August 4, 2008
The budget: $300, plus $150 in gas cards
Spent: $142 cash, $41 gas
Bought: 7 trade paperbacks (gifts), 1 tshirt (gift), 1 super cool toy for BF (gift)
Free: Sketch from Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content (gift), sketch from Lars Brown of me with a Viking hat, sketch from the Penny Arcade guys of Tycho and Gabe doing a fastball special. Bonus points to whoever recognizes that move! 🙂
Still to spend: flowers for the friend who let me stay in his condo (40, to split with BF), shipping fee to send his keys back (5, USPS Priority Mail), ticket for next year
Favorite quote (financially related, of course): Grant Morrison, answering a question from a fan
“You just have to try to learn to let go of your desires. You have to detach yourself from materials, sort of be separate from it, so that you can enjoy life. It’s really difficult, I know, because we’re surrounded by really cool things …. I want to go see Dark Knight again! But you have to remember that things just make you miserable. You see, there’s always going to be some cool thing you want, and then when you get that, you’re going to want another cool thing. In the end, you’re just going to be miserable because you can’t have all the cool things in the world. ”
I love that. I felt like I practiced that philosophy of enjoying being there at Con, and being selective about the things I picked up. Actually, I only bought gifts for other people this year, I didn’t buy a thing for myself, and I came out of there utterly content. Grant Morrison is crazy awesome. And his super Scottish brogue made him that much more lovable. Well, that and his very mellow demeanor with fans. And the fact that he’s always spiffed out in a suit and crazy tie. Speaking of Dark Knight: AWESOME!
Favorite Con Man: David Mack!
I love that he totally humors me. I took a hiatus from comics for a while, jaded by all the Marvel crossovers in the late 90s and his books (Kabuki) were what brought me back to the creativity and sheer artistry that I loved. Thus, I completely fangirl out when I see him, and visit him at every Con I attend. For his part, he’s all smiles, and totally gracious and friendly to every Con attendee, and considering how rough Con can be for these creators, it’s amazing. I know that it’s all fun and games for us, but Con is business for those in the industry and you can tell that some of them aren’t into socializing with their public AT ALL. Not this guy, he’s never having a bad day. Six years I’ve been seeing him at Cons now, and never anything but a smile on him. Luckily, real BF is ok with my Con BF. 😉
August 2, 2008
Con was excellent. I was concerned about an unresolved idiopathic arthritis flare-up, idiopathic in this case meaning I hadn’t done anything to cause it like overexerting myself, or lifting/carrying heavy items. It wasn’t just the run of the mill aching either, it was the alternately dull and sharp throbbing pains that would either keep me from sleeping or wake me in the night. Of course, lack of sleep is a trigger so I feared a vicious cycle that would ruin Con. I made myself rest for a solid 12 hours from Tuesday night through Wednesday; believe me, it’s hard to do on the eve of 8 days of travel with some packing and cleaning left to do. Still and all, rest was the only thing I could do for myself and by Wednesday morning the pain receded to a manageable level.
Vacation! After a semi-leisurely start, interrupted by spates of panic from colleagues, I was on my way. The calls continued well into the afternoon, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle via phone or email. Annoying, but there it is.
It cost $41 to fill up my tank. And I’d still had a quarter tank when I stopped at the gas station. Thank goodness for the gas cards. Arrival in San Diego at 12:30 pm was thrilling: I was back! It’s the sole pleasure and luxury I’ve allowed myself since college, a yearly pilgrimage of sorts. I stay at a friend’s parent’s house, and for four solid days, we are spoiled terribly. Good food, good beds, good company. His parents provided a bounty of sandwich fixings, fruit, and snacks for our lunches, his mama cooked breakfast foods every morning and dinners as well. Absolute heaven for a piggy at table like me.
It balanced the intense days we spend backpacking our lunches and comics through the San Diego Convention Center, walking miles upon miles through the throngs of fellow geeks and nerds, scouting the booths and deals. And my, there were deals to be had!
The news outlets were putting the attendance count at 125,000. My Con has become so much more mainstream, that on my drive back home, I felt a wee bit possessive. I could almost wish it weren’t so enormous now, but I think that that kind of attention, attendance, and interest should be good for the industry. Obviously, the money flowing in stimulates that economy, but more than that, the level of quality has been increasing, the bar has been raised. For example, who’s seen Sin City? Or the Dark Knight? Those films were built on the backs of truly terrible films like Batman and Robin or X3. (I’m sorry, I’m a X-fan and the last of the X movies was a sore disappointment.) But out of those beginning struggles comes a push for better storytelling, stronger plotting, pacing and creativity. Sure there’ll still be money-motivated flops but we’re already seeing that the filmmakers with a passion for the original medium are able to bring their skills into the film medium.
