Healthy living via the Mediterranean Diet

When I say diet, I don't mean your typical "starve yourself to lose weight" diet, but rather the traditional eating habits of the people in the Mediterranean region. I originally became interested in the eating habits and way of life subscribed to by the people of the region when we first moved to Bulgaria last year.

First off, I'm not a big guy. I'm 5' 9", and I've weighed between 150 and 160 lbs (68-72 kilograms) my whole life. However, back in 2005 I began to put on some weight, more than likely due to my mother's side of the family being somewhat heavy. My sister has done the same now that she hit her mid-20's. I went up to around 180 that winter, but I was eating like a pig, your typical "construction worker" diet, which basically consists of mornings at Village Inn, lunches at a burger joint (not necessarily fast food, just your typical greasy spoon restaurant, whatever was close to the jobsite), and dinners--which, while I cooked for myself, were never "healthy"--that usually consisted of some form of red meat. I would say that my daily diet usually consisted of 3000 to 3500 calories per day. And while I worked physically, I wasn't burning all of that off, and as a result, when winter hit, I began to pack on the pounds. So, in 2006's summer, I started jogging with my dog.

Within a few weeks I was up to a pretty regular 6 mile jog, 5-6 days a week. I started "watching" what I ate, and got my diet down to around 2k calories. I proceeded to drop back down to around 160 over the course of a few months and I kept it up all summer...until winter hit. I stopped jogging, and started eating heavier again...and when spring of 2007 rolled around I was shocked to find out that I had rocketed up to nearly 190 lbs. I bought a bike, started eating healthy again, and manged to drop to around 170. Then, in late 2007, the crisis started to hit. The housing market crashed, and I went from having a hard time finding work to little/no work at all, and I started binge-eating. By the time we left the States I had rocketed back up to 195 lbs, nearly all of it in my stomach.

When we got here in January of 2008 I decided I wanted to start living healthy. I started researching realistic food regimes. Not diets in the sense of a weight-loss program, but diet in the sense of a way of life, the daily intake of food and drink. I stumbled across some interesting articles regarding extra virgin olive oil and subsequently the Mediterranean Diet. I've been hooked ever since.

I won't go into all of the amazing long-term benefits of the Diet here. You can check out that information at Steve Parker's website and blog. He's a doctor who wrote a book about the Diet and promotes it on a daily basis via his blog. But for my own personal experiences, it's been amazing.

Last year I dropped from 195 lbs to 165 lbs in 6 months. That's 30 pounds in six months. And I'd say a good 90% of the weight loss was from simply eating healthy via the Diet. I don't starve myself, not in the least. The diet combines healthy groups of food that your body treats like your car treats premium fuel; it burns right through it. You see, many of the food combinations that Americans eat tend to lead to slow or poor digestion, which leads to the body being unable to process the food in a proper manner, which can lead to health issues and weight gain. Things like steak and potatoes. Not a good combo. Yet every restaurant you go to serves steak with a baked potato, or hamburger with fries. The reason the Mediterranean Diet is so helpful is it combines natural, healthy food combinations that go well together. Your body reacts by creating more energy, burning more fat, and processing at a much higher rate.

This winter I slacked a little, but who doesn't? I put on a few extra pounds (6-7, which is vanity for the most part) over the holidays, but this summer I decided to take it to the next level. While I have been a fan of the Diet for a year and a half, I haven't ever subscribed to it in full-force. I would say that last year I probably ate via the Diet 4 days a week, and the other three were filled with "cheating" and eating large portions, which counteracts the program to some degree. My wife, Evy decided she wanted to lose a few pounds (not that she needs it, as you can see from her/my blog pics...she's a tiny thing), so she decided to subscribe to the diet along with me. I'll be tracking our progress here via the blog from time to time.

We are at the two week mark today. We have "cheated" twice; we had pizza last weekend, and we had KFC last night for dinner. But other than that, for the past 14 days we have eaten only according to the Mediterranean Diet. That means fish a few times per week, a couple of pieces of bread per day, with plenty of greens, cheese, yogurt, and fruits, along with a glass or two of wine every night and plenty of water during the day. Our 2 week mark has shown my wife losing 2 kilograms, and myself having lost 3 kilograms. (She is at 48 kilograms (105 lbs) and I'm at 74 (163 lbs).

Now, neither one of us has exercised this past week. I have tried fairly hard since the winter months to keep a healthy regime up, doing 12 kilometers 4-5 times a week on the elliptical, combined with some weights and Pilates. Then, I read an article over at Dr. Steve's blog talking about how recent studies are showing that your daily intake of food has more to do with losing weight than actual fitness regimes do, and I decided to try it out and see. Now, granted, I understand that I'm doing a "short term" test, and there are several factors to take into consideration. One, I'm not a professional doctor or nutritionist in any way. I am simply a normal guy, interested in these things, and trying them out for myself. Two, I know this is a short-term thing, because I don't want to lose all the hard work I put into getting myself built up to this point. The first few weeks of weight lifting was hell, but I established a good 30 minute circuit routine that I don't want to backtrack out of completely. But I wanted to see just how much diet alone could help weight loss.

I lead a sedentary life. I sit in front of a computer all day and work. I get up around 7 or 8 and I go to bed around midnight, and I would say that only 3-4 hours of the day (on average) is spent out of the chair. That's when I go out for daily walks to the park with my wife, or walks around town, or random stuff around the house. I counteract that with a fairly progressive fitness regime.

My goal? To see how far I can go by letting my body work naturally. I have a number in my head that I am shooting for, but my overall goal is to take the Mediterranean Diet and apply it to my life with a 95% or greater mentality; that is, only cheating 2-3 times a month, rather than 2-3 times a week. I want to see just how far my body will go on its own, doing things naturally, when I'm feeding it premium food. I'm going to do one more week of no exercise, then I'm going to work my way back into my fitness regime. I'm at 163 lbs (74 kilograms) now, and I'm still quite flabby around my tummy. I would risk a guess and say that I could stand to lose another 10-15 lbs, but we'll wait and see.

