I'm not made of money over here, obviously. Due to the strength of the American dollar compared to the yen, my salary, when converted to my home currency, is considerably smaller than that of my Canadian and Australian coworkers. That's presumably why I see so few Americans working at Nova, but so many American tourists.

For the curious, my monthly paycheck is about $2500 U.S., after taxes. Rent takes out $700, and food takes out about $900. My phone, water and electricity bills cost me another $200, and miscellaneous expenses like razor blades and garbage bags account for $100 or so. So I basically have about $600 left over each month, which thus far has been going entirely to furniture. But with the purchase of a rug and a ceiling lamp next month, I'll basically be in the clear, and ready to start saving for my retirement.

Ha! I'm joking, or course—if I cared about saving money, I'd still be a UI engineer in San Francisco. Instead, I'm in the process of figuring out what I need most, now that I have chairs to sit on and, coming soon, light to read by.

It's not a hard question to figure out, actually. I need the same thing I've always needed: a faster Mac. The rickety iBook I bought last year was a strategic decision. I wanted a low-end machine so I wouldn't be tempted to spend all my time playing video games and fooling around in Photoshop. The plan was that I'd be forced to spend all my free time making friends and hanging out. It only took me six months to spot the fatal flaw in this plan: I completely suck at making friends.

Self-pity aside, I've been devoting more and more of my free time to the project I mentioned back in October, and I've reached the point where, having completed the screenplay, character designs and some preliminary storyboards, I'm ready to do some more computer-intensive tasks like 3D modeling and sceneplanning. And my 500Mhz G3 processor just ain't gonna cut it. So I've been trying to figure out a way for my little paycheck to make itself useful. The problem is, I keep upping the ante in ridiculous ways. Here's a helpful breakdown of how my thought process sabotages my every ambition:

Hmm. I could try to convince one of my San Francisco friends to visit the storage place where I've got my G4 Cube, pull it out and mail it to me. The shipping would probably cost about $300, plus whatever it would take to bribe them to do it.

But that's a huge potential hassle for my friend, and what if the shipping wound up costing way more than I expected?

Besides, for only $400 more, I could just buy a round-trip ticket to S.F.! Take a vacation! Visit my friends, and bring back my Cube as a carry-on!

Hmm. But I'd still need to buy a monitor for the Cube, so this idea isn't as cheap as it seems. Not to mention that it's one more bulky item to ship back when I'm done here.

On the other hand, for another $400, I could buy a refurbished 867Mhz G4 Powerbook 12"! It's smaller and lighter than my current iBook, plus it has a longer battery life and a CD burner!

Hmm. But 867Mhz isn't even as fast as my three-year-old Cube, and with 3D animation, every Mhz counts.

Ah, but for $400 more, I could get the refurbished 1Ghz Powerbook 12", which has a DVD burner...

Er, ahem. Of course, a $1500 computer would take me three months to save up for, so it doesn't really solve my immediate problem. Back to the drawing board.

Hell, if I had that much money, I could get that $1900 projection TV I've had my eye on...