I have finally arrived at the magic number of 500 posts!  

It’s hard to believe that I managed to stick it out even when there were so many times I was tempted to hang it up and stop blogging for good.  But writing is in my blood evidently, and blogging has always been a good outlet for me to express myself in a linguistic sense.  With 2009 also on the horizon and a new plan possibly in the works to really get some traffic going, who knows, I might finally be able to realize my dream of actually making some serious money off this blog.

Yet what if that were to really happen though?  What if… I were able to honestly blog for a living?  Should I give up my job for good and blog full time, and do what I’ve always been pining to do, which was to travel across America and write about my experiences?

Doing so would mean giving up a dull job that otherwise offers a lot of benefits, from being able to work only 33 hours, 4 days a week, to enjoying excellent medical and dental plans, including additional perks like longevity pay, education stipends, ample vacation/sick time, being vested in a retirement and additional medical plan, not to mention the fact that it is laid back enough that I can surf the Internet for most of the day while still getting my work done.  Heck, I don’t even have a supervisor either (at least not for a long while, since I scared them all away.)      And since it’s a government job, it offers the kind of job security that could easily survive the recession as well (as long as crime doesn’t go out of business.)

There’s also the fact that if I succeed in monetizing my blog, I would effectively have two incomes as long as I keep my current job.  In a few years I could buy a condo or even a home in another state without even taking out a mortgage.  Such a possibility had never even occurred to me until I considered what I’d be able to do if I pretended my second income didn’t exist at all, and just let it pile up in my savings account for a few years.  I could afford a home for my parents.  A real home.  I could fund their accounts so they’d no longer have to work full time and can enjoy some kind of semi-retirement lifestyle.  I could really help people, good people who are just going through a hard time and could use a little financial charity.  I’d be able to provide for a family too if I had one.

And the only sacrifice I had to make was to simply put up with my ultra-boring, soul sucking job, and God help me, the stupidest bloody coworkers that could have ever graced creation.  And of course, continue living in the worst, most disgusting leftist-riddled state in the entire union. 

You know, as much security as  my job would offer me now, there’s something to be said for being completely self-sufficient and self-employed, with an online income that doesn’t require you to be tied down to any one location.  It offers the kind of freedom most people can only dream of, and for it to even be a distinct possibility for me is a miracle unto itself.  Maybe I can somehow find a way to live the best of both worlds though.    Ultimately, it all hangs on what happens in the next year or so.

In the meantime, here’s to another 500 posts, and promises of a better future that sees this blog not only enrichening my life, but the lives of many others as well. 

Tags: blog, blogging, coworker, dream, family, financial, freedom, income, job, job security, life, living, monetizing, money, online, parents, travel, work
Categories: Blog Fog, In The Coal Mine
 
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This presidential election is sadly overshadowing everything else happening in my life right now.  While I plan to go out and enjoy the fall foliage while it is still at its peak, I wonder if these last few days before the election will mark the last time I’ll ever be able to enjoy an autumn season in a relatively free country again.

It’s often hard to take the predictions of doomsday and the end of the world seriously, regardless of who’s making it, and I’m sure Obama supporters think those of us who oppose him are overreacting with our dire warnings of utter catastrophe and disaster, should he be elected.

I just saw a movie though called Empire of the Sun (starring an adolescent Christian Bale), and what struck me about the movie was just how quickly everything had changed for one little boy.  One day he was living the good life in a peaceful and affluent town, and then quite literally the next day everything changed, as the Japanese invaded and turned his world upside down.  Now all the rights he had previously enjoyed as a British National disappeared into thin air, and he ultimately ended up in an internment camp, where he would reside for the entire duration of World War 2.

It can happen that quickly, without warning.  And yet, even while it’s happening, we still can’t believe it.  But it’s that lack of belief that will ultimately doom us, the overconfidence in thinking our rights just can’t be taken away from us that easily, the idea that even if we make a bad choice for a President, it won’t be so bad that our nation as we know it would come to an end.

And that’s the problem.  What I cannot stand more than anything is having to deal with people’s utter refusal to listen to reason.  It brings out the absolute worst in me.  They are so blind in their hatred and so unforgivably ignorant that they are willing to back a horse that they in truth know very, very little about.  A horse that may in fact be a trojan horse.

Just how is it that a guy with a resume as thin as air beats someone like Hillary, who despite her turbulent past is a seasoned politician and has a record for being a centrist and appealing to a broader base of voters?

How does a guy who breaks his campaign promise to use public financing and instead collects over half a billion dollars in campaign funds (refusing to disclose who’s been donating to him) not raise any red flags with his supporters or the media?

How is it that a politician from Chicago who has associated with and befriended some of the most extreme radical figures in America (denouncing their past acts only during an election season, and never before) not cause some of his supporters to be just a little bit uneasy?

How is it that Obama can talk about a “civilian national security force” without voters seeing visions of the Gestapo marching the streets?

How is it that he can evoke adoration and idolization amongst his followers, even while they would all be hard pressed to name any significant accomplishment he’s made prior to running for President?

How does the prospect of a one party system with a possibly filibuster-proof senate and a White House placed in the hands of a man with a mysterious past and an alarmingly extreme voting record not at least give voters pause?

