A Second Chance to Ride the Digital Wave
Have you ever discovered something so profound that you knew it would change the world forever? For me that moment came in 1994. The world was a different place back then. Bill Clinton was President. NAFTA had just been signed into law. Kurt Kobain was found dead in his home from a self inflicted shotgun blast.
Almost no one had a home computer. Neither Google nor Internet Exlorer existed. DVDs hadn’t been invented. Very few people had cell phones and those that did looked like this:
And people who had these were actually considered cool...
I’d just graduated high school and enrolled for my first semester at Santa Rosa Junior College. I wanted to become a journalist, so one of the first classes I took was Electronic Journalism. I had no idea what the course was about, but I figured it had Journalism in the name so I’d give it a shot.
The class ended up having nothing to do with Journalism. It was actually a computer course about creating web pages in a language called HTML. I felt duped. I didn’t even own a computer and neither did most of my friends. What was the point of learning this odd new language? How would it help me get my writing published?
At that time no one knew what the internet was. Yahoo hadn’t gone public yet. The only web browser was the beta version of Netscape. Words like dot com were only known to a select few computer geeks, and the few who did get online did so with a slower than molasses 56k modem. DSL and cable modems didn’t exist.
By the end of my first day of class I no longer considered Electronic Journalism a waste of time. Quite the opposite, my attitude did a complete 180. I realized that the world wide web was going to change everything. I saw the potential of what the web would become, and I wanted to be on the cutting edge of that digital wave. The information age had begun.
I was so excited I changed my major from journalism to computer science. Before long I lucked into a job at a company called Advanced Fibre Communications where I had my first taste of professional programming.
I loved it. I regularly worked over 80 hours a week, often with no weekend. I didn’t care. Writing code got into my blood, and I couldn’t get enough of it. Over the next six months I wrote a variety of programs using something called Visual Foxpro (kudos if you remember it).
Unfortunately my stint at AFC only lasted six months. The company decided to implement a rival technology called SAP and my entire department was let go. Since I didn’t have a degree getting another programming job was out of the question, but I didn’t give up. I decided to go back to school.
I took a part time job working at a local computer store to help pay the bills. The job was an important step, because it taught me a whole new set of skills. I learned to build and repair computers, set up networks and most importantly troubleshoot computer problems.
Within a year I became the head technician. A year after that I was running the store. I went from knowing nothing about computers to building them from scratch in my sleep. I learned the ins and outs of running a small business, but the more time passed the less profitable the computer store became. Worse, it consumed enough of my time that I dropped out of college.
Through it all I was left with the nagging feeling that I was missing out on the world wide web. I kept thinking that there was some way I could tap into it to make my fortune, but I was too busy dealing with a rocky marriage and paying my rent to give the matter much thought.
Eventually I decided to leave the store and took a job as a database coordinator for the telecom division of Nokia. Within a year I became the youngest software engineer on their payroll. I didn’t have a degree, but they were desperate for engineers and I was an exceptionally fast learner.
The next twelve months were the most fun I have ever had professionally. Management brought me a broad array of problems, and I was allowed to solve them however I wished. I loved coming up with creative solutions and thrived on the challenges I was presented.
Unfortunately it didn’t last. I was doing a great job, but the telecom division was losing money at a record rate. Nokia decided to close the plant I worked at, instead outsourcing our jobs to Taiwan. My coworkers and I became a victims of the dot com crash, and we weren’t alone.
Over six hundred thousand engineers were suddenly without a job, and I spent the next ten months in a fruitless search for work. I applied for everything from bench tech to network security to junior programmer. My resume was chock full of relevant experience, but there just weren’t any jobs to be had.
So I packed my bags and moved to Los Angeles. The market wasn’t any better down there, and when I didn’t find a job in the IT field I took a temp position in the mortgage industry. Within a month they promoted me to funding assistant. Then funder. Then I took over the lock desk. Then I started drawing docs.
Somewhere along the way I took over the entire IT department. I created the website, fixed the computers, set up our eFax, ran the network, set up the linux server and did everything else a small company demands of a computer guy.
I worked there for six years and used my command of technology to help fund forty million dollars in loans every month. I worked 60+ hours most weeks, but I made money like it was going out of style. The problem was that while I loved the computer work I hated the mortgage industry. I also hated Los Angeles. So in 2007 I decided to move home to Santa Rosa.
I spent a few months looking for a job, but unfortunately there wasn’t much in the way of tech support, networking or programming. In the end I took a job in a call center at Redwood Credit Union (an amazing company to work for). Last December I transferred to a new department with an accompanying pay raise and love my new postion.
The thing is I miss programming. I miss creating software from nothing but raw ideas and the power of my imagination. I get some of that fix from my writing, but I still get the itch to code.
Which brings us to today.
I haven’t done much programming in the last three years. Sure, there have been a few side projects but nothing steady. I desperately miss programming, so what can I do? The answer struck me like a bolt of lightning.
Stop trying to find a programming job and start working for myself. Why not write my own software?
Enter the Smartphone
In 2008 I bought an iPhone. I was fascinated with the sheer number of apps you can download. Some are free, some have a small cost. As soon as I saw them a lightbulb went on. Why not write my own applications?
I did some research, but unfortunately Apple requires you to develop using a Mac. I’ve always been a PC user, so I would need to shell out nearly a thousand dollars to buy the computer, and another hundred to enroll in their developer program. I refused to drop that kind of money, because I worried that I might not see a return on my investment.
What if I couldn’t come up with any good ideas for an app? What if I was lazy and didn’t spend the time learning the Objective C language after I dropped the money? I fell prey to my own fears and shelved the idea.
Since then three things have changed. The first is my writing. Since February of 2009 I have belted out an average of two thousand words every day. This has helped me cultivate a newfound discipline and I asked myself a very serious question. Could I harness this discipline for other parts of my life?
The second change came when I answered that question in January. I decided I was going to start working out and applied the same discipline that I’d learned from writing. I was apprehensive at first, but seven months later I’ve gone to the gym almost every day. I’m stronger, in better shape and feel like a completely different person.
More importantly I’ve proven to myself that I can apply discipline to other parts of my life in order to build habits that will allow me to accomplish serious goals. It’s filled me with a confidence I’ve found lacking in recent years, and its got me asking myself what else I can accomplish.
That question was answered last month when a friend brought his iPad over. When I’d first heard about it I dismissed it as an overpriced toy destined to fail. Then I spent ten minutes using it. The experience took me all the way back to 1994 when I first discovered the World Wide Web. I knew immediately that the iPad was going to change everything in the same way the web did.
Yes the iPad really is that cool
My prediction? Tablet computers like the iPad will replace both desktops and laptops in the next ten years. I realize that’s a bold claim, but hear me out.
They are smaller, lighter, more portable, and more aesthetically pleasing than a laptop. They allow you to do everything from surfing the internet to reading books to writing a term paper to watching netflix. It can hold your entire music collection, picture collection and your entire library of books with room left over. It can even be set up on your desk like a picture frame so it can cycle through your photos like a slide show.
I just took mine to Yosemite and used it for everything from navigation (driving directions) to working on my novel while watching the sun set. I use it at work during meetings to take notes and have even set it up to deliver presentations using Powerpoint.
I believe the tablet PC is the next logical step in the evolution of computers. It’s going to replace traditional laptops and PCs the way DVDs replaced VHS. The same way Smartphones are replacing the traditional cell phones.
We are standing on the verge of a massive change in personal computing that will rival the advent of the world wide web itself. In the next decade you will see more and more people adopt this technology. Already universities are brainstorming ways to work tablets into their curriculums.
The hardware will only get cheaper, and when it does more and more people will buy them. The iPad looks amazing, but few people are willing to drop $500+ for one. What if you could get one for $35? Tens of millions will purchase them as the price drops, creating an ever larger pool of people willing to buy software.
So what does this have to do with me getting back into programming? There are fifty million iPhone users. There are nine million iPad users, with a million more being added every month. There would be even more, but that’s as fast as Apple can make iPads.
I can write applications for both using the same language, which gives me access to nearly sixty million users. Tablet technology is still in its infancy, so there will never be a better time for me to start making apps.
This has the potential to be extraordinarily profitable. How profitable? If you charged $.99 cents for an app and .01% of iPhone/iPad users decided to buy it you’d make $60,000 in raw revenue. If a full 1% liked your app you’d gross $600,000. Those numbers are theoretical of course, but not as much as you might think. One of the engineers I worked with at Nokia got into iPhone programming in 2008. A game he made grossed over $50,000 in the first year.
Am I expecting similar success? Not even close. It might happen, but its more likely that I’ll see much smaller returns since my first app targets a limited audience. Still, even a couple hundred dollars every month is more than I have right now.
Once I made the decision to become an iPhone developer I spent a few days brainstorming. Three potential apps took shape, and one is simple enough to finish by the end of the summer. I decided to work on that one first, but before I began I thought it was a good idea to see if there was any existing competition. To my surprise their isnt! My app will be the first of its kind to market.
