Reading List

I'm looking for some book recommendations to help me meet my goal of writing 12 book reviews this year. I prefer nonfiction, but a good thought-provoking fiction book is nice, too. (No fluffy beach novels. If I want fluffy literature, I'll get it in movie format.)

I've already reviewed The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.

I'm in the middle of reading The Startup of You by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha, and once I finish it, I plan to review it here.


I'm halfway through Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, so it might get a review, too.

I read some of Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard a few years back, and I really need to pick it up and finish it.

Books I plan to read and review:

• The God Who Weeps by Terryl and Fiona Givens - I heard an interview with Fiona Givens last year, and I was so impressed with her that I knew I had to read her book.
• Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg - This book seems to be a must-read for any woman with a professional career, and I really should have read it a long time ago.

So far, the list is heavy on business and social science with a dash of theology thrown in for good measure. What's missing are the books about physical science and psychology. Any recommendations?

Book Review - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

One of my new year's resolutions was to write 12 book reviews this year. The plan was to average one review per month, but as you can see, it's the end of March, and this is my first book review. I've been reading lots of books; I just haven't been writing about them. (I guess I'm still like my elementary and middle school self - the bookworm who didn't like writing book reports.)

My first review of the year is The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. This book has taken the world by storm with its simple method of de-cluttering. Called the Kon-Mari method, the book advocates sorting belongings by category, holding each one individually, and deciding whether or not it "sparks joy". Readers are instructed to keep the joy inspiring items. Everything else should be thanked for its service and then bid goodbye.

I got the book because I had too much stuff. I had been carrying around boxes from move to move to move that somehow never got unpacked. I would often dream of my apartment catching on fire and burning to the ground to give myself a fresh start (while I and the cats were safely away and the blanket my late grandfather made for me somehow in the trunk of my car). When my apartment got flooded last year and half my belongings were destroyed, I was, very temporarily, annoyed that the flood didn't get the other half as well. Clearly, I had a problem, and it needed a solution.

New Year's Resolutions

It's that time again where we all resolve to do the same few things, do them diligently for the month of January, and then backslide only to repeat the process all over again the next year.

Before getting to 2016's resolutions, I'm going to report on how I did for 2015.

My 2015 resolutions were as follows:

• Exercise 20 minutes per day 3 days per week.
• Get a permanent job that makes at least $X per year. (where X was a number I privately chose but didn't disclose on the blog)
• Reduce my debt by $Y. (where Y was a number I privately chose but didn't disclose on the blog)

I failed at every single one of them. I don't really have any excuse for failure to exercise. I used to be really athletic until I got sick, but I've had my thyroid under control for a few years now, and I haven't gotten my exercising mojo back.

As far as the job goes, there just aren't jobs for lawyers anymore. So I started my own law practice in October. My income from my practice is measured in negative numbers. This led to a failure of goal three as well. At least I didn't go any further into debt, so that's something.

Now, on to 2016.

1. Exercise 20 minutes per day 3 days per week.
I'm feeling pretty good about this. I signed up for a free martial arts class at church that meets every Saturday, so that's one day covered. There's also a local pickup basketball league that plays 3 mornings per week. I also have several exercise videos saved to my Amazon video queue. If I fail at this one, it will be out of laziness, not out of lack of opportunity.

2. Make a profit of $X at my law firm.
X is slightly larger than last year's X because self-employed people pay more in taxes for the same amount of income, so I'll need to increase my income to offset the higher tax burden.

3. Write at least twelve book reviews.
I read a lot, and I like to think about all the big ideas in the books I read. I don't really have many people to talk to about the books I read, though, because I don't often read book club type books. I figure at least some of the stuff I read might be interesting to other people, and even if it isn't, writing book reviews will keep my mind sharp and active. I envision one per month, but I phrased it as 12 per year instead to give myself more flexibility.

4. Organize my apartment by the KonMari method.
The book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has taken the country by storm this year. I have way too much stuff, and it's just sitting in bins in my closet. It's time to get rid of all the stuff I don't need. I've read the book, and now I want to put it in practice. I'm in a Facebook group of other people also doing it, so I'm going to have some moral support. It's also going to end up being one of my book reviews, and I figure I can give a better review of the book after I've used the method.

Here's to a productive 2016 full of personal growth!

