Money Talk: Rent

It's been quiet here at Cavemen Go. I've been plotting out the course of my future since the end of summer and work work working to make things happen. In November, I began outlining a novel tentatively titled 1999, and just before Thanksgiving I began writing freelance for the Lowell Ledger. It is not for lack of words that I've been gone: it is for lack of time and lack of focus. For some time this blog just puttered along without purpose, content for the sake of content, but I intend to change that.

My financial obligations stand between me and my dreams. I expect that you have much the same problem. But money doesn't have to be as much of a deterrent as it is: we can join together and talk about how to save money and reapply it elsewhere. Let's start with the rent.

Finding the Right Place

Amy and I had a stroke of luck while looking for our current apartment. There are two apartment complexes in Lowell, and if either has an opening it is seldom at best. Beyond that, there are a couple independent property owners who rent to the public. When we were looking for a place to stay, Harold Ball the owner of Ball's Softee Cream was looking to fill a vacancy.

I don't want to tell you exact figures, but we have just about the cheapest rent in Lowell. The apartment is the upper story of a homey duplex and we absolutely love the place. But rent is still our most expensive single bill.

What is your experience with housing/paying rent?

Government Aid

When we first moved in, I had no idea how we were going to pay our bills. I was underemployed and encumbered with debt. In my first attempt to understand my options, I stumbled upon government assistance options. I don't like being dependent on state or federal assistance, but at the time it seemed like a possibility. My research lead me to an e-mail address and a non-response. I imagine we wouldn't qualify, but I know that some of you out there do.

Government assistance exists because we pay for it, but I still don't think people should become dependent on it. If you need help, you should apply, but I challenge you to go in with an escape plan. If you're saving money, put it away toward something that might help you reach the escape velocity from your circumstances: technical training, an interview outfit, etc. But most of all, act inn such a way as to minimize the amount of time thou rely on the benefits.

How do you feel about government assistance and access to government assistance?

Equity

Currently, Amy and I are renting. That means that my entire monthly payment goes to staying in this place for one month. After a year, if I discontinue this payment I own nothing and have accrued zero equity. It would be nice if we had something more to show for our payments, so we're looking into buying a house.

The main trouble is that my debt is great and my income is not. If we are to buy a house we will need via co-signer, and even with one it may not be enough. My goal is to pay the equivalent of our current rent toward a mortgage, and with said mortgage to gain equity enough to have other financial options.

To me it is a long and confusing process. Has anyone out there recently bought a house? What was it like? What are the tips and tricks that people should know about the process and the market?

We don't need to be under anyone's thumb financially. Let's talk about this. Let's free ourselves by degree.

The State of Black Comic Book Characters: Conclusion

As is often the case, I started with a big idea and lost steam part of the way through. Whereas I originally thought I was going to review every current comic book for the quality and care the writers and artists gave to depicting strong black characters, I have now decided to conclude the series after two posts covering six comics. You may rebuke me for my lack of courage, but the ultimate reason has little to do with the amount of work that goes into a project like this and a lot to do with the emotional impact. If you're looking for strong black characters in comic books who have as much emphasis and universal importance as they deserve, you're going to be depressed by the climate of current comics. I don't need a thirty-blog series to tell you that.

I'm not sure if I made it clear when I started this blog series, but I'm white. I know Rodney was quick to point it out when he shared my first article on Twitter. I'm not certain if it makes me disingenuous to forget to remind my readers of my social context, but some readers might note that a white person is the only person who can just decide to end his racial criticism of the comic books that he loves. I'll be the first to admit it: if comic writers and artists are giving me great stories that I can connect to, I honestly think I could get away reading books that are entirely composed of white characters. This may have something to do with the severe lack of minorities in some of the places I've lived, but it also has a lot to do with what privilege and whiteness do for a person. I honestly think that it would take me out of a story if all of our good and upright protagonists were white and all of our villains were black gang members who spoke only in broken English, but beyond that stark of a distinction I could get by.

I think this probes at a deeper question: Is this sort of reaction all right? Can we call literature good if it has no sense of justice, if it ignores the things that the status quo already find much too easy to ignore in the first place? This is the line between aesthetics and ethics, between beauty and justice, if ever such a thing could exist. Is art even considered art if it has no content that challenges, if it only placates and brings comfort? Or is that something else entirely?

My home town of Grand Rapids decided that it wished to develop a strong sense of culture while I was enjoying my travels. I am often hearing national news items about things like Art Prize, where art installations are featured throughout downtown Grand Rapids for a span of several weeks or about Heritage Hill which is considered one of the best historical neighborhoods in the country. When I was young, the only thing I ever heard about Grand Rapids was that it was the second cloudiest metropolitan area in the nation behind Seattle. While this fact could lead to providing a handful of artists with motivation for a blue period, it was rarely anything to be proud of.

