Platform 327

Work as begun on the fourth issue of Second Life! For those of you who don’t know, Second Life is Toronto’s magazine of the art, culture and business of used, vintage, antique, recycled and repurposed goods. Ideas and submissions for articles are welcome, as are reviews of any used books, movies, music or video games you’ve purchased on your travels. Leave a comment, and we’ll talk.

Also, if you run a business that uses secondhand goods in any way - from selling them to making things with them or using them as part of your decor - Second Life is looking for advertisers. Ad rates are cheap. You’ve also got the chance to reach an audience of thrifty, industrious, community-minded people who patronize local businesses. If you thought you couldn’t afford advertising for your business, check out Second Life.

If you haven’t read it yet, the third issue of the magazine is still available at http://www.ihaveasecret.com/secondlife3.pdf Thanks again to for the web space.

Looking to get a new tattoo, but not sure what you want? Why not check this out, and sell your body without risk of nasty infection. Well, not much risk anyway.

You scored as Drunk Cat. Put down the bottle, Cheech. Sign up for some AA classes and drink a glass of water. Bars are ok once in a while, but you shouldn’t be sleeping at them. Drunk Cat 92% Pissed at the World Cat 75% Derranged Cat 50% Couch Potato Cat 33% Ninja Cat 33% Love Machine Cat 17% Nerd Cat 0% Which Absurd Cat are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Mostly drunk with a side o’ “pissed at the world.” Yeah, sounds about right.

Well, here I am, a slave to my addictions. “One beer” turned into three, turned into eight, and today instead of a fridge full of food I have a hangover and no cash.

What the hell is wrong with me?

I just put the graphic below on a trucker hat. What the hell, eh?

Not nearly in time for Christmas (unless you’re Ukranian I guess), I’ve got a new product in my Cafepress shop. It’s a coffee mug with this design on it:

You could leave a comment if you like. Or you could help out a starving writer and buy one. Or several.

Last week of work for the year, and I’m still broke. Looks like there’s not going to be much going on for New Year’s Eve for me. No matter. NYE usually ends up sucking and expensive anyway.

I’ve also been thinking about this whole brokeness thing. I wanted to take a $40 course through the Independent Learning Centre to upgrade my math skills, just to the point where I know what the hell the instructor is talking about when I’m trying to work. I can’t take the course, however, because I’ve got less than $3.00 in my bank account, I owe Mike $300 — down from almost $500 — James $160, and have $2,500 on my maxed-out credit card. According to my lastest pay stub, I’ve taken home over $5,000 since September. I only pay $400 a month in rent. Even taking into account how far behind I was on my bills when I started working and how much I spend in transportation costs, I should have more than $3.00 in my bank account and at least a little bit of breathing room on my card. Enough for a $40 math course at least, for fuck sakes.

Then I realized something. It’s all beer. No money in the bank and $3,000 in the hole, and every cent of the debt is booze. My credit card statement is all bar tabs, so is what I owe my friends.

This isn’t fun anymore. It’s stupid.

So I’ve made a decision: I’m not drinking any more booze until I’ve paid for the stuff I’ve already drank. I’m not buying any, I’m not accepting any from people on a “get you back later” basis, none of that shit. If I end up at a sponsored event with a beer company giving it away, then watch the fuck out, but otherwise I’m going to be on the stupid wagon for a couple of months. They say alcohol is a problem when it interferes with your life, and I’d say not having enough money to do laundry or put food in the fridge is some damn interferance.

This is out of control, and it sucks. Time to find some other ways to have “fun.”

I think I put this in some other journals, but not on my own. Duh.

A little while ago, I released the third issue of Second Life to the internet. Still no money for printing, but at least it’s getting out there!

Go read it. http://www.ihaveasecret.com/secondlife3.pdf Thanks to for the web space.

Also, join the Yahoo group for updates, polls, and whatever else I can think of. http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/second-life

Enjoy.