s t a r l e t

{ the list @ Marc and Angel Hack Life }

6. Get up 30 minutes earlier so you don’t have to rush around like a mad man. That 30 minutes will help you avoid speeding tickets, tardiness, and other unnecessary headaches.

Uh. Well, it'll be good advice when I have to get up for something! I did always find I liked a little extra time in the morning before school or work.

...no, no lengthy commentary today.

{ the list @ Marc and Angel Hack Life }

4. Live below your means. Don’t buy stuff you don’t need. Always sleep on big purchases. Create a budget and savings plan and stick to both of them.

I cannot tell you how much happier I've been since I discovered how to live well on less.

It's not an all-at-once kind of change. I was lucky, in that circumstances forced me to do this but gave me the time to do this slowly. I had to change the way I thought about every purchase I made. "Do I love it?" and "Will it last?" are two big questions for me. Because I was raised on Alton Brown, I'm also fond of items I can put to multiple uses. Even something as seemingly straightforward as buying shampoo now takes thought: is it a kind of shampoo I can afford to toss if my hair hates it?

I am sitting in front of a computer I have had for long enough that some of the jacks are starting to wear out (like the rear audio-in jack, which is why my speakers are now plugged in up front). I busted a keyboard when I spilled soda on it, so I rummaged around in the Room of Oddly Useful Things and found a replacement for free. I've had the colorful pens on my desk for at least two years, the lamp for closer to five, and the pencil sharpener for at least a decade.

Even my Writer's Reference was a gift. (Which is another tip: if I need something or intensely want it, I put it on a wish list, no matter how practical. Need is need and want is want.)

I won't, as a rule, treat myself to anything I can't buy using cash. This works for me because I have very little cash on hand at any given moment. If you're in the habit of carrying wads of twenties, obviously this is less of a tip for you. :)

{ and a way of my own to make my life simpler? If I miss a day of blogging about something, fuhgeddaboudit. Blogging keeps. I want to live every day as it comes. }

{ the list @ Marc and Angel Hack Life }

2. Be polite, but don’t try to be friends with everyone around you. Instead, spend time nurturing your relationships with the people who matter most to you.

For an introvert, I have chosen to nurture a lot of relationships, most of them online.

The thing is that these are people I genuinely want to be around. I might not always be able to be 100% there, but I'm there in some capacity when I'm needed. (Or intensely wanted.) I don't let people in lightly. It might look that way going on numbers alone, but I promise you it's not.

Always one to buck the trend, I've chosen to set up multiple levels of "in". It's only practical, given the many ways I interact with others. What I don't do lightly is trust, so there are things I am willing to share with Sky, let's say, that I won't share with another soul. There are things I share with him that are reserved for my lovers, of which I have... yeah, just the one right now. There are things I save for people who are close to kin.

The things I post in public are the things I am happy for everyone to know. The things I post locked are for those people who are close enough that I want them to understand more about me. I don't currently have any filters set up on LJ (other than "Hey, this is a giant community with many posts, and I don't want to read them all"). Really, I prefer the system on Dreamwidth, which adds a level; there are people I read casually and there are people who are willing to let me in a little deeper.

I'm not insulted if something's too private for me, or if someone's just not comfortable having me in hir life. Boundaries! We all have them, and they are healthy. I don't expect everyone to warm up to me, nor do I expect that I will warm up to everyone. (See also the Geek Social Fallacies. I will happily be polite to Cat Piss Man, but I don't want him any closer than sniffing distance, both literally and metaphorically.)