In order to kick off Art Prize this year, Baltimore film director John Waters spoke at the Civic Theater and my girlfriend - who brags about her step father Cliff seeing one of the first scratch-and-sniff film experiences Waters ever put on - was quick to get tickets. Waters was introduced as a film maker but also as a collector. I didn't know if this meant that he collected strands of hair from his victims in his strangely successful second career as a serial killer or if he simply enjoyed his attic full of pogs, but after thinking for a moment I became aware that the announcer wanted the audience (many of whom were artists themselves) to know that Waters likes to buy art. Waters explained that he has never bought a piece of art that didn't originally repulse him. This might be an overstatement of art's connection to what is good and clean and moral and conservative, but I think it is a good starting point. I believe, with Waters, that art should trouble, disturb, move or de-center you.

I absolutely could get by reading comic books without thinking about issues of race. But it would be a little ironic to read the stories of superheroes constantly dealing with complex issues of justice without forcing myself to think of issues of justice, be it social, economic, racial or otherwise. At the end of the day, however, I would be reading comic books for the same reason my mother reads romance novels: it helps her pass the time between work and sleep and it conforms to an easy-to-predict formula. That just wouldn't fly for me. I am one of those armchair revolutionaries. When I see how much time I've spent watching reality TV on Netflix and think of all the adventures I could have gone on and art I could have made, be it literature or music or whatever, I hurt, and I want to rebel against myself. If I am going to be spending my time reading a comic book, one of two things has to happen: the book has to challenge me, or I have to challenge the book, preferably both.

I may have teased the idea of going back to a life where I can ignore issues of race in comic books, but I feel like the people who know me know that I could never do this. If it were possible before I began this short-lived blog series it certainly wasn't afterwards. I was able to humbly enter into a dialogue with people who don't have the option to check out when it comes to these characters. They will be made fun of if they dress as black Wolverine for Halloween. And I do believe that is a worst fate than being made fun of for being fat Spider-man, although I have only experienced the latter. In addition to this, I did an audit of every current comic book by the big two, Marvel and DC, from the New DCU/X-Men: Schism until present and gave all of these comics an incredibly subjective grade. I know where all of these comics stand when it comes to their black characters, and although it is a much better place than that of Asian, Latino/Latina, and individuals who belong to the dreaded "other" checkbox, it is not a good place. If I'm allowed to quote The Jeffersons, these people need some "movin' on up", and they need it fast.

If depression and white guilt weren't enough, the final reason that I need to end this project is because I have grown to despise articles where I find myself as the arbiter of what is good and bad. With an issue of race it is especially bad to place yourself on the top of the food chain, as judge, jury and executioner, because here's a gruesome fact: there have been white people who have made this decision and black people who have been lynched, enslaved, tortured and oppressed as a result. And that can't be me.

Continue the conversation. Bring questions and statements to this blog in the comments section. Challenge me on my Facebook. Hit me up. I want this to go on either forever or until everyone is hunky dory and there are no divisions of power. Look at your comic books differently. Learn to enjoy them not just for the intrigue of their plots, the development of their characters and the beauty of their illustrations - learn to love comics for their justice.

Frog Tries To Eat Fly Off Screen

I was in an incredibly bad mood when I noticed a link to this on Amy's Facebook - which she keeps open all of the time - and it was more than enough to cheer me up.

Borderlands 2 - Glitch or Feature

Steam pointed out how humiliating this situation is. You run out onto a poopslide. You get electrocuted. Then you get swirled up into a literal s*@%storm. Here's my thought: What do you put in that obituary? (I'm sure I'll have more Borderlands 2 tidbits to come. I'm a little bit enraptured with it at the moment.)

Lonely Island Medley Emmy's 2011

I know I'm a little behind the times by posting a performance that took place in 2011. But I also know that some of my good friends have not seen this video yet. Amy is obsessed with the men dressed as waves who dance with Michael Bolton.

Oh Long Johnson

If you're up to date on South Park then you've already seen this video. But if you're slow at these things like Amy and myself then you're in for something amazing. I can see your dinner party vocabulary growing. It could be that you're just happy to see me...

Five Guys Review

This is the video that the autotuned "Oh My Dayum" song was originally based on. In some ways this review of Five Guys Burgers and Fries is actually better than the song based on it. But then again, "Oh My Dayum" is forever. Check this one out. If you don't have an entirely new vocabulary after watching these two videos, I'll be surprised, YouTube!