Now that I had my idea I needed an iPad, a Macbook, a website and an Apple Developer membership. Add in an advertising budget and I realized I was looking at a $3,000 investment. That’s quite a chunk of change to spend on the chance that an iPhone application I haven’t even written yet will take off.
Bear in mind that I have always been a conservative pragmatist. I’ve never spent so much as a dollar in a casino, because I don’t like the odds. I don’t take chances unless I am pretty damn sure I will see a return on my investment. Polite people call me frugal. Not so polite people call me miserly.
So you can understand how hard investing $3,000 is for me. But you know what? I decided to bite the bullet and do it anyway. My rationale went something like this.
When the world wide web hit in the mid 90s I wasn’t in a position to ride the wave like so many of my older friends. I was young, untrained and had no capital. I didn’t know squat about advertising or marketing. I couldn’t even afford to buy myself a computer, much less get a business up and running.
I knew how big the web would be. I told anyone and everyone who’d listen. Fortunes were going to be made. Yet I was powerless to claim a piece of it. Instead I watched as people I knew got rich. I saw first Yahoo, then Google become the powerhouses they are today.
Don’t get me wrong I learned some very necessary skills during that time. Today you’d be hard pressed to find someone more versatile or knowledgable about computers than I am. I can program, do tech work, web design, database creation, build and repair computers, set up networks…you get the picture.
Still, I’m left with this hollow feeling. I missed a golden opportunity to ride the digital wave to fame and riches, and that’s haunted me ever since. It was a once in a lifetime chance, or so I thought. Now I am not so sure. I believe I have a second chance and I plan to capitalize on it.
When I was 18 I lacked the drive and discipline to start my own company and make it profitable. Today I have both. I can do this. I will do this. I have invested nearly $2,000 in hardware and software. I have looked into advertising, marketing and establishing a killer website. I have written my first test application. It’s on my iPhone even as we speak.
In another month I plan to have a beta version of my first iPhone / iPad application ready to go. I’ll also have another blog post up in the next week or two detailing my progress and marketing strategy. Wish me luck!
Our Jobs Are Not Coming Back
How many people do you know that are currently unemployed? I have two family members and a double handful of friends that have been unable to find work no matter how long they’ve searched. Some have been looking for as long as two years. One has given up entirely.
The economy lost 11,000 jobs a day since December of 2007. Over eight million jobs simply disappeared, leaving people scrambling to find work. Many people are asking when the economy will improve. They want to know when the jobs will be coming back. The answer is grim. They aren’t. The old industries and ways of doing business are dying, and many of us will need to retrain for different fields if we want to find work.
There are many factors preventing the revival of existing industries. When taken together they paint a very disturbing picture about the future of the American economy.
Trade Imbalance
As you can see from this chart the US hit its peak as an exporting nation in 1970. Until that time we sold more goods to the world than we bought, and we invested the difference. Our nation was the richest in the world because we out produced everyone else.
We invented cars, radios, televisions, planes and home computers. The world clamored for these inventions and we got rich meeting the demand.
1971 was the first year that this changed. Foreign companies took our inventions and created cheaper, more efficient versions. Suddenly we were importing more than we exported, and the imbalance increased year after year. Why buy a Ford pickup when you could get a Toyota for 70% of the price? Why buy an American television when you could get a Sony cheaper?
U.S. companies scrambled to find a way to become more competitive. They knew that they needed to reduce costs if they wanted any hope of competing with their foreign rivals. Unfortunately this was no easy task. Foreign based corporations had cheaper labor, cheaper material cost and cheaper development cost simply because their countries had less wealth.
As a result American companies began going out of business at an alarming rate. Over the last forty years we transformed from a manufacturing economy to a FIRE economy. Steel Mills, auto plants, canning companies and many other businesses folded as they were undercut by cheaper foreign competition.
In their place came Finance, Insurance and Real Estate companies. This transformation has so overwhelmed our economy that every one of you knows several people who work in one of the FIRE industries. I’m living proof. I currently work for a credit union, and before that I worked for a mortgage bank.
Why is this a bad thing? None of those companies produce anything. They make their money on the backs of the manufacturing economy. Remove that manufacturing and eventually the FIRE industries go out of business. An economy needs goods to survive, and we’ve lost the ability to produce our own.
In 2009 we imported 380 billion dollars more than we exported. From blenders to TVs to washers to cars we’re buying from other countries instead of manufacturing ourselves. That simply isn’t sustainable in the long term.
The less we produce the less the dollar is worth, and eventually the world will stop taking worthless pieces of paper in exchange for their goods. Traditionally the dollar was backed by gold and silver, but when it was decoupled in 1979 our currency was no longer based on anything.
In theory its value comes from the manufacturing power of what was once the most powerful nation on earth. However, that power fades every year thus weakening the once mighty dollar.
Outsourcing
Most of us are painfully aware of jobs being outsourced. From the auto industry to toys to engineering our jobs have been shipped overseas at an ever increasing rate. When did this begin? Why did it happen?
U.S. corporations have long searched for a way to remain competitive in our new global economy. The best way to do this is cutting costs, and one of the largest expenses most companies face is labor. If you have to pay someone $45 an hour, pay for pensions and pay benefits as U.S. automakers do how are you going to compete with a company that pays $7 an hour with no benefits? It can’t be done.
That leaves a CEO in a difficult position. Either you move your manufacturing overseas and pay that same $7 or you get undercut by your competition who does. The long term effect of this outsourcing has been devestating.
Fifty years ago one third of U.S. jobs were in manufacturing. Today that number has dropped to less than 10%. In the last decade alone two million manufacturing jobs have moved overseas. This means that today four fifths of our 131 million person work force is in service based industries. Which brings us too…
Automation
How many of you have used the Redbox DVD service located in most grocery stores? It’s a pretty cool little setup. You browse a computer terminal, select the movie you want and pay a buck a day to rent it. You don’t generally have to wait in line, and the service is far cheaper than going to a video store. The service has exploded in popularity, but unfortunately it has created a grim side effect.
Do you remember when there was a Blockbuster on every corner? Those days are gone. Blockbuster has closed over 40% of their stores and has lost billions in the last few years due to the rise of Netflix and Redbox. Thousands of employees were laid off, and you can bet that number will increase as Blockbuster rolls out new Redbox like kiosks.
How many of you have used the automated checkouts now located in Walmart or your local grocery store? They sure are convenient, but they also reduce the need for both checkers and baggers. Technology is destroying service jobs at an alarming rate, and the people it displaces lack the job skills to seek other employment.
This sort of automation has also been embraced by manufacturing. Robotic components are replacing many jobs that have traditionally done by humans. The more this happens the more people are forced to search for work elsewhere.
If you lose a service based job your only hope is retraining for another industry, but competition for those jobs is already fierce. Even if you make it back to school and come out with say an accounting degree you are fighting against a sea of accountants with job experience for the few open positions.
An Ever Increasing Labor Pool
Millions of immigrants and high school / college graduates enter the work force every year. So many that we need to add 150,000 jobs every month just to meet population growth. Yet that work force is already saturated by the unemployed who have been seeking work for months or even years.
Worse, our graduates are some of the worst educated in the world. They aren’t graduating with the skills necessary to find employment. They are being trained for jobs that no longer exist. Even engineers and programmers can’t find jobs after graduation, because those jobs have moved overseas.
Most of these graduates are saddled with enormous debt ranging from $20,000 to over $100,000. How will they pay that back with no job? It’s a bleak situation and one has to ask. Who is benefitting from all of this?
The Top 1%
The wealthiest 1% of U.S. citizens control a staggering 42% of our wealth. Contrast that to the bottom 80%, which controls just 7%. The numbers haven’t been this skewed since the Great Depression. Coincidence? Or course not.
No economy can function when the bulk of the wealth is in the hands of so few. A healthy economy is one that distributes the wealth across a much broader spectrum, as was the case in the United States in the 50s and 60s. Back then the wealthiest 1% controlled just 8% of our collective wealth. Their share of our economy has increased by 500% in just under 50 years.
Since they have the vast majority of the money it means the bottom 80% don’t have the capital necessary to create new businesses, the lifeblood of our economy. That makes creating new jobs extraordinarily difficult, and puts the average citizen at the mercy of large corporations who have no sympathy for their plight.
Quite simply they are siphoning the wealth from the middle class and casting the vast majority of americans into perpetual debt slavery. Our livelihoods are disappearing to line the pockets of the mega-rich who have a stranglehood on our politicians.
Nor is this the first time it’s happened. The same rampant greed crippled the U.S. in the 1920s, and led to the Great Depression. It took fifteen years and World War II to pull us out of the economic collapse wrought by the richest men in the country.
Is it any wonder that we’ve lost over eight million jobs in the last three years? That figure doesn’t even include all the self-employed people whose small businesses folded. Many estimates suggest that the number of jobs lost is over ten million when you take those small business owners into account.