Why do his supporters continue to believe he will cut taxes despite him having no record of cutting taxes before, and especially now that he’s already reneged on several key campaign promises and changed some of his platform positions?  How can he still be considered trustworthy?

We have gone seven years without a terrorist attack, and it wasn’t by sheer luck.  Do Obama’s supporters really believe we’ll continue to be safe as long as Obama doesn’t antagonize the terrorists and play favorites with Israel so much?  Have we so soon forgotten what Iran did with Jimmy Carter?  Will his supporters turn a blind eye to Russia’s own enthusiastic hope in his election, even while they set their murderous eyes on satellite states like Georgia and Poland, or to Iran licking its chops at the prospect of overrunning Iraq should our troops leave prematurely?  Can we really be expected to believe Iran will suddenly cease its nuclear ambitions and calls for Israel’s destruction so long as Obama treats them nicely, or worse, pursues a policy of appeasement?

How can Obama, who hides his belief in reparations for black Americans by using phrases such as “economic justice,” and who has enthusiastically thrown his support behind the machinery of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae be trusted to handle the financial crisis effectively and without bias?

How can we turn a blind eye to what happened to Joe the Plumber, who saw his privacy and rights as a citizen violated because he asked a question?  How can we not believe that this wouldn’t happen on a much larger scale should Obama become President?

I know there is a lot to dislike about McCain, but there is one thing that should never be in doubt: he truly loves his country.  Whether his ideas are wrong or not, there can be no mistake that they are borne out of his sense of patriotism and his desire for America to continue growing and thriving as the greatest nation on Earth.

As for Obama, just the opposite could be said of him.  I do not believe at all that he loves America.  Instead, what he loves is the idea of what he thinks America should BE.  He sees this nation now as being inherently evil, and believes himself to be the man who can mold and shape it into an image more befitting his own political ideology and belief system, one that is steeped deeply in the anti-American sentiments expressed by so many his mentors (including Reverend Wright), no matter how much he might deny it.  While McCain wants America to continue being America, Barack Obama instead wants it to become Europe, complete with a nanny state that coddles its citizenship, yet at the price of eroding some of our most basic and cherished individual rights.  What we might gain in free health care, we will most assuredly lose in freedom.  As government increases, liberty decreases.  This has been the lesson of history, and behooves us to always remember it.

So I am making one final plea to those intending to vote for Obama; one final appeal to your sense of reason.  Do not vote for this man.  I speak as one who is a dyed in the wool conservative, yet one who could have lived with Hillary Clinton being President.  The most powerful elements of the Democratic Party subverted the will of its voters and nominated someone whom they could project their own hidden agenda onto, a man whose past we still know very little about.  You must see this.

And as much as you might loathe McCain, he is the devil we know, and I would prefer the devil we know over the devil we don’t know any day of the week.

But alas, I suspect I’m writing all this in vain, knowing you will not be persuaded, and indeed I count myself an absolute failure here, in that I have never been able to convince anyone of anything, no matter how hard I try.  But the wool has been pulled over your eyes, and you will not see.  You will pull the lever with your mind clouded with hatred for Bush and all things Republican, or perhaps because you believed the campaign slogan of “hope and change” and your heart always skips a beat at the sound of Obama’s baritone voice.  Having tossed in your lot with the great unknown, you will go about your life’s routines, blissfully unaware of the “Japanese” that may even now be lying in wait in the trenches, biding their time.

God help us all.

Tags: america, autumn, barack hussein obama, barack obama, campaign, christian, Christian Bale, conservative, country, disaster, doom, doomsday, fall foliage, freedom, georgia, God, Hillary Clinton, Iran, Iraq, Israel, jimmy carter, joe the plumber, john mccain, political ideology, president, presidential campaign, presidential election, Russia, vote, voters, voting
Categories: Politics and Poker
 
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I didn’t write anything about 9/11, because after 6 years, I’m starting to get a little tired of the morbidity of it all.

“Let us remember, blah blah blah, those who tragically died, blah blah blah, and join our hands in prayer, blah blah bladdy blah blah….”

Screw this crap.

You know what I want? I want that goat banging turdface’s head on a @#$% stick. I want my skyline whole again, and none of this nonsense about gay looking freedom towers that will never match the magnificence of the twin towers. I want a Who’s-Your-Daddy missile silo installed at the base of the towers and programmed to fire up the ass of anything that even remotely looks at the WTC buildings a little funny.

I want the government to stop being so bloody damned politically correct and checking up the skirts of 80 year old grandmothers at airports because they’re afraid of offending the Muslim community.

But most of all, I want people to stay mad. REALLY mad. A piece of our national heritage was taken away from us on that day, and I want all of us to have the fire of someone who had just lost something very precious, and is prepared to unleash hell on earth until he gets it back again.

That’s what I want.

Tags: 6 years, 9/11, airports, crap, freedom, freedom towers, goat, hell on earth, magnificence, memorial, missile silo, morbidity, muslim community, national heritage, nonsense, political correctness, prayer, skirts, skyline, twin towers, world trade center
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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After giving my first podcast a try, I noticed I couldn’t get the “Show/Hide Player” and “Popup” to work. It was already past midnight, but rather than just turn in and try again in the morning, I resolved to work on it until it was fixed.

I spent three hours on the problem and finally gave up at 3AM. Man was I cheesed. I hated it when something wasn’t working right, but the more I kept at it, the more it seemed to break. When I woke up the next morning, I sat down and resolved the issue inside of 5 minutes. Sheesh. I need to learn how to let things go until I can come back to a problem with a better frame of mind.

I had other issues to fix though, but nothing really urgent (an invalid feed here, a few poor link colors here, etc..) Still, I spent the better part of my day just doing blog related housekeeping. I hadn’t even eaten till around 4.

I think I need a life. With my plans of attending law school shot to hell, I guess with nothing better to do I’ve been turning my focus to blogging again, even though I’m still not really sure what my niche should be. Hearing the success stories of how some bloggers have managed to monetize their blogs to the point that they could quit their full time jobs has me wistfully yearning for the same. With few exceptions, there’s nothing I’d like more than to travel the states and abroad, living the life of a nomad without being tied down to a job that keeps me in one place. And wherever I went, I’d use my newfound freedom to try to help people. It was the kind of life I could only dream about.

Theoretically, such a life could be possible by being a professional blogger (or writer). But the problem with me is that I have nothing interesting to offer (which also explains why no woman wants me either). I don’t have the kind of material that could draw a large crowd, and I’m just not smart enough or creative enough to build content that could land me a sizable audience. The really sad thing is that I consider writing to be one of my better talents, and I still suck at it. Ugh.

I guess even after 30 years on this planet, I still don’t know who I am, what I like, what I should do, or what I’ve been made to do. This sense of helplessness and lack of purpose is what continues to fuel the suspicion that maybe I wasn’t meant to be born after all. But if I was, then the question remains: who am I? Am I a writer? A preacher? A musician? An actor? A lover? No…. definitely not a lover.

I guess hiding under a rock for most of my life has made me completely ignorant of what really matters to me. Maybe the more I put myself out there, the more I can come to know where my niche really lies.

Tags: audience, blog, blogger, bloggers, blogging, creativity, exceptions, frame of mind, freedom, full time, housekeeping, job, law school, life, monetize, niche, nomad, podcast, problogger, purpose, shot to hell, talents, travel, writing
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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After going back and forth with the local law school that accepted me into their part time program, I finally made a decision.

I will not attend law school.

I knew if it was meant to be, the pieces would fall into place. Instead, my school absolutely refused to give me any leeway in granting me a schedule that wouldn’t conflict with my working hours. After conferring with my admissions counselor, the director of admissions, the assistant dean, and finally the dean himself, they flatly stated I must adhere to THEIR schedule, and I would be unable to change it should I be assigned to classes that fall within my working hours. For $25,000 a year and a debt load that will surpass more than a $100,000, this is how they’re going to treat me?

Up yours, law school.

Let’s get one thing straight: I don’t play by your rules. If I should ever attend law school sometime in this life, it will be under MY terms. The bottomline is, you’re all full of crap. You perpetuate a system that robs people of their financial freedom, commit academic fraud by doing virtually nothing to prepare your students for the real world of lawyering, and encourage the use of a grading curve that promotes back stabbing competition, as well as the false notion that students are doing well in classes when in fact they are HORRIBLE students, and are only surviving school because of their inflated grades.

Simply put: You SUCK.

I wanted to be a lawyer for charitable reasons, but I finally had to come clean and concede that I don’t really love the law enough to survive the perils of law school, and especially the legal profession itself. It does interest me at times, but it’s certainly nothing I’m passionate about. I don’t like the idea of writing dry memos and briefs all day long, and certainly not as a junior associate slave for some two bit law firm. Reading legal material is absurdly boring as well, mostly because it’s hard to digest the pompous and sometimes godawful writings of judges and attorneys who had probably failed third grade English during their adolescent years.

I also realized my debt load would severely limit my options and would make me a slave to my loans unless I somehow struck it rich with a case or won the lottery. By not attending law school, I will be completely debt free in the space of a year, and at that point I will be beholden to no one. I can probably do more good as a non-lawyer who is debt free then as a practicing attorney who is over $100,000 in debt.

However, life can be a funny old dog sometimes. While I have decided not to attend law school now, it doesn’t mean the door won’t suddenly open up later on in life. There’s a saying in Scripture where God promises His people that they would be “the head, and not the tail.” I know the time will be right for me when I can attend law school as a head beholden to no one, rather than a tail who would be at the mercy of a corrupt and perverse legal establishment.

Though I’m a bit disappointed, I do feel like a heavy burden has been lifted from my shoulders. Now I can focus on getting myself healthy again, exploring interests and hobbies that I could truly be passionate about, and of course last but not least: finding the girl of my dreams.

Tags: academic fraud, admissions counselor, bottomline, curve, debt load, financial, financial freedom, freedom, law school, lawyering, leeway, legal material, legal profession, memos, part time, perils, pompous, real world, time program
Categories: Legally Speaking
 
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