One thing to remember is that the Mediterranean Diet isn't just about healthy living, it's about long-term benefits to your body. I've lived rather hard over the course of my life; I was a smoker for a lot of years, and I also chewed tobacco for 5 or 6. I've stopped smoking for periods of time (4-6 months a year) over the years, with my most recent stint coming to a stop back in January. I'd like to try and live as long as possible, so I'm trying to find a way of life that lets me do that. Portion control is important, as well as a good routine and healthy living. I was very bad about portion controls even up until this year, and I think I can attribute that to my Americanization. I have spent the last few months really working on that, and the past 2 weeks in particular have paid off. Where I used to be able to eat 4-5 pieces of pizza, for example, before I was full, I can now eat 1-2 and I'm stuffed. I can have a bottle of water and I feel full. A small bowl of soup will keep me satiated for the greater part of the day. A salad fills me up. I have shrunk my stomach to a healthy point now, and I plan on making sure it stays that way :)

Anyway! For more information you can check out the aforementioned blog and website of Steve Parker, M.D., and you can also read my articles on olive oil and the Mediterranean Diet over at Green Diva Mom. In addition, you can stop over to Stile Mediterraneo and dig on the amazing recipes and extra virgin olive oil facts that Cinzia and Marika post. These are two girls who live the Mediterranean Diet to its fullest, and it shows!

Best of luck, and I'll post more info as we go along :)

To outsource, nor not to outsource?

I feel guilty when I turn down work. However, I also know it's a good sign when my clients are coming to me with rush orders, because that means I've built up a solid reputation as the go-to guy, the one who gets it done, on time, with superior quality, and without fail.

I've been maxed the last couple of months. Today I've had two separate rush orders offered to me, and I've begun to wonder if I shouldn't start outsourcing some of my freelance work to other, budding writers who, like myself once upon a time, are desperate to find work. I wouldn't be able to pay that great, but some pay is better than no pay for a starting writer. And it's writing credits, even if they are only ghost-writing.

However, I swore after my last business in construction that I would never own a company ever again, and the moment you start outsourcing and having employees, you go from being self-employed to being an employer, and that turns into a business.

I like money, but I also like my freedom. Decisions, decisions.

On hold!

It can refer to many things.

In my specific case, it has two current meanings. The first is dealing with customer service. You see, I've been a loyal PayPal customer for almost 6 years now, and I've been a Verified account for just as long. I've used the same bank account and the same debit card for years, with no issues. Last week I found himself in a situation where I needed to sign up for a Click and Buy account, due to a merchant whose services I wanted to use not accepting PayPal (which I found weird in the first place).

They refused to verify my account, using the same bank account and debit card information I've used with PayPal for years. Not only that, but they have still not replied to my e-mail, sent over a week ago, and the few times I have called in I have enjoyed the sound of being put on hold for 15+ minutes each time. I finally gave up even bothering to try.

However, I also had another "good" kind of hold. One of my recent spec-fic comedy short stories has been put on the short list for an Australian publication. It made it past the first two rounds of readership and is now waiting for the "full time" editors of the publication to take a look. Not a big thing, maybe, but I find it encouraging. It's always good to know your story is getting looked at rather than being simply rejected outright. The slush-pile lady says they publish 30-40% of the stories that get put on hold, so finger's crossed. This is only the second place I've sent the story, so I'm hopeful.

That's it for my Tuesday morning blurb. Work calls, and I've a busy day ahead. On a side note, I've already lost another kilo since my last post about diets and weight (about 3 days ago I think), so I'm right on track to be down to 74 kilos by the end of the week. Go go Mediterranean diet!

Earthquakes

We felt three of them last night. The epicenter was around 100 miles South of here, on the Greece/Macedonia/Bulgaria border, and all of them were around 5.0 on the scale. Evy posted about it on her blog, so I won't go into too much more detail here other than to say: I didn't sleep well at all last night, being overly paranoid.

The end of the month

Well, this is the last week of May. Hard to believe that we are already basically halfway through the year. Summertime is here!

It's been a great year so far.

June is shaping up to be nice. I've already got the first week of the month booked for work, and I've got several other clients on the back burner that I'll possibly use if time permits. I'm increasing my work hours to 6 a day instead of only 4, and I've been making steady progress on the book. I should be to at least chapter 13 by the end of June, if not chapter 14. I'm into chapter 11 now, and should wrap it up next week, leaving me 12 and 13 for June, and hopefully 14 as well. I should also cross the 100k words threshold in June, meaning my book will be roughly halfway completed.

My latest fitness kick is paying off. I've lost my winter weight now that I put my mind to it, dropping 2 kilos in the past week (down to 76 from 78), and I'm shooting for another 2 kilo loss next week to 74 kilos. My goal weight is 68-70 kilos, or 150-155 lbs, and I've had the benefit of learning a lot of over the last year in terms of healthy eating, specifically with the Mediterranean Diet. I adhered strictly to it last week, with no cheating for 6 days, and I lost 2 kilos. Not too bad. I ate tuna twice, and the rest of the time I ate salads and vegetables with some bread, cheese, and yogurt. I also have incorporated steamed buckwheat, which is similar to rice, only with a more grainy flavor, into my breakfast. I drizzle a bowl-full with some extra virgin olive oil, put in some feta cheese, and viola, a healthy fiber breakfast.

Hope your year is going as well, and here's to the rest of 2009 :)

A day off.

I took one today. 'Nuff said :)

I have a deadline on the first of next month, but I've pleeeenty of time to get the project done (I only have about 30 hours worth of work left on it), and I just needed a day to completely veg.

That's one of the things I really love about my job. If I need to take a day off, and it works into my deadlines, then I go for it.

On the plus side, I'm taking the time to catch up on some creative writing. Chapter work never sleeps!

Religious zealotry and why it should scare you.

Here's another juicy news item, right up there with the needles death of that child a few months ago whose parents refused to take her to a doctor, claiming her diabetes was nothing more than a demon possession.

I'm posting this before I get to work this morning because I'm simply amazed at the stupidity of religious zealots. This is a typical case of religion getting in the way of common sense. If you read the article, along with the case itself (I've been following it for quite some time now), you will see that the child has Hodgkins lymphoma, which is a highly curable form of cancer. As I recall it has something like a 90+% chance of being curable...if it's caught in time and if it's treated properly.

For months the parents have refused to let their child be treated by doctors, instead claiming that their prayer combined with herbs and backwoods remedies are enough to cure their child. Meanwhile, his tumor has considered to grow, showing no signs of getting better, and the poor little guy has gone through immeasurable amounts of pain due to the tumor, and he is too young to understand all of his options. From the way the article reads, his parents haven't even allowed him to be counseled by a doctor regarding his options because he's still their ward, and they have brainwashed him into thinking that the only cure for his disease is a bunch of hokey alternative medicines that have no medical backing whatsoever.

