September to remember

I would like to introduce a 36 hour day.

It is now the end of September and this is my first post. The last time I wrote a post I was living at my old apartment, I am now fully moved and almost finished settling in. As with every other procedure that involves the Jamaican government offices I could not get the new place certified in time but I still had to move since I gave notice. I ended up moving into a place with no power and suffering for two weeks.

With no power and no fridge I survived on my tea candles, 3G dongle and my laptop to get me through the nights when I got home from work. For the weekends I crashed at a friend's house and she treated me like a king. Eventually the power service was turned up and I quickly got my security grills and curtains installed, I could now rest with piece of mind and with privacy.

Of course in the mix of everything is still school. I have already completed two courses, submitted one research paper and sat one exam already. The first exam wasn't so bad, I finished with about an hour to spare probably a first for me. Lets hope I passed with flying colors :p. Other than that UWI has changed greatly since I've left. They have added a special section to the library for postgraduates only and I am loving it.

Between the school tuition, moving to a larger apartment, having three mouths to feed and general homeowner expenses has put me in a situation I have not been in for a while.. broke. It is just really a matter of cash flow and normally it wouldn't be much of an issue but I am looking to upgrade my couch and I saw a really nice three piece leather living room set that is now haunting my day dreams. I quickly wrote it off as being unaffordable but I saw in a magazine today the price has been slashed by over 20% to something more acceptable. It's time to reshuffle the budget to get in on these sales prices!

August updates

Oh blog how I have forsaken you.

Time is not on my side, there have been many things to do.

1. Tie up loose ends with the old landlord
2. Get electrician to re-certify new house then get power supply activated
3. Get metalwork contractors to install security grills in the new house, a must in Jamaica.
4. Buying baby stuff to quell the irate pregnant girl.
5. Get curtains made to stop new neighbours on spying on me.
6. Homework. OMG going back school is crazy.. I have to suffer two more years of this.
7. The side job. I will probably lose this work given the amount of time I put into it last week.
8. Bills. I paid all of my July credit card and utility bills late not because I didn't have the money, because I didn't have the time.
9. Day job. Two people doing the job of six? a recipe for delayed but sure disaster.

I plan to try and get two days departmental leave this week to handle some of the monster tasks that are yet to be completed. Wish me luck because I don't think my boss will be too happy with this.

On a side note, I like the finer things in life, I can't afford them but I will admire from far. One of these items are watches and last week my coworker reminded me of this when he left his watch on his desk and asked us to secure it for him. I dropped it in my desk draw and locked it without much thought but when I didn't see him the next day I popped it out to further inspect it since I knew that he liked to collect nice watches. It was a very nice auto winding mechanical watch, I couldn't tell when was the last time I saw one of these. After a quick google search it turned out that the watch could buy my car, they start off at $5000USD and go up to $90,000 depending on the casing and options. I promptly took off my watch and wore his watch for the rest of the day until he popped up. Ahh the finer things.

Homeowner: check.

- Go back to Disney world.
- Get post graduate degree.
- Become propertied by 26.
- ... etc.

Well this is one life goal I am glad to cross off the list and I have now replaced it with the goal of shaving 17 years off my mortgage term to finish paying back my loan in 8 years. This of course is under the assumption that all things remain equal, yes I aim high.

It has been one week since I got the possession papers and keys and the only thing I have done so far is given my old landlord notice. Of course she asked why I was leaving(I am a great tenant) and I had to remind her that 3 years ago when negotiating my lease with her I made sure to assert that this will be the last place I was going to rent(I hate moving) and the next time I move it will be because I bought somewhere. good memories.. lets just hope that when my end date comes she gives me back my full security deposit and not try to nitpick like my last penny pincher landlord who kept a portion because she wanted to pay her way through medical school.

The place is fairly new, about 2 years old and mostly move in ready. I need to get the electricity turned up and security grills installed(a must given Jamaica's current crime situation). I bought a new deadbolt lock for my front door today and I'll probably drop by there early tomorrow morning before work to attempt to install it myself, how hard can it be?

Did I mention that it is less than a 2 minute drive away from one of my office locations?! Being so retardedly close to work I'll probably end up working from home and not going to the office most days.. lol lets see.

pad status: debatchelorized

I sold my pool table.

It was probably the biggest and heaviest item in my apartment, it defined my place. It was a dead give away when my friends visited me for the first time, they would come through the door and question in amazement you have a pool table? lol or ask if it came furnished with one.

I didn't really use it much for 8 ball, I just used to put stuff on since it was so big.. and tabley. So after I went to my attorney to sign the transfer of title for my new place I made my way down to the gleaner[local paper] and put an ad in their classifieds for it to be sold. It didn't really make much sense to move with it since I don't use it and it took up so much space.

It sold the same day the ad ran.. maybe I under priced it :( Two days later the guy came with a truck and a football team[literally] and they took it. My living room looks so empty without it now. I have to stop myself from buying furniture to fill the space since I know I will be moving sometime soon. I now realize I don't really have much to move with that table out of the way but I still have a few large items I need to sell or dump before I move. Somehow I don't think they will be as well received as the pool table though.. I got calls for 6 days straight after that ad ran.