Homemade Herbal Cough Drops

I've been wanting to try making my own cough drops for a while because I don't like the flavor of commercial cough drops. They end up tasting like really nasty candy. Usually when I get a bad cough, a butterscotch candy works just as well as a Hall's and tastes a lot better.

I set out to find a recipe, and I ran across this one here. I modified it to make it simpler. Instead of fussing with a bunch of fresh herbs, I realized that the "herb infused water" that the recipe calls for is just a complicated way of saying herbal tea. So here's my recipe:

1 cup extra-strong herbal tea
1 1/2 cups honey

Mix together over medium-high heat in a 2 quart saucepan. Stirring frequently, heat until the mixture reaches 150 degrees Celsius (302 degrees Fahrenheit), measured by a candy thermometer. Pour into greased lozenge sized candy molds. Allow to harden.

I used locally produced honey from H&H Honey. For the mold, I used a Jello Bean Mold because a friend gave it to me a few years ago after she found it at a thrift store. (I wouldn't have paid full price for it, but it's just the right size for cough drops.)

For the herbal tea, I used three tea bags and allowed it to steep for about 15 minutes. I used two bags of Peet's Lemon Rose and one bag of Peet's Hibiscus C. I figure that honey lemon is a good flavor for cough drops and that some extra vitamin C is a good thing during a cold.

The two quart saucepan is important. I started out in a one quart pan, but the mixture gets really bubbly as it boils, so I had to transfer pans halfway through. Even the two quart pan started to look a bit iffy on size at the end. It took about 35 minutes for the mixture to reach the desired temperature.

One word to the wise that should go without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway: Don't poke it while it's in the mold to see how hard it is. It takes a long time to cool, and I'm now the proud owner of a beautiful blister on my left index finger.

The lozenges are still cooling, so I haven't tasted them yet. Now that I'm working from home, I catch colds much less often, so it may be a while before I can comment on their medicinal effectiveness. It was a fun project for science, though.

Basketball

I used to be in really good shape. I was a gymnast, figure skater, and springboard diver as a teenager. I played basketball on the ROTC team in college. I did ballet and ballroom dance as hobbies. I spent a year and a half riding a bicycle everywhere I went through the hills of North Carolina and Virginia.

Then I came home and went to law school. Between studying, going to classes, and holding down a full-time job, exercise kind of fell by the wayside. Then my adrenals and thyroid went on strike and I was too sick to do much more than get out of bed.

I'm better now, but I'm still out of shape. It turns out Isaac Newton was right. A body at rest tends to stay at rest. I keep meaning to start up a workout plan. I downloaded Couch to 5K running tracks years ago, and every now and then, I tell myself that I should go for a run.

When I tell myself that, it's because I forgot one very important fact. I absolutely loathe running! The only way you're going to get me to run is if I'm being chased by a sabre tooth tiger on the savannah. Since the sabre tooth tiger is extinct and I live in the middle of the desert, I don't foresee myself running anytime soon.

A lot of runners seem to exude an almost religious fervor about their chosen athletic activity. Running is apparently the most virtuous form of exercise there is, and all that stuff. But it's definitely not for me. I've decided that running isn't morally superior to other forms of exercise, and the best workout routine is one that I'll actually do.

Some acquaintances of mine play pickup basketball three mornings a week before work. So, early Monday morning, I'm going to go shoot some hoops. And I have a whole bunch of pilates workouts saved in my Amazon streaming video queue for off days. I also dusted off my goggles and swim cap so that I can swim laps in the apartment pool when the mood strikes me.

I'm looking forward to seeing the look on people's faces when the 5'3" nerd wipes the court with the competition! :-)

SMART new year's resolutions

Every year, I make the same resolutions (eat right, exercise more, etc.), and every year, I faithfully follow them for about 2 weeks. Then real life sets in, and the best laid plans go awry. This year, I’m applying some of my professional skills toward better resolutions.

The hip new(ish) buzzword in performance evaluations is the setting of SMART goals as a way of assessing workplace success. A SMART goal is something that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, “eat healthier food” doesn’t count because it’s not specific or time-bound, and it's a bit hard to measure. A better goal would be “eat at least one serving of fresh green vegetables every day”. Someone who leads a sedentary lifestyle shouldn’t set a goal to run a marathon next month because that’s not attainable, but setting a goal to run a 5K by the end of the year probably is.

