A long time ago, I started working with/ on audio equipment. The two main ventures of mine, Art and Audio, have kind of run parallel since I discovered the latter. I went to art school- they call it a "college", now- and worked at one of the local audio salons at the same time, working on and building equipment while at the same time making the arts.

A few years ago, when Disney decided that they no longer needed animators, my primary purpose in LIFE was pretty much extinguished. I watched my friends and fellow students who were computer animators weather some rough patches while the excess of their population were weeded out by competition and better workflow, while I made my due and paid the bills with electronics. It was a somewhat flavorless meal for me. Eventually, a head hunter, who had been hired by a manufacturer of some of the shiniest, unobtainable audio gear, learned of my fevered existence from one of the local equipment dealers for whom I had done a number of repairs for.

Long story short, I hopped on that gravy train pretty damn fast. My hasty goodbye call could be heard echoing softly from the distance, distorted by the doppler effect as I disappeared over the hills. I didn't feel badly. There were times when I was denied my pay because the "shop" didn't have any money, when the owner had plenty of his own he could have given me, and he would frequently change the conditions of our agreement for pay when the mood suited him.

So, yeah, Fuck that.

Anyways, I had built a pretty nice little stereo to call my own over time- trading equipment up, selling it, repairing or building things and trading them for other things- no significant money changing hands in the process. I can't afford to BUY the things I build every day. No way in Hell. These things always come as a surprise to my customers. They always assume that my boss and I have some insane stereo system at home, because thats what they just bought from us. But the truth is: You don't get rich making things FOR the rich.

So it was with a little sense of disappointment that I let go of my dream pair of speakers, and a dream pair of cables last month so I could pay off all my credit card bills with the money. The need to rebuild my credit was greater than my need for sweet sounds, and though I miss the damn things, I miss having a roof over my head even more. This one is looking a bit shaky at the moment. So at least for now, its back to using the pair of speakers my boss bought at the pawn shop for me for $300- they sound pretty good, after I modified them, and I've started building the replacements that will hopefully turn out even better than the ones I had to let go.

Here's to hoping the $700 a month I've been paying out to the credit cards makes a difference in my finances. Its funny, though. It doesn't feel as liberating as I thought it would.