The official unemployment statistic is 9.5%, but that’s a completely bullshit number. It doesn’t include anyone who was self employed, or anyone whose unemployment benefits have run out. The Senate’s failure to pass the latest unemployment extension removed 1.2 million from the official statistics, which makes the ‘official’ unemployment lower. How much sense does that make?
The real unemployement number is closer to 16%. Some estimates place it as high as 20%. This is easily verifiable. Of the people you know who are old enough to work how many are unemployed? There’s a pretty good chance that one in five of your friends is out of a job.
Nor will this trend reverse itself anytime soon. Our trade imbalance prevents manufacturing from returning. Our service jobs are being gutted by automation. The flow of jobs being outsourced hasn’t slowed. Our education is the worst among the developed nations of the world.
The ugly reality is that most U.S. jobs are not coming back. If we want to compete again we need to deal with these problems, or our future is looking pretty grim. We need education reform. We need to develop new manufacturing industries. We need to stop the outsourcing of our jobs. We need to halt the flow of illegal immigration.
If we can’t accomplish these things expect to see our standard of living continue to deteriorate.
Not all bad news
If all of this sounds like gloom and doom there is a silver lining. As our standard of living drops and the value of the dollar decreases it makes us more competitive globally. Eventually it will be cheaper to manufacture goods here than it is in China or India, and when that happens expect to see a return of at least some of our manufacturing jobs.
Also, even if 20% of our work force is unemployed that means that 80% is employed. The bottom won’t fall out of our economy tomorrow, but we will see a slow decline no matter what we do. You know what? That’s ok.
Americans have lived beyond their means for so long that we forgot what being frugal meant. We are going to have to return to the core economic principles that catapulted our country to greatness, and when we do we’ll begin the long climb back to prosperity.
The next two decades will be difficult, but it will also return our nation to the work ethic and drive that made us the wealthiest in the world.
Six Month Review 2010
Goal #1- Lose 50 Pounds
I’ve been working hard all year to lose weight. Believe me when I say it’s been a constant battle, one that I have nearly given up more than once. Despite the pitfalls along the way I stuck with it and now that I’m halfway through the year I’m glad I did. As of this morning I am down 13.8 pounds since January 1st and 17.2 pounds since my peak in March.
I was originally shooting for 25 pounds by now, which means I am a little over half way to the goal I set for today. On the one hand it means that I failed my stated goal, but that’s viewing things from a glass half empty mentality. I lost 13 pounds. If I double that in the second half of the year I’ll still have lost 26 pounds, and while that might not be where I want to end up it is most definitely progress.
It’s important to remember that the year isn’t over either. If I am more diligent in the next six months I could easily lose 20 pounds or more. I might even hit my goal of 50 this year.
I believe that’s possible. From January through April my weight see-sawed back and forth, hitting its peak in mid-april at 241. That means since April 15th I’ve lost 17.2 pounds. That’s 1.72lbs a week. There are 26 weeks left in the year. That means at this rate I could lose another 40lbs.
Will I? Probably not. There will be plateaus, but as Bruce Lee once said, “There are no limits. Only plateaus and you must get past them.” I can and will continue to make progress, and if I am diligent I will hit my weight loss goals for the year.
Goal # 2- Get in good enough shape to go rock climbing
You know it occurs to me that I have no idea how good of shape I need to be in to go rock climbing, which makes this goal very difficult to measure. What I can measure is how good of shape I am to go hiking.
When I began in January I found simple hikes very challenging. The east trail in Armstrong Woods was a serious endeavor, and the first summit on Sugarloaf Mountain left my legs shaking and my breathing labored. At the end of the first quarter I’d completed much more challenging hikes, but it still took a supreme effort to get to the top.
Now hikes that nearly killed me are literally a walk in the park. I can climb the entire first summit of Sugarloaf at a brisk walk without pausing even once. A ten mile hike is a fun excursion instead of a grueling personal challenge. I feel like a completely different person.
I know what sort of shape I was in when I played paintball before. It was good, but I am in far better shape today. I can exert myself continuously for an hour with ease, which is perfect to get out there and play. I’ve lost enough weight to fit into my old gear too. Which leads me too…
Goal #3- Get back into paintball
On the one hand this goal could be considered a complete failure as I haven’t actually gone out and played. On the other I have been working incredibly hard to get in shape and I’ve dug out all my old paintball gear. Today is July 1st. I need to stop making excuses and just go play. Making this weekend is a good time?
Goal # 4- Finish and submit The Bond of Jhordil
This goal hasn’t gone so well. I’ve spent the last three months brainstorming, writing treatments, writing character backgrounds and re-writing the first few chapters. The end result? I haven’t finished very much fiction at all. Initially this was all part of the plan, but I’m starting to worry. How long do I linger in the planning stage? When do I get back to actually writing fiction?
I think its time. Starting today no more planning, no more plotting. I start belting out fiction again and try to get an entire manuscript completed before the start of the 3rd quarter. If I don’t I’ll never have enough time to edit it before the end of the year.
Goal #5- Finish and submit 12 short stories
I’ve totally dropped the ball on this one. I’ve only worked on one short story since March, and its only half finished. Unforunately I’ve begun work on other goals and this one is suffering for it. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get everything done that I wanted to when I set these goals in January and this is an acceptable casualty.
I’m still hoping to get more short stories done, but if I don’t hit 12 I’m not overly concerned. Creating iPhone apps and getting the Evil GM Book ready is more important. More on that in the refocusing section.
Goal #6 Learn how to use my expensive new camera
This one is definitely a win. I’ve used my Rebel to take over 4,000 pictures since January, and there’s no teacher like direct experience. I’ve learned about lighting, angles and a whole host of other basics. I still have a ton to learn, but I use the camera FAR more than I ever would have imagined when I bought it.
It’s nice having a nice camera wherever I go. You can really capture some amazing moments! Most recently I photographed a rattlesnake I ran into up on Sugarloaf mountain. Damn I love that camera.
Goal #7 Visit Yosemite
This goal is about to be realized and I’m very, very excited about it. As a birthday surprise Amelia booked a bed and breakfast outside the valley. We’re taking a four day trip to explore as much of Yosemite as we can see. I can’t wait! Another goal realized =)
Expect tons of pictures!
Goal # 8- Find a gamer chica who makes my heart sing
Amelia isn’t much of a gamer, but she is definitely a chica who makes my heart sing. We’ve been together for five months, and every day seems better than the last. Another goal realized!
Goal # 9- Add $200 a month to savings
This goal is utter failure incarnate. I have blown far more money this year than I ever expected. My savings are gone and for the first time in a couple of years I have some credit card debt. As a result I’ve started a much more restrictive budget and have gotten a lot more frugal. More on this in the refocusing section.
Goal # 10- Pay my car under $3000
Err, well technically I succeeded at this goal. The loan is paid under $3000. In fact it’s paid off. Unfortunately it was replaced with a much larger loan for my truck Kermit. How much larger? I owe $22,000 at 3.69% interest, so about $25,000 with interest factored in.
Yikes, you’re probably saying. I know I did when I first considered buying the new truck. But then I did some really serious thinking, and realized that it was a very good idea for me to take on massive debt. That’s crazy talk, right? Not at all.
You see the US dollar is about to undergo some major devaluation, what the average person calls inflation. We’ve printed trillions upon trillions of dollars, and what’s more as of yesterday even the U.N. is clamoring to move away from the dollar as the world reserve currency.
What this means is that in a very short time the dollar won’t be worth squat globally. For example let’s take my truck, which is manufactured by a Japanese company. They sell it for $22k based on the current value of the dollar versus the value of their own currency, the yen. If the value of the dollar drops by 20% then they need to raise the price of that truck by 20% to compensate, which would go up to $26,400.
If I saved up the money and bought the truck in five years the money I saved would lose a lot of value along the way. The average rate of inflation is way higher than the 3.69% interest I’m paying, so I’m net saving money in the long run. I understand that this sounds like rationalization to blow money, and in a way it is. But it is also the truth. If you have money in savings it is losing value. The interest you are being paid to keep it in the bank is not nearly as great as the rate of inflation.
So if you have good credit, need or want a new vehicle and are in a position to buy now is a great time. In my case I wanted a truck I could have for 10 years or more. Toyota pickups from 1980 are still on the road today, and if I take care of mine I could be driving it when I turn fifty. Even if I don’t it should retain much of its value, which means I have a tangible asset I can sell later if I wish.
I wouldn’t apply this same logic to credit cards by the way. I have a great rate on mine, 8.99%. But the rate of inflation is usually under that, which means if I carry a balance I am net losing money. So recap- car loan good, credit card debt bad.
Goal #11- Be nicer to myself
This is another victory. I have always been my own worst critic. In the past I expected everything I do to be perfect, and if I failed even slightly I berated the crap out of myself.
