Personal

I had an epiphany this morning. Facebook is really stealing from us. Not in the normal sense of “Oh, I’m taking your purse and running down the street with it”, but more in the sense, “hey, you own this music, I’m taking it.” Back up…. How did I get here? I was reading Merlin Mann’s FAQ. He talks about how he has a facebook account but hasn’t checked it in over a year. Also on this page he confesses that he is a “writer” or creator of content. I think the fact that he is a writer and the fact that he hasn’t used his facebook account in over a year are connected. ...

For those of you who have known me for more than, say, five years, you know that one of my original web properties was handspringman.com. Unfortunately, due to issues with the way domain registration works, it slipped out of my control. At the time it was prohibitively expensive to reposes (somewhere in the several hundred dollar range). Well, good news, it’s coming home. I recently checked it’s availability on GoDaddy and was able to procure it relatively inexpensively. I will do my best to put something up there soon. ...

Part of the reason I haven’t been writing is because I have been reading more and more Merlin Mann these days. And while I’m not a writer, some of what he says resonates with me. I want to stop writing just for the sake of writing or putting more content out there. I want what I write to matter and be of good content. I want to produce worthwhile content. This is not one of those meaningful posts, so if you want to skip the fluff, go ahead and skip this one. ...

I found out the other week that one of my many mentors throughout school has passed away. Father Thomas Martin O.S.A. was one of my college professors, who in my senior year, severely (in a positive way) changed my appreciation of the Catholic church. I chose to go to Villanova because of their strong academic and athletics program. I knew I wanted to cheer in college, and I knew that I wanted to be successful academically. It was important for me that the school I choose have both a strong academic program and also a strong sports program to pursue both of my interests. The one downside I saw to Villanova was that it was Catholic. I, my friends, am quite Jewish. I was apprehensive to say the least. I was afraid of the religious classes I had to take. ...

I thought it would be worthwhile to publish my expenses for my college team last year. This is useful for anyone who is interested in calculating whether or not you can afford to an open cheerleading team. I cheered for CheerGyms.com. They were a good team and I will talk about my pros and cons a bit lower, but first lets look at the expenses. Expense Cost Tuition and Competition Fees, including uniform costs $1,209.81 Nationals Hotel Bill $104.00 Gas Costs to travel to practice. Assuming 3 practices a month (to account for holidays and weeks off), cost of 2.50/gallon, and 20 miles/gallon on the car $405.00 Gas for nationals, same figures as above, traveling distance about 404 miles $101.00 Gas for local competitions in Sacramento $80.25 Total $1,900.06 This is just the hard numbers and I’ve gone a little soft on the miles and gas price. The point, however, is still relatively strong: I spent nearly $2,000.00 no an open team last year. I had a good time, but that is really expensive, so I’ve decided not to cheer again next year while I try to get my finances in order. ...