Money Management Cool Sites and Such

So can I just say I hate money... money is the bane of all existence. With its introduction all everyone does in life is pursue this superficial idea of currency. It's what drives us to work 1/3 of our day everyday in a cubicle tucked away in a far corner of an office (now don't get me wrong I love money). My problem with it is that suddenly the majority of your life becomes the pursuit of money. The worrying of money. The balancing of your budget. Paying taxes.

So I looked at my bank account today for July and outta nowhere I had spent about $300.... on food, gas, events, etc. How in the world do I spend so much... I live at home, I don't have to pay for my own car insurance, I have free healthcare thanks to responsible parents, and pretty much I live a good life. But now that I have started working I've TRIED to become stingy with my money. It literally flows out of my pockets and I can barely remember where it all goes.

Now don't get me wrong my summer job provides me well. And it allows me to have a more luxurious lifestyle. But I think as I head off to college and start paying for college, working, and having no more fluid income I'm gonna have to start learning how to save. So as for the breakdown of my $300 budget/month. About $120 goes to gas. (DOES ANYONE REMEMBER WHEN GAS WAA $1/GALLON!?) that would've have saved me $80 a month. But not so I live in the beautiful 21st century with our oil reserves slowly draining away and the price of oil skyrocketing. Well there goes cheap petroleum, I think I should buy an electric scooter.

At least in college I'll be relegated to taking public transportation and forced to bike/walk everywhere so things should work out pretty well. That leaves me with about $250/month budget (factoring in the fact that I still have to pay for public transportation which is probably about $2 a day aka $60 a month). Anyway I started to realize my biggest expenditure... is withdrawing cold hard cash the stuff that you just throw down on anything anytime you need it.... I've withdrawn $140 this month. Thats almost $40 a week on things I can't remember what I spent it on because its all disappearing. So my goal for next month (August) and preferably the rest of the college school year I have an every Sunday rule where I can only withdraw $20 per week to spend on whatever that week, and when that runs out... well I'm shit outta luck... that would cut my budget down to about $180 a month. Which leaves me with some questionable expenditures I tend to do like charging fast food to my debit card and lots of it... and random expenses like paying for parking, buying small items, and groceries.

So realistically I'm expecting to set my goal at $200 once again and limit my driving, my withdrawals of cash, and going out to eat life's just too expensive these days. Maybe when I get a full time job then I can start living the good life. You could call this my venting session....


I was going to blog today about some really cool websites that I've come to love recently but I'll have to save that for another day I am way too moody and touchy about money to talk about it at this point....
but here's some you should check out

wolframalpha.com  (coolest intelligent search engine ever)
smittenkitchen.com  (perfect date night/couples cooking food)
gizmodo.com (everything and anything you need to know about electronics)
mint.com (perfect money management free website)
instapaper.com (a way to bookmark articles you want to read in the future)
lookbook.nu (cool fashion from around the world)

Thoughts on Working

It's Thursday right now, the work week is halfway over. I gotta make it through it all. Why are Fridays so depressingly long? I guess I can look forward to only an "8 hour day".




Here's some food for thought, what's the point of working? Is it to make money to have the ability to purchase material things? Is it to follow a passion and do what you love? Is it status that you get from the people around you?

Why do I work? To make money at this moment but also to explore my options as best as I can. Working at JPL is a dream workplace. It is essentially a college campus with a bunch of bright and nerdy scientists and engineers that populates this campus. To work here feels entirely different from any other work environment. JPL has this perfect blend of professionalism combined with academia. What they do here on site is truly remarkable. Nowhere else is a company driven by research and discovery quite like JPL. So what I've come to realize is that if engineering or the sciences ever becomes something I want to seriously consider as a profession I am definitely coming back here. They treat you like a valued employee here, the mentoring that is done here is amazing they truly teach you the most pertinent skills, and the pay/benefits here is one to rival anywhere else.

So who knows maybe I end up being like every other dad i La Canada a JPL-er for life loving my job and loving the things I do. I have a long way to go before then so who knows.




I'll leave you with a band you must listen to (up and coming band)


Local Natives




Til Next Time


-Jonathan Wu

Addled Brains

Its funny to think that I've recently embarked on a journey to record my daily thoughts, ponderings, and routines so that hopefully I can capture these memories in writing and photography that is a tool for me to remember all this in the future. But the more and more I write, I realize how much is left out of what is going on in my life.