This year I have embraced a different attitude. I don’t need to be Captain Perfect. I just need to try. As long as I am making an effort to achieve my goals its all good. I don’t need to drop 50 pounds tomorrow, or publish my novel by the end of year. But I do need to try to do both. Honestly it feels good. Like I’ve excorcised the phantom version of my father that follows me around bitching about all the things I’m not good enough at.
I am good enough. What’s more I’m happy.
Refocusing
This part of my year in review is new. Setting goals in January was great, but I need to leave myself room to abandon current goals and add new ones. Much has changed in the last six months, and I want to alter my course accordingly.
New Goal #1- Develop the EvilGM iPhone / iPad application
There are 40 million iPhone users and six million iPad users. Every month there are more of each. If you write an application you gain access to that entire market. I spent some time brainstorming with Jeff and realized that I am sitting on an application that every gamer worth his salt is likely to use.
Assume 50 million total users between iPad / iPhone by the time I make market. Most people who own one or both are geeks, so I’ll assume one out of a thousand actually plays / played roleplaying games. If my unscientific guess is even close to right that means there are 50,000 potential clients. With effective marketing lets say I reach 10% of them. That’s 5,000 sales. At $4.99 a pop that’s nearly $25,000.
I have a feeling I’m lowballing the number of gamers who have an iPhone, and if I make it appealing enough I may be able to target more than 10%. The key will be advertising, but if I start making money on my app I can afford to advertise with www.rpg.net, Knights of the Dinner Table, Dragon Magazine, Gamegrene and anywhere else I can think of.
This means that if I do it right I could be sitting on a goldmine. I have some very concrete ideas for the app, all of which appear easy to implement. There are some things I can’t do myself, but finding a good artist is easy. Our webmaster at work is good, and there are iPhone forums for development where I can probably meet others.
This project will not be easy or quick. I need to learn Objective C, which looks easy enough as it’s a C++ derivative. I will need to pour a ton of hours into development and testing. I will have to start a new business. I will need to research advertising. I will need to register a domain and get an impressive looking website together. I will have to pay a lot of money for artwork, advertising and other expenses.
In the end it should all be worth it. If I can pull this off and make even a small profit I’ll have discovered a new revenue stream that will never be obsolete. If I can develop several related apps and brand them together I can continue to create and tweak tools for gamers on their phones. If its successful I can even make alternate versions for other phones like the Android.
I know that this is an ambitious project, but its one I am dead set on making a reality. I can do this. I have most of the skills already and am very confident I can build the rest. Hard work and dedication are something I’ve learned a lot of recently, both from writing and from working out. I just need to keep the same work ethic and keep my eye on the prize.
New Goal #2- Accumlulate wealth
This one goes hand in hand with the previous goal. I’m old enough that I’m starting to seriously plan for retirement. I recently wrote a journal entry about it, the gist of which is I want to be financially independent enough to travel.
There are two ways I can do this, both of which work in Tandem. The first is to increase my revenue. If I can make money doing things like iPhone apps then I can meet that part of the goal. Add in things like my Evil GM book, my novel and anything else I can create. The bottom line is I need a pile of intellectual propery which will continuously generate money. I won’t go into that in detail here as I have already done so in my journal.
The other part of the equation is living frugally. It means having a budget and sticking to it. The good news is that I’ve set one up and am starting to really examine every penny I spend. This will take diligence, but I believe its worth the effort.
Alright, thus ends the review of the first half of 2010!
Google Vs. The Rattlesnake
Trust me you don't want to run into this guy
Last Tuesday I had the day off and decided I’d start it by hiking Sugarloaf mountain. The day was perfect. Warm, sunny and not a cloud in the sky. I got there around eight and spent the next two hours crossing streams and climbing hills.
After reaching the summit I started the long trek down, and right after I turned around I came to a stretch of path with a cliff on the right and the hillside on the left. The trail was only about four feet wide, which ordinarily wouldn’t bother me. It certainly hadn’t on the way up.
I was motoring down the trail at a brisk walk when I glanced down and froze. Three feet ahead of me was a five foot rattlesnake stretched across the path. It wasn’t moving, but as it hadn’t been there when I was coming up the mountain I was postive it was alive.
My heart fell out of my chest and I gaped at it in disbelief. I’ve seen rattlesnakes before, but always behind a pane of glass at the San Diego Zoo. The mottled scales were unmistakable, as was the rattle at the end of its tale. I knew this thing could kill me, because if I got bit I was screwed. I was alone at the top of a mountain and by the time anyone came to help I’d be dead.
So I slowly backed up to about thirty feet away. The snake didn’t move. I decided to wait it out, but ten minutes later it was still sitting there. I decided to kill some time by getting out my camera and taking some pictures though they didn’t come out very well. Here’s one of them and I’ll post the rest when I get home.
A blurry photo of my friend the rattlesnake
The snake still didn’t move. I wasn’t sure what to do. The hillside was too steep to climb, so the only way down was the trail. If I wanted to get back to my car I needed to get around the snake. What the hell was I going to do? I did what any self respecting geek would. I got out my iPhone and Googled rattlesnakes.
The first link took me to the wikipedia page. I spent a few minutes reading it and found some very important facts. First, rattlesnakes will attempt to flee from humans unless cornered. The snake should run away if I left it room to retreat. I also checked the range of it’s strike. It can cover roughly two thirds of its body length faster than the human eye can follow. That meant this snake could jump about three feet. A snake can hear a human speak in a normal tone of voice at about ten feet away. Much further than that and their ears can’t pick you up.
Snakes are very instinctual creatures and follow very simple rules. When a snake sees a person they think ‘oh crap this thing is too big for me to eat, and its big enough to eat me’. That’s why a snake will always try to flee if it has the option.
When I nearly stepped on it the snake didn’t rattle and I wondered why. According to this article (also viewed on my iPhone) the snake won’t rattle if it thinks its camoflague is working. In other words if the snake thinks I don’t see it then it wants to avoid drawing attention to itself.
The second article confirmed that snakes can strike about two thirds of their body length, but recommended 15 feet as a safe distance. I trippled that and retreated to about forty-five feet where I gathered a small pile of rocks. From the reading I’d done the snake was barely aware of my presence at that distance, and would much rather flee back into the brush than come after me.
I took a deep breath, steeled my nerve and started lobbing rocks at it. The snake ignored the first few and I started to worry. What was I going to do if it refused to move? Then one of the rocks struck it in the head, and it moved about a foot. I reached down to pick up another rock, and when I straightened back up it was gone.
My heart started beating like a rabbit’s. Where the hell did it go? It was no longer on the path, but it blended perfectly with the grass so I had no idea where it was. I froze. Five very tense minutes passed but there was no sign of the snake.
Finally I said screw it and took off at a full sprint. When I passed the rocks I’d thrown I fully expected the rattlesnake to lunge out at me. It didn’t. In fact I didn’t see any sign of it so I kept right on running. I didn’t stop for at least a hundred yards, where I paused to catch my breath.
I was elated that I’d avoided the snake, but I was terrified that there might be others. The entire trip down the mountain had me jumping at lizards, birds and anything else that moved. When I saw a garden snake I almost wet myself.
In the end I made it safely down the mountain, but I was shaking like a leaf from all the adrenaline. I survived my first encounter with a rattlesnake, and I’m not in a hurry to have another one. Hiking is definitely more dangerous than I ever expected!
The war on drugs has wasted a TRILLION dollars
I recently read an article by the accociated press which claims that over 1 trillion dollars was spent on the War on Drugs since it was first conceived by President Nixon in 1971. How is that possible? Have we really added over a trillion dollars to our national debt to prosecute the war on drugs? What has that war gained us?
The answer is shocking. Despite over 1 trillion dollars spent drug use is exactly the same now as it was when the War on Drugs was declared. Every year the amount of money we spend increases. Back in 1971 Nixon funded the new war with $100 million. In the decades since the annual budget has climbed to $15.1 billion.
Wait a second, you’re probably asking. Adding up the annual budgets for the War on Drugs doesn’t even come close to a trillion dollars. How did we spend that much money? Here is a breakdown from the AP article:
- $20 billion to fight the drug gangs in their home countries. In Colombia, for example, the United States spent more than $6 billion, while coca cultivation increased and trafficking moved to Mexico – and the violence along with it
- $33 billion in marketing “Just Say No”-style messages to America’s youth and other prevention programs. High school students report the same rates of illegal drug use as they did in 1970, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says drug overdoses have “risen steadily” since the early 1970s to more than 20,000 last year.
- $49 billion for law enforcement along America’s borders to cut off the flow of illegal drugs. This year, 25 million Americans will snort, swallow, inject and smoke illicit drugs, about 10 million more than in 1970, with the bulk of those drugs imported from Mexico.