So the wife was due in court this morning to show proof that her alternative medicine was or wasn't curing the boy. Dad shows up in court...wife is gone, and she's taken the child with her. He allegedly has no idea where she has fled to, and he now believes that his son needs to be taken to a real medical professional to seek treatment. Smart man, and it's admirable that he's pulled his head out of the sand for long enough to actually have the desire to save the life of his son.

The mother, on the other hand, has only gone on to prove what everyone knew all along...the alternative medicine isn't working. She's killing her son. But rather than let him be taken care of by the "evil" doctors and taken out of her care (because, let's face it, she's not fit to be caring for her child in the first place if she can't be responsible enough to get him medical help), she bailed on court, disappearing with her child. There is now an arrest warrant out for her, and you can bet your money that when they catch up with her she will never be able to see her child again, which could have been avoided had she simply acted like a responsible parent in the first place.

It also goes to show that apparently her alternative medicine wasn't going to paint the results in court that she claimed verbally, and rather than admit she was wrong by presenting the cold-hard facts to the court--those being, that her medicine had failed and the only way to truly save her child was, in fact, to take him to a MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL!--she took her son and is now on the run.

It's wrong on so many levels. And every bit of it stems from the fact that she and her husband are religious zealots who believe that medicine is evil, that doctors are the "great satan", and that the only way to heal themselves or their children of illness is to pray and rely on hokey alternative medicines that have absolutely no medical proof whatsoever that they do anything other than imbue the believer with a false sense of hope. It's frighteningly sad.

So not only has she effectively signed her own son's death warrant, she has insured that her child will be stripped away from her by the legal system because she has proven to be an unfit mother.

Twitter, worth it or not?

So I hopped on the Twitter bandwagon a few weeks ago because people were telling me it's a "must" for networking. Over the course of those weeks I've generated a little over 50 followers, but lately I'm beginning to think...is it really doing me any good? Are people really even bothering to head over to my blog based purely upon a random Tweet now and again?

To me, it almost seems like a waste of time. I know others might have higher degrees of success with it, but to be honest, I have far more important things to do with my time than type an update of what I'm doing every 15 minutes, which seems to be the only real way to generate followers.

What really got me thinking about it was a post the other day (forgive me for being too tired tonight to go find it) that detailed how a guy who posts Tweets for his cat has amassed over 500k followers...or rather, his cat has. The posts are all silly things like "I R rummaging in attic" or "I am taking a nap", "I am being cat-like", so on and so forth. And yet this random, boring crap has managed to garnish 500k posts.

Are people really that shallow?

Is Twitter really doing anything to help people's businesses, or is it simply a social fad similar to having Air Jordans back in the late 80s, early 90? I mean, I know there are people out there using it successfully for their business, but when I see something as stupid as fake cat posts getting 500k followers, I have to question the sanity of people. Why? What's the point? What purpose does it serve? When you talk to people about Twitter the only single, tangible piece of evidence they talk about is how many followers they have. Some celebrities are going around bragging that they have X number of people following them, clinging to their every move, from whether or not they had breakfast, to the latest bathroom they took a shit in. (For the record, if any of you have seen The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert you know what I mean. That scene where they are going on about the Abba turd is just classic. The lengths some fans will go to...)

I dunno. I'm really thinking Twitter is nothing more than another version of e-peen, with no real benefit other than being able to whip yours out of its package and say "look how many followers I have!"

On a side note, very productive day. Finished the first half of May's project, did some editing, did 2500 words worth of work on the latest chapter (should be finished tomorrow), did a DS article, some additional research, did some grocery shopping, submitted a query and got a favorable response (for a travel website...they are looking for local correspondents and they are supposedly thinking of adding Bulgaria to the list in the near future. Fingers crossed, but won't hold breath), and watched the latest episode of The Tudors. Wrapping things up for the evening and about to head to bed.

FECK!

My wife just totally rick-rolled me. Then ran off yelling "You know you love me!"

I've been busy working on a resume e-mail to possibly land another client and she sends me this link, telling me it's the promo teaser for the fourth season of Dexter. Then, she patiently waits while I finish up the e-mail, which takes about 30 minutes.

I click on the link. I watch a good 10 seconds of what appears to be some shots from the up-coming 4th season of one of our favorite shows, with the volume cranked up on my speakers when...BAM!


IIIIIII just wanna tell you how I feeeeeel

Man. I feel totally violated right now.

Poetry

It's something I haven't done for years. I used to write a lot of it. A lot. I'm talking notebooks and notebooks full of the stuff. Something like 2 dozen notebooks, I think. And countless hundreds of e-mailed ones as well. Then, about 4 years ago, I just sort of stopped. I also played the piano for 14 years, and wrote a lot of songs. I was also in a band for a year and a half (we played a few local shows every week, and recorded a demo CD in San Diego) playing drums, but all that sort of stopped when I turned 20.

I was reading through ancient e-mails from about 5 years ago today and I stumbled across one that I wrote a long time ago.

Perfection is a snowflake, white upon the field

A stained glass window sparkling

Or a strip of sunset peeled

A cloud above in bright blue sky, contorted into signs

A drink of water on a hot day

Helps ease away the lines

Love extended through a wire, across an empty space

Tangled wires, networked love

Can never quite replace

A smile seen from eye to eye, upon the other's face

A hug, a kiss, a soft embrace

Tis such a special place

Fiberoptic imagery, spun bright with neon lights

Texts and e-mails, it all connects

We are dazzled by the sights

Finalize the data flow, accept the transfer now

Send pictures, feelings, across the 'net

And try to teach us how
To reach perfection

Needless Deaths

A few months ago, I was reading the news from back in the States and stumbled across a gem of an article dealing with a couple of parents who let their daughter die, believing that the symptoms she had been showing for months leading up to her coma and death were nothing more than demon possession. I remember commenting at the time that the parents were likely going to face criminal charges as a result of recklessly endangering the life of a child, as well as charges stemming from her death, which was for all intents and purposes, murder.

Sure enough, they are now facing reckless manslaughter charges, according to this article.

Now, something I have to question right off the bat, is the sanity of the parents. What is really sad about this story is the month's worth of suffering this poor little girl had to deal with prior to her eventual death. Relatives and neighbors say that she began wasting away months prior to her death. She was constantly fatigued, had no appetite, had several seizures, and in the final days before her coma she was unable to walk or even speak, before finally slipping over to the other side.