But I can expand upon one short thing today, I'm in one of those deep introspective moods. Going off to college is something huge in my life, but for me its symbolic of something entirely different from what most people experience. Most people seem to gravitate toward the idea of moving out, living on your own, and being completely independent. I see it much in the same way, except I see it as leaving behind a past and realizing how much beauty there is there. The people that you meet along the way, the girl you fall in love with, the best friend that you grew up with, the first time for everythings.

What I realized talking to an old friend yesterday was that nothing is permanent in our lives. The only constant thing is ourselves. Our minds. Our hearts. Our souls. Our friends despite what we all promise to each other will most likely never have the same kind of bonds we have had throughout high school. The people that are so integral to our daily lives, our family, our support structure suddenly are only fringe details to our life. College is that great equalizer in my life. On one hand it gives me all the freedom and opportunity to finally just be me and do whatever suits me best. But on the other hand it denies me of my old way of life and the comfortability of what I now can finally fondly call home. One must realize life is about balancing the things you want and the things you must do. I've spent the last 8 years of my life growing up and learning about myself in La Canada. Some of my best friends come from this tiny little community in the foothills. Sean. Ben. Troy. Rasheed. Joao. Tadas. Jeff. Tia. Heather. Catherine. Nika Iman. Riley. Ameer. And more importantly some of the people I care most about will forever be emotionally attached to my childhood in the foothills of Pasadena and La Canada

It's funny to think the people I call best friends, dates, and lovers now are all going to eventually become childhood memories, high school sweethearts, and a distant memory in my life. It's almost sobering to realize that all things aren't permanent in our lives especially those around one of us, but in this lies the beauty of change. Thought we may struggle and fight against it, change keeps us going in life it keeps us on our toes and keeps us in the saddle ready to ride the next mountain and be able to look back and reminisce about the past.


'Til another inspiring momenet

-Jonathan

Tossin and Turnin

Last night I laid awake tossing and turning, for whatever reason my head was spinning, my mind would not shut off and the world around me seemed oppressively hot. The irony of it all was it was all in my head. The bed was perfectly comfortable with a light feathery down comforter, soft pillows, and cool to the touch. Air conditioning was on making the room feel a perfect and breezy 75 degrees.  Then I got to thinking of how much of reality is based on what goes on inside our head.

is it the little hamster the runs our minds?

or maybe its like this guys mind....

It's most likely a little bit of both what goes through our heads on a daily basis is a startling amount of thoughts, processes, and data coming from our senses.  Just take a moment and think, quiet out outside directions and think about how much goes on in the mind of yours. Hopefully there is a lot going on inside, a lot of thoughts, emotions, and feelings jumbled into what I like to think of as a highway of constant information and thought processes. Its up to you to decide what you process what you perceive and what you do with al this information.

Thinking about this got me thinking about how subjective our perception of the world is. Really it is our own reality, each and every individual holds the ability to view the world in their own way.  You can see this in the faces of depression-era survivors,  holocaust survivors, who despite their tortured pasts seemingly live happier and more robust lives then the majority of us. It's all in our mindset, it's all in the way we see things. I don't know how many times countless friends and family have told me that its the way I perceive things that changes the way I feel and act. So all those moments of fighting, bickering, and hurt often come from our mind simply ACCEPTING that we should be sad angry and hurt.

Think about it like this, beyond the time-tested adages of looking at the glass half full and there are always to sides to a coin, think about how cultures perceive death. If you look closely at Western Culture one can see the prevalent nature of grieving death. The classic all black and somber funeral, with quiet eulogies, a wooden casket, and a quiet dreary day. On the other hand look at how other cultures also treat death. Dia de Los Muertos is one of the largest celebrations in Mexico every year. In much of Asia one of the biggest days to get together with family is what is known as Burial Cleaning Day. It is a day where the entire family including aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, and cousins all make it out to the family burial site and prepare food and blessings  for the loved ones. In this way we often celebrate the life of the ones we lose in a way that helps ease the pain of death and suffering. 

It is in the mindset of positivity and happiness that we must go about our days. It's not easy when obligation, pressures, and stresses at home pile up but I really do believe the most important thing in life is happiness. The pursuit of it, the maintaining of it, and the loss of it. Life is beautiful when you can see it like that. Life is worthwhile when happiness brings love and people into your life. 

So in a way it's weird to say but even though I'm barely old enough to have any sway or authority on the subject matter of "the meaning of life", I think I've found mine. The pursuit of happiness whether its through a career, a hobby, family, whatever. When we're happy money doesn't matter, material things are worthless, and the moments are the only things needed.

-Til Another Day

-Jonathan 

Weekend Recovery: Thoughts on life, movies, shows, and people

So I'm Back to work again.... 

