Midwest Chasing

Right now I’m working for an eBay consignment shop . I like it because it gives me flexible hours to go storm chasing as I was able to go on my trip with no problems. The main issue with this job is the fact that the pay isn’t all that good plus it’s in a volatile industry. You would think that with the economy in the shitter people would be selling more things for cash but they aren’t.

Since I graduated with my BA in History, I’ve been taking classes that would enable me to take the Comptia A+ exam certification. While I was doing so, however, I stumbled into my primary way of making money right now, which is e-commerce. I’ve got over 100+ websites selling everything from camping gear to shoes to car parts. I made over $2,000 in May alone doing this.

I bought another dedicated server last week and am still preparing it to launch a major push by me to expand in this area. It would be nice to make a full time living doing this as it would give me much leeway for doing what I love: storm chasing. It’s a good feeling to be chasing a storm and going home and seeing that you made $400+ that day as well. Plus, I don’t want to be cooped up in an office environment all day.

Christmas is soon approaching and 2007 will end soon which means the chase season is slowly approaching. I’ve been looking at purchasing a better video camera because the one I currently have, a Panasonic PV-GS39 is terrible at low light and I do not like that the only way you can focus is through the joystick. Furthermore, you cannot focus to infinity like you can on some other cameras, like my old Digital8 Sony TRV230.

I’ve been  looking around eBay for a used Sony VX2000 or TRV900 after reading the reviews and seeing how they both are great at low light recording.

Also, I bought a copy of Storms of 2007; to see a preview of it check out this post on Dick McGowan’s blog.

Today’s another dreary day in Illinois with temps hovering in the 30s.

My father decided to put up the Christmas decorations on the house and I went to help him set everything up. I decided to bring the dogs along to enjoy the weather in their new coats.  As I’m writing this it’s starting to sleet.

There was severe weather in the Chicago area but all of it formed literally a county east of me and it kept training over the same areas. Was cool to see the towers forming but that was about it.

Karl Schulze sent out the COD email newsletter for 2008 chasing; the first meeting is November 30th and hopefully we won’t have all the snow like we did last year.

I also started a new job last Wed. I started work at the iSoldit eBay store in Palatine. It’s great so far; all I’ve been doing is answering questions on eBay and packaging things for FedEx.

So I’m leaving my job as it’s not where I want my life to go; my last day is Sat. After that I’m doing some traveling.

Currently at $632.48 saved up for the trip in 2008.

I’m up another $100 for chasing next year; currently at $525.45.

I’m also trying to improve my photography/video skills by improving the quality/sharpness levels.

I’m budgeting between $1300 to $1500 for the COD trip next year. That includes the trip fee plus my meal ticket and anything extra I buy on the trip. As of now, I’ve got $427.66 to be stashed in my HSBC account. Not bad for July.