- The Justice Department estimates the consequences of drug abuse – “an overburdened justice system, a strained health care system, lost productivity, and environmental destruction” – cost the United States $215 billion a year
- $121 billion to arrest more than 37 million nonviolent drug offenders, about 10 million of them for possession of marijuana. Studies show that jail time tends to increase drug abuse.
- $450 billion to lock those people up in federal prisons alone. Last year, half of all federal prisoners in the U.S. were serving sentences for drug offenses.
Take a good look at the last two items on that list. Over $570 billion dollars has been spent to arrest and imprison nearly forty million of your fellow citizens. Of those nearly ten million were arrested for possession of marijuana, a drug that has been decriminalized in much of the US and may be legal in California come November.
So if the levels of drug use are the same why are we still waging this war? This quote from John P. Walters, the former director of Nationl Drug Control Policy, sums up the attitude of government and law enforcement:
“To say that all the things that have been done in the war on drugs haven’t made any difference is ridiculous,” Walters said. “It destroys everything we’ve done. It’s saying all the people involved in law enforcement, treatment and prevention have been wasting their time. It’s saying all these people’s work is misguided.”
News flash genius. Your work is misguided. You’ve spent a mountain of money, ruined lives and locked up nearly ten million people who’s only crime was lighting up a joint. Yet proponents of the War on Drugs remain steadfast in their believe that legalizing drugs will destroy the fabric of our society. They continue to pursue the same failed agenda consuming vast amounts of your tax dollars in the process.
When will the madness end? We’re closing schools, laying off teachers and struggling to help millions of unemployed Americans. Can we really afford to waste our money prosecuting a failed war on non-violent people who are hurting no one but themselves?
Critics of legalization say yes. They warn that if we legalize drugs their use will skyrocket. Ironically this is not the first time such an argument has been used in our history. In 1920 a coalition of moralists led a grassroots movement to have alcolhol made illegal. They believed that it was the root of evil in man, and that it’s removal would transform our society into a utopia. This quote from minister and baseball hero Billy Sunday sums it up best:
“The reign of tears is over. The slums will soon be only a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses. Men will walk upright now, women will smile, and the children will laugh. Hell will be forever rent.”
Those familiar with history already know what came next. In making alcolhol illegal we opened up one of the nation’s largest industries to organized crime. Making it illegal did nothing to reduce the demand, and people were willing to go wherever they had to in search of a drink. Distilleries and speak easies cropped up all over the nation, nearly all of which were controlled by organized crime.
Suddenly people like Al Capone had access to vast sums of money, which they used to bribe politicians and fund their own private criminal empires. For the next twelve years gang activity flourished across the US. Law enforcement was out gunned, out manned and out funded thanks to the ban on alcolhol.
In 1929 the stock market crashed giving way to the great depression. Income tax revenue dropped by 60% over the next three years. Suddenly state and local goverments found themselves out of money and with record unemployement. They no longer had the money to prosecute their ridiculous war against alcolhol. What’s more they deprived themselves the massive infusion of tax revenue that would come from taxing and regulating alcolhol.
By 1933 sanity prevailed and the 18th amendment was nullified making alcolhol legal once again. Guess what happened next? Gang activity dropped drastically. The government saved millions of dollars that had previously been spent to prosecute and incarcerate those caught drinking. Instead they collected millions of dollars which could be spent to help their flagging economies.
Does this sound at all familiar? Gang warfare has devestated Mexico, and nearly all of it is funded by funneling illegal drugs into the US. It has infested most of our larger cities, and nearly everyone has heard of the Bloods and Crypts in Los Angeles. Crime is rampant and our beleagured law enforcement is not able to stop it. Even when they do many of the people they arrest are those using drugs like marijuana, not those smuggling such drugs across the border.
Our state and local economies are out of money. We’ve been spending beyond our means for decades, but the bill has finally come due. We need another source of revenue, and we need to reduce spending. If we are wise we’ll learn from history. Ending prohibition solved many problems. Legalizing drugs will accomplish the same.
Estimates claim we could collect as much as eight billion dollars from legalizing and taxing cannabis in the state of California. At the same time we’ll save billions more by allowing law enforcement to deal with other issues. We’ll deprive the gangs of the money they currently use to grow. We’ll save billions more by releasing the inmates incarcerated for possession of marijuana. Most importantly make it more difficult for children to gain access to drugs.
Want proof? Portugal legalized drugs in 2001. A study by Glen Greenwald of the Cato Institute found the sudden legalization had almost no effect on drug use. It even dropped a bit amongst teenagers. Amsterdam has had legal marijuana for decades, but doesn’t suffer from rampant drug use either.
We know from our own history the dangers of outlawing something that millions of people want. It’s a lost cause, one that cannot end successfully. We saw the crime that washed over the US during Prohibition, and we see the current crime destabilzing our Mexican allies to the south. Every day it spills into the border states, and is increasingly present in our larger cities.
Our nation is suffering through the worst economic winter in living memory. Isn’t it time to give up this failed war? Legalize drugs today. Tax them, regulate them and then use the proceeds to fund drug rehabilitation centers. Instead of demonizing those who use drugs we should help those who abuse them.
It’s the only sane answer. Unless you want to see another 40 years and trillion dollars wasted.
Taking Stock
Life is good. Damn good. Everything seems to be going my way lately, though that’s partly because I’ve made some smart decisions and put in a lot of hard work.
If you’ve read recent entries you heard about my new truck Kermit. Kermit and I have driven all over the place and are gretting along great. I’ve taken him up to Chandelier Drive Thru tree, Jack London State Park and this weekend I’m aiming for Muir Woods. I’ve taken some great pictures and can’t wait to explore more places. Kermit allows me to take much longer trips to more remote places, and I definitely plan to take advantage of that!
I’m also doing great on the weight loss. I’ve finally lost enough weight that I don’t look so much like the fat guy in the picture on my weight loss page. At the end of June I’ll post a new one so you can see the difference. I plan to take a new picture at the end of each quarter, and hopefully by the end of the year you’ll really see a transformation.
So what’s the secret of my success? Hard work. There are no shortcuts to losing weight. I have to watch my diet closely and work out like a fiend. If my diligence wavers at all I start gaining weight, or at the very least stop losing it. It’s going to take a lot of willpower to hit my goals. There’s no other way to do this, but I am prepared to buckle down and do it.
Both of my sisters have lost a ton of weight recently, which also helped to inspire me. We’re eating healthier and it we can all lean on each other for support. I can’t wait to do a before and after picture with the three of us (four if my brother in law wants in).
Relationship wise things couldn’t be better. Amelia and I are spending more time together, and we’ve become very good friends in addition to boyfriend/girlfriend. It’s so nice being able to hang out and joke around, just like I would with any other good friend. I definitely believe we are a good fit, and it will be interesting to see how the relationship develops.
Writing is another bright spot. All of the prep work for the fourth draft of The Bond of Jhordil has paid off. I refined and re-refined the plot until I feel like I have a winner. The characters are memorable, the plot is good and the world is unique and interesting. Now that I’ve done my mountain of homework I’m very excited that I’m about to get back to my favorite part. Fiction.
Instead of plot summaries I am finally ready to sit down and write the thing. Using my previous performance as a benchmark I’m expecting to finish this draft by the end of August. After that I need to edit and polish, but I believe that by the end of the year I’ll have an amazing novel ready to submit.
Even if I don’t I’ve made enormous strides in my writing. I’ve learned so much in the last year and a half, and I know I’ll learn more in the years to come. The important thing is to never stop writing. Even if The Bond of Jhordil bombs there will be another book after. Then another. As many as it takes for me to become a professional author.
The writing has spawned some spin off projects as well. I’m realizing that in order to successfully sell my novel I need to master advertising. My first project is a preview movie I’m making using Anime Studio and Windows Movie Maker. It will probably be fairly basic to start, but as I learn more about both programs I’m hoping to churn out something that will dazzle my audience. A picture tells a thousand words, but a short movie will tell far more.
I’ll post the final product once I’ve finished it to get some feedback from my target audience. If they like it I plan to use the movie as a sort of virtual business card to pimp the book when the time comes. Cross your fingers for me, cause if all goes well this time next year I’ll have submitted a novel I am confident will succeed.
I realize this is a short entry, but there wasn’t much more going on this week. I’ll be back again next week with a longer post!
Revenge of the Gamer One Year Later
I can’t believe it’s been a year since I started the site. Twelve months have flown by, and I’m very proud of everything I’ve accomplished. RotG has gradually expanded with new features being added, and I posted diligently for most of the year.
One of the regular features on my site in 2010 has been my weight loss progress. Every Friday from January through March I updated the page with that week’s progress. Those updates served as a sort of weathervane that kept me moving in the right direction.
My last entry was made on March 12th, and for the next two months my diet fell apart and I didn’t lose any weight at all. Worse, I gained weight. By mid April I stepped on the scale and found I was at 241lbs. I was horrified. Instead of losing weight I’d gained four and a half pounds since the beginning of the year.
