You hear that, Mr Andersen?

That's what I want

My subscription to New Scientist runs out soon, and it's about $520 to renew for another two years. On one hand, that's not a lot of money over two years, and I do enjoy reading them; on the other, that's a big chunk of cash to be spending now, and I am about twenty or thirty issues behind at the moment. So... I guess I'll have to make a decision soon. Probably "no", though I don't much like that answer. :(

I've been doing my best to cut back on unnecessary purchases - not buying icecreams and drinks while I'm out and about, that sort of thing. Of course, Sunday was probably typical - I very nearly bought an icecream, and didn't; then nearly bought a drink from Fluid on the way home, and didn't. Then I noticed Farmers was having a sale, and bought two dinner-sets and a biggish flan dish.

Look, it was a sale, all right? :) Besides, the flan dish ended up being less than $5, and the dinner-sets were "buy one, get one free" - and I'm currently tossing up whether to keep them as presents, or to hold on to them until entropy destroys enough of my current dinner-set to justify replacing it.

So... mixed results, savings-wise. I suspect the actual answer is to stay out of temptation's way, and not go into town. Of course, if my current overtime trends continue, that may be pretty easy to do.

***

I'm listening to Chungking, which is one of the many bands that being on the SmokeCDs mailing list has exposed me to. I don't know why, but We Travel Fast is just one of those mellow albums that I can either enjoy in the background while I'm concentrating, or actively listen to. Plus the male singer who occasionally turns up reminds me of a less excitable Bootsy Collins. :) Anyway, I encourage you to listen to the clips and see if it's your sort of thing.

One thing that I'll do once I'm moved is put together a list of the music I own, similar to the book lists. I've been luckier with buying double-ups in music than in literature - there was an extra copy of Bic Runga's Drive and something by St Germain, and that's it, I think. Oh, and there's been a couple of times where I've found a version of an album with bonus stuff, but I already had the basic one - I think Erik may have inherited more than one CD that way.

***

Anyhoo, I guess it's only 14 days until settlement. One nice aspect of the settlement date is that it should be easy to remember - flower delivery services and the like can be relied on to remind me each year about the day before, for a start. :)

Posted by svend at January 31, 2005 10:00 AM