This entry consists solely of me bitching about my life. However, enumerating my worries helps me to focus and defeat each one individually. If anyone is actually interested then that’s a bonus.
Thanksgiving was a brief respite from my busy schedule. Though it was sometimes tedious, the sensation was welcomed compared to my life’s usual concerns. But it was an illusion. When I got back, I learned that the Athlon XP 3000+ I ordered for Anna is actually an XP 2100+ (which I now have to send back for a replacement). I also noticed that my utility closet was flooded again, and had soaked through the wall to my carpet a bit. After some poking around, I discovered that there is a pump that moves water from the utility closet through some tubing to the drain in my laundry room. I think the water is a byproduct of my gas furnace’s combustion process, but I am not sure, since there are multiple tubes feeding into the pump. Apparently, the pump has died, so now I have to track down where I can purchase a new one. In the meantime, I have to empty the pump’s collection box approximately three times a day.
The joint Deus session between the Monday and Wednesday groups is on Wednesday. I am still enjoying the campaign, but it is very stressful. I am constantly worried that the players are not having fun—and that the majority of players will not tell me if they are having issues—and these fears have been corroborated somewhat by people’s behavior thus far. I have a number of other concerns as well, such as:
- Some players’ play styles simply clash with each other. It seems inevitable with such a large number of players, but it is still unfortunate and frustrating.
- The chronological discrepancy between real time and time in game with respect to each party requires me to make decisions about events that have not yet occurred, limiting character choice somewhat. Frankly, I would prefer not to impose such limitations, but it seems impossible not to do so at times. I fear the multi-group paradigm has outlived its usefulness, and now takes away more than it adds in terms of fun.
- Some characters are vastly too powerful. Fortunately, the dilemmas posed in the game challenge people in ways largely independent of these characters’ abilities, but I need to confront players who are continually pushing the limits of what should be allowed and what is reasonable.
- Overall limitations of the tabletop roleplaying format have begun to increasingly grate on me. More on that below.
I announced my intent to run a 100th level gestalt D&D game next summer, and there has been a lot of interest—and some players have already begun to invest a large amount of time finding tricks and techniques for maximizing character strengths. I was hoping to stress-test the 3.5 Epic D&D system, but I am afraid that certain abilities (e.g., timestop and shapechange) still overwhelmingly dominate an otherwise delightfully multifarious ruleset. I was hoping to run a game “by the book,” without needing to ban anything, but I am now uncertain whether it will be possible. What’s the point of the rules if they are degenerate?
I should not even be worrying about the gestalt game, with so much on my plate for the Deus game. But I just can’t stop worrying about it. Part of me thinks it was a big mistake to commit to it, and wants to cancel it, but more rationally I think I should wait until closer to the timeframe in which it will take place to make my decision. However, I would feel bad canceling it, since some people have already put a lot of time into preparations, and I would not want that time to be wasted on account of my fickleness.
Lastly, and I believe most importantly, I have been worrying about money. Moe convinced me to talk to his mentor, Gary Ziegler, who is a nice guy. He explained the ramifications of various financial strategies, and I learned that it is dubious to pay back a mortgage as quickly as possible. It is all about interest rates. If you could invest the money and yield a higher return than that of your loan’s interest rate, it might make more sense to pay the minimum amount each month, and invest the difference. With my mortgage’s interest rate at 5.25%, and Gary and Moe showing me rates of return of 10-20% or even 25%, it’s hard to argue that paying back the mortgage directly is a smart move.
To gain some perspective on financial matters, I decided to ask more knowledgable friends and family for their views. Universally, the veterans of the market told me the following:
- You’ll never get the rates of return a financial organization promises.
- No one takes care of your money like you do.
- It’s better to educate yourself than to rely on someone who’ll just bleed all your money away.
Both my father and “stepfather-in-law-to-be” told me they had tried putting their money with these financial companies, and always regretted it. My dad seems to be of the general opinion that debts are something to be eliminated quickly.
Another relative who’s planning to quit his job next year to live off the stock market gave me a lot of insight into the market. I think I finally understand what it means to be wealthy. It’s not about having a high-paying job, or inheritance, or winning the lottery. It’s about having assets that outweigh your liabilities. An asset is something that brings money into your pocket every month, whereas a liability is something that takes it out of your pocket—it’s that simple. To escape the rat race, your assets must outweigh your liabilities. Otherwise you have to work to make up the difference.
And I realized that I have no assets. I own a house full of gizmos. My house is not an asset, because I have to pay a mortgage and taxes. My parents have finally acquired an asset (hopefully) with the condo next door, since by renting it out, that should be money flowing in every month. We talked about effective ways of building assets—three big ones come to mind: 1) real estate (e.g., renting property); 2) starting a business; and 3) playing the market (e.g., stocks). #1 and #2 interest me, but also scare me. #3 on that list also interests and scares me, but is still sort of a job; you have to invest time every day to follow what’s happening in the market, and react. Only #1 and #2 seem really strong to me.
The gist of all this nonsense is that I am frustrated. Our society is supposed to encourage specialization. World Financial Group is a company specializing in #3 on my list above: playing the market. They are supposed to invest my money so that I have more time for other things. They invest wisely, make a lot of money, and take a cut for themselves. I make more money than I would have in the bank. Everybody wins. So why is everyone telling me these organizations routinely fail? My fear is that it’s a lack of ethics. They make a profit from your money regardless of whether they invest it properly—perhaps they make even more of a profit by investing it poorly. But you would still think that companies that fail to grow your money would die, since their customers would all abandon them. I guess that’s an unrealistic ideal.
“I wanna be a human being, not a human doing—I couldn’t keep that pace up if I tried.”
—Scatman John, “Scatman’s World”