Financial inspiration

For me, a big part of retaining good spending habits is reading inspirational articles on the matter. Here's a recent one that's pretty basic and straightforward (but then again, developing good spending habits is a remarkably basic and straightforward process!):

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0305/p13s02-wmgn.html

What I like about this article is its emphasis on the psychological aspect of spending decision-making. I have to say that, having worked hard to develop better spending/savings habits, I'm now quite reluctant to part with my hard-earned money in this hunt for a road bike...It's quite an interesting phenomenon.

Whirlwind

Today was definitely a crazy day.

I woke up not wanting to go to crew, having to fight the temptation to skip practice. I spent much of the first half of practice in a funk, but then partway through the middle of a piece I started to wake up as our boat began responding to our efforts.

The sensation of rowing well and fast is one of the most incredible experiences imaginable, especially in large boats. It represents the concerted, concentrated, coordinated effort of 9 people in absolute harmony with each other. When it goes well, it feels almost effortless, but the effort required to get it to go well is tremendous. Altogether we had a total of maybe ten strokes out of 900 that felt that way. But it's a start, at least.

After that, school. I worked on an assortment of odd projects today--finishing weighing fungus, ordering supplies, washing out old ant containers, analyzing data, tending the ants, etc. There's always more to do than there are hours in the day. I should probably tell you about the dramatic finish to the fungus-weighing saga. Apparently my fungus samples are so well-pulverized and dry that they're static-y. So when I put them on a balance (scale) to weigh them, small bits of fungus fly off of the samples. The samples are basically so small that they vanish before my eyes (it's possible to watch the numbers on the scale tick downwards!). The solution? Put the samples into closed containers for weighing purposes. I'm forever indebted to a research technician for helping me figure out what was going on.

Then, on my walk home, I spied one Mr. Cute Bike Shop Boy, sitting on the curb, so we chatted for a bit while he waited for his wife to pick him up. I feel like I've been cheating on him, what with visiting other bike shops over the weekend. It's impossible to beat that shop for convenience and service, though. I should feel more ashamed for not cleaning and lubeing my chain this weekend. Oh well.