my god does tv suck

Having been out of the TV loop for almost ten years (no cable / satellite / etc) I must admit feeling a certain deranged thrill when I find myself at someone else’s house with remote in hand. Such was the case last night when I ended up staying over at my parent’s house.

My findings?

80 channels and not a damn thing on. I must have flipped through the stations for close to an hour before settling on going back and forth between a censored, chock full of commercials version of Cruel Intentions (don’t hate, it’s a favorite of mine) and some soap opera on Telemundo.

What the hell.

the true cost of commuting

As most of our ever savvy UM readers may have guessed, right now I’ve got an ahem, “unexpectedly open schedule”.  As I spend time working to fill it once again, I’ve been pondering the true value of my time.

Leaving behind a 3 hour daily commute is something I’ve been dying to do for ages.  Leaving behind the paycheck.. well, not so much (er, duh).

Still, regaining 60 hours (if I’m blessed with a downtown job I can walk to, or even a telecommute situation) of my life every month has its own mental rewards, but what about the financial aspect?

UM favorite Tim Ferriss touches on this subject often (in 4HWW, and elsewhere), but I’ll give just one thought provoking calculation for you.

Let’s say you earn $75,000 a year.

The ‘accepted’ amount of hours per year is 2080.

The hourly rate in this example then would be calculated like so:

75000/2080

=$36/hour (rounded)

So in this example if a person earning $75,000 / year was able to save 3 hours a day, 5 times a week, 4 times a month:

$36/hour x 3 hours/day x 5 times/week x 4 times a month =

$2160/month

Over the course of a year?

$25,920

Granted, this isn’t money back in your pocket if you choose to squander the time.

If you spend even a fraction of those hours working on automated income streams, or practicing a hobby that could someday produce an income (in my case, the ongoing cycle of grueling frustration / orgasmic reward that is learning to DJ), those hours can prove quite lucrative indeed.

For me specifically?  I’ve reanalyzed my ‘acceptable’ hourly rate to consider the benefits of taking back so much of my life.

I know I’m good for it.

urban hijinks: d.i.y. spy camera

As if we don’t have enough ongoing series around here, I’m throwing ‘urban hijinks’ into the mix. In short, a collection of tips and tricks for having fun (sometimes on the borderline of the law) with your downtown living. I’m hoping this series will generate a lot of emails with your own suggestions. UM readers are a mischievous bunch. Thank God.

Enjoying my, er, ‘accidental vacation’ this last week and a half, I’ve found myself pouring through a lot of unmarked DVDs and the like. One set of old digital photos in particular caught my attention for their sheer brilliance.

A former friend of mine used to live at 17th and Champa, in the Boston Lofts building. Anyone familiar with downtown Denver knows what a pimp location this is, especially for people watching. This innovative gent came up with a simple way to take the art of people watching to the next level.

Tools required:

Digital Camera

Binoculars

Technique:

Simplicity itself. Somewhere along the way, digital camera optics and (even quite cheap) binocular optics became so good, combining them for spytastic fun was made possible.

Get your binocs focused, more or less, on the area you wish you photograph; hold the digital camera lens up to one of the eye pieces, and then adjust the final focus using the camera.

Simplicity, and boobies, itself.