With that in mind, in order of hardest to easiest, here’s my SMART 2015:

1. Exercise 20 minutes per day, 3 days per week.

Ideally, I would like to exercise more than that, but it’s a start. I used to be in really good shape until my thyroid decided to go haywire when I was in law school. There was a time when just getting out of bed was a massive achievement, so I need to start out small here when rebuilding. I’ll try to work up to more, but I want the initial goal to be modest.

2. Get a permanent job that makes at least $X per year.

X is a number that I have in mind personally that I’m not going to post here. Ever since I left my cushy (but ethically uncomfortable) job at a defense contractor, I’ve been freelancing/consulting/temping or whatever you want to call it. I kind of prefer “consulting” because I’m still doing professional level work, just on a contract basis instead of a long-term basis. I’ve had gigs lasting up to a year, and I know nothing is certain in this economy, but I still want the stability of a standard job.

This one has some sub-steps. I’ll have to keep up on my networking, and I’ll have to keep applying to jobs. I’m casting a wide net at this point. Ideally, I would like something as a faculty member at a college or university. I’m also considering attorney and HR jobs. In the meantime, I’ll continue with the contract work.

3. Reduce my overall debt by $Y.

Once again, Y is a number I have chosen but will not post here. This goal is a sub-goal to my more long-term goal of buying a house. That goal will take a few years, but I need to start somewhere. I’m already really good at sticking to a budget and living within my means. (The debt is from school and my bout with unemployment this past year.) Basically, if I keep getting good contracts or if I land a good job, this goal will be the easiest of the three to meet.

I guess this means I’ll need to give myself a performance review at the end of the year!

2014 in review

I haven’t blogged much in the past year. 2014 started out by getting laid off from a job I liked (but a commute I hated). I uprooted my tidy life and headed off into the great unknown, arriving in Phoenix just in time for the legendary summer season. (The heat wasn’t as bad as I had expected, but the hurricane-induced flooding was inconvenient. My sources tell me that was a once every hundred years occurrence, so I figure I’m good to go.)

I went on vacation with some friends this summer to Bryce Canyon, which was a bright spot to an otherwise very hard year. It took me months to find a job, which was demoralizing. When I did finally land a job, it was only a temp gig. I was fortunate that it kept getting extended, and I’ve made some good contacts to help me out with my continuing quest for a more permanent job.

I got a new cat, Obsidian. Her previous owners couldn’t keep her, and I took her in to rescue her from going to the shelter. Ebony isn’t too thrilled, but they’ve moved from swatting and hissing to just the occasional growl. Every now and then, when they think I’m not looking, they’ll even groom each other. I’m going to try to be better about documenting 2015, but no guarantees.

The Great Outdoors

This past weekend, I took a trip to Bryce Canyon with a few of my friends. It was a nice trip out of town - good food, good company, good hiking. It had been a really long time since I had gone to a national park. I used to be very outdoorsy; I was a Girl Scout for 11 years. But since adulthood and all the responsibilities that go along with it, I haven't had much of a chance to experience the great outdoors.

I googled and found out that there are 59 US national parks. I've only been to 9 of them (I've also been to 4 Canadian national parks), and embarrassingly, I've never been to Yosemite despite having lived most of my life in California.

I think I'm going to make it a point to travel to a few more of them. When I was driving through the forest, there were signs reminding me that these are "your public lands". So, I'm going to explore my land!

I'm fortunate to live in the southwest, where there are tons of nearby parks. On my short list to visit are:

• Arches
• Carlsbad Caverns
• Grand Canyon
• Joshua Tree
• Saguaro
• Petrified Forest
• Yosemite

My slightly longer list includes Haleakala, Hawaii Volcanoes, and Denali, but they're not exactly road trip parks and will have to wait until I'm not broke.

The ones I've already seen are:

US

• Bryce Canyon
• Crater Lake
• Death Valley
• Glacier (this is the US half of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, located on the Montana/Alberta border)
• Mount Rainier
• Olympic
• Redwood
• Yellowstone
• Zion

Canada

• Banff
• Glacier (this park is located in British Columbia and is unrelated to Waterton-Glacier)
• Jasper
• Waterton Lakes (this is the Canada half of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park)

I think overall, my favorite US park is Crater Lake, but Yellowstone and Bryce Canyon come in at a close second. Glacier was nice, but it snowed when I visited (in July!), and I don't like snow.

