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When sleeping in is not worth $250. And when it is.

I would KILL right now to be able to sleep in past 8. Unfortunately, due to a weekend class that starts at the same time as my M-F job (9am), for the last 20 days I’ve been up, showered, caffeinated, and commuted in time for the daily 9am start. Its starting to wear on me a bit, I confess. Cleverly the certification test (if you must know, “Certification in Project Managezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”) is offered for free. The hook is that I can’t miss a single weekend course or be late, as attendance is collected after completion of class hour one. Miss one and I have to pay the test fee of $250.
 

At first I thought, no problem. By day 20, different story. It sucks. And I yes, I realize in the grand scheme of things I have a pretty good life. There are unemployed people who would kill for this. Starving kids in China. Whatever. The point is, it dawned on me that I’ve inadvertently associated a value for an hour of extra sleep. Now, normally if someone tells me that if I sleep in an hour late on a certain date, I’ll owe them $250, I would get up extra early just to insure that I don’t miss it. But does the value of currency depreciate once that time period is extended? I’m saying that at least for 42 days, $250 is $250. But if I had to pay someone $250 if I slept in late at any point in say, 90 days, would I just pony up the dough and be done with it? 180 days? 365?

There’s not only economy at work here, but some silly psychology as well. On my gym days, when I’m up by 6, I’ll go to bed a little earlier just so the next morning when I wake up at 7:30, I try to trick myself into saying “wow, I got an extra two hours of sleep today!  Technically, I did…though we all know that “sleeping in” doesn’t refer to the amount of total time slept, but rather long enough through the morning to eat lunch in one’s small clothes.

To put this in perspective, when I was traveling there was only ONE day out of a year when I had to wake up before 8am (OK, that wasn’t for perspective, that was just to brag).

 

Anyway, it got me thinking how much do I value other activities (or lack of activities)? Forget about things like reading a book or exercising, but what about the value of taking a piss in the morning? If you had to pay $250 if you took a piss before noon for a week, would could you do it? Two weeks? What about a $100 penalty if you cleaned dishes at any time in a 14 day period?

Where was I going with this? I don't know. Maybe that's the whole point? My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

Saturday, Feb 21 is currently pegged as my first sleep in day, thus wrapping up 42 continuous days of no sleeping in. There may be Tylenol PM involved.

Stains the Zombie Dog

 

(via Videogum)

Dusting off theHostelWitness

New post up on TheHostelwitness.com, done with minimal fact checking. It picks up where my previous post left off: Work and Travel: How to Get Paid on the Road

More importantly, its a return to one of my passions, travel. I'm hoping to direct my need to ramble to a cone-shape rant encompassing travel, the outdoors, and photography through the site.

Opportunity knocks.

As you all know, the axe fell today at Microsoft. 5,000 employees are to be let go and it doesn't really look good for my HR bretheren when that department was specifically singled out for reduction in the press release - when things are going great, the first people hired are recruiters, but when things go bad, they are the first to be let go. There are a lot of articles out there and blogs offering support and ideas, such as treat your unemployment like its a job, work your contact, don't give up, etc. That's all bull. Here is my own advice.

To those with families or laden with debt, I feel for you...to be frank though, this message is not intended for you.  

However, to those that are relatively debt-free and single (or perhaps with an adventurous spouse), opportunity is knocking. I can't think of a better time to pack a few changes of clothing into a backpack, pop on the trainers, and hit the road for a few months while this shit sorts itself out. Things here aren't going to get better any time soon and the dollar is on the rise. Besides, its winter in Seattle, but very warm, cheap, and beautiful in Central America. Forget about wishing you could do something like this, now is the time to do it. Your friends and family will be waiting for you when you are done.

That is the mindset I certainly have right now. I'm asked, mostly by concerned parents, about how secure I feel in my industry and I reply that everyone is concerned about the job market. I realize that everyone has their own realities to deal with, but right now my goal is to save, turtle up. I've got loans to be repaid and a condo refurb coming due soon, but if I can get through those and have enough time to put some money under the mattress, if things here come to an end - I'm heading south.

Think about it - tax refund, a $200 flight to Mexico, and 3 months of decent weather to get below the equator...why not? Plus, chances are its actually cheaper to be unemployed traveling through Peru than say, living in Kirkland, WA.

As Coach Al used to say, go barefoot in the wet grass...in other words, enjoy the moment. Right now, would you rather be at home watching Oprah reruns, waiting for a call? Or go and see if you can't find where Andy and Red ended up?

