Well,

Basically I've been working and reading a lot, except for some notable exceptions. The reading was for classes, and the working was mainly on the books we're making this semester. Book design is fun, but it can get tedious, and I don't think I can convey any of the sense of fun by writing about it. I'll just settle for this: We got to use so many fonts for the fantasy book! We've sent off two of our three books to the printers already, and the next one we're doing this week. These printers are far and away more competent than the company we worked with last semester. That company was, apparently, staffed by lobotomized dingos. The liaison who always got sent out to deal with us was really nice, but despite having been in the printing business for a claimed 29 years, he routinely gave us numbers that were completely wrong, lost things, couldn't understand for the life of him what exactly we wanted to print even after we made it repeatedly and abundantly clear, and once accidentally mailed something to himself that he was supposed to have at our meeting. Let that be my first lesson in dealing with incompetents, and let the present be my first lesson in dropping them like a bag of fish heads. As for how they stay in business, we think they probably hardly ever get contracted to make artsy stuff like ours, but rather for brochures like you'd get from a power tool company.
-This weekend I went on a camping trip. I biked with three friends, and five other friends drove, to Rock Creek State Park, seven miles away. Such a fun ride. When we got there we set up tents and then made a campfire. Someone had forgotten the marshmallows, so a few people went back in the car and got those and some beef and such. We made beans and hamburgers over the fire, but the grill was set too high off the pit, so it kinda took forever. As we grilled, we discussed who would be picked off first when the camping trip turned into a horror movie. The group decided it would be me, since I was competent - I would have figured it all out, but then I would be killed just as I tried to warn everyone else. (I was the competent one because I set up the campfire and fixed people's bikes on the way and had a multitool.) We sat around the fire and talked, until Max decided it was time to start the Festivities, with a capital P. (Yeah, it's college.) Only five people partook of these Festivities, and afterwards I'm quite sure that I had just as much fun as the people who had. Unfortunately, instead of playing some sort of game (I was hoping to play my first game of 1000 Blank White Cards - there was a guy who'd played it before, and somehow both of us had brought index cards, even though he wasn't planning on playing it), we all just went to bed in the big giant tent. But we all lay there for like an hour making each other laugh. Madeline and I had a long conversation in Spanish, although unfortunately we couldn't tell secrets in it or anything, because one person there was from a Hispanic family and another was in my Spanish class. Oh well. At one point I could have sworn I heard a cow mooing outside the tent, but we all remained safe.
-We woke up the next morning very cold. Tired, we had breakfast and packed up our stuff and tried to warm up without our fire. We bikers biked back, but it was nowhere near as fun as the trip to the park, because the wind that had been with us was now against us and probably twice as strong to boot. My lips are still very chapped. Even so, I would rate myself "Completely Satisfied" with regards to the camping trip in general.

-Now here's the part of the blog that's not so happy. The financial crisis has been hitting home harder and harder. When Teva bought Dad's company, they liquidated all his stocks, and that caused him to have to pay something ridiculous like half of them in taxes. So it looks like we're going to be poor for an extended period, and furthermore I'm going to have to take out bigger student loans.
-What do I think of it? Honestly, I'm resolving to take it in stride. I already knew I was going to have student loans, and have to work for a good while to pay them off. I asked my roommate how long it takes the average person to pay off student loans, because he knows this sort of thing. He said it usually takes ten years, because you're not paying off very much of them with each payment. I plan to pay off as much as I can with each payment. You may not see it now, because all my expenses are being paid for me (by my parents and by my future self), but I'm a very frugal person. I spend as little money as I possibly can, and I plan to keep going like that until, for one reason or another, I no longer have to worry much about money.
-I don't economize because I hate to do it but I know I have to; I economize because I like to live simply and make stuff myself and take care of my own needs as efficiently as I can. I think one thing that led me to act like this is that I started thinking of purchases in terms of how many hours of work it takes me to pay for an item. For example, to have lunch at Subway, I work a little over an hour in Bob's ($7.25/hr). To buy a textbook, I may have to work upwards of ten hours - and since I work eight hours a week, that's over a week of work. When I find a job that pays better (I was going to say "When and if", but $7.25 is pretty close to minimum wage, so I shouldn't have much trouble beating it), small purchases will take fewer hours, but I'll still be leery of big ones. On a related note, I think being a hobo could be a pretty fun way to spend some time. I'm not being driven to desperate measures with all this frugality that I talk about. I would have done this stuff anyhow - it's just that now it seems more appropriate, and it'll put me ahead of the credit-card-maxing, Aéropostale-wearing pack.
-So Mom, don't cry over my economic situation. I'll make everything work, and once I'm out of college I plan to start giving rectangular Christmas gifts commensurate to how much you and Dad have helped me in life. I appreciate the fact that you're giving away so many of the dollars that you've earned to put me through college. Don't worry about me, because I'll be fine as soon as possible after college. If you can, keep your teacher retirement fund - even if it is small - and use it to help you retire, because that's why it is where it is.
-Meanwhile, because it's good and also because you're getting to the point where you don't have much choice, I'm encouraging you to be frugal. Think of stuff in terms of how long it takes to earn it, versus how long it might take to earn a cheaper similar thing, or even to repair an old one. Look around for stuff you can start selling. I'm thinking of selling off my coin collection, but I also note that precious metal prices are going up, and I want to take advantage of that as much as I can. I have some gold that I bought when it was something under $400 an ounce (¼ ounce for I think $97) back when I was so into coins. Gold is now somewhere near $900 an ounce, and it's been over $1000 in the last year. What kind of stuff do you have lying around? Dad, don't feel obligated to keep the Kawasaki around on my account, if that's got any bearing on why you want to keep it. You've already given me a car. Everyone, start cooking dinners more and eating out less. I guarantee you'll feel more like a family, and you'll save money, and you'll be healthier. And Mom, learning how to cook well will give you something to do with all that time you don't know how to fill. Websites are websites. Cooking connects you with the family and the real world. I think I'm going to stop now, because I'm starting to feel like I'm lecturing on how to be money-responsible, even though I don't have what you might call experience on that front. But, don't worry about me. I'm resourceful.