My favorite Canadian park is Banff, though I liked Jasper as well. Banff has the distinguishing feature of animals that walk through town like they own the place, and also the advantage of not having snow on the ground in July. (The other three were snowy and cold even in the summer. That's Canada, eh?)

Money Saving Mondays – Television

Welcome to the second installment of Money Saving Mondays!

Who wants to pay $100+ for 8 bazillion channels with nothing on? Not me! There are a lot of websites out there about the practice of “cord cutting” (free or low-cost legal alternatives to cable).

To make this work really well, you’ll need a high speed internet connection. The internet companies will probably try to sell you on a fancy expensive 5 megabit per second plan, but I get along just fine on a 1 megabit per second plan. I used to have a 756 kilobit per second plan, and that was a bit slow, but it was for two people often trying to stream at the same time. It should be fine for one person. Also beware of data caps from your ISP. My plan allows 50 GB per month, which is good enough for a single light user like me, but if you watch a lot of internet based tv and movies, you’ll need a higher data allowance. An hour long tv show is usually 400 MB at standard definition. A full-length movie in high definition can run in the 2-4 GB range.

Depending on where you live, your options vary, but here’s my setup:

Rabbit ears
The first step to low-cost television is an antenna. Homeowners have the option of mounting an outdoor antenna on the roof, but since I’m a renter, I’m somewhat limited in my options. Federal law does allow renters to place an antenna or satellite dish 3 feet in diameter or less on the balcony/patio/porch regardless of lease provisions, but I opted for a set of rabbit ears sitting on top of my tv instead.

I spent $20 on an antenna, but if you get lucky, sometimes you can get one on sale for less. It’s the standard VHF/UHF antenna (two prongs and a ring). I can pick up about 50 channels, including some really good ones that are almost cable-like in quality. I live in an area that is populous but flat, so that increases the range. If you’re in a rural or mountainous area, you’ll get fewer channels. If you type your address into antennaweb, you’ll get an idea of which channels you can pick up with which types of antennas.

Netflix/Hulu/etc.
Another component is Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime Video, etc. I get a limited selection of streaming video included with my Amazon Prime account. Since I have the account for shipping anyway, I’m counting this as no extra cost.

Regular Hulu is free, but you have to wait a week for shows to go up. If you want them right away, Hulu Plus is your best bet. It’s something like $8 per month (I don’t know for sure because my sister lets me use her account, since it doesn’t cost her any extra to share). There are a lot of shows available, but usually only the most recent five episodes are posted.

Netflix is also reasonably priced (once again, in the $8ish range, but I piggyback on my sister’s account). There’s a large selection of movies and television shows, but it takes several months for the shows to be posted.

If there’s a show that you just have to watch, and you can’t find it anywhere for free, iTunes and Amazon also have season passes for many current shows. If you buy standard definition instead of HD, you can expect to spend $30 for an entire season. If you only have a few shows, it can be a real bargain, but it adds up if you watch a lot.

Other websites
Many television channels will post recent episodes on their website. This is a free way to watch shows that you missed.

There are also sites that stream specialty content (news, weather, documentary, special interest, religion, etc.). Finding them can be hit or miss, but if you google for whatever you’re looking for, you’ll probably find a whole treasure trove.

Computer (or streaming media device)
Watching all this stuff from a computer can get annoying. Sometimes I just want to sit on the couch and watch things on the television itself. This is where technology comes in. The Roku is a popular device to solve part of the problem. It’s a small purple box that costs anywhere from $50 up depending on the model. It’s wifi enabled and plugs into your television. It allows you to watch Netflix, Hulu, etc. on your television. There are hundreds of channels available for the Roku – some are free, and some are paid. When my sister and I lived together, I used her Roku, and I really liked the interface. However, you can’t surf the web or watch regular streaming video with it, so that limits its usefulness in my opinion.

I have an old desktop computer that was collecting dust, so I freshened it up and hooked it up to my television. I went to the computer parts store and bought a vga to rca converter box for $40 and plugged everything in. I had to turn the screen resolution way down and magnify the text, and it’s still sometimes a bit hard to read on sites with small print, but the video quality is fine. I can watch Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. just like I could on the Roku, and I can also watch video from anywhere on the internet. I’ve ripped some of my dvds to the hard drive so I can watch them there, too. (I have a dvd player, but sometimes it’s easier to just use the computer instead of digging the discs out of storage.)

