Blah
Things have been strangely busy lately, at work and at home. I’ve been doing .NET at work for at least the last month or so, and javascript aside from that. I’ve stated before that it can be nice to take a break from what I love doing, if for no other reason than to appreciate it more, but I think break time is over. I now feel like I’m being poisoned by everything that is not Ruby/Rails. I’m aching to get back into Ruby code, but unfortunately, at work I don’t necessarily foresee that in the near future. Of course, that’s the beauty of personal projects, but then time is always an issue (which is what Golf Trac is currently suffering from).
Design and develop web applications using Ruby on Rails at $125/hour, 40 hours per week (based on convenience), with optional overtime, full-benefits, and 6 weeks vacation. All server administration and maintenance will be handled by a specialized server admin.
If anyone stumbles across a job description similar to that, please let me know (I suppose I’d settle for a little less).
Dave O. Tuesday, 28 Aug, 2007 Posted at 03:12PM
Do you seriously think pretty much anyone who follows your blog would tell you about a position like that? We’d all want it for ourselves :p
Ryan Tuesday, 28 Aug, 2007 Posted at 03:37PM
True, but I bet not everyone who follows my blog is trying to buy a house and has to work in .NET! C’mon, feel my pain, here… but OK, I’ll take $100/hour and 4 weeks vacation if I must :-)
On a serious note, how’s slate coming? The blog is pretty quiet these days…
Chris Tuesday, 28 Aug, 2007 Posted at 05:56PM
We’ve been slaughtered by countless “high-priority” projects i.e. “Hi, this project is completely new to you, and needs done by Friday.” So yeah, I haven’t been able to program anything new in slate for quite some time now. It’s hard being away from a project too long – it makes it much harder to get back in the swing of things.
I’m sorry you have to work with .NET, though to be fair it’s one of the better GUI development packages I’ve seen.
Personally, I’d be happy with $32/hour, though $100/hr would mean my wife could stop working, so that would be really nice ;-)
Ryan Tuesday, 28 Aug, 2007 Posted at 07:26PM
Yeah, in all seriousness, I’m just a little frustrated with trying to save money lately. It just seems like I get paid and it’s gone… I haven’t bought myself anything since the camera 5-6 months ago. I’ve cut golf down to twice a month this summer (and I only golf the $7.50 course now) where it used to be almost twice a week, at $18 a pop. We never eat out, skipped the last few movies I’ve wanted to see, etc. And when I look at the monthly run down, it’s all bills or some other random expense that comes up (such as $712 in fees for Amie’s tuition, which even includes the “walk on campus” fee!) Plus, books for our classes, etc.
Anyway, it seems like no matter what I do, saving money keeps getting harder and harder. We told our landlord that we aren’t signing the lease again, so no matter what, we are done paying rent in March, which is nice. However, that leaves the even more frustrating process of house-hunting. Real estate in Morgantown is outrageous. And not knowing where Amie will find a job doesn’t help the situation much.
Despite my sarcastic $100/hour demand, life really is insanely expensive—at least, right now it is. And for the record, I’d be happy with $32/hour, too.
Chris Wednesday, 29 Aug, 2007 Posted at 07:20AM
Wow, yeah, I didn’t realize it was that tight. So you are both still going to school? I can see how that would make it a bit more difficult. One thing that really helped Sarah and I was that we received extra money in student loans, but rather than try to pay them off right away we’ve held the money as a bit of a nest-egg. We have to pay it back of course, but it’s a good little batch of money in case of emergencies, etc.
Real estate in Morgantown sucks, but then again the convenience and the amenities are worth it. My friend my church drives from basically Grafton (45+ minutes) about every day (twice on Sunday) simply because it’s cheaper for him to live there and pay for the gas. They were in a trailer just a mile off of exit 139 before that and I think it was about $300/month. Granted, the commute wouldn’t be too much fun, but it might be worth it to look at housing in Fairmont. I realize you don’t want to pay rent, but it IS cheaper – my house is $850+ a month, not including $350+ gas bills in the winter, then electric, water, etc.
Ryan Wednesday, 29 Aug, 2007 Posted at 08:11AM
Yep, we’re both still in school, and we both graduate in December (finally). We actually are looking in Fairmont, and haven’t ruled out Bridgeport, either. I don’t necessarily enjoy commuting, but I can handle it. The part that I won’t like is if Amie lands a job somewhere other than Fairmont, where she would be the one commuting. With Winter roads around here, I’d rather it be me. There are just too many contingent decisions to make. Either way, though, I’m sure there will always be timing issues and stress with buying a first home (and maybe any home).
I know that’s just life, but I guess venting is a part of life, too. We had a scare about a month ago, when Amie’s car was acting up. It was potentially the transmission ($2,500+) but ended up being something easy ($129). Phew! I paid that $129 with a smile :-)
It will work out, as it often does, but I guess the beginning of the semester hit harder than I had expected. But no matter what, this time next year we’ll be in a house somewhere, and I can’t wait. Did it take you long to look/close on a house?
Chris Wednesday, 29 Aug, 2007 Posted at 10:15AM
We found a house and essentially started the closing process within a week. Actually closing took about 1-1.5 months, though. And be ready for closing costs – generally about $3000. Definitely check into the West Virginia Housing Development Fund as that’s your best bet for a great interest rate.