Life updates

The commenters have gotten bold and demanded an update on my life. Who knew I was so interesting? lol let's get started. On Thursday I apparently left a large window open in my apartment and when I came home from work there was ash everywhere. I looked outside to see if I could identify the fire but there was none, it was a bit puzzling. After sweeping and vacuuming I closed up all the windows and left for work on Friday and yet still ash(a lot less this time) found its way back into my place by the time I reached home. The Friday night news cleared it all up, there was a large bush fire in Jacks Hill that I was totally oblivious to. Yup it is fire season once again for the hills of St. Andrew, every year around this time Jacks hill and its surroundings blaze up.

I didn't walk with my camera today but if I did you would have seen this same hill naked with a layer of black. These pictures were actually taken back in '07 after hurricane Dean I think, if you look closely you can see the twigs(or trees) on the hill are all broken, well now they are burnt off. I am amazed by the size of the fire and how it completely missed me, normally when there are fires in the hills I can spot them at night but over the past couple of days most of this hill went and I didn't have a clue.

The pictures above were actually taken from my (only) favorite and most hated walking(or climbing) hill. It is soooo steep but us Kingstonians seem to love to park our cars at the bottom and make the 20-30 minute walk up. I have it in my to do list to walk with my new camera to get better pics of the trek up.

Boring eh? on to other topics.. how are y'all surviving the economic downturn, recession, depression, ...? I see a lot of other Jamaican bloggers writing about the jobs being slashed.. *sigh* I am no stranger to this, my company has been slashing since I've joined a couple years back and I am glad I have survived thus far.

The last time I checked interest rates were dropping on the world markets but some how Jamaica is busy hiking their rates, good for local investors bad for borrowers. I had the deposit for my house invested[legitimately] before they raised the interest rates and the monthly interest could cover all my expenses(rent, food,car,...) easily. I would be living on easy street now if I didn't take all that money and give to my attorney as payment for my condo and moved myself to the other side of the fence to a world of debt.

I have a theory on how the Jamaican economy reached this state. Bear with me, this isn't really my subject.
- 1. mortgage crisis causes credit lines to tighten. the movers and shakers on the world markets drop interest rates to stimulate the economies.
- 2. Jamaican investment houses make a run USD currency to pay off their investments to avoid margin calls.
- 3. The value of the Jamaican dollar drops fast due to item 2.
- 4. The BOJ tries to stem the devaluation by raising interest rates to mop up liquidity and encourage the people to keep their JMD investments. really who can turn down 20+% rates?
- 5. Borrowers get the shaft. I hear my coworkers and friends cussing about their loan payments increasing due to item 4.

Who knows whats going on? I hope I was close. Anyway my stock portfolio lol sucks. It has lost more than 1/2 its value. I have written it off for now, I am in no immediate need for the cash so I guess they can sit there and lets hope they will revalue eventually. Under my mattress is looking attractive now.

My first birthday in Barbados

The water looks so nice eh? It's a shame I haven't even stuck my toe in yet and I've been here for the past couple of days. I did make the effort to get back to the hotel early today and with the last few rays of sunlight hitting my face I threw myself into the Atlantic ocean. There are gorgeous beaches everywhere, you can't escape them, there was no way I was coming back to Jamaica without trying one out. Anyway I'll be here for a couple more days hopefully I can squeeze something more into my busy schedule.

So yesterday I did something I promised myself I would never do again in Jamaica, I went to TGIF to celebrate my birthday. After going to TGIF for my and a lot of my friends birthdays I decided to strike any such future endeavors from my datebook but the girls from the office over here decided that they were going to do TGIF and it was going to be my birthday today. *sigh* I went ahead and got my ice cream and a bunch of random people singing happy birthday to me. So I can now say I came to Barbados and celebrated my birthday and I have the photos to prove it! lol those pics aren't going to see the light of day though :p

A bit off topic but I don't think I would put this up in a post by itself but it's worth mentioning somewhere. So we all know they accepted my bid for the last condo I went to look at, that was step 1. Many steps and weeks later I signed the sales agreement just before I left the island and my bank should have sent the 15% deposit to my attorney yesterday. Also my mortgage company called me yesterday to tell me the process is complete and I can collect the documentation to have the sale proceed. yup.. I'm on the final leg to being a home owner. I can't wait to get back so I can wrap up business.

a time to catch up

Where does the time go? I took this week off to catch a breath and it's almost Thursday already! not to mention it's almost December.. but the year just started. I have observed that as I get older my perception of time speeds up. *sigh* I just googled it and apparently I am not the only one. I haven't read that article though, it looks pretty depressing for me to stop and read now, it will probably change the whole tone of this post. So what have I been up to? time to make another list

• I got myself a 22" wide screen LCD for my computer and it's officially larger and much prettier than my 21" regular tv that I am now ignoring for several reasons. This larger monitor is great for editing photos and watching HD video :D
  
