Siegecraft

In 7th grade social studies, we were assigned to build a budget for a family living at the poverty line.  I got an A-.  Surprisingly, the teacher didn't take issue with my pollyanna claim the family could save 10% of their income for emergencies.  Instead, he felt that the daily breakfast of cereal and OJ "lacked variety."  I pondered this over my daily ration of cheerios and OJ.    

I've found myself doing themes and variations of this same assignment ever since.  Minimum wage wenching at a Renaissance faire was easily the hardest work (and best accidental diet) I ever had, even with parent-subsidized R&R during the weekdays.  At one point in my salaried past life, I was saving 60% of my income to cover business school which made the b-school travel and carousing feel as self-indulgent as an Enron team building event.  At another point, I obsessed (and still do) over financial independence: cutting costs and setting up enough passive revenue streams that you work because you choose to, not because you have to.  Now, with hundreds of thousands in the money pit, realization of FI is illusory.  Now a good month is one where I earn more than I spend at Home Depot.  

Lately, I've been pretty intrigued with the refrain in Game of Thrones:  Winter is Coming.  Sure, Southern California doesn't really have seasons, but if some catastrophic event were to allow, say, Zombies to walk the earth, how big of a lifestyle hit are we talking about here?  To that end, MacGyver and I are loosely following another 101 [things] in 1001 [days] meme.  I'm hoping it's a more interesting way to grind out those really arduous house projects that have no end in sight.  One meta-goal I'm pretty excited about is "6 month siege," though we'll probably have to leave the fort for work.  Full list is here.