Bad Connections

Our internet connection is decidedly borked. We think this is to do with our two-year-old router. It's funny to think sometimes how arbitrary 'two years' can be. For technological equipment, two years is an awfully long time, and we're amazed if some of it lives that long. For living creatures, two years is a very long or very short time depending on the creature in question (for mice, it's a lifetime or more; for humans, ages for a child but nothing for an adult). All the same, I suppose what counts is the actual thing being referenced. And in this case, we're talking about an old router. Which I suppose has held up pretty well for two years, but that's not of a whole lot of help right now.

Still, reasonably good news is that either I am properly manipulative or my mother and I think very, very much alike. I emailed her recently letting her know about some of the crap that's been going on of late - the jobs that have gone south on me and resultant money problems etc, not to mention the fact that a US trip is probably not the most sensible thing in the world to take in the first two months of any given job, even if it's permanent. (And if it's temping, there's no way I'll be able to afford to do it in late May - I need to rebuild my savings first. Stupid cracked molar.) Anyway, upon hearing that the US trip was a bad idea and that I wanted to ask for a small loan but was reluctant owing to not having a steady paycheque with which to work out a suitable repayment plan, she suggested that she just give me the money she would have given me for the New Orleans trip so I wouldn't have to worry about repayment of a loan. That was, of course, my original idea for how to get out of this financial mess that the various job losses have put me in. I was nervous about broaching it to her that way, but I gave her all the pieces and she put it together for me, so that's okay.

I will get to the US at some point in the near future, honestly. It's just that right now, with everything going entirely to hell finances-wise, there's no way on earth I could justify doing it. I hate it as much as the people I was going to see will, and probably more - there aren't the words to express how much I just want to get away to new surroundings for even a little while. But I need to be sensible. Gods, do I need to be sensible. And right now, contributions to the household expenses are far more important. I may desperately need a holiday and desperately want to see my friends, but I need a roof over my head and food on the table a whole lot more than that. So it'll have to wait. This can't last forever.

Besides, it means that we'll be able to afford a new router and I'll be able to renew my FFXI subscription for another quarter. Which is a bonus. Well, I have to look on the bright side somewhere.

When It Rains...

Oh yeah - Sims 2 Seasons is out tomorrow. *whimper* This is the problem with being skint - even when some money does look to be headed your way, it tends to be committed elsewhere and spent before things like this can be properly considered.

For example - upon receiving money from Mum, the lion's share of it's going to household expenses (though things are looking up because two agencies have made appointments to sign me up and my regular one has some possibilities for which she is putting me forward). After that, though:

1) I still have some Mage books reserved with angusabranson, for which I must pay.
2) I need to renew my FFXI subscription lest I lose my deathgnome (but that's three months away at least so I may wait).
3) I ought to at least chip something into the kitty to buy the new router.
4) I need to upgrade the Frankenbox. I might be able to run Sims 2 Seasons on it, but on the whole I'd be well miffed if I bought the damn game and couldn't even run it on my rapidly borking computer. Not to mention that my one operational hard drive is getting a wee bit full.
5) Miscellaneous personal expenses.

So on the whole, I think I'm going to have to wait a bit on the next Sims 2 expansion. Much as it sucks. I'm getting a little sick of missing out on everything due to job idiocy, but that can't possibly last forever so I'm just going to have to suck it up for the time being.

...I still want the EP, though...