I am appalled by the actions of such parents. It is terrifying to think of how far religious zealots will go in following their religion. They will fly planes into buildings, commit suicide by blowing themselves up, and kill their children through sheer stupidity.

Come on. Diabetes is a COMMON disease, and is easily diagnosed by doctors, as well as being entirely treatable.

Religion makes people stupid. I'm going to go on the record here and state that yes, I do believe in "God" in the sense that I believe in a powerful being who created everything and watches over us, but I do not follow any "religious" organization for the very reasons above: they are all a bunch of whack-jobs. (personal opinion!)

When I was growing up I was forced to go to a Baptist private school. They taught that having hair touching your collar or your ears was a "sin", and that you would burn in hell for it. They also taught that wearing anything other than slacks, dress shoes, and shirts with ties resulted in "not taking care of your appearance" and since your body is the "temple of God", your appearance should reflect the fact that your body is holy. Therefore, anyone wearing anything other than their approved attired was a "sinner" and was going to burn in hell for mocking God's temple. I remember being 13 years old and having to shave on a daily basis and I went without shaving for 2 days once and I received after-school detention for "disgracing" God. Whackjobs. Every one of 'em. They preach tolerance and acceptance but judge at every turn. I could go on with examples from every religion around the world (not just Christian religions), but that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is to point out that sometimes religion gets in the way of simple common sense, and leads to needless deaths.

I was sick to my stomach when I read that article the first time a few months ago. It brought it home again to me when I read the article today, thinking about the months of suffering that poor little girl had to go through, feeling her body literally wasting away, and being too little to understand what was going on. Her death was absolutely unnecessary, and her parents should be locked away for the rest of their natural lives for allowing such an atrocity to occur.

I can understand people's need for religion, and I absolutely do respect a person's choice to worship in whatever way suits them best. But when religion gets in the way of common sense...maybe you should get your head checked. Preferably BEFORE you kill someone with your stupidity.

Things that go bump in the night

Mainly, Evy.

I don't think either of us have laughed that hard since the last "bump in the night" incident, which involved me forgetting that I had closed the bedroom door and getting up in the middle of the night to take a leak and subsequently smashing square into the door and taking some skin of of my nose. Middle of the night, half asleep, I totally didn't expect that door to be there! Woke me up fast, I'll tell you!

But last night was her turn :) I wake up to this HORRIBLE racket...large thud, things flying across the room...apparently she had rolled over in her sleep and gone off the edge of the bed, knocking over her book rack, the lamp, her glasses. While I initially panicked, I was quickly relieved because she was lying on the floor giggling her ass off.

Ah, the things that make us laugh.

A distrubing trend.

On the continuation of yesterday's post, I began thinking about another dangerous trend in today's industry.

The Self Published Writer.

Now, not every self published writer is inherently bad. Some people choose to self publish simply because they want to get their book straight out to the readers, rather than deal with the middle man. And some of them are good enough writers to pull it off. But there are others--a frighteningly large percentage--who have no right being published in any sense of the word.

Established publishers serve a purpose. They can market your book, for starters. Even shitty writers (we've all read them) can make millions, simply because their agent was able to negotiate a sweet marketing deal with the publisher. Publishers can also take a huge weight off of your shoulders, dealing with all of the "little things" that happen between the book coming off of your printer and hitting the shelves of your local bookstore. That's why they take a percentage of your profits.

As a little guy, you don't have much negotiating room. As you become more established, you gain more leverage. This is no different than every other industry in the world. Start small, work your way up the chain, become big man on totem pole. Huff puff.

Professional publishers also serve another purpose: they have staff on hand who not only know what they are doing when it comes to editing, but they are passionate about the subject matter. Let me give you an example. An editor for Tor, for example, is passionate about fantasy work. An editor for Baen Books is more towards science fiction. A publisher for Bantam will depend on the genre of the story being written. The point is, you don't want your fantasy story being edited by an action-adventure spy-thriller editor, or your science-fiction story being edited by a children's story editor. By using the proper channels you can insure that your story is being read by an editor who not only understands the subject matter, but can help you mold your story into professional fare that will earn you a readership base, a nice chunk of change, and a return visit to the publisher when your book pays off.

Self published writers skip that step. They dump their product onto the market and more often times than not...it's trash. Pure drivel. And the sad thing is that these same authors will suddenly jump up and claim "I'm a published author!".

I recently saw a woman who said "I have 28 publications to my name". I went and did some research. Not a single title was published by a professional publication. Every single title was a self-published e-book. Now, I'm not familiar with her writing, but the fact that she had pushed out 28 novels in the course of a mere 5 years cause me to shake my head and just simply boggle. that's over 5 novels per year, and I'm sorry to be judgemental, but I find it highly circumspect that her novels were of a high calibre.

As someone who is established in the journalism, magazine and website articles, and content generation portion of the modern-day industry, I can appreciate that it is often times difficult to break into a certain market. I may be a successful writer, but there are still areas of the industry that I am not established in yet, and it may very well take several tries before I move into those parts. But I'm also not one of those people who believes in self-publishing. I know my limitations. I'm a good writer. Perhaps even a great writer. But every great writer needs a great editor behind them, pushing them to be better, helping them hone their craft, weed out mistakes, and so on and so forth. I fully believe in hiring editors, just as I always hired an accountant to do my taxes for me when I ran a construction company. Every person has a unique job that they can cover, and I'm not afraid to pay a professional to do their job. In fact, I want the professional overseeing my work because I want to know that my work is being judged on a professional level...not purely by my own, jaded opinion.

I think ego plays some part of it. I'm guilty of it myself. Every writer thinks their project is "special". Some writers will go so far as to say "I don't care if no one else gets it...it's a good project, and I want it published!", subsequently pushing out 28 novels in 5 years without a single professional editor ever taking a glance at it.

As someone who is beginning to branch out into the fiction world, I submit to a lot of publications, world-wide. I recently did a blind submit to a magazine and them immediately regretted my decision when a couple of days later I read up on his publication. The guy is a self published author of three novels who started a fiction magazine a couple of years ago and self publishes the fiction magazine as the acting editor in chief, art director....and the only guy on the staff. I have to wonder at the credibility of such a publication when there is no professional guidance being given to the owner/operator. He is basically running willy-nilly through the brush with his undies on fire, claiming that there's no such thing as flame.

So, in closing...while a bad editor is indeed an atrocity, a professional editor is your saving grace.

When enough is enough.

