope that you get what you were looking for out of this sojourn to find whatever intangibles may have eluded you before.



---- PTX

I will link my hot new site when it is time.

I have linked my hot new sites before, and while usually it has resulted in the systematic ROCKING of the various WORLDS of the people who surfed to it, I have decided to take a more deliberate approach to this one.

So for now, let us simply wait, reflect, and pray.

Pray, damn you.

Look you jackass, if you don't link your HOT NEW SITE then I will. And I don't think anyone wants me to go link it.

Well, this stuff is very personal, you understand.

Say!

Any updates?

That's great. I'd love to do that one day but right now I can barely afford standing still. Anyway, it's sort of ass up here in Milwaukee, but there's a certain laid-back charm and it can be a great place to drink so if you come up here, I'd show you around.

Woof! Woof woof woof!

Woof!

Woof woof!

Woof!

Well, gee, I don't know what to say Ben.

Hey. Serious offer. Not just to Pinback but to JC BBSers who find themselves driving across the country:

You've got a place to stay for a couple of days in St. Louis. It has a bed, a shower, and usually it would have hot meals but right now I don't have a kitchen so it doesn't.

Bruce

And do you need any company? All I have to offer is additional income through what I like to call 'Amateur Night' and 'Begging'. Wanna go somewhere? For real?

What will be the status of Pinback's Web Central through all of this?

My last day of work is nebulous. My lease here at 122 Strand is up at the end of September, which is probably when I'd be ready to stop working. However, fact is, they're probably gonna need me for a little while after that to finish things up, so if I was still in town, I'd keep at it, but my real plan is to be on out this bitch at the end of September, so I'd telecommute.

But not for too long, I hope. The SHAKE THAT SHIT UP EXPRESS has got places to GO. Things to SEE. People to DO.

We gotta get this party started.

When I put something silly up there for the general topic, don't take it the wrong way. I don't want to "whore out" your big decision here for content purposes.

When is your last day at work?

Additionally: it would be great if you dropped by here on the Shake that Shit Up Express, as you called it in e-mail. Longmont is kind of a hole, and Fort Collins... well, it has some night life, that is for sure. But yeah. Rock n' roll.

Because, you see, what [i]I[/i] regret, is basically every moment of my life up until this point, except for the following exceptions:

1. That one trip to the Inner Harbor where Dana Booth said she'd rather walk with me than go with the other group.

2. My first night playing bass at open mic night at California Joe's in Manassas, Virginia.

3. The day I got my pilot license.

4. June 20, 2003.

5. The JC BBS Vegas Extravaganza.

So, enough of this shit.

Good luck, bud. To be honest, I am a little burned out from the grind as well. I should cash in my 401k and do the same. It's a great big world out there and I miss all my friends terribly.

Keep in touch as you explore a country other than Jolt Country for a while and if you get the chance, definitely stop by and let us know how you are doing.

P.S. [b][i]BANNED[/i][/b]

This might interest some of you.

This evening, I decided to quit my job (by way of not accepting the offer they extended to me), leave my apartment, head for the hills, and take at least a year off to explore life, the world, myself, and basically break out of the foot-thick steel ennui cage I've found myself in the last couple... well, 20... years.

I will be visiting several of you during this time. I felt you should know. Make room in your home. Or, if your handle begins with a "V", your bed.

This is the beginning of the big adventure.

It is time to shake this shit up.