Part of the major planning involved was ensuring a steady stream of money for during the move. I would need a significant outlay of cash in order to prepare a security deposit and first month’s rent, and then I would need funds to cover the cost of hiring a mover, the apartment cleaning for the exit, and other resources. To this end I altered my paycheck disbursement to ensure that a certain amount of the money, higher than what had been placed before, was going automatically into a different account. Having this money in a separate kitty where its use would be less casual than the everyday expenses helped out tremendously, but ultimately I figured it might not be enough. I had to move smarter, not pricier.

One of the ideas I’d been considering for a while was the use of an off-site storage facility to hold some of the more valuable possessions I’ve collected during the move. I had begun looking into the situation as I settled on a location to where I’d move, and started feeling out the amount of space I’d need for the short term, and if the new place didn’t offer an on-site locker (it doesn’t), how much space I’d want to have as an ongoing archive area should the need arise. As it turns out, once I’d discovered where I was going to move, there was a storage facility within walking distance. As soon as I’d heard that the application was approved– two months out from the actual move date– I started manually hauling boxes of stuff to the facility. At an outside guess I’d say this probably cut maybe $300-500 off the bill for the movers.

Another important thing was going through my closets in the old apartment and initiating a serious, hard-core no-holding-back purge of crap. It’s important to make a distinction between archive materials (receipts, hard drives, old notebooks, etc.) and just plain ol’ crap (cords to stuff that broke years ago, manuals and magazines years out of date, literal junk). Some of it got recycled, such as the computers and monitors (how I managed to acquire more CRT monitors than old computers is quite frankly beyond my ken); a lot of it ended its journey unceremoniously hurled into the dumpster, after the necessary shredding or obliterating. This too probably saved me a good $200 or so.

Finally, a week or two before the move date I held a sale on Craigslist. This took out a good chunk of items that were either still good enough to make recycling them a waste, or were just too bulky for me to get rid of without injuring myself. Turns out this earned me around $200 at a point when I had needed to dip into the moving funds to take care of a minor emergency.

Now, obviously, I was not perfect about keeping my hands off the moving stash. More than once I bought some game book or another with the earmarked funds. However, during the entire time, I did not once need to go a week without spending money or anything so draconian. Even accounting for the so-called “impulse drift”, I was well within my budget, to the point where, when all was said and done, I had enough left over to buy the new couch for the apartment over a month in advance. Considering I had gone into the venture thinking I was going to need to borrow funds to see it to completion, the move was an unequivocal success.

Anyway. I paid off the Rock Band 3 pre-order on the way home tonight, and unfortunately I don’t feel up to the thought of attending the midnight launch party. I’ll at least have something to look forward to for on the way home tomorrow, assuming I don’t decide to get to work at 5a in the hopes of being able to leave at 1p. Yeah. Just a tiny bit excited for this game. Ciao, kids.

Oh, and there’s that whole “socializing” thing, but who really cares about that?

When translated to Rock Band, this means I pretty much stay on Medium and don’t stray unless I think I can get away with it, or if I’m forced into a higher difficulty. However, in playing through The Beatles: Rock Band over the past few days, I’ve found myself becoming a little more adventurous, jumping to Hard every once in a while just to see if I can. I’ve yet to five-star any Hard songs, I think, but I’m getting better.

In any event, that doesn’t tell you much about the game itself. This should: Go buy it. Like, now. Yeah, it’s that good.

Sorry for the terseness, I’m a little frazzled after this week’s havoc and I’m running out of steam very quickly. I need these two days off just to cope, I guess… Catch you all tomorrow.

With any luck, it will be on Youtube within hours of the incident, and the police will be by to press charges shortly thereafter.

The gift of funk.

And it should be stressed that I appreciate… the funk.

Get up.

Oh yeah. Mahoromatic is, indeed, awesome.

Catch you all later.

Skipping blog posts sets a dangerous precedent, one I don’t think I’d care to pursue. However, given how ridiculously busy and inaccessible I was all weekend, I think it’s excusable… it’s not like I’m getting paid to blog, and if you really needed new text from me, the novel was still going strong over at Linguankery. Still, posts will return to their daily schedule from this point on. The only times there should be interruptions will be for ones which are explained ahead of time, or the ones that are true emergencies. Which, now that I think about it, is pretty much a meaningless statement, I suppose.

(Extra note: If you just did the chant, you’re playing way too much Rhythm Heaven. Take a break, now now now. If you just clapped four times, you’re beyond help. I’m an enabler!)

Anyway, to make a long story short, I have four long days ahead of me, and then… well, we’ll see. Things are a little crazy now for the next few weeks, and having the ability to step back, take a deep breath, and dive in feeling rested and calmed has got to be exactly what I needed. I was feeling pretty frazzled by the middle of last week, so this vacation came at the perfect time. At this point, all I have to do is what I do best: survive. Catch you all tomorrow.

It should be noted that I now no longer have that problem– the combination of some timely coupons and the remainder of a gift card meant that I was able to pick up the RB2 drums, and those work flawlessly. No double-hits, no misses when you KNOW you hit it… they just work.