As a writer, you have standards. Standards that relate to your rates, your personal contract on revisions, cut-off dates, publishing times, and standards regarding your work. But what is realistic?

Here's a big problem in today's industry: there is no degree relating to editing.

There are degrees for all styles of writing. One can earn a journalism degree, a creative writing degree, a screen-play writing degree, and so on and so forth. But there is no actual degree related to editing. So how do editors get their jobs? How do you earn experience as an editor?

Anyone with sufficient knowledge of the English language can qualify to be an editor. And therein lies the danger. There are far too many editors out there who have no business being in the position they are in, because they just don't "get" things.

One of my favorites was about 6 months ago when I had an editor tell me, in regards to one of my stories, "we cannot publish it because it hasn't figured out whether or not it's a comedy, a satire, or an action story. You need to pick one and stick with it."

My first response was to chuckle. Seriously. Ever heard of dramatic comedy? Action comedy? Comedic horror? These are all dual-purpose terms used to describe movies, television shows, scripts, and books, world-wide. And yes, there are those stories which strictly fit into one category or another. Movies like I am Sam, which is a 100% drama. Or movies like, say, 300, which are purely action-driven. Books like The Bourne series, which are specifically action/adventure books, or anything by H. P. Lovecraft, which is specifically horror.

You've all come across it. Movies or books that make you laugh, cry, and tense up at all the right spots. A good story will encompass the entire range of emotions that a human being is capable of, not just "pick one and stick with it".

There are some editors out there who do not deserve the title they have. Sure, they may have a grasp of how the language works, but do they "get" the target audience for their particular genre? Some of them do...they are the ones behind the best selling magazines. But others, in the lower-paying sector...well, it almost seems to me that they are power-tripping, using the position as a way to feel good about themselves while not actually having a clue about what they are doing. The results can be seen in the pathetic sales of their publications.

A story does not have to pick an emotion and stick to it. It can encompass as many emotions as the writer wants it to convey. And as a writer you sometimes have to learn which editors you can trust, and which ones you can tell to shove it. There is such a thing as enough is enough, and there's nothing wrong with walking away if a particular editor doesn't "get" your story. There are hundreds of thousands of successful authors out there who do it on a daily basis. We all do it in some way, shape, or form, in professional work and in our personal lives. Don't like the smell or look of a particular supermarket? You go to the one across the street, instead. Don't like the pair of shoes sold at this particular shoe store? Go to the mall across town and find another who sells the shoe you are looking for.

Life is about choices. You are not relegated to suffering under pretentious individuals. I feel sorry for a lot of writers out there who feel that they should be forced into re-writing a story 4 or 5 or 6 different times just so they can earn a publishing credit. If the editor likes your story enough to ask you for a revision in the first place, sure, ok, go for it. Discuss the "why" of it. If you feel that the editor in question is giving you advice that you feel comfortable following, then feel free to follow it. But if the editor is asking you to rip the soul out of your story and crush it underneath your heel just to mold it into the shape that he or she wants out of it, then walk away. There is no point in sullying your artistic work just to get a published story underneath your belt. Remember, there are thousands of e-zines and magazines around the entire world who are willing to publish your story, just as it is now. And there are thousands of other editors out there who will understand your story.

Sometimes enough is enough. Don't be afraid to walk away and find someone more suited to your personal needs as an author. After all, what's the point of writing if you can't feel proud about the stories you've written?

Wednesday night ramblings

Had a disappointing afternoon, in that a client was unclear with me on the layout of their articles, and I've got to spent a couple hours tomorrow editing some 23k worth of content into the "proper" format. I wasn't exactly pleased to get the e-mail this afternoon. In fact, Evy barked at me after I went into a 5 minute f-bomb laced tirade about people who don't give adequate instructions in their e-mails in the first place. Still, it's the first time I've had to do a re-write for this client in the nearly 6 months I've been working for them, and it had nothing to do with the content itself, just the layout of the articles. And really it's only a couple hours worth of time. I'm just glad they caught me before I submitted my second batch, because I've got a full month's worth of articles from them to work on. It's just frustrating when they give you an "example" in the brief, and when you follow the example you get told "oh, well, we didn't actually want it like THAT, we want it like THIS instead". GRRR

We were discussing the benefits of our living conditions tonight, something we are grateful for on a daily basis. Sofia is a fun city to live in, ableit a bit dirty, as are all the larger European cities in the hidden corners. We are essentially able to do exactly what we want without having to work full time jobs just to pay the bills, which is something I'm extremely grateful for.

So, while the afternoon was a bit "meh", this evening turned out pretty good. I headed out around 6:30 to meet her after her evening class got out, and we went to Starbucks for some fraps before heading up to NDK and then back down the main street, stopping to get her a souvlaki. Then we meandered home in the coolness of the evening, talking about a business venture she and one of her friends are thinking about taking, one which I think could turn out to be quite lucrative if done properly. And that's the thing...I'm an entrepreneur at heart. I'm on the third business I've started in my relatively short life of 29 years, and I've been fairly successful at each venture. I'm not rich, by any means, but I've always been able to afford to do the things I want, travel where I want, live where I want, and do the things I want to do, and that's really all you can ask for in life as far as I'm concerned. And I think the idea she and her friend have is something that will work incredibly well here in Bulgaria, especially in the Sofia area, as it ties into the expansion of the city and the expanding market as the country further involves itself in the EU and people begin to make more money and dig themselves out of the hole that the communist regime dug for them.

She is finishing up her business admin degree from the University of Portsmouth here in Sofia, so she'll have a British business degree, and her friend has a degree in chemistry. They are looking into getting landscaping/gardening degrees from one of the other Universities here in Sofia and going into the landscaping business, something of which there isn't a lot of at the moment. And--let's face it--not many Bulgarians can afford to pay someone a ridiculous fee to come arrange their yard/housing area for them. But the foreigners can, and as Bulgaria continues to expand and people's incomes grow with the coming of the Euro, it has the potential to be quite a lucrative venture. And, with her family's business booming, finding the money to back the initial company isn't going to be an issue. Her mother has already been pushing her to start one of two different businesses in the past few months...an importing business and a construction company, of which I would offer consulting given my 15+ years in the industry on the American side.

