Guess who I met over the weekend?

Why, that’s General George Armstrong Custer! Also known as Steve Alexander, recognized by the U.S. Congress and the Michigan and Ohio senates as the foremost living re-enactor of Custer himself. He even lives with his wife in Custer’s old house in Monroe, Michigan! I attended a presentation where he related his life (that is, Custer’s) and how the press helped accelerate his career. He was an engaging storyteller and remained in character the entire time.

It’s a nifty coincidence that this talk occurred the day before we held a similar presentation in our Second Life sim. Our event was called “How the West was Worded,” featuring talks by Wild Bill Hickok and Doc Holliday (played by our usual members using new avatars) and a presentation by our in-world librarian and editor about how the concept of truth changed during the evolution of newspapers in the 19th century. It was well-attended with over 40 people, almost hitting the maximum number of players on a server. Success! It’s so awesome that we have all these smart folks in our online community that are passionate about these things and want to share their knowledge with others. Can’t wait for the next one!

FestiFools, Ann Arbor
April 5th, 2009

T-Rex Puppet:

Jellyfish:

Nicole’s pink alien:

Robots from the Liberty Robot Supply Store:

And the best one there:

The little robot kid stood like a robot the whole time! So cute!

Need a moment to catch my breath.

What a hectic past three weeks! Suddenly I found myself thrust into all these social events and networks — meeting new people, attending dinners, organizing field trips, building online communities. It’s been one activity after another and with different groups.

It’s been a 6 days since my last outing and I am still recuperating.

Though it was fun! Seeing how I participated in them (read: I have a habit of volunteering for everything), I’m in it for the long haul.

Hmm, maybe I should throw a debut party to officially launch this new social life. Ha!

I don’t pay my bills.

That is, I don’t think about paying my bills — my autopilot bill payment system does it all for me!

Here’s how it works:

1. Figure out how much gets paid every month on bills.

I made a simple list of the bills I deal with every month and how much I pay for each. It looks like this:
Car loan $X
Utilities $X
Cellphone $X
Internet $X
and so forth.

Most of these bills have a standard cost, like cable fees and association dues. For the rest, I put in a typical cost by averaging my old statements.

I took the total cost of all those bills and divided it in half. This is my biweekly bills amount.

2. Open a separate checking account.
I opened mine in a wholly separate bank! This helped me because it makes it harder to dip into when I want to buy something I shouldn’t.

3. Direct deposit the biweekly amount from #1 every paycheck into the new checking account.

4. Setup auto-pay from the checking account for all the bills.

Some months, my statement will be below average, so paying a set amount every month gives me credit on my account. For instance, right now my cellphone statement shows -$3.00. They owe me money. That credit could be used to cover the times I go over.

When I do go over and there’s no enough credit on my account, it gets billed to me on my monthly statement. I then handle that manually.

But if I am under my budget every month and I autopay the same amount, that credit could very well add up over time. Just last Friday, I received a nice surprise refund check from my car insurance provider! Woot!

5. The rest of my paycheck goes into my normal checking account.

The results are:
1. I never have to worry about paying the bills. Never pay late fees again. It’s all automatic!

2. I feel no pain. With this method, I’m not spending any more money than I do normally. I’m just taking care of business on auto pilot.

3. I’m less likely to overspend. Because all the bills are handled elsewhere, looking at my normal checking account gives me a more accurate picture of how much I have.

4. I can prepare for large payments. It’s like a personal escrow account. For example, the biannual property tax bills are huge! I added up the tax bills for a year and divided the total by 12. That amount is included in my monthly Bills List. It goes into my checking account like everything else. Then when the tax bill comes around, I have the cash ready to go.

Sure, it hurt at first to reduce my spending money every month this way. But taxes are something I have to pay eventually. It’s better to spread it out over the year than deal with one massive financial hit unexpectedly.

I can do the same process to easily save up for large purchases (like a vacation) in the future.

5. Secret savings! During 3-paycheck months, I still have direct deposits into my bills-only checking account, even though the bills for that month have already been paid. My spending money increases as usual, but I’m also building a small reserve on the side.

Best of all, it’s flexible! You don’t have to do this for ALL your bills. Even if you start with a few ones, it’ll definitely make your life easier.

It was late one weeknight that K and I were talking about random things when a thought occurred to me that I would like to fire a gun. And so I asked him if he could teach me. His coworkers teased him the next day about making sure “she’s not really planning to shoot you.” Judging from how I did, I’d probably miss anyway.

Yep. Saturday morning, K and I drove up to this public shooting, err, area up in the mountains near Boulder. It started snowing when we got to the top. That didn’t help things. I managed to fire four rounds using a Colt .45 with a bird’s head grip, scaring myself with my own yelps all the while. Then I decided that was enough experience I needed on that front.

It was amusing to follow that particular activity with genteel afternoon tea at the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House. We shared a pot of Lapsang Souchong, a smokey tea that tastes like campfire. The flavor grows on you. I think I prefer a lighter brew because when the aroma is really strong, I start thinking about grilled fish. Childhood kitchen association. We tried it again in the IT office and it’s much smoother, subtler and drinkable. The server did say, it’s a love/hate kind of tea.

Afterwards, we watched The Watchmen. Whooo! I am happy with the rendition, though I admit my biggest expectation entering the theater was “please don’t ruin it!” Given the medium, I thought Zack Snyder did a pretty good job delivering the main storyline in a deliberate, clear, and still entertaining manner without resorting to (too many) superhero movie moments. The one big disappointing feature for me though was how they portrayed Ozy, my favorite character from the graphic novel. For the most part they tried to stay true to his character, but in the ending scenes, there was scorn in his expression as he explained his motives. To me, the success wasn’t about being the grandmaster, but about finding the Perfect Solution, a dream shared by nerds everywhere. I missed the part in the novel when he discovers the results of his plan and rejoices in it. Anyway, there was much debate after the movie, and if prompted I can keep going.

Ah but that movie was just the beginning of the NerdFest! One of K’s friends had invited him to join a D&D game that night. Dungeons & Dragons? Wait a minute, that’s on my GTD101 list! We showed up at his friend’s house as they were halfway into the session. They were six guys and one woman (the wife) around a table in – I could hardly contain my glee – the basement. I was content to just watch, but they let me play an NPC for one of the episodes. My name was Thytus Innocen, a human helmsman on a flying ship. I lost 32 pieces of silver during a card game. Whee! The whole event was just fascinating. There was so much detail — maps, miniature characters, various sizes of dice, character sheets. Behind the Dungeon Master (DM) was an entire bookshelf of reference material. The game ended at 1 in the morning. (Or was it 2 am? Daylight savings kicked in at some point.)

The next day, we went to the park to hang out and read, but we stumbled upon a battle! The local SCA group was holding swordfight practice in preparation for the Crown Tournament. We were welcomed by a lady and her lord consort and two other lord friends. As the men donned their armor and thrust their makeshift swords and spears, our hostess was sewing a tunic using black wool and gold trimming. Could this weekend be any nerdier?

It was actually pretty neat meeting all the new people and seeing the world the way they do. Overall, a fun weekend for learning and experiencing different things!

GTD101 Update:
53. Watch a D&D game
87. Eat out in a restaurant I haven’t tried before.