Redbox
If you love your movies, never fear. Redbox is an alternative to expensive movie channels. There are kiosks located at grocery stores, convenience stores, and gas stations all around, and rentals are just a dollar a day. Plus, if you use your google skills you can often find free rental coupon codes.

Public library
Last but not least, there’s the public library; it’s not just for books anymore. Libraries rent out movies and television shows on dvd, and they’re not just old dusty documentaries. Major blockbusters and popular shows are available. It’s one of the best kept secrets in the quest for cheap entertainment.

Money Saving Mondays – Cell Phones

I’ve tossed around the idea for a while of starting a new blog feature called “Money Saving Mondays” where each Monday I chronicle a way that I save money without depriving myself of modern conveniences. I can’t guarantee that it will happen every week, but I’m going to give it a go. Today’s edition is cell phone plans.

Cell phone plans are quite expensive. An average smartphone plan can cost $50-$150 per month. My monthly smartphone bill? $0. And yes, I do have a smartphone.

What’s my secret? Two acronyms – MVNO and VoIP.

Review of Phoenix so far

It’s been about 5 weeks since I uprooted myself to Phoenix, 700 miles away from my friends and family. I don’t regret the decision yet. I hope I don’t end up regretting it at all, but the nice thing about our highly mobile society is that California isn’t going anywhere, so I can always move back home if I decide I hate it here.

It’s been an adjustment living so far from my support systems, but I tend to be a pretty independent person anyway, so it hasn’t been that bad. I still haven’t found a job, which is a bit stressful. It’s hard to network when I don’t know anyone, and it’s hard to get the attention of recruiters without a referral. I have a few more months before I get desperate, so I’m still restricting my job search to college faculty or lawyer jobs. If I have to dig further down in a few months, I’ll start looking at HR or paralegal work. If things get really dire, there’s always a temp agency for general office work until I can get back into my career.

Here are some general impressions about the area so far.

Why I will never patronize Circle K again

I had a terrible experience today at the Circle K gas station at the corner of 75th Avenue and Glendale Avenue in Glendale, AZ. So terrible that I'm blogging it, yelping it, facebooking it, and tweeting it. (Even though I'm normally a pretty laid back person and would usually just tell my cat about it and then brush it off.)

This afternoon, on my way to an appointment, I stopped for gas. I pulled up to the pump, turned off my car, and put my card in the reader. I got an error message on the card reader, so I went inside to pay. I explained to the clerk that the card reader at pump 6 wasn't working. She glared at me and said, "Yes it is."

I explained in detail the error message I got, and she glared at me again and asked me how much gas I wanted. I said $40. She swiped my card, printed the receipt, and handed it to me with a pen to sign the receipt. [Note: At reputable and professional gas stations, the signing of the receipt happens at the end of the transaction, after the exact total is known, and the credit card is held by the clerk during the pumping. I have never seen shady behavior like this before.] I explained that I hadn't purchased the gas yet. She said that I had just bought it.

I was uncomfortable with this, so I asked for the transaction to be canceled. She refused to do so and said that once she swiped the card, the transaction was final. I said that it couldn't be final because I hadn't signed the receipt yet. She glared at me again and said that my card was going to be charged regardless. So, since I wanted my gas, I signed the receipt, placed the receipt and the blue ballpoint pen on the counter, and went outside to fill up.

When I got to the pump, it didn't work. I tried a second time, and it still didn't work. So, I went back inside. The clerk said, "I had to cancel the transaction because you hurt me." I asked her what she meant by that. She held up a black ballpoint pen that had been cleanly removed from its outer casing and said that I had thrown the pen at her and broken it. This was a bald-faced lie.

I asked to speak to her manager, and a woman who was standing next to her identified herself as the manager and said that she had reviewed the security tapes and backed up the clerk. Mind you, I was outside for 45 seconds. It would have been impossible to review the security tapes in that time period. The "manager" (whom I suspect was merely a co-worker) said that she could not sell me gas.

I was running late, so I didn't call her on it. I told her that she had permanently lost a customer, and I went on my (not so) merry way. The "manager" wished me a nice day in a tone of voice that really meant "f--- you!"

After my appointment, I stopped at a Fry's gas station, had a perfectly painless and professional experience, and saved $0.26 per gallon.