Our apartment is old. Something like 60 years old, I think. But it's paid for, in full. We have to spray for cockroaches in the summer (gross, I know, but a small price to pay for no rent/mortgage), and if we keep our living expenses where they are currently (500 USD a month), we stand to amass a small fortune in the next 5-10 years, meaning that we could effectively see early retirement, if we play our cards right. I'm fairly lazy this year, but if I end up hitting the 30k USD mark next year, which shouldn't be an issue, roughly 25k of that goes straight into the bank. We aren't counting on her income being realistic for at least another 3 years until she's finished with her courses and can get a "real" job, so really all she makes is enough to pay the living expenses with her part time work while she finishes her degrees. What sucks is that she lost 2 years of school in the US when we transferred here from the States.

Pipe dreams? Sure. Everyone has them. But a realistic game plan doesn't hurt.

I was talking with her last night on our nightly walk (we take a walk every night for at least an hour and a half, usually up to NDK and back) about the benefits of living in a developing country. Yes, things are a lot different than back in the States, or any other Western country, but the benefits is if you play your cards right you can ride the wave of industrial revolution. And having lived in the States, we both have a lot of knowledge that the average Bulgarian has no clue about...mainly, how the REAL WORLD operates! Don't take that the wrong way, because it sounds like I'm talking down to Bulgarians, but as she and I have discussed many times over the years (keeping in mind that she is born and raised here), most (a generalization, for sure) Bulgarians have their heads stuck in the sand when it comes to how the real world operates. One of the most frustrating things I deal with on a regular basis is the absolute inability for people to understand what it is that I do for a living...make money sitting in front of a computer doing journalism and content generation, selling short stories, and working on novels. They just can't comprehend. The younger generation, sure, but it's going to be 15 years before they are in a position to help move the country in the digital direction. The 40 year old + generation just doesn't get it, for the most part. The 60+ generation keeps voting for the communist party year after year, despite the fact that 20 years ago they HATED communism, simply because they found out after 20 years that--gasp!--for capitalism to work they actually have to WORK for their rewards. And now that they are 60+ years old they want the government to start sending them monthly paychecks again, just because. And that's in direct conflict with the younger generation who, rather than deal with the old coots who refuse to accept modern evolution, move out of the country to pursue their interests elsewhere.

So, in retrospect, we've been discussing future plans a lot lately. Whether or not she wants to pursue her Master's degree in England, or stay here and pursue a business venture with her friend. Whether or not she wants to quit her part time job now to focus more on her ideas, or keep working. My job can easily pay the bills (I make 1500 USD a month for only about 4 hours a day time invested...I'm a slacker!), so I told her if she wants to quit her current part-time job to focus on her business idea, I'm all for it. But I'm also keen on the idea of her pursuing her Master's in Portsmouth. She's already on the Dean's list of favorite students, and part of a business venture he picked her + 3 other students for, and she was recently invited to meet the British delegates. Sadly, she had clients at work that day.

Me, I'm easy. I'm a slacker at heart, despite my entrepreneurial streak. My dad's side of the family may all have made millions in the construction industry, but my expectations are far lower. I've been happy making 50-60k a year for a long time, working hard for 6-8 months out of the year and vacationing in Europe the rest of the time. During my late teens and early twenties I spent almost all of my disposable income on traveling, something that I'm extremely grateful that I did. And we continue to travel as often as we can. But at some point you do have to plan ahead for retirement, and it's about that time. I'll be 30 in January, so I suppose I should probably start looking ahead. And with our choice to move here, it allows for a far easier time of amassing retirement money compared to if we had stayed in the States.

I have a lot of my old friends from the US who questioned my sanity when I told them of our plans to leave the US behind. People who still regularly state they wouldn't trade the "finer things" in the US for anything. I prefer the European way of life. It's much simpler, and you get to enjoy things a lot more.

Oh, on a side note, we found a great little Italian store tonight that imports a phenomenal range of Italian wines, hams, pastas, and bakes fresh Italian pastries. Definitely on our list of "places to buy things from". And the girls over at Stile Mediterraneo are an amazing set of sisters who post some absolutely divine recipes on their blog on a regular basis. Their cooking course is world-renowned for showcasing the best of the Puglia region, and I've been taking it all to heart, and trading recipes with Cinzia, one of the sisters. Great stuff!

That's about it for the night. I've had enough rambling, and it's time to finish my beer and do some more browsing. Have fun!

A tale of two...vocabularies

I'm an American. I use American English. My short stories and novel work are all done in American English. But a large portion of my freelance work is for a British client, which means that I have to also write a significant part of my work in British English.

Lately, I've noticed that I've begun using British spelling for many of the common words, simply out of habit. I had someone bring it to my attention the other day when they asked me why so many of my blog posts contained mis-spellings. When I started going through it, reading, I noticed that it wasn't mis-spellings at all, but a spattering of British and American English that the spellchecker doesn't always notice.

mis-spellings indeed, pish posh!

I actually am trying to keep my US work to a minimum. As a citizen living abroad I don't have to file for taxes as long as I make under a certain amount from US sources. If I make above that amount, I have to claim, but then I only have to file on the US portion of my income; any money that I make from foreign sources is tax-free. As of 2008 I believe it was something up to 84k a year that you can make from foreign sources without having to pay taxes on it.

Now, granted, I'm not making 80k a year at present, but the point is, if you use the system to your advantage you can manage quite nicely for yourself. I've met quite a few people over the years who do so. One in particular was a retired truck driver who was Union. He was getting paid nearly 50k a year in pension from the Union, and came over to Iraq to drive freight through the war zones. Dangerous, yes, but he made 80 thousand USD in 6 months because of the hazard pay, and was returning home with a cool tax-free 80k in his pocket, and another 50k in pension that he paid taxes on. Fair trade, as far as I'm concerned. He was in his mid 60s, in good health, and he said he'd already done it 3 years prior and was planning to do another 2 years until he cleared half a million.

I still have to work out the finer points of paying taxes while abroad, but suffice to say, I'm trying to keep most of my work in the European sector. At present as head of the household I can make something like 12 or 13k from US sources and not have to claim. If I make anything more than that I have to claim it. Good thing is, 85% of my income is from European sources at present, and I intend to keep it that way.

The downside? I don't know which version of English my fingers are typing sometimes :)

Some business changes

Looks like I may need to graduate from a blog to a full-time website. The reason?

I'm starting to diversify. It's not just content generation, article writing, and journalism. I had my fifth writer in less than a month contact me for help/info on how to get started in the industry, based upon my success stories that I've been posting around the various community sites that I visit.

My success story? It's simple, in principle. I have a "no such thing as failure" attitude, combined with a healthy dose of practical business application knowledge from my previous business in the US, and a belief that no job is too small on the way to obtaining your end result.

