Over the past couple weeks, I've been looking at the distractions in my life and seeing which contribute in a positive way, and which are neutral or negative. I started doing this from a financial perspective to better budget, but I've since moved on to other things. Here's a look at what's be kept and what has been jettisoned and why.
Audible.Com - Jettisoned. I dumped this as I've not been listening to the books that I've been accumulating, and I currently have enough books at the moment to probably last through the summer. Another factor in my getting rid of this is that I've ceased really listening to books on my train rides around Chicago. This used to be when I would listen to things the most, and since getting the 15" aluminum PowerBook for work, my train time tends to be used tweaking Books or doing something else. Audible is a great service, and I anticipate that I will rejoin once I finish the books I have and am more amenable to listening to books again.
Cable / Tivo - Kept. This was a tough decision as the combination of the two's monthly service runs me about $55 a month. While I don't mind paying $15 a month to Tivo at all, I'm irked that the most basic cable in Evanston is about $40 a month. I looked into being able to trim this down, but I'm already at rock-bottom. However, the Tivo is useless without it. Furthermore, while I'm watching less television, I still enjoy the shows that I do watch -- South Park, Smallville, Sealab 2021, etc.
Cellular Phone - Modified. I've switched my cell phone plan to be a more national one since I've been getting eaten on roaming charges. Since I don't do Internet or SMS on the phone, I ended up halving my bill by modifying my plan and dumping those services. SMS is really cool, but you need a network of people you know that actually uses it.
Easton Press Books - Dumped. These people sell nice leather-bound editions of classic works of literature. These are wonderful books, but I have not had a chance to read any that I have received. I feel like I need a nice Masterpiece Theater style chair and a smoking jacket to read them. Combined with the fact that I have a number of other books on my list at the moment, I elected to quit getting these. They're wonderful, but I have a lot of books to read before I can even touch those.
Business-class DSL - Under consideration. I currently have a five static IP address plan with my DSL provider. Given the amount of viruses and hacking going on, I've started to place my machines on a private subnet and use a secured gateway machine to access them. I'm not close to even using all of those IP addresses, so I am thinking of trimming those down to one. However, looking at their plan grid, it seems that the minimum number of static IP's I can get is five. *shrug*
NetFlix - Kept. I figure that NetFlix has saved me money as my DVD purchases have become more selective, and thus less frequent. NetFlix is something I use to watch the movies that I want to see, but wouldn't otherwise buy. Plus, I think Holly would be really mad if she couldn't tell me to put this movie or that movie in my queue.
Video Game Purchases - On hiatus. I've stopped purchasing games as frequently as I have a number of that I need to complete before getting new ones. I'm happy to say that Metroid Prime will be finished this week, But I still need to finish Clone Wars, X-Men, and even maybe Batman: Vengeance. I saw a good deal for Two Towers and Crazy Taxi at Best Buy yesterday, but managed to hold off on those. Steve is pressing me to get Metroid Zero Mission, but I suspect that's because his computer is still boxed up, I have no emulators, and thus he has no good way to pirate it and play it that way. I've also picked up some classic Playstation games that I need to finish off before I start thinking of getting any new ones.
Best Buy Credit Card - Destroyed. My recent trip to Best Buy was to spend the little bit that I had overpaid on my bill last month. Since there is no compelling reason for me to have a Best Buy credit card, I spent the money (online, not at the store) and sliced the card last night. It felt strange doing that, as if the card was saying "Don't destroy me!", but it is now history. The next cards on my destruction list are the MBNA Princeton U-Store cards and MBNA Linux Fund cards. That will leave me with a card that collects airline miles, and my Discover card.
YMCA Membership - Kept. When I get up in the morning and bend over to put on socks and it takes more effort than it should, that's a sign that I should go to the gym. I've started working out last week, and working on my midsection and flexibility. I'm having problems making the time in the morning to go -- a problem with me going to sleep too late -- but I am getting better. Plus I figure that a YMCA membership helps a good cause.
That's all the actions that I've taken so far. I'm hoping that this will help me organize my life in some small ways.
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I congradulate you on being a model consumer.. er.. I mean citizen!
no! not the u-store card! think of the memories! think of the 5% discount you'll get on late night snacks during reunions! think of, um, other stuff!
i'm very proud of you re: best buy card though. i didn't know you had it in you :-)
i'll call you soon - there may be news to report...
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