Rory's Journal

So, I know I have been a little hard on Bozeman in my past blogs (I write for the theatrical after all), but I have decided to be more constructive. Snow removal problems are one thing, but housing prices are insane around here. I don't honestly understand the process of how housing prices get set. Why are prices higher in some places and lower in the next? I'm sure it's got something to do with an economics formula that makes Quantum Mechanics look like scrabble. But, the fact is, housing prices around Bozeman are 20% above the national average. People that don't make a lot of money simply can't afford homes around here and that's not right. I've seen more than one family forced to live in a rental with a bunch of crazy college kids next door because they simply can't make the payments. And, this is not to say that they don't make a lot of money, either. There are plenty of people who make $50k a year and can't get a house. That's just stupid. It voids the middle class and you end up with trailer parks and mansions.

But, I said "constructive" criticism. I am actually trying to get involved at the city level to find out how it all really works internally, then see if I can make a difference. I just want my own house, out of the neighborhood of idiots that think drinking beer through a wearable cup is the best thing in the world, and into an environment I feel safe raising my kids in. Otherwise, the only option I see is to move to a city with normal housing prices. I mean, aren't we in the middle of a housing market crisis? Shouldn't prices on homes be plummeting?

I am addicted to caffeine. I can tell because without it I am droopy pants. And, when I do get my paws on some, it makes me happy. I am actually happy for no reason. Just happy. I can be happy without it of course. But, if I'm not already happy, it makes me that way. I think that fact makes my co-workers happy, too.

I also think that good things are about to happen to me. Bear with me, this may just be the aforementioned caffeine. My financially fragile little world seems like it's always on the edge. I was hoping with the launch of Poinzy.com everything would become better, but it hasn't. We are dragging our feet taking the invite code off of the artist's system. So, money isn't going to be coming in from there until we are done. But, my plan is to focus on my Game Design career aspect. Creativity is where I need to be and on that note, I am going to be rearranging parts of my blog within the next few months. I am going to focus the blog to more career oriented. It will still be my personal blog, but it will probably have links to my resume and, most importantly, my portfolio of programming. I tell people I am a programmer, but they have yet to actually see any of my code. I have a few projects that would be interesting for an employer to see and I need to represent that.

Also, I still need to increase my writing time. My short stories that are on my blog aren't really that interesting, but at the same time I don't want to post a chapter or book. I might actually want to sell that some day. I think the best advice for that is to forget about money and just post it so people can enjoy it. I'll never get published, because the publishing companies have seen to that for all of us. They don't care about new writers and they certainly won't read the work of some nobody.

I am currently listening to "Kiss The Girl (Little Mermaid) - Dance Mix". It's interesting...

I'm beginning to understand why some blogs clear out old entries after a few years. Some of my entries are terrible. Especially the ones from Gamestop. I look like a nut case. It's obvious that retail isn't for me. It drove me crazy. I'm much more relaxed now, but anyone looking back on them and reading the entries would think I was crazy. I might have to start cleaning out those entries if future employers are going to be looking at them. To anyone joining the blog in the last year, don't bother looking back. It's not impressive.

Retail used to make me nuts. I am definitely the guy that sits at the desk and programs. I'd rather be playing and making video games then selling them to customers. Sometimes I just don't have the patients to deal with customers like that. That is why I do what I do now. Program.