I tried to focus on the positives. Working out was still going extraordinarily well, and I’d only missed two days since the first of the year. I felt stronger and was definitely in better shape than I’d been since high school. I could hike for hours without taking a break, and I was proud of the progress I’d made.
That just wasn’t enough though. Getting in shape was great, but what was the point if I wasn’t changing the way I looked? I felt better, but looked the same. So in early May I decided that it was time to get back in the saddle. I needed to renew my weight loss efforts, and this time I needed to stick with it.
For the last three weeks I’ve lost weight every week, tracked my points on Weight Watchers and have continued to work out. The difference has been staggering. I lost ten pounds and as of this writing am at 231. I’m about to break into the 220s, which I was hoping to do far earlier in the year. Better late than never though right?
My weight loss goal is 50 pounds in 2010. It’s not quite June, which gives me seven more months to hit that goal. That gives me plenty of time if I’m diligent, but I can’t afford the slip ups I’ve had in the first half of the year. I’m optimistic I can succeed, because I’m starting to build the habits necessary to lose the weight. My diet has improved, my stomach is starting to shrink and my workout has long since become a strong habit.
I’ve also added another feature to the website, which I call Fox’s Travels. Since giving up weed I’ve spent most of my weekends traveling to some of the most beautiful locales in the world. In January I bought a Canon Digital Rebel, which allows me to photograph these expeditions. Fox’s Travels lists each of the places that I’ve been, and includes a list of places I want to see. I’m hoping that in the next few years I’ll keep that part of the site up, as it would be really nice to look back years from now to see all the places I’ve been.
Having kept the site up for a full year now opens up a lot of thoughts about the future. What if I have RotG in five years? Or ten? How much of my life could I end up documenting here? I feel like I’ve really started to build something, and honestly it makes me proud.
There is still a lot of room for RotG to grow, and in time I’m hoping to realize that potential. I know I need to post more of my fiction. I’ve completed several good short stories lately, and there are exerpts from the novel I could add as well.
Beyond that I’m sure I’ll find many other ways to use the site. The important thing is to keep it going no matter what. I might have gaps in posting, but as long as I keep plodding forward the site can only improve over time.
Life, the Universe & Everything
If you’ve been following my blog for a while you’ve probably noticed that my posts have come less and less frequently. I used to get one up almost every week, but of late it’s been 3-4 weeks between updates. I’ve had good reasons for not posting as often, but at the end of the day an excuse is still an excuse. I’ve decided to start posting weekly again, so here goes.
What’s new in my world? A lot actually. I’ve come pretty far since I stopped smoking weed in December. My life is a lot busier these days, but I’ve rarely been happier. After the long winter of the last couple of years spring has finally come. I’m finally letting go of all the pain of past mistakes, and am learning to move forward with life.
The first major change is my lifestyle. Anyone who knows me is aware that I work a sedentery desk job, and in my free time can most often be found in front of the television or the computer. Until December both work and play required very little movement, which made me fat and complacent.
On New Years I set a series of goals, and the one I pursued most aggressively was getting in shape. I was tired of being an overweight couch potato. I was appalled that rather than explore the amazing natural beauty of Northern California I’d sit home all day getting high and playing video games. I felt like there was so much I was missing, and I decided to go out and discover those things for myself.
The first weekend in January I drove out to the coast in the rain on Saturday. Sunday I hiked Armstrong woods, also in the rain. Monday I hit the gym and went for a walk around spring lake before bed. That first week I hiked over fifty miles, and I loved every minute of it.
For the first time in years I experienced nature. I saw an eagle soaring over a stretch of rocky coast. I stood under towering redwoods that were over a hundred feet high when Christ was born. I heard the awesome thunder breaking low over the valley, and saw a bolt of lightning strike the top of a redwood. I heard bubbling brooks and saw waterfalls.
The next week I added Sugarloaf Mountain to my circuit of hikes. Then Annadel state park. Every week I resolved to go somewhere new and see something I’d never seen before. Sometimes that was a new trail at Armstrong, sometimes it was an entirely new park I’d never been to.
At first I worried that this was a fad. I thought I’d do some hiking, get tired of it and quit. Only that didn’t happen. Every week I was excited to see whatever new thing I’d chosen to explore. After a month I invested in a new camera so I could document the things I saw. Purchasing It was a difficult decision, because I worried that if I quit hiking the camera wouldn’t see much use.
Nearly six months later I still hike every weekend. I’ve brought my camera along on every trip and taken over a thousand photos. My Canon Digital Rebel was worth every penny, and I use it far more often than I’d ever have imagined. Every time I come back from a new hike I bring back a fistful of awesome pictures, and it feels good looking back at all the places I’ve seen.
The lifestyle change was exactly what I needed. Being surrounded by California’s natural beauty recharged spiritual batteries I didn’t even realize were empty. I began meditating on these trips, which helped restore my center. It’s something I’ve neglected for years, and now that I’ve begun tending it again I realize how much of my unhappiness was caused by spiritual neglect.
In addition to the camera I bought a nice pair of hiking boots (waterproof). They’re comfortable enough for a twenty mile hike, and durable enough to cross streams or climb mountains. I picked up a walking stick for tougher climbs, a hat to keep the sun off my face and a stainless steel water bottle to keep my water cool. Before making each of these purchases I worried that I was wasting money. If I quit hiking all of them would just gather dust, which has happened to me with other hobbies in the past.
All of them proved to be a great investment. As the months have passed I’ve gotten in much better shape, and if anything my love of hiking and seeing all the amazing vistas in California has grown. I’ve even made a list of all the places I want to go in the next year. It’s an ambitious list, but one I intend to complete on journey at a time. I can’t even begin to express how much the outdoors has affected me. I’ve gained an understanding of people like John Muir, who dedicated their lives to the outdoors.
As the months have passed and I’ve spent more and more time outdoors I’ve thought more and more about the next logical step for me. To date all the trips I’ve taken have been day trips. I leave early in the morning, drive a couple of hours and then reach the spot I plan to hike for the day. I usually return home tired and sweatly by late afternoon.
That’s fine as long as I intend to go to parks that are within a certain distance, but if I want to see some of the most distant parks it’s going to mean overnight trips. Even Yosemite is too far to drive to and back in a day, not if I really want to enjoy it anyway. The reality is I’m going to need a day or more to really enjoy the places I want to see.
I took a good look at my car and realized it had some serious limitations where camping was concerned. The first problem was getting places. While I was in Atlanta Brandy took me up to a waterfall at the top of a mountain. It was a beautiful sight, but her car didn’t like the climb at all. By the time we reached the top we were eveloped by the smell of burning transmission, and her car didn’t run quite right on the way back down the hill.
The sad thing is that Brandy’s car has more horsepower than my Hyundai Elantra, so if she struggled on hills like that I was going to have an even worse time of it. I knew that if I wanted to explore some of the parks I’d researched my car wasn’t the best choice. I could take it, but there were going to be places I simply couldn’t go.
The other problem with my car was lodging. Many of the more remote campsites allow camping, but that means bringing and setting up a tent. I don’t mind doing that, but as I considered buying my tent a lightbulb went on. If I had a truck I could solve both problems. It would easily handle the hills and instead of using a tent I could get a camper shell and sleep in the bed of my truck.
This idea came to me back in March, but I was reluctant to act on it. Having a truck sounded really cool, but what about gas mileage? What about the increased insurance? Most importantly what about an increased car payment? Was all that something I really wanted just to make camping a little bit easier?
I started doing my homework on trucks. How much was a good truck? What were the best types? Was it worth buying used, or should I hold out for a new? I spent several weeks finding the answers to these questions, and some of them surprised me.
My insurance would go up $11 each year. The truck I liked best was the Toyota Tacoma, and it averaged 26 mpg. That’s just a few less than my Elantra. Much to my surprise I’d probably spend about the same on insurance and gas if I traded in the econonmy car for a new truck.
Now that I had some idea of what I was looking for I started looking at 2005-2009 trucks in the area. I wanted to see whether it made sense to buy used, and I also wanted to know how much value a new Tacoma would retain if I bought it. I liked what I saw among the used, but they weren’t that much less than a new truck.
Tacomas are rock solid and drive forever. They retain their value better than any other truck in their class, which would make it easy to sell later if I decided I didn’t like it. So I decided to get some quotes on a new Tacoma. I submitted a request to every dealer in the north bay, and then I played them off against each other. Each time one was willing to make me a deal I submitted it to the others to see if they could beat it.
On May 9th I went down to Hansel Toyota and got a damn good deal on a 2010 Toyota Tacoma. After test driving the truck I fell in love with it. It was so nice being up high when driving, and it took me back to the days when I drove a Land Rover. Driving becomes a whole different experience when you are above most cars, and since I get similar gas mileage I’m not giving up much for that added enjoyment.