To top the whole experience off, I just logged into my credit card account, and the Circle K station charged my card for $40 worth of gas that I didn't get. This station is a ripoff. I wonder how many other people they've tried this scheme on and gotten away with.

Update 5/3/14: My credit card company had my back. I was able to get the charge reversed. So, now I've been made financially whole. I still won't give Circle K any of my business. But Fry's and Chase came out of this situation looking good.

Flying on a shoestring budget

I'm still here! I moved to Phoenix a week and a half ago, and I ended up having to take a quick unplanned trip out of town a few days ago. It would have been a 10 hour drive (each way) or a 1.5 hour flight. Allegiant had a cheap enough flight, even at the last-minute, that I opted for flying. I was a bit hesitant to fly on a discount airline, but the regular airlines were way too expensive due to the short notice.

I flew out of the Mesa airport, which is 45 minutes from my apartment. (Phoenix is 30, so it's not appreciably further.) Long-term parking is only $6 per day, which is a bargain. I got through security in under a minute. The airport has a courtyard separating one half of the terminal from the other half. My gate was on the other side of the courtyard, so I got some fresh air on my way to the gate. There was a gray cat walking along the grass chasing birds. I stopped to pet the cat, and an airport employee walked by and said that the cat was the airport cat. I didn't catch the cat's name, though.

Allegiant charges for everything, so be sure to read the fine print. Checked bags cost money, which is to be expected. What isn't to be expected is that carry-on bags cost money, too. I was able to cram everything into my "purse" (really a large shoulder bag), so I didn't have to pay for carry on luggage. Also, they board an hour before the flight instead of the standard 20-30 min, so be sure to leave extra time. If you pick your seat, that costs extra, too. I opted for the free version where the airline assigned my seat. I ended up being assigned a middle seat both ways, but on the return flight, there was an empty seat next to me, so I moved into the aisle seat. Snacks and beverages cost extra, too, so I brought my own. The lavatory is free, though!

I'll probably fly on Allegiant again. By giving up the frills, I saved about $120 over a full-service airline. I'll check back to see if it's still appreciably cheaper when I book in advance, and if it is, that's how I'm getting home for Thanksgiving. (Probably not for Christmas, though, since baggage fees will likely eat up any savings.)

Go East, Young Woman

When I was a kid, one of my favorite games was Oregon Trail. I remember saving up my good behavior points at school so that I could exchange them for time on the computer. The computers had those green on black monitors that only displayed text, and I had to switch floppy disks when my wagon train got to Nebraska. I used to daydream about what it would have been like to strike out into the unknown like that.

I grew up in San Jose, so tales of prospectors striking it rich and Franciscans building missions were a part of the local lore. “Go west, young man” was the answer to stagnation and lack of opportunity. Pack up your belongings, head into the sunset, and with grit and hard work, make a good life.

There’s no more gold in California.

I work hard, and I never give up, but the cost of living is stratospheric. I’m broke at the end of every month, even with a decent income and a frugal lifestyle. If I stay, I will never own a house, never be able to pay for my future children to go to college, never finish paying off my student loans, and never retire.

So the answer is to reverse the process. Where my forebears packed up their belongings into a covered wagon, hitched up their oxen, and headed west, I’m packing up my belongings into a Uhaul, filling up the gas tank, and heading east. At least I won’t have to deal with dysentery along the way.

I’m moving to Phoenix in a few months. Instead of mining for gold or setting up a ranch, I’ll be practicing law. I’ll be leaving my old life - and my family and friends - behind to start a new one. I’ll still stay in touch, though. Email is much faster than the Pony Express!

Happy New Year

I guess I've been hibernating or something. I don't have a particularly good excuse for that; I've just been too lazy to sit down to write a post.

The job search continues to go on. I'm still temping at the same company I've been at since April, and I have an open-ended arrangement at this point. I'll stay until I can find a permanent job, but it's not a bad place to camp out in the mean time.

I'm hoping to move to Phoenix when my lease is up, since I'm licensed to practice law in Arizona, and the cost of living is way lower there. But, if I get a decent enough job offer here in the bay area, I could be persuaded to stay. Doing a long-distance job search is challenging, though. Many companies won't even consider out of state candidates, even though I won't be asking for relocation assistance.

Other than that, I have no complaints. I'm even starting to be okay with my commute. I'm enjoying the opportunity to read on the bus. Maybe I'll finally get to make some headway on my long list of books that I want to get through.