Thing is, I regularly post my successful "vibe" at community sites, and apparently it's starting to attract attention. New writers are tired of coming to community sites, fresh out of college, and being rebuffed by the veteran writers when they ask for advice on how to get started, what to charge, how things work, etc. The most common response from the veteran writers is "try harder". That's it. A simple, generic response, dictated out of arrogance and irritation that these newcomers are moving into their territory and potentially stealing clients away from them with "bastardized" rates, because as we all know, newcomers have to price things lower, which means it's more attractive to clients in the long run, especially in the days of recession and global financial crisis. Paying for quality is one thing, but if the quality has a beyond-ridiculous price tag attached to it, people are going to look elsewhere.

So I started offering little caveats to the new writers when I've seen them stumbling along for answers. And I think I opened a can of worms about a month ago when I offered to give advice openly on a forum, because now I'm at my fifth writer.

The end result? Time to start charging for consultations. My wife and I are going to start researching rates this evening and I'll be including consultation to my list of "what I can offer". Hell, I may even write an e-book on "how to", using practical knowledge, not the generic crap that most "freelance advice" writers give. Things like the topics my "The World is your Oyster" cover.

No more freebies, folks :) Sorry!

So now I need to start looking at building my own website. Which means more of my spare time eaten up, grr. Maybe I should look at hiring a cheapo to put together something for me, so I don't have to deal with it myself.

As I've said before, I have no desire to turn this into more than 4-5 hours a day, at most. The problem is that...it's proving to be a fairly lucrative career choice, with opportunities coming at me so fast that I'm hard-pressed to keep my work load down to under 4 hours a day. And while I really want to transition to full time novel writing next year (which means finding enough time to finish the first novel THIS year!!), the paychecks are starting to tempt me.

Planning an adventure

My wife and I like to travel, and we are in a unique position where we have access to a lot of really amazing locations in the world. We are a few hours drive or a short plane flight away from the Mediterranean Basin area, or we can drive/fly a short distance and hit the western edge of Asia. Out our back door to the north and west is Central Europe, and our location in Eastern Europe is chock-full of Thracian, Byzantine, and Roman ruins to explore and discover. This was partially the reason we decided to transition in Bulgaria, rather than stay in the US.

This year we haven't gone anywhere on our own yet. We chose to focus this year instead on sprucing up our apartment, paying off our credit card debt, and really settling into our home, because last year was so rushed that it seems in retrospect that we hardly achieved anything, and it's not likely the houses will be ready for us to move into for another 2-3 years at the earliest.

My friend referenced me to What To Pack, which is a site dedicated to backpacking journeys. Six hours later, I finally finished reading and browsing their gear sites, and I was inspired. You see, I've been lucky enough in my writing jobs to have landed a couple that relate exactly to world travel. In particular, I had a project with around 300 articles for a UK travel agency that dealt specifically with a variety of countries, their visa policies, and common traveling tips. I'm talking remote, out-of-the-way places that most tourists wouldn't even consider, but which have pristine medieval villages, castles, ancient ruins, and historical pieces of such significance that you are left weak-in-the-knees from having come to face to face with such epic history.

Our goal is to do 2 or 3 of those types of destinations per year, or to have one "big" adventure somewhere else. We were discussing recently heading to China next year in the late spring, before it gets too hot, and before the majority of tourists head out, probably in May. The goal is to spend 3-4 weeks backpacking our way around to various destinations, which we haven't fully planned out yet, but based upon a few friends of ours who have gone over the years, we are compiling a list. Our goals are never to hit the "popular" tourist destinations, but instead head out into the unknown, where local cultures remain much the same as they have been for centuries, and see things that not very many people have seen before.

We've done some of the "popular" destinations and neither one of us felt very comfortable. The worst yet was the Vatican and Sistine Chapel in Rome. I do not ever want to subject myself to such an experience ever again. It was difficult to appreciate the magnificence of the artwork and such when you are packed like sardines into these little corridors and the temperature is 42 degrees by 9 a.m., and over 45 degrees in the afternoon. That was about 5 hours of absolute misery. We went with a group, and that was the absolute last time we go on an adventure excursion with a party of people ever again. It was...well I don't want to get into the details in this post, but it wasn't very fun, that's for sure. We went in July, prime tourist season, and Rome was just...ugh.

Don't get me wrong, we both want to go back, because we feel that we didn't get to experience Rome on our own terms. It was a free vacation (paid for by her family) so we didn't have room to complain about anything. And we did have a lot of fun despite the few setbacks, but we also learned that we never want to go on a vacation with a group again, at least not a group we know little/nothing about.

After talking to the girls over at Stile Mediterraneo, I also very much want to spend time in the Puglia region of Italy. And we both want to go on an African safari, spend a few weeks in the Outback, head to Galapagos, Tasmania, New Zealand, among more of the common destinations.

But our first is looking like it might be China. We've been talking with a friend of hers who might accompany us, at least part of the way, on our trip. After having that backpacking site handed to me, it's really started to sink in how much fun it would be, and we are both getting rather excited about the prospect of heading off into the hidden corners of beautiful Asia for a few weeks to a month.

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The little things, Part II

As I read the morning news from America, I am reminded again how lucky my wife and I are to be in the situation we are: a paid for residence, and our only bills our the living expenses and amenities we choose to pursue. Coupled with the fact that even in the face of a global recession and economic meltdown, we both have steady part-time work that--should we choose to make it so--could easily be transferred to full-time.

I cringe every time I hear about a family where one of the spouses suddenly loses their job, or finds their hours reduced by 10 per week, or their per hour rate cut by 5 dollars an hour. It may not sound like much in the grand scheme of things, but 200-300 dollars a month is a lot of money for some people. That's a grocery bill for the month, or several utility bills. I see people regularly commenting on how they are trading nights out with friends for nights in with friends, playing board games or just watching TV. People who have to make a conscious choice between paying a utility bill, putting gas in the car to get to work, or buying groceries for their kids.

My sister is one of those people who has cut down her out-and-about time and mostly stays home anymore with her boyfriend, simply because it's too expensive to go do anything anymore.

I don't know where the government gets off trying to say that "America's economy is on the rise!" when every month half a million+ lose their jobs, and the unemployment rates continue to rise. They are expected to hit 9% by the end of May, and experts are saying that there still isn't an end in sight.

