October 24, 2005

• Topic: My new site

  
  

  I’ve decided to enhance my posts w/ images:

  
  

  

  
  

  Someone asked me why…i don’t quite know why.  I think my site was getting dull, and I want to start increasing my readers again.  Besides using my site as a form of personal expression, I want it to be a community of ideas…not theoretical ideas like “how to change education,” that’s how this site began.  I’m thinking much smaller…ideas like, who has a good idea for a daytime snack?

  
  

  

  
  

  For me…GORP (good ol’ raisins and peanuts) helps get me through the day.

  
  

  Anyways…enough about that.  What’s new?  I’m starting to pay attention to technology and finance, two things I’ve kind of allowed to go over my head for too long.  For most of my life, a computer was a computer, a car was a car, a dollar was a dollar. 

  
  

  

  
  

  Now that I have a job, and I’m making some money (not a lot, but more consistantly than I was making as a panhandler…where my only business came from mom and dad).  And, so I’m beginning to think, money is awesome!  Money provides a sense of security.  Money actually does achieve many things that you’d have to be an idealist hippy to ignore.

  
  

  

  
  

  All things being equal, an increase in your personal finances is an important thing and can improve your life…now let me tell you, this is certainly the first time I’ve ever felt inspired enough to support the pursuit of wealth…but, let me remind everyone, that wealth is good, with “all things being equal.”  By this I mean keeping all the other priorities in your list just as high.  All I’m doing is adding one more variable to the other things one should value in life…

  
  

  

  
  

  So…what do I think about money?  The first thing, is that I want to have money so I can buy new technology like a laptop, a touring bicycle, a kayak, and…my newest addition and still figuring it out, would be a a flight to Bueno Aires.

  
  

  

  
  

  I also want money so I can have peace of mind as I grow older.

  
  

  

  
  

  So I don’t have to worry about unexpected medical costs.  So I can raise a family.  So I can one day afford a place to house this family.  And…so I can afford a lifestyle in which I can work a job in the field that I love (adventure, tourism, education, cultural studies…) without feeling like I’d be better off doing something of less interest to me (financial planning, corporate lawyer, professional assassin).  It’s all a lifestyle thing…really.

  
  

  

  
  

  So…now I need to figure out how to make my money grow. 

  
  

  

  
  

  Which means starting to pay attention to these sorts of things…

  
  

  

  
  

  Now…I don’t want financial matters to be the focus of my life, but…remember, we’re not idealist hippy guy anymore.  We need to start getting serious about our finances, because it’s not just the case that “time = money,” but it’s also true that “money=time.”  I don’t know why I’m really trying to tackle this…but it’s a topic that’s on my mind right now.

  
  

  

  
  

  I think being a hippy idealist has skewed me from having a more objective undersanding of the business world.  It’s only by embracing the capitalist and digital world I inhabit, that I’m able to see the different forces at play.  I now look forward to asking the customer service agents where they’re from (I called Orbitz today to cancel flights due to hurricane Wilma…and the agent was from Mauritius…)

  
  

  

  
  

  So…I’m learning to like money.  I’m also learning to like technology.  Blogging…what an amazing resource!!!  I’ve befriended someone who now lives in NYC through the aid of xanga, i can get advice on books to read, and how to prepare for running a marathon.  I sort of see blogging as the 21st century version of having a pen-pal.

  
  

  

  
  

  As I wrote in my last post…there’s probably some nostalgia for the old way of writing letters…and nobody is saying we can’t still do that.  But the world wide web allows us to connect to people in the world in ways that can enhance our quality of life like never before.  It is my hope to get a computer w/ a camera and find a program (i know it’s out there…just need to dig), that will allow me to finally move beyond the shallow nature of instant messenger, so I can have a face-to-face telephone conversation through the internet w/ my friends from London, Israel, S. Africa, and Australia…likely for cheaper than w/ my cell phone.  That to me is the beauty of the digital age.

  
  

  

  
  

  One last point…while it’s easy and reasonable to criticize society at large, to criticize the mass media for dumbing us down, to point to mass advertising as turning us all into mindless consuming zombies, to point to an image of a child in front of a video game system and cry how we’re being dumbed down and isolated from people, to read about parents trying to limit children’s IM time…I believe that we too often generalize the ills of our time, and it is up to us as individuals to decide how we shall live. 

  
  

  If this post leaves you feeling confused..that’s ok.  my thoughts weren’t all organized on this one.  but…i enjoyed trying to put it together for your amusement.

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

   

  • 4:09 pm
  • 2 Comments