Steve’s Blog

Once while I was in college, I was assigned to group in class and told that we should complete an important class project as a team. If you know anything about group projects, you probably know that they suck. There is always that one slacker who rides the coattails of everyone else in the group, and then coasts in with the grade that the group, not the individual, earned. Those slackers are the worst. This story actually goes in a direction that might surprise you. See, this time, I was the slacker in the group. In my defense, at the time I was taking a full load of classes and working two jobs… but even that doesn’t excuse the pitiful effort [...]

In 2002, I was working with a Fraternity at USF at Ray Jay stadium, manning a booth trying to raise funds for something or other (can’t remember what, exactly). The Buc’s were playing the 49ers I believe, and apparently it was a really big deal. Divisional Playoffs or something. To be honest, I don’t remember that much about the game… what I remember was after the game was over and the Buc’s won, the mentality of the people as we were leaving the stadium. It was absolute mayhem. Cars were in gridlock and horns were honking everywhere. Dudes wearing jersey’s with other dudes names on the back were hugging random dudes in the parking lot. I remember some toothless guy who looked [...]

I got a lot of positive response when I posted my method for purchasing a new car, which is long on legwork but short on actually spending money. I was really happy that a lot of people seemed to benefit from that, mostly because I had to figure out that process on my own through a lot of trial and error. The same thing held true about saving money and planning for retirement. The same thing held true for buying a new house. I get a lot of joy in helping people with the stuff because I am passionate about learning about it. One MASSIVE thing that I don’t understand though, is how some people can’t seem to be bothered with learning [...]

One of the watershed moments in my life was when I finally got fed up with relationship after relationship going down in flames. Every time one would end, I would resolve to try harder and do better the next time, invariably with the same result. Eventually, I got brave (and desperate) enough to venture into a counselors office to find out why the rest of the world was crazy. Turns out of course the world wasn’t crazy. My counselor explained that I struggled with codependency. Since I was a little kid, I had been taught through interactions that the feelings of others were my responsibility. Someone was feeling sad? It was my job to cheer them up. Someone didn’t like me? It [...]

So DIY projects are kindof my thing. Sometimes, I tend to bite off a little too much. For example, I present exhibit A, our new patio floor, 13 months in the making. It all started when we visited a granite countertop place to get a quote on replacing ours and found out that they THROW AWAY the granite scraps. Worse than that, they have to pay by the pound to have someone take them away! Hmm… With nothing but our Nissan Versa, my trusty wheelbarrow, and permission from the granite place to “take as much as I wanted”, I got to work hauling these scrap granite pieces to our house. I decided to lay them out in a pattern first, then go [...]

Epcot is my favorite Disney theme park. I know that Epcot is usually everyone’s least favorite Disney park, and that makes me sad beyond words. I remember the sense of wonder I had at riding the boat through the “Living with the Land” ride. Getting to observe what were were able to accomplish with hydroponics, and how it was going to change the way the world produced its food. Walking through the “Innoventions” to see all of the cool things that was going to make our world a better place. Seeing a pavilion where the entire place was devoted to what we could accomplish with our imagination. More and more, Epcot is becoming less about wonder and innovation and more about rides [...]