The Dodge Family Blog » new job

Plastic Surgery

Mike — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:43:59 +0000

Last night, Johanna and I went “under the knife” so to speak. Earlier this year I lost close to 40 lbs on a diet she helped me with (which I will be going on again soon ). Last night, we both decided that we need to lose a little bit more. So the gloves came off, we picked up the cutlery…and our debit card is no more. The “get out of debt” plan has begun.

Yes, in today’s world it might seem drastic, but it is possible to live without any form of credit card at all. I cut up my regular visa a couple of months ago, and it has been alright. But we can do more. With my new job, I am waiting to see what my take home pay is after insurance is taken out. But if it is anything close to what I hope it is, our budget will allow us to be completely debt free (except the house) fairly soon. When I did the math in January, we calculated 2 years to be debt free. It might take a little longer than that, but in the grand scheme of things, it still isn’t bad.

What does all this have to do with you? Well, more than you would think, actually. One of the reasons people find it so hard to get out of debt is that they want to spend time with their friends doing fun stuff. Fun stuff usually costs money. And they don’t have any money. So they “borrow” just a little, just this once…and the cycle starts again. We don’t want to get into that habit again.

As we begin the process of eliminating debt (blasted student loans!), we will likely decline to participate in any activities that are not in our budget. As of right now, that is pretty much everything. As we get our debt under control, we can start to make small allowances for other activities. Please be understanding and cooperative if you have a show or a sporting event you want to go to, as we will likely not be able to attend for a while…unless admission is free-ninety-five.

Why cut up the card, though? What will that do? Well, it helps in the discipline, keeps us on track. We will pay all of our utility bills online, and we will withdraw cash for groceries, household goods, and childcare expenses. We have actual envelopes that will hold all of our funds for the month, and if an envelope runs out…there is no “borrowing” from another one. We can evaluate how much is in each envelope at the end of the month, and if some categories are short and others are alright, we can shuffle the money around.

Here’s to getting debt free! WOOHOO!!!

The New Job – Day I

Mike — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:29:25 +0000

The first day is done, and it was really something! I arrived at 8:00 to be sure I was on time, and I got to see Love at its busiest.

First off, they were having a rehearsal of all the things that they planned on presenting to their big client this month, “RC Willey”. They are trying to get the store to let them do a complete makeover of the store’s image. It was really impressive, and I really liked what they had in mind.

A little later in the day, I got to go with the tech guy to the computer store and buy all the components I need to build my dream computer for work. I have never been able to go to a computer store with the idea that “anything is probably alright!” So we got a computer with some pretty amazing specs, and I started building it up for the project I will be starting tomorrow…yes, tomorrow.

Just for those of you who are interested in the techie stuff, here are the specs:

Intel Dual Core Processor (6600, I think)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Motherboard (up to 12 USB ports, Gigabit LAN, up to 8GB ram, etc.)
eVGA nVidia GeForce 8800GT
4GB DDR2 RAM
500GB WD Caviar HDD

And a few other things like a DVD burner and some humongous CPU fan. It’s pretty amazing, and when I get WinXP installed on it (yes, XP, they don’t want me using Vista, imagine that) I will be ready to go tomorrow. Exciting!!!

Job Offer part II, and the Marriage License

Mike — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:41:22 +0000

It’s official. I have accepted the offer from Love Communications (hereafter referred to as Love), and will be starting for them on the 25th, just 4 days before my wedding!

I don’t yet know all the benefits, but I am sure that I will learn all of those come Monday. For now, I have given the guys at ClearLink until Friday to get things situated so I can “pass the torch” so to speak. It is very short notice, and to help them out, I have agreed that after I start for Love I will contract a few evenings out to them in order to train a replacement. They would pay me for that time.

Another exciting development today was when Johanna and I went to get our marriage license. It was busy there at the Clerk’s office, but when we filled out the paperwork and got the license in hand…it all started becoming VERY real. Johanna and I are so excited.

So the countdown is to 9 days now. Closer and closer the big day creeps. Stay tuned!

Job Offer – or – I’m in Love

Mike — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:50:18 +0000

In late November, an email just landed in my inbox from a gentleman at Love Communications. Apparently he googled for PHP developers and found my website, mikezilla.us. I scheduled an interview, since I was very interested in changing jobs at the time…

Well, the interview went well, but at the time the higher-ups in the company didn’t want to invest in the position that I was interviewing for. I kept in contact with him through late January, but nothing was happening, and for the most part assumed that nothing would.

Now, today, there was another email from ‘em. And yes, I have a new job. The pay is the same as what I was making with ClearLink in December, but the benefits are much better IMHO, and the environment is a refreshing change. Not only that, but I will be starting up the web development department for them, since I am their first full-time web developer!

More to come on this, but I am excited to say the least!