financial aid and rants and raves

3 posts in one day. I'm stoked right now as I just got my new book from Amazon: GenXpat (the title alone is worth the purchase) and I'll be reading throughout the week. That's not why I'm writing right now, however. I'm engaging in an internal debate right now, and I need to type things out. Before I took ill, I was in the research phase of starting a small business: SOBE Convertibles. I believe I've written on the topic before on my blog. While the idea had merit on paper, I don't have the captial or the time to really make it work. Ergo, it fell by the wayside. Moreover, after some research, the idea itself may not have been as good as I'd hoped. I dodged a bit of a bullet on this one, it seems. With this change of heart, I gave up on starting any kind of business, but I have to assume some of that was the product of bieng sick. As bad as I felt physically, the psychological impact was worse. Once I started to feel better, the prospect of starting a business popped up again. Also, I did my taxes and although it didn't hit just yet, I am nearing the dreaded Alternative Minimum Tax, which will impact me at some point. Thus the starting a business thing comes into play. Keep in mind this side business would be a write-off for the fisrt 3 years or so, and enable me to LOWER my income so I don't hit the hated AMT. However, there's a lot of work to starting a business, and what I thought would be a good plan turned out to be crap. Also, I do have a moneymaking plan on the side, and it's called the Ren Faire. I wouldn't want any side thing to interfere with the $$ I make from Faire. This assumes I'll be back, but that shouldn't be at issue. I really made decent loot at the Faire, and even managed to save most of it. When people ask me what I did with the money, I show them my laptop and grin. I even think about buying one of the rides or helping one of my artsy friends open a booth the the Faire, but I don't know how much that would cost. This way I could both own my own business and still pour beer. Mickey would cringe at that last sentence. There's much to debate, but there's no real rush to the mental proceedings. Basically I need another good idea (one with legs this time....) or I could take over a successful side business outside of the Faire. For some reason I was looking at a booth at the Pocono flea market, but I'm not sure. I'll need to talk to my brother before we begin anything and perhaps others. More later.

I almost forgot: This month marks the 1 year anniversary of my blog, and although it's not the life changer some blogs turn into, I'm actually happy with the results. I should have more posts come September when my tenure becomes official. Also, I want to thank my health insurance and my doctors for getting me well. They did great work and I didn't pay a penny for all the treatment I received. (!) I am one lucky uncivil servant. Anyway....lunch time.

It's been a long time since I entered a post. It begs the question: who long must one ignore a blog before it is deactivated? I'm sure the answer is out there, just as I'm sure that nearly 2 months of no posts isn't enough to get bounced. Anyway, I have salient reasons for not posting: I was sick; by that I mean REALLY ill with potentially heart damaging consequences. Epicarditis and plueral effusion are the medical terms, but the layman would call it fluid around the heart and lungs. This can occur for many reasons, but my cause was a virus. This is actually good news, as viral epicarditis will not scar the membrane around the heart, preventing it from fully expanding. In other words, I was diagnosed with many conditions, none serious or chronic save sleep apnea, and only the slightly enlarged heart caused by my ample girth. I still have time to get in shape, and my psychological health has returned as well. In other words: I'm horny, disastified with my boxed in life, and hitting the expat websites with wild abandon. I've missed me, and I guess I've been sick for a while, around 2 months or so. A 10 day regimen of steriods later, and I'm good. I can even get it up again. I wasn't sure that any of this would come back, and Viagra is pricey over the long haul. I guess I'll close by thanking God for the health I have, and I'm grateful my little corner of the web has not disappeared. More in the proverbial later.