Winter In A Hurry

It seemed like we only had a couple of weeks of pleasant Fall weather. Winter showed up mighty early this year. I had to unwrap my peacoat from the plastic, baby suffocating garment bag today, but any excuse to break out The Hill-side gear is fine with me.

Batman, Snow, & Mint

As is usually the case, I'm not very active on here in the middle of the semester. Once I get into the school groove, it's just week after week of trying to keep my brain alive without anything interesting going on. This weekend is Halloween weekend, so presumably the entire contingent of able-bodied college partiers should be out in force tonight. It's also snowing. Winter showed up in a hurry and I don't think all the sexy-"something" costumed coeds are going to appreciate that tonight. I, on the other hand, have opted to stay inside today, rather than venture out. I've done nothing today except apply to jobs and play Batman: Arkham City (which is fantastic). I'm getting to the point where I care very little about school work and can only think about the unsettling prospect of long-term unemployment as I'm on the brink of reentering the job market. So, if you are in a position to get or help me get a job, now's your chance to be my best friend.

On a similar note, I was looking at my finances earlier and it's really nothing except horribly depressing and each time I look is even more depressing. I'm a Mint.com user so I have my data neatly arranged for the couple of years since I started using it. Here's a chart of my net worth for about two years. It starts close to a year after I started working and shows a basically symmetric rise and fall of my savings on either side of the start of grad school. For privacy's sake, I left out the actual values.

...

I NEED A JOB.



* - The chart does not include my student loans. If it did, it would be even more depressing.

Oak Street Bootmakers

I recently picked up a pair of Trail Oxfords from Oat Street Bootmakers in Chicago. In somewhat of a recent development, I've begun to be drawn to the appeal of high quality, American made goods. Denim, leather goods, shoes. The Hill-side, Tellason, Tanner Goods. This is in part thanks to guys like Ryan over at his Simple Threads blog. I've been on the lookout for a go-to, durable pair of shoes I can wear with anything and is not a sneaker. I stumbled on Oak Street and was immediately sold. Since I received them, they've rarely left my feet (except when Boston is being Boston and the weather is gross, which, admittedly, is fairly often). They're exceedingly comfortable and the Horween leather is like butter.

I'm not going to be attempting to break in to the fashion blogosphere, but I just thought I'd share in case any of you guys are looking for a handsome, comfortable shoe that can be dressed up or down. Definitely check out Oak Street. As an added bonus, before I pulled the trigger, I had a nice, extended email conversation with the owner/cobbler himself, George Vlagos. George answers all emails personally and is the kind of person you always want to speak with at a business.