Next: Are there jobs to be had while traveling? YES.

There's still hope for us all yet...

I was just pondering if there was anything I could write about this day that millions of people haven't already said and the easy answer was "hell no". Still, by coincidence I recieved email from friend Sally in London this morning that read simply,

 

"i'm watching the obama speach. thoughts?"

 

So I thought I would post what I replied.

 

 

"Listening to it now -

 

Thoughts...I was in Malaysia when I was asked by locals who I favored, Clinton or Obama. I told them what I thought would be the truth - that no matter who went on to run for President, it would come down to the safe, white-haired, standard choice or choosing between a woman or a black man. I was afraid that some very ugly truths would come out, that we as Americans would see that for all our bluster about equality and justice, that in the end Americans would vote for the white-haired man. I didn't even think it would be close.

 

Still, I cast my vote for Obama. I was happy when he won the nomination over Clinton and as the movement gained momentum, I was cautiously optimistic. The economy going down the tank certainly helped propel him - McCain's own words months earlier about not understanding the economy killed his campaign - and I saw Americans grow happy, excited even. This was really going to happen.

 

I have friends that don't understand what all the talk is about. They see Obama as just another politician, but I think for those of us who care about it, I think the true emotion is happiness mixed with tremendous relief that there's still hope for us all yet. "

All by ourselves alone

Roger Ebert's greatest legacy to our times, the "Thumbs Up/Down", unfortunately has also served as a great disservice to the man. A man with so much to say, prose flowing beautifully, only to see his legacy reduced to a blurb smart enough to put on the top of a movie poster.

Fortunately, he did not miss the age of blogs. Something Mr. Ebert wrote recently immediately touched me at the core, summarizing something that I was unable to express in an entire year's worth of writing, 

Suddenly I was filled with an enormous happiness, such a feeling as comes only once or twice a year, and focused all my attention inward on the most momentous feeling of joy, on the sense that in this moment everything is in harmony. I sat very still. I was alone at a table in a square where no one I knew was likely to come, in a land where I did not speak the language, in a place where, for the moment, I could not be found. I was like a spirit returned from another world. All the people around me carried on their lives, sold their strawberries and called for their children, and my presence there made not the slightest difference to them. I was invisible. I would leave no track in this square, except for the few francs I would give to the cafe owner, who would throw them in a dish with hundreds of other coins.

After a time, the intensity of my feelings passed, and i sat absolutely still at the table, a blank, taking in the movements before me. There are times when I think it would be possible to lead my whole life like this, a stranger in a foreign land, sitting in a cafe, drinking espresso, sketching on a pad, sometimes buying a newspaper which would tell me in my own language what was happening in other places to other people. I would see myself in the third person--that anonymous figure in the distance, crossing under the trees. Most of the time I am too busy to entertain such reflections. Indeed, I have filled my life so completely with commitments and deadlines that many days there is no time to think at all about the fact that I am living it. Bur these still moments, usually in foreign country or a strange city, give me the illusion that all of my life is as distant from me as the lives of the people in the marketplace, and that in some sense the person that is really me sits somewhere quietly at a table, watching it all go by.

TheHostelWitness.Com Holiday Podcast

So for Christmas this year, I thought it'd be fun to make a mix CD consisting of song choices from my friends scattered throughout the globe. After weeks gathering about 14 songs, packaging and shipping, customs forms, etc...I'm happy to report that most of them have reached their destinations. For everyone else, a bit belated, here you go.

Download Podcast

Track list below:
1. Baby Its Cold Outside - Dean Martin - Luis, Costa Rica
2. Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) - Beyonce - Tara, New York
3. Right Here - Brandy - Phatreeya, Thailand
4. Forever - Chris Brown - Xander, Philippines
5. Living On The Outside of Your Skin - Cloud Cult - Jacob
6. Poke - Frightened Rabbit - Amy, England
7. Re: Stacks - Bon Iver - Arija, New York
8. My Street - Kurt Nilsen - Peraporn, Thailand
9. Home - Michael Buble - Kroo Chuan, Thailand
10. Hoppipolla - Sigur Ros - Cynthia, Boston
11. Cheater's Armoury - Hanne Hukkelberg - Jessica, Washington D.C.
12. The Story I Heard - Blind Pilot - Jacob
13. Sex On Fire - Kings of Leon - Pattra, Iceland
14. Last Day of Magic - The Kills - Sally, Australia
15. Split the Atom - Skamp - Andrew, Chicago