It has been a wonderful three day weekend having had Friday off. Currently I have been sitting at my desk for about 4 hours with little or nothing to do. I've done some catching up on reading This I Believe which happens to be the summer reading book for Tufts. Apparently according to the letter I received from Tufts its a gift from the TISCH College of Citizenship & Public Service. If people aren't familiar with Tufts University (where I am heading in the fall, actually scratch that in less then a month I'll expand upon my thoughts about that a little later) the TISCH College is a very active part of the student body where leadership and service to the community abroad is heavily emphasized. The majority of students participate one way or another through the TISCH school to give back to the community or to help spread citizenship and a cohesive community.  This book This I Believe is based on a NPR series that asks individuals famous and non-famous to write a short 500 word essay on what they believe, they're core values, and who they are. After reading through a host of essays this morning a few stood out. Albert Einstein's belief in science as a way to understanding the Universe. A story from Isabel Allende speaking about the grief of her losing her daughter. All these stories brought to light the deepest core values of each individual. It was like looking through a window into someones soul. The essays are moving and thought provoking. 

So a quick recap of my weekend involved lots of sleeping, more yoga, LOTS OF SUSHI , good food, and good times with friends. Let's see if I can find some picture for ya. (I've decided to just post a bunch of pictures from summer)

Cool Finds

Griffith Observatory

Edamame so good

Beautiful Sunsets

Dodger

Adorable Grandmas You Wanna Hug

That Cute Girl Next to Ya

And Her Friends

I find that pictures speak more than words. It's universally true, if you think about it a picture is a combination of senses of light, color, emotions, memories put together to recreate or at the very least capture that moment in time. It's kind of cool to meld together writing and photography to narrate one's life. I've come to realize that this blog is my way of remembering what I do and who I am. Perhaps if I keep this up long enough it will be a way for me to remember the past as clear as it was back then.

So some MORE  thoughts about this past weekend. I watched a lot of tv and some movies. First off I FINALLY finished the season finale of 24. I thought it was a very fitting and proper ending to a pretty decent show. 24 has been action packed and unpredictable from the start, Kiefer Sutherland has done a wonderful job through and through as Jack Bauer. 

More recently I managed to set up my Wii (which I haven't had for along time) to stream some Netflix shows and videos straight onto my TV. To say the least I am EXTREMELY  to veg out on my sofa through the rest of my summer and all subsequent holidays at home. Have I ever told anyone that I am secretly in love with being an introvert. I can spend all day sitting in front of my TV doing nothing and feel like I've had a productive day.

Regardless my last few thoughts for the day come from the soon to be blockbuster movie of the summer INCEPTION  was absolutely mind bending ( actually it literally mind-fucked you) go to the link to learn more about the movie if you don't know already. I just have to say I have grown to respect Christopher Nolan even more as a director now after already witnessing slivers of genius in the Dark Knight and Memento. Behind the characters Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic), Ellen Page (Juno), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 days of Summer) the movie twists and challenges your mind to grasp the reality of multi-layered dream world. You not only get the action packed thriller of Dark Knight in this movie but also the complexity and introspection of Memento in the interplay of dialogue and development of Cobbs (Dicaprio) and Ariadne (Page). Inception is not just your usual summer blockbuster, it makes you think, it makes you ponder, and most importantly it makes itself memorable with its perfect blend of CG effects, story telling, emotions, and action. Inception is a must see movie of this summer. 

Last thought of the day.... heading to college. Over the weekend I was talking to Catherine  and the topic of going off to college came around. It made me realize that I have just over a month left here in La Canada before I jump head first into murky waters of college. I have no idea what I am doing. I REPEAT I HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE as to what I am going to do. Does this bother me? A little. Should it scare me? Yes. Do i acknowledge it. NO. That's kind of how I've approached this idea of college. Let it come to me and see where it takes me. Putting expectations and eagerly dreaming up what I want to do I think at times is overkill. I don't think anyone can really go into college saying for a 100% sure they know what they want to do, who they want to be. I think college is the perfect time to LOSE YOURSELF (think of Eminem) before ya WRECK YOURSELF but really its finally MY time to do what I want. To wake up in the morning or not, to party hard on the weekends or not, to make friends, to eat alone, to do anything. I see college as an exciting new frontier in my life, one that will only happen once. I don't plan on wasting a minute of it all, but I also don't plan on putting any expectation on myself. So that way in about four years I can look back and say, wow, I did something! 

Til Another Time Another Place.

-Johnny