Figure Two: Four years later, in which Weasel demonstrates that he got the bar thing down, but not the sellingI had been planning to write something about the cool free music service Pandora, but Listmaker pointed out that I was being derivative of Bile & Venom and my friend RPS does a much better job than I could ever have done here. So no Pandora for you. At least not in these pages.
Instead I will address a much more pressing concern, making moolah.
Those of you playing along at home may have gathered that I'm to be married in 58 days time. The wedding promises to be a blast- very relaxed, very Maine- but even the subtlest of ceremonies cost an astounding amount of money.
As the groom-to-be it falls to me to round up some of this cash. Plan A: get on Jeopardy and win a few grand, doesn't appear to have paid off. Raising capital through scratch-off lottery tickets also appears to be a non-starter. You only get a nickel per returnable bottle here in Maine. I did cat sit for my neighbor last week but I can't guarantee steady income there unless I can convince her to join a band of gypsies who are allergic to moggies. Therefore I decided on Tuesday to start flogging off a bunch of old tat on Ebay and Amazon.
Going through my bookcases and CD towers I was amazed at how much crap I didn't want I owned. The music was easier; having worked in radio I had a bunch of promo CDs on for bands I liked for about 20 seconds 7 years ago and advance singles from albums I eventually ended up buying in their entirety. I was certain that, for example, the 2 versions of Blur's MOR complete with a pair of 11 second call out research hooks would set collectors of the work of Damon Albarn salivating.
The books were harder; how do you give up a book? You might want to read it 5 years from now! Or more likely in my case, you might remember a pertinent passage buried deep in its pages that would help you win a future pedantic argument. The only one I didn't agonize over was actually a recent purchase I paid full price for; Thomas P.M. Barnett's Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating. It's a military-political strategy book based on a fascinating premise that is completely undone by Barnett's horrific writing; he manages to come across as a slightly creepy youth pastor trying to use with-it language and is so packed with buzzwords you could mistake it for a bee hive. I won't mind if that one goes for a loss. I did finally choose a few books (and a couple of movies) and posted them along with the CDs.
So far my great money making scheme as generated a net profit of $6.97.
I have a long way to go.
3 comments:
That second photo is remarkable. It’s like the start of a classic joke: a three-armed, red-headed Brit walks into a Canadian (?) bar.
Ouch.
Which is probably what the other, derelict-looking gentleman said when he awoke the next morning. (Assuming, of course, that he ever did.)
Deb, trouble is we got rid of a lot of our stuff when we moved house back in November so I'm short on merchandise. After being together almost 7 years and living together for 4 my silly bachelor stuff is long gone.
RPS, that photo of me and the Boss comes from the trip where he and I were thrown off Canadian radio. This is the evening before the fateful broadcast. Its after the the tour of the player piano museum but before we had joined the rest of our cultural ambassadors for dinner and petty larceny/souvenir hunting.
I would be happy to throw away your books for you. Ask anyone. Weeding is my favorite part of being a librarian. Most people think librarians have to be these crazed book-worshippers but any NYC librarian worth her salt knows that there is only so much room and books must be trashed to make room for their future brethren.
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