Anyway, not to rant. It was truly an impressive crowd there. A Comic Con staple is waiting in line. There are lines to get your badge, lines to get into the convention hall before it opens, lines to have your books signed and get sketches, lines to get vouchers to get into other lines. Lines, lines, everywhere! 
The fun part about having a posse at Con is having company during those seemingly interminable waits, but you can just chat with the folks you’re in line with. Yep! I’m advocating talking to strangers. It’s best not to give them your number, and every once in a while it’s best they don’t even know your name, but generally we’re all semi-normal and just there for fun. There’s a bit of a high I get walking through Con alone, too – I love hanging out with fellow geek friends and family, I love having BF hang out in my world for a bit, but there’s a time I need to be alone and soak in my surroundings. No matter how bad things have been all year, being alone at Con, in that moment, takes me out of all the pettiness, all the anger and frustration and confusion to a different place. I love it. We’re calling it Condorphins..
My financial overview comes next!
February 25, 2008
In an attempt to divert my attention from the budget that’s bleeding red, I went through my wallet and pared out items that didn’t have to be in there anymore.
I also made a list of the gift cards I have, and the amounts left on them, so I’d have a better idea of what cards I should redeem rewards points for and where I’ll be allowed to spend money. As a bonus, cataloging the money I DO have helps make me feel less financially restricted.
Ann Taylor (Loft)
Banana Republic
Borders
Linens ‘n’ Things — hoarding for my new vacuum, or magazine racks
Macy’s
Starbucks
Victoria’s Secret
It might be a tad bit neurotic, but I feel the need to carry all the cards with me, all the time, because I might happen upon a good sale at a store on my Yes, You May Shop Here list. Since I didn’t carry my wallet during the Vegas trip, I passed up visits to Ann Taylor, Victoria’s Secret and Banana Republic.
My hot gift card management tip of the day:
If you’re not going to use up an entire gift card right away, or hoard them as I do, stick a post-it on the back of it to keep track of the dates and amounts left so that you don’t have to keep the receipts with the card. Voila! Less paper in your wallet! I keep the receipt if there’s a survey attached that gives me a discount.
Going through receipts, I realized that I never submitted the phone surveys at the end of a couple of Victoria’s Secret receipts so I dug through my receipt envelope to find and give them a go. Not only were the surveys still valid, the coupon is good for three months from the date of the survey submission, not from the date of purchase. Now I have two $10 off $50 purchase coupons, valid until 5/24/08.
If it’s not blindingly obvious, I’m still addicted to my cash-maximization habits left over from my college days. If there are any stores that I like for personal shopping, I look for gift cards, coupons/discounts to combine with sales. I’ll do whatever advance planning it takes to avoid using my own money out of pocket:) This is a great way to avoid crippling the budget and saves my cash for non-gift-cardable expenses like the rent.
Now, if I could redeem for gas gift cards, I’d be in great shape. This past month, Ma/PaDucky spent over $300 on gas because she’s been seeing a new medical practitioner out in the boonies. *sigh*
January 4, 2008
Every so often, I ponder removing the ads on this site because at this rate of earning, I’ll probably hit the minimum payout requirement in 13 years. I never do it, though, because I get a kick out of seeing how many pennies or nickels I’ve scored each given month.
Today, I discovered that the Adsense account site shows the earnings history FOR ALL TIME, so I got curious. It turns out that my first four months of Google Ads-ing were the most profitable:
August 2006: $1.35
September 2006: $3.69
October 2006: $8.94
November 2006: $11.05
Earnings dropped off sharply thereafter … reaching an anemic $9.76 for the year of 2007. Again, November was the peak earnings month. I wonder why that is? We love clicking on ads during Thanksgiving? Pre-Black Friday talk? Did I even post about Black Friday?
January bids fair to possibly match last year’s earnings, clocking in thirty cents as of end of business today.
Good thing I wasn’t planning to quit my job, though I think that Flexo could, if he chose, to rake in the online-business income full-time! (Good on you, Flexo!)