• I went to the UWI to get information on their post graduate degrees. All the kids there look so young and it's only been 4 years since I've left that campus :-(. I am looking forward to going back to school again, it should be interesting trying to fit classes, exams and projects into my busy work schedule. yay!
• I got a call from a guy in my section on Monday, he just came back from vacation and got his walking papers from our HOD. So my section now has 4 members.. I am not looking forward to that extra work. I like my work though, I hope they keep me.
• It's all gravy. 11 months ago I made a resolution to spend more. I checked my finance app and I have spent a bit more than the same period last year but I am still way ahead of my end of year savings target.. so far ahead I can cut a check and pay for my post graduate degree in full and still be within my budget. I guess I can mark that down as a failed resolution.
• I viewed a townhouse in New Kingston and an apartment in Kingston 8. I loved the location for the New Kingston place but the 18yo place left a lot to be desired in terms of maintenance, if a next real estate agent says bachelor pad I will know to lower my expectations. The uptown apartment was absolutely gorgeous! It's not in my ideal area[right in the middle of things] but I made an offer a little shy of the asking price, I hope I don't get it. I don't know whats wrong with me, I want to hold out until I can find the ideal place in the perfect area.

Let's hope I get some rest and post some more before I go back to the rat race.

Power issues

JPS is messing with me. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that food came out of my microwave and it was still cold, my fridge guard was chipping out and the fuses started to blow in my speaker set. I found all this strange until one day I came home to my hot apartment to turn on the fan and it was barely spinning. I ran for my multimeter and it gave me 80 to 90v and it all started to make sense.

Since I am all about going green the term brown out has mostly lost its meaning since the florescent lights are either on or off and they don't get brown under a low voltage supply like I had been receiving. It still left the mystery as to why the 3amp fuses in my speakers where blowing but one day last weekend I plugged in my multimeter and caught jps giving me power at 150v sustained.

As far as I am concerned my supply voltage should be 115v +/-5v and anything else is unacceptable. 80 to 150v a deviation of 35v is enough to destroy anything worth having and that's what JPS has started to do. When the voltage got too low my DSL modem would drop out and I would lose internet service. On the flip side when the power was at 150v the 15v, 1amp, linear power supply primary coil burnt out.

Pretty much anything with an unfused coil facing jps faced certain doom as a second set of speakers in my bedroom died as well. That was the last straw, I took it apart as pictured to the left and cut off the dead transformer and fed the amplifier circuit with a rectified power supply I built 13 years ago(I'm so proud). This one has a significantly larger primary coil so it should withstand any further surges until I can find a suitably rated switched mode power supply for it as I have already done for my DSL modem. FYI if anybody actually read this far I majored in electronics for my undergrad degree.

Tastes like chicken?

What the hell is wrong with these lizards? I have no real problem living with them but they have crossed the line.

Saturday night I stepped into my kitchen and heard no end of commotion somewhere in the room. After some investigation I realized the lizard that normally lives under my fridge was in the garbage bag I placed on the ground pending the arrival of the garbage truck. It was eating my left overs so I quickly identified where it was in the bag and just stepped on it through the bag *splat*.

I thought that was the last of those buggers in my kitchen for now but some night later on this week I stepped into my kitchen to do the dishes and saw a single lone chicken bone in the middle of the counter, someone tried to help themself to a snack before I could clean up. Needless to say the lizard pictured above soon came into view as he tried to make his escape. Look at it, he is still licking his lips. I went for my camera and bug spray and now he is no more. Lizards be warned.

Gusty Gustav

So many people including myself got tricked by tropical storm Gustav. At some point in time it shifted from passing north of Jamaica to passing over the dead center of our island. I knew about it but it seemed fairly disorganized for me to be that concerned about it so I went to work Thursday morning as usual. There wasn't much to do there so I was back home by 1pm and started to prepare for the storm.. yes, shame on me for waiting until then to prepare. I had enough tin food from last year so the only thing left was for me to collect some water and cover my stuff with plastic.

As the storm penetrated our little island I watched the news coverage on TV as people called in and reported fires on the power transmission poles, downed power lines and strong gusts of winds. I looked around and noticed I possibly subconsciously arranged what I now dub my 'MacGyver' survival kit on the edge of my pool table. These are items that have probably been all over my apartment for months but now a swiss army knife, 2 lighters, a paper clip, a serrated pocket knife and a $1 coin found them self together. I didn't have a flashlight but I had hundreds of little tea candles that would have provided me with continuous light for weeks if power went away. Was I really prepared?

One thing for sure work had me prepared (supposedly). Before I left work yesterday my boss gave me a so I can work from home if my dsl went or the dialup server died.. how thoughtful. When I reached home I pulled out my laptop and saw a flaw in their plan, my pcmia slot was broken(thats how I received my laptop from them). How could I have forgotten about that? anyway power never went away and I was glad. Everybody who called me told me they didn't have power or water. Up until I went to bed at 2am I had power, water, cable and internet service. I also noticed that there was about 2 feet of water on the main road that was now a river. That was very disturbing but I was high and mostly dry in the ghetto penthouse.