Meet Kermit the Truck
The truck is Timberland green, so with the help of my friends and family (thanks Heather, Brandy & Alicia) I decided to name him Kermit. Kermit is a great new addition to my family, and I can’t wait to explore California and eventually Arizona with him. There are so many ruins, ghost towns, state parks and other places I want to see now that I have him!
I plan to get the camper shell in the next couple of weeks and have already researched the which one I want. I’ve also gotten an air mattress that fits perfectly in the bed of the truck. It’s plenty of room for one person, and works for two if they don’t mind each other’s company. Speaking of which that leads me to the next major change in my life, Amelia.
I haven’t seriously dated since moving back to Santa Rosa in 2007. At the time I was in the tail end of the relationship with Jen, and when it ended I had no desire to look for another one. I decided to enjoy bachelor life for a while, but instead ended up playing video games and staying home most of the time.
It was a dark time for me where I became more introverted, put on weight and neglected some very important parts of my life. I did some dating during that time, but one was a long distance relationship (they suck), and the other was just a few dates with a girl I met in my History class at Santa Rosa JC.
When Jeff and I decided to move into our own place in May of 2009 I was at a low point and had given up on dating. Still, I was hoping the new place would provide an opportunity to turn things around. One of the goals prompted by the move was meeting a girl, someone who really clicked with me and fit my lifestyle. I didn’t act on it immediately, because I wanted to get my house in order before I went searching for a girlfriend.
In October of 2009 I started flirting with a girl at work named Amelia. She was cute, funny and outgoing but I didn’t pursue her because we work together. In my experience office romance tends to end badly, and that was something I didn’t want to step in. When Amelia asked me to go out for a few drinks I didn’t take her up on it, and after transfering to a new department at work I rarely saw her. I dismissed the possibility of a relationship and moved on.
Then I saw her at the gym. When I went down to San Jose for the Gathering Storm book signing Mary passed me a message saying ‘Amelia says hey’. I kept seeing her everywhere, and when she asked me out for a beer a second time I said yes. That was back in January.
Several months later we are boyfriend and girlfriend. We’ve been on dates pretty much every week since February, and I have to be honest- the girl rocks. She isn’t a gamer per se, but knows enough about it to understand and respect the hobby. She has my bizarre sense of humor, she’s cute…ok you get the point. Let me sum it up by saying this girl rocks, and I’m extraordinarily glad I met her.
Last weekend we stayed a the Hilton in San Francisco, and had a chance to see the play Wicked. It may very well have been the best weekend of my life, and if it wasn’t it was certainly near the top of the list. I haven’t clicked with anyone like this since Darlene, and I’m falling pretty hard for this girl. Expect to hear more about Amelia and some of the places we’ve been in future posts!
What about the writing Chris? That was the whole point of this blog originally after all. I was supposed to post updates about my fiction, and add new stories to the site on a regular basis. I’ve fallen off the wagon there, and I want to get back to it. So without further ado here’s what’s going on with my writing.
In early April I decided to start the 4th draft of The Bond of Jhordil. This version would center on an entirely different set of characters, and would take place before the previous three drafts as far as the timeline goes. I knew it was an ambitious move, because I was effectively shelving everything I’d written so far and starting from scratch.
This was unbelievably daunting, because I was discarding six months and over 250,000 words. Unfortunately I had no other choice, because the early versions of the novel just weren’t good enough to see print.
When I started the fourth draft I tackled it completely differently than the previous versions. Before I’d always just sat down and started belting out chapters. Some of them were great, some mediocre. More often than not I discarded completed chapters, because while they were good they didn’t fit the theme of the novel.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a more efficient way for me to go about this, and by the end of the third draft I was REALLY tired of discarding thousands upon thousands of words. So this time I sat down and wrote a 25,000 word synopsis of the plot. I sat back and considered the plot, and started correcting the things that made no sense.
The synopsis turned out to be exactly what I needed. The first draft was bad, so I improved it. I started asking myself questions about possible alternative plot lines. Each what if made the plot stronger, until it finally hit a point where I was happy. Instead of wasting months writing chapters and then discarding them I only lost a few thousand words.
The end result is that two weeks ago I started writing the prologue. I did three different drafts, each of which took a slightly different angle. I’ve written two versions of chapter one, both of which take radically different angles. After I’d finished all those I sat down and went back to the synopsis. I took another hard look and made another round of changes. It’s taken a while, but each iteration strengthens the plot.
There’s no question in my mind that I’ve finally found the right way to write a novel. I put WAY less work into belting out hundreds of pages, but the work I DO belt out is stronger, full of tension and flows a heck of a lot better. I’ve learned an important lesson, one I feel will speed me on the way to becoming a published novelist.
So what is The Bond of Jhordil about? Here’s my tentative back cover copy:
Aranthar couldn’t be further from the ideal knight. He drinks too much, thinks chivalry is a type of wine and sleeps until noon most days. He’s also the only hope the people of Olivantia have.
Fifteen years ago the people deposed their dark masters, the evil vampyr. The survivors have neither forgiven nor forgotten the betrayal that drove them into hiding. They have concocted their revenge, a plan that will topple the knighthood and enslave the unsuspecting people of Olivantia.
Only one man can stop them, if he can set down his wineskin long enough to do it.
I made some pretty sweeping changes to the world as well. Originally the vampyr were removed from power during the purge. The Knights of the Dawn were placed in charge, but proved woefully inadequate to the task. The people were hungry, tired and under near constant assault by the Orokh and bandits.
That doesn’t make a bad backdrop, but ‘not bad’ isn’t going to cut it. I need a background that is both memorable and unique, that makes the reader wonder about the world and about what might lie around the next corner. After some careful thought I came up with this revised backdrop.
The purge was just the first step in a three year war. Many vampyr were killed, but the survivors banded together. They created an army of consumed (think mindless vampires) and waged war against the Knights of the Dawn and the people of Olivantia. In the end the knights cornered the leader of the vampyr, and my main character killed him.
Unfortunately, this released the army of consumed that the vamypr had bound to his will. Thousands upon thousands of consumed were suddenly free and flooded across the countryside wiping out everything in their path. In the intervening decade and a half their numbers have only increased. The people of Olivantia now huddle in fear behind tall walls. They don’t go out at night, and if they travel from city to city it must be done in giant house sized wagons capable of fighting off the consumed.
So the setting has become more horror and less fantasy. The consumed are an everpresent threat, one the reader is very aware of from page one. This is far more fitting to the story I want to tell, because the main character is indirectly responsible for the consumed overrunning his country.
If my current progress is any indication this version of the novel should be finished by the end of the summer. Then begins the next major round of editing, and I don’t even have a theory as to how long it will take. But you know what? I don’t care.
I’ve finally come to the realization that writing is a profession like any other. I’m going to spend several years learning to write before I get a novel published, but that only makes sense. You wouldn’t expect some guy who just learned what carpentry was to go out and start building houses. The same is true for writers. The important thing is that I keep writing no matter what. If I do publishing a novel is not an if, it’s a when.
So there you have it. My very wordy long overdue update is over! Expect more regular updates in the future.
Racial Profiling in Arizona, Wrong or Necessary?
EDIT- Feel free to read the article, but bear in mind its a work in progress. I’m still gathering facts, interviewing people and searching for statistics. I realize its a hot button issue and want to make sure I do it justice.
“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith, becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people”
- Theodore Roosevelt, 1907
On April 23rd Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a law that allowed local law enforcement to request identification of any citizen they believe might be in the country illegally. This law has sparked a firestorm of criticism across the nation, because many fear it will lead to racial profiling. They are almost certainly right.
The vast majority of illegal immigrants in the southern United States are of latin descent. This means latinos will fall under more suspicion from law enforcement, and are more likely to be questioned than caucasians. There is no doubt that the law will cause racial profiling, though the governor vehemently disputes this.
I’m not a fan of racial profiling. I don’t like people making assumptions based on something as trivial as race. However, before passing judgement on a law passed in a state I don’t even live in I thought it would make sense to find out why they thought this law was so important.
The government of Arizona feels this law is necessary because the number of illegal immigrants in their state is straining their resources during a time when they simply cannot afford it. According to a survey by www.fairus.org illegal immagrants cost taxpayers roughly $36 billion dollars a year for education, medical assistance and incarceration.
U.S. Border Patrol apprehension statistics claim that over 50% of illegal immigrants pass through Arizona. They can only guess how many stay in the state, but if its even a quarter of those who enter illegally it would cost Arizona $9 Billion dollars each year to educate, imprison and treat illegal immigrants.
Arizona can’t afford to pay unemployment for the people who are there legally. They are closing parks due to lack of funds, cutting state employees salaries and struggling to balance their budget. Like every other state they are tightening their belts because they simply don’t have the money to keep their state running. Nine billion dollars a year is a huge financial drain on their economy. Especially when you consider that their state GDP is only $200 billion a year.
Many state residents claim that the financial drain is only one of several problems caused by the massive influx of illegal immigrants. Because these people are undocumented it makes those who break the law nearly impossible for law enforcement to find or prosecute.