You should be grateful for the little things. Be grateful for your health, because it saves you from having to pay a hefty doctor's visit (one of the reasons I love living over here...socialized health-care = booya!). Be grateful your car runs and hasn't broken down, because a 500+ dollar repair bill will break the backs of most American families right now. Be grateful that you still have a job, even if it's 30 hours a week down from 40, because you still have benefits that go along with that job. Be grateful for all of those little things.

I'm grateful for a supportive wife who allowed me the opportunity to delve into writing for a living last year. She had known it was a dream of mine for a long time, but I was always so busy working to pay the bills that I never had time for it. She gave me the time, and I turned it around into a successful career, despite my lack of formal education. My stories are selling, my work is regularly being published, and I haven't had to look for work in 5 months.

I'm grateful that we were able to escape relatively unscathed from the recession. Sure, we live in a developing country, which can be rough on someone who is used to the States, but it's a living, which is a lot more than many other families can say. We don't have to stress about 2k a month per person in bills, because the cost of living here is 3 times lower than what it is in America. I'm grateful for that, absolutely.

I'm grateful for my health, my house, my wife, my job, my eyesight, and my abilities. Especially my wife, because she is the one who backed my play, and allowed me the opportunity to take the plunge. Thankfully I'm a good swimmer, and I was able to justify her trust in me.

What are you grateful for?

(My heart goes out to anyone who finds themselves in a dire situation as a result of the global crisis. It's going to get worse before it gets better, and I honestly hope that everyone can find their own way of making it through the rising tides.)

Some troubling news

So one of my short stories was supposed to be out in the May issue of Flashing Swords Press. I happened to take a jaunt over in their direction today to see how the schedule was coming along and when I could expect to see the issue in print.

Apparently the staff underwent some massive changes in late 2008/early 2009, and things are in a state of flux. The new editor is saying that things got lost, stories were misplaced, and if you had a story that was supposed to be published you need to write in to let them know who you are, what your story was, and when it was supposed to be published in the first place.

Not exactly the news I was looking for.

Then, I went on to read in their new forums that the new editor has this to say:

Right now, Flashing Swords Magazine staff is in a state of flux, things are being changed.

One thing that will NOT be changed, is if you had a story already accepted, it WILL be published.

Don't think that means that what you sent in will be published however.

Many of you will receive your stories back, with editors notes. One thing that will NOT be changed is your voice. The editor that is currently working at getting your stories ready for publication believes strongly in allowing the writer's voice to shine through on the product, after all, we all write differently. Now, when you get them back, the faster you get them back to us, the faster they move into an issue.

That disturbs me. First of all, my story already went through two revisions before it was accepted the first time. It's already been paid for and cleared for publication, but because someone else screwed up, I'm supposed to be expected to make further revisions to a story that was already accepted?

Sorry, that's just bogus. I've already made the changes required by the initial editor to bring my story up to the qualifications of their magazine. I don't relish the idea of paying for someone else's mistakes, especially not on my own time.

In any case, I'm not too happy about it right now. I'm waiting to hear back to see if my story was even included on-schedule as expected, or what's going on. Kind of put a damper on my "May is a great month!" vibe that had been doing on. Grr!

Should your blog posts be indicative of your professional style?

There was a topic posed the other day over at Freelance Writing Gigs, a community I troll quite frequently, and the question raised was: should your blog posts be as "perfect" as your professional work?

I am of the opinion that no, casual blog posts should not be referenced as being in the same calibre as professional work. If I am writing for someone else's blog, I am going to take the time to weed out repetitive word usage, grammatical errors to the best of my ability, and make it look as shiny and yummy as possible. Why? Because I'm getting paid to do so. My personal blog is just that...personal. I invite people to stop in, take a look, discuss things, and get to know the man behind the name.

In my previous profession, if a homeowner questioned me regarding the way I swept a floor, or how I laid out my tiles, or questioned why a certain piece of tile or stone looked a certain way, my response was always the same: this isn't the finished product. Wait until it's all installed, fully grouted, and your amenities in place. Then it's finished. But until it's finished it's impossible to judge what it's going to look like in the end, because it's (that's right, you guessed it!) not finished!

If a person happens upon my blog and bases an opinion about whether or not the quality of my written work is up to their standards based purely upon my casual blog posts, then chances are they aren't the type of client I want to be working for in the first place. I clearly have a list of links up on the right-hand side which reference some of my professional works, and I also have a resume that is ready upon request for those clients who want to have a full list of my short stories and published content. A blog is not a substitute for a resume/CV. Any employer worth their salt knows this.

Now, one could argue that in the social networking era we live in today that employers are looking at your Facebook, your Twitter, your MySpace, and your blog, and basing their opinion on whether or not to hire you dependent upon who you are as a person. I've heard horror stories of people not getting jobs because one of their best friends sent them a racy video via Facebook involving a titty joke, and not getting a job because the potential employer was turned off that the individual in question would allow such "filth" on their Facebook. My opinion on that particular matter is this: what I do in my personal life isn't your concern. If I show up on time, deliver on time, up to standards, and fulfill my obligations as an employee, then what I do off the clock should have absolutely no bearing on my professional reputation.

Now, not everyone agrees with me on this. But I like to take my dad's approach: I don't care what you do off the clock, so long as you show up on time, ready to work, sober, and with your head in the game. I won't judge you by the clothes you wear, the color of your skin, your religion or your sense of humor, so long as you make me money.

But in the days of "political correctness" and sue-happy Americans, employers tend to be a lot more cautious about who they hire. Personally I think it's an invasion of privacy.

But I ramble. I'm supposed to be taking a nap, but I made myself some grits with a load of honey to soothe my throat, and this is something I wanted to squeeze out before I go nap (honestly!).

If I walk into a restaurant and look at the way the host/hostess is dressed, is it in any way indicative of the quality of the food served at the restaurant? Absolutely not! It has nothing to do with the professional function of the restaurant. And the way I look at it is simple: any employer that I would consider working for is going to be the type of individual who understands there is a difference between personal blogging and professional blogging/writing, and will want to take a look at my professional resume before basing an opinion. Anyone else is someone I wouldn't want to be working for in the first place.

For the record, I keep my Facebook private. Why? Because it's for my friends and family. I have pictures there, and while I understand the need to socially network for business purposes, that's what Twitter and a blog are for. I absolutely make a distinction between my personal and professional life, and I understand the need for tact in certain areas. For example, I might type a post that uses the words fuck, shit, hell, damn, and otherwise, but if I go into a business meