Thursday, 10 July 2008

Housing, OSes, more holiday, work

Hello all,
once again we find ourself amidst a considerable amount of my life. This time I will ponder the questions of housing, flats, college, operating systems, jobs, perhaps some psychologists and maybe something else too.

The main thing that is on my mind is as follow. Our family, amounting for two adults, one me and one brother of mine aged 11, lives in a rather small, 2+1 perused as 3+kk, 63 square meters tiny flat. This is by far not enough for us, we have too much stuff and too little privacy, so my mater has been looking for an alternative since this January or so. We could, theoretically go live to a house of ours situated at the outskirts of Prague a bit behind Kobylisy, where my grandparents live. Some of us, however, are reluctant to do this, as living with one's stepmother under one roof can prove to be quite daunting, and as it isn't as close to the city centre as we are used to be. We can also rent it for a considerable amount of monthly income. So we could either buy a house or flat (we've got the money), or rent one. But because it is not certain, that both grandparents will live much longer (>5 years is not certain at all, especially with my grandfather) (and should one of them die we'd pretty much have to move to this Chabry house to take care of the other one) and because it is not certain, that in three years' time I will not decide that I want to live alone, and because everything is damn expensive and no suitable flats and houses are being sold around anywhere sensible, my parents sort of decided to simply rent a bigger flat and live there until I decide to move to my own place or one of the grands dies.

Sorry for such a long introduction, it was a necessary evil. Here comes the catch. A new possibility was introduced to me last night - they could remain in the present flat where we live now and rent me a small flat in Koulova street, that is near Podbaba, 5 minutes walk from Vítězné náměstí square (aka Kulaťák). It belongs to my uncle and could be rented for some 8k/month. Being 1+1 with a pass-through kitchen, little balcony, little hall, bathroom and toilet, it would be more than comfortable for me to live in. They would probably pay me the rent and energies (heat, water, electricity), but not food (probably) and some other neccessities (clothing, school-expenses, house-keeping expenses) in order to make me take care of myself. And also to give me an incentive to find a room-mate that would pay me some money "for the rent" that I could use for these generic expenses. Once again I stress, that the position of the flat might not be as ideal as our current one, but is still pretty good (5 minutes of swift march to metro, 2 tram lines just around the corner), and I would be within 15 minutes of fast walk of my parents if anything got fucked up.

What I'm asking you is: would you go into this, if you were me? Take care of yourself, cook, do the laundry and pay for some stuff, on the other hand gaining self-reliability, training into life, your own place to live in/party in/anything? Would you try to get someone to live with you? Would you use the loneliness as a kick towards richer social life? What do you think?

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Next thing - operating systems. I have installed Vista Ultimate on this new desktop of mine, but it's getting quite creaky now. I have problems with InstallShield Wizard, sometimes my soundcard stutters, I even had one monitor blackout, it takes too much darned space with all it's stupid updates, it often renounces Unreal Commander as my sole tool of trade and refuses to delete/move stuff with it and it's generally messy to navigate in. So I will be either getting a dual-boot installation with XPs, or simply revert back to XPs. While Adam Jaroš, from whom I have the Vista installation, claims that his system runs without the slightest glitch and with no signs of any errors, this is not the case for me. Now I wonder, whether I should give Vistas one more chance and simply reinstall them, or whether I should really return to good ol' XPs I know so well and am happy with how they work?

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Do you work? What do you do? I still translate and it pays darn well, I must say. Do parents pay you for holiday trips? How about music festivals and such?

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I still do not have anything planned for the rest of my holidays. I am too occupied by making money, playing World of Warcraft and excercising my head over Anička Novotná and her partner's (...who is an outright idiot and should be banned from life, honest, this is not jealousy speaking but simply a common sense. If only you knew...!) case, that I didn't plan anything yet.

This is probably it for now,
have fun living,
Adam

P.S.: I've downloaded Magikano (fun), Cowboy Bebop (kinda mindfuck), Ouran High School Host Club (fun), finished Jeeves & Wooster (the BEST!) and started downloading The Scrubs (said to be awesome) and resumed watching House MD. Contact me if interested.