Many people respond that a simple way of fixing this is to grant amnesty to the 20 million plus immigrants living illegally in the United States. If they are made legal then we can track them and they’ll be paying taxes into the system right? True, but this would still create several major problems.
It cheapens the hard work of every legal immigrant who fought for their citizenship. If you spent five years becoming a US citizen how would you feel about all the people who came illegally? The ones that not only have the same coveted status you worked so hard to earn, but are rewarded for breaking the law.
There are more practical concerns of course. Because illegals are undocumented most are employed under the table making far less than minimum wage. If these people were suddenly granted amnesty they would be entitled to make at least $7.25 an hour in Arizona, and more in other states depending on minimum wage. Even if they wanted to keep their low wage jobs they wouldn’t legally be able to do so.
It’s doubtful their employers would be willing or able to pay their increased salaries, which means many of these illegals would suddenly find themselves unemployed. What would these newly legal citizens do for a living? Where would they find jobs when the US is already hovers around 15% under/unemployment?
Then there is the moral implication. If we legalize all the illegal immigrants we teach future waves of illegals that the risk was worth it. If they break the law for long enough they will be made legal. Is that the message we really want to send? It will only lead to a repeat of the current problem.
So if we can’t legalize the immigrants what do we do with them? Deportation is the only viable solution, yet it’s a solution that no one in Washington has wanted to touch. They’ve talked about the issue for decades, yet nothing has been done to stem the flow of illegal immigrants across our borders.
The state of Arizona has suffered the most from this total lack of attention by our elected leaders. The politicos in Washington have avoided the muddy political waters because they don’t want to alientate their latino constituents. They’ve abandoned Arizona to deal with an ever worsening problem.
Is it any wonder the state passed this law? Obviously its flawed, even the AZ government admits that. It does allow for racial profiling, but it is also the first concrete step towards halting the flow of illegal immigration into their state.
The backlash towards them has been intense. People all over the country are boycotting Arizona. They are refusing to travel there, which further weakens an already over-taxed economy. They are being punished for responding to a problem the Federal Government refused to help them with. So they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
I realize that any support for the law in Arizona isn’t politically correct. But there is a problem with illegal immigration. How do you suggest they deal with it if you feel this law is flawed? Everyone is willing to attack their solution, but no one is willing to offer a solution of their own…
2010 First Quarter Review
Goal #1- Lose Fifty Pounds
Grade: D
Ouch. As of this writing I’ve just gotten back from vacation in Atlanta. While there I ate pretty badly, and gained back a few pounds. The end result is that I’m weighing in at 235.6. That means in the first quarter of 2010 I’ve only lost two pounds. My goal was five pounds a month, but I didn’t even average one. Clearly this goal is pretty close to a complete failure.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that I have nine more months to lose weight. The first quarter was a bust, but I haven’t given up and will continue to diet and exercise in my quest to get back to high school weight. I’m positive I can do it and I am resolved to redouble my efforts.
Goal #2- Get In Good Enough Shape To Go Rock Climbing
Grade: A
If weight loss was challenging and frustrating in the first quarter, then getting in shape was the exact opposite. I’m blown away by the changes in my body over the last three months.
I started going to the gym January 1st. At the time I was doing 30 minutes on the eliptical machine. I began with setting one on a program called Kilimanjaro. When I got off my legs were wobbly and I was breathing so hard I thought I’d broken something. Contrast that to this morning. I did the same Kilimanjaro course, but now I’m on setting eleven, and I run for 40 minutes instead of 30.
Bear in mind that each setting is noticably harder, so going up ten settings in three months is a huge accomplishment for me. I feel the difference. This was most notable when I made my trek to Bullfrog Pond. I’d never have survived a hike like that in December, but now not only did I do it but it was done in good time.
Cardio is great, but if I really want to get in shape I knew weights were going to be an important part of my workout. In January and February I was getting up at 7am, and this gave about an hour to work out. With forty minutes on the eliptical I was getting almost nothing done with weights.
In the first week of March I started getting up at 6:30am. Since then I’ve had an extra half hour, so I’m doing upper body on Mon, Wed, Fri and lower body on Tue, Thurs, Sat. The end result is that after one month I feel stronger, more tone and a lot more fit. Weights started off as a chore, but now they’re a part of my routine. I now work out for 1.5 hours six days a week, and on day seven I do cardio and then go for a strenuous hike.
I’m very proud of how well I’ve done working out so far. If I continue this level of dedication I can’t wait to see where I am at the end of the second quarter. Go me!
Goal #3- Get Back Into Paintball
Grade: –
This one is difficult to score, because paintball season is just now beginning. Because of the rain in Sonoma County I wouldn’t have been able to play in January, February or March. I have gotten in shape, which means that I should be able to start playing soon. Still need to lose more weight though!
Goal #4- Finish and Submit The Bond of Jhordil
Grade: A
I’ve been busting a crazy amount of ass on the novel. I’m still averaging 10k words a week, and am deep in the midst of the 4th draft. This one is far superior to the others, because I’ve taken much more time to plot out scenes and work on characterization prior to starting the prose.
Instead of just writing a chapter and moving on to the next one I’ve created a detailed source document that covers the entire plot. In writing it I’ve found a number of inconsistencies, and instead of going back and rewriting whole chapters like I did in the 1st through 3rd drafts now I can fix them in the source document. Once everything lines up in the source document I can begin belting out chapters, knowing that they are cohesive and tell a good story.
The end result is that I’m very happy with the progress on the novel. I had no idea going in how much work it would be, but I also didn’t know how rewarding I’d find the whole process. I love writing. Even if I never get good enough to be published I’ve found my life’s work. This is what I’m meant to do, and I’m going to do it!
Goal #5- Submit Twelve Short Stories
Grade: B
Thus far I’ve written two short stories, and just finished the final touches on a third. I was supposed to have three done by the end of March so I’m a little behind schedule. Hence the B grade.
The good news is that the stories are stronger than those I’ve written in the past. The more I write the better I get, and I can’t wait to see where I’m at in the last quarter of this year.
Goal #6- Learn How To Use My Expensive New Camera
Grade: A
I was a little nervous when I bought my new Canon Digital Rebel in early January. It was expensive, and I was worried that I wouldn’t use it often enough to justify buying it. I’m very happy to find that I actually use it more than I ever would have expected.
I’ve taken a ton of pictures at each of the places I hike, including Armstrong Woods, Sugarloaf Mountain and the Northern California Coast. I also used the camera to shoot about four hundred pictures at work. These were used to create a five minute movie, which I submitted for the Culture Jam at work. My department liked it so much they gave me a $50 gift certificate!
I also used the camera when I went out to Atlanta. I snapped a ton of pictures of Madison, at the Zoo and at Amicalola falls. All told I’ve taken about fifteen hundred pictures so far, and am learning a great deal about photography.
The camera was a far better investment than I would have expected, and I’m sure I’ll be using it for years!
Goal #7- Visit Yosemite
Grade: –
This is another difficult one to rate as its sort of pass/fail. I haven’t made it to Yosemite yet this year, but I still plan to go. I have made it out to a number of other campgrounds, and am doing more hiking than ever before!
Goal #8- Find a Gamer Chica That Makes My Heart Sing
Grade: A
In January I started seeing a girl from work. At first I didn’t believe we had much in common, but the more I’ve gotten to know her the more I realize we are startlingly similar in many ways. She isn’t a gamer girl per se, but she does play video games and is at least familiar with RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons.
We’ve been seeing each other for around two months, and while its far too early to know if we’ll go the distance I can say that things look very promising. I really like this one. She’s a blast to hang out with and seems to get me. So I gave myself an A on this goal!
Goal #9- Add $200 A Month To My Savings
Grade: D
This year has decimated my savings. I just shelled out money for taxes, a trip to Atlanta, my car insurance and a new couch. Add in the money I spent on the camera and my savings have all but evaporated.
The good news is that as of April 1st I’m back on a budget. If I’m diligent I should be able to do $200 a month to savings, and when I get my bonus in August I should be able to make up the $600 I should already have put away.
Goal #10- Pay My Car Under $3000
Grade: –
This is another one that’s difficult to score. I haven’t paid a lot of extra money towards the car this year, but I did have the rate readjusted to 3.99%. This means that out of my $200 payment each month about $180 goes towards principal. The balance isn’t dropping as quickly as I’d like, but its $5800 as of this writing.
I get a second bonus in December, and if I pay it directly to principle it should put me close to the $3000 mark by the end of the year.
Goal #11- Be Nicer To myself
Grade: A
This is another goal that I’ve excelled at. For the first time in a very long while I’m not beating myself up over every little mistake. I’ve found peace and self-acceptance, and its helping me accomplish all the other goals. I know I’ll always be a perfectionist, but learning to forgive myself and focus on tomorrow has helped me more than I ever could have guessed.
Recent Comments