I also have to restrain my greed these days. (BTW, force and enforce are not synonyms. If in doubt, ask yourself: Force whom to enforce what?)

Another month, another stack of bills to pay! Actually only a few, although I am sure there will be a utility bill safely after Christmas, when most people are broke. That way the utility company can generously offer to let you pay it over two months instead, against an interest that just barely resembles usury. I won’t need that option, barring divine retribution, I just think I notice a pattern in bills being scarce before and during the Christmas shopping and plentiful in January.

While I am not being squeezed financially, I still have some loan left, almost a year after I moved. It is not particularly expensive, but a bit embarrassing. Before I moved here, money was plentiful, despite my modest income. If I wanted a new computer or a new mobile phone, I would simply buy it, since I always had money lying around that I did not need. But these days I have to think it over: Do I really want to borrow money for this? And while I do that, I tend to find out that I don’t need this thing at all, or certainly not this year.

One thing that still flies under the radar though is books. Today I bought Voyage of the Dawn Treader, as is good and proper. I have not bought it before, but evidently the unwitting parody… er, movie, is coming out these days. And, more importantly, an online acquaintance has written a book about the mystical aspects of Narnia and of Dawn Treader in particular, hurriedly published to coincide with the movie. I better read the real thing first, eh? Although I kind of have the cliff notes in my head due to unavoidable cultural references.

I’ve also spent a little time studying Japanese on my computer. I have a vague plan to do that a little each day, not counting anime. Anime is nice and all, but as I say, the real life applications of being able to ask a shrine maiden to go out with me is likely to be scarce. So instead I have started on more realistic phrases like “Can you speak English?”, “Where is the bathroom?” and “Whose book is this?”. I am sure if I go over this stuff for half an hour each day, I’ll make steady progress.

You know, it is probably a very enviable position to not be able to fill a whole entry with just talking about my bills. But envy leads straight to hell, so instead please share in my happiness. And I will try to share in yours, if any.