10 comments:

  1. > Housing

    If you aren't susceptible to fits of loneliness, your own flat is the way to go. If you can get someone to live with you, all the better.

    > Work

    I also translate. It pays extremely well, though the offers are few and far between (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). Why, just last week I earned 1.5k for about three hours of work. That means that now I mostly pay for my entertainment out of my own pocket, though.

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  2. Also,

    > My ex has a stupid boyfriend

    Oh boy, I know exactly how you feel. I mean... I'm sure he's a nice guy and fun to hang out with, she wouldn't have settled for anything less than that, but, well, he's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer.

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  3. >Would you use the loneliness as a kick towards richer social life?

    Nope, I would use the loneliness as witch's brew bringing me the gift of everlasting youth.

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  4. Martin on Exes -> Not my point completely. I do not deny that person some personal traits, after all almost anyone's got SOMETHING, but I can hardly forgive him having personal issues that he transfers to her, limiting her freedom the way he does, worrying her sick and being am overall problematic jerk. Cupid doesn't pick people according to their skills, brains or looks, but it sucks to see someone fall in love with a person that will unevitably make him suffer. And it hurts to watch it, knowing there's nothing you can do.

    Martin on Work -> Yeah, I earn about that much too. It's awesome. And what's better, parents still pay me for the bigger things, such as trips with friends and such. Of course, I get no regular pocket money, but that doesn't really matter. In June only I earned some 11,8k minus tax, which should keep me going for a while :)

    On housing -> It's been decided, I will go live by myself. I fear that the sudden loneliness might strike me a bit thick, but through friends, instant messengers, random parties, online communities and bugging random friends of mine I'll push through. I...think it will be awesome :)

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  5. > And it hurts to watch it, knowing there's nothing you can do.

    An obvious solution would then be not to watch.

    > I...think it will be awesome

    That's the spirit!

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  6. That's one way of looking at things, but I don't consider it the right one. See, Al has threaten to do unspeakable things to me for just about this attitude, but if I see wrong, I simply want to do something about it.

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  7. And just who are you to say it's wrong? And who gives you the right to intervene in someone else's affairs? Let it go, man. It's her choice, she'll deal with it if she deems it necessary. I know how tempting it is to be the knight in shining armour, but you'd be risking alienation and all sorts of bad vibes.

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  8. You ring true, especially the risks you mention :-/

    Also I know there is no set-in-stone right×wrong in those things, but mate, those are some SERIOUSLY unusual things he does to her.

    But look, there may not be anything given, but when she herself says that she doesn't like some (most) of those things, then I don't need further convincing.

    I...do not have the right to interfere with others' lives. But since everything I do, no matter how small a thing it is, DOES interfere with them anyway, it's easy to think that I am actually allowed to interfere on this more in-depth level. Look, if your best friend sat on the window sill saying he's gonna jump, wouldn't you try to convince him not to? It's the same. I see she's in for a LOT of trouble, a LOT of pain and if - God forbide - she married him then for lifetime of subjugation and concessions. I know, my grandmother was exactly like this (and a Leo too), only my grandfather was somewhat less of a jerk.

    What I want to say, you are right on many levels and I will and have backed off for a bit, but still my fundamental belief and instinct tells me to be prepared to jump in and save the day. There's nothing I or you can do about this. The same way Dan Kadera will jump onto the stage whenever you ask him, no matter whether he can or cannot do anything, same way you won't wear funny sleeve-less shirt and Al will never be quite sane, this is I guess part of my self. I will try to help people, especially my friends, when they need it.

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  9. Guess all I'm saying is, don't make her decisions for her.

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  10. >Look, if your best friend sat on the window sill saying he's gonna jump, wouldn't you try to convince him not to?

    If you want to do what is best for him, advice him to land on his head.
    However if you try to stop him, bear in mind that this is what is best for you. Don't forget this.

    >There's nothing I or you can do about this.

    I see....Enough of buddhism, Tao is the Way!

    >Al will never be quite sane

    Thank for the flattery.

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