Tiny details

I'm taking grading right now. Grading is what they call the extremely precise art of enlarging and shrinking patterns. It involves a lot of shaving off tiny slivers off the patterns to get the exact grade. Did I mention that industry standard scissors for this kind of work are the size of small pruning shears?

How much do I spend?

So upon the news of getting laid off from one job (after quitting another at the end of the year!) this might be a nice time to let all 17 or so readers know that I'll be opening my ledgers to the Internet world. All my spendings -- because there is now no more income! -- will be listed weekly at 2 Minute Finance in the "C-Note" series (get it?).

2 Minute Finance is a personal finance advice website run by my friend Bobby Lee. I have to admit, I got cold feet after the series launched. I edited comments for Marketplace and man, it is AMAZING how a little bit of anonymity gives people license to turn into self-righteous, raging bitches.

However, I reminded myself of why I'm doing this project. From my introductory post:

"The Internet is all about overshare — you can learn how to have sex in any number of ways, what the latest Valley Girl hauled in her latest shopping trip — and yet very few people share how they spend their money. I’m not putting myself out there to show people what they should be doing with their money, but rather to get a conversation going about personal finance. Maybe by taking a look at how I save and spend (and all the mistakes I’ll make), it’ll get readers thinking about their money and how they want to manage it."

So hopefully, you guys will all learn something from this series. Or puzzle over why I spent so much on shoes when it seems that I don't have enough money for groceries. Meanwhile, check out my post on how I track my day-to-day spendings.

PS: After texting a few friends about the news, they all responded with "OMG ARE YOU OK?"s. Yes, friends, I am OK. One pseudo-perk was that Kai Ryssdal and Tess Vigeland scared me shit-less about how kids my generation are screwed financially. In a very dramatic, "Gone with the Wind"-type of moment, I swore to myself with God as my witness, that I will live through this and I will succeed and I WILL BECOME PART OF THE ONE PERCENT. So I saved obsessively (emergency, fun, future biz) and started and maxed out my retirement accounts. So hopefully this means that this period of being poor is just part of the road to me pouring Cristal over my breakfast cereal every morning.

Yellow and gray

Beaded "ornaments" I made for two friends' wedding December wedding recepition. I wasn't too pleased with the end result -- I didn't bother taking a photo of the final table -- but I think these ended up quite pretty.

A hot mess: Roasted tomato sauce

I'm making more of an effort to eat in, as the income stream has gone down even more than before (time and money, when will you two ever intersect?). Fortunately, I have a Korean mom who makes food drops every few weeks of seaweed soup, Korean barbecue, veggies and fruits... I cook and grocery shop myself, but her bringing me sustenance helps out a lot. I suggest you get an Asian mom now. She will see you through this godforsaken economy.

Anyways, she recently gave me a few cartons of grape tomatoes. I'm not one to just pop these things in mouth and it's been chilly, so I wasn't in the mood for a cold salad. The only carbs left in the house was spaghetti noodles (also c/o of mom), so I decided to give tomato sauce a go.