smith

Buying or renting is a big decision – and has both economic and personal implications. I think someone once told me that I would be way better off investing the money that I wasn’t spending on mortgage payments, but in the end I have been very happy to own a house. Sure, it sucks up all my available cash… but then I’d likely just spend it on other stuff, so why not invest it in where I live? In my case I really love the location and the house itself, so I think it is an investment in my family’s well-being, my peace of mind, and my future as I hope it will retain its value and continue being livable for a long time. One thing with buying a house, though, is that it ties you down in a way that renting doesn’t do. Even if you aren’t bothered by the cost and bother of selling your house, you just aren’t provoked into selling and moving the way you are provoked into moving when your lease ends or the landlord decides to raise the rent or whatever.

I will be there for sure, because I am the Conference Chair. But I wanted to put it into 43 things to raise awareness among others.

The association of Internet Researchers (http://www.aoir.org) is having their 8th conference in Vancouver, CANADA, in October of 2006. The conference web site is http://conferences.aoir.org. You can also find out more information at my web site: http://arago.cprost.sfu.ca/smith/

Vancouver is a beautiful city, and AoIR conferences are a lot of fun, if you are an academic with an interest in the internet.

I thought I would be clever and fly to sydney and then buy a ticket in australia for the last ‘leg’ – in one way this was a good idea, as I had time to rest and visit that city on the way there, but in another way it was a bit of a waste of time; I should have booked a through ticket. In the end I probably would have saved money and a lot of time (because I had to allow for my own transfer time… no one airline was going to be responsible).