Tales from the Last Day of Break

A quick list:

  • Not quite a Nee Year’s resolution, but a resolution times to the new year: After several years of not closely tracking my spending, I bought a new budgeting program and I’m going to try to observe exactly where my money goes. I expect I will soon be alarmed by what I spend on food in various forms.
  • I do hope that I resist the urge to make some purchases simply because I don’t want to have to do the data entry.
  • I had to break up a trip to the grocery store into three different categories. Someone needs to create financial tracking software for obsessive-compulsive philosophers. “Is the essential nature of these paper towels that of ‘groceries’ or ‘household items’?”
  • We decided to celebrate the last day of break with a trip to the movies. We were not the only ones. The theater was more crowded than I have seen it at any point since we watched the last Harry Potter movie.
  • We got Alex a set of DVDs from the first five Potter movies for Christmas. We should have all the special features memorized very soon.
  • Today we saw The Adventures of Tintin, which I think was a very nice combination of animation and motion capture. A nice adventure story with good action and good humor.
  • Doesn’t look like I’m gonna have much luck getting Alex to the theater to see Star Wars Episode I when it gets re-released. As she pointed out, we already own it, so we’d be paying money to see something we already have.
  • I’m going to remember this conversation if she ever wants to see a Potter re-release.
  • With the Iowa caucuses tomorrow, I’m trying to think of ways that my ethics class can spend the time between Iowa and New Hampshire analyzing the candidates and their positions to try to see what that says about American society. Haven’t quite cracked the nut yet, but hey, I still have 24 hours.
  • Happy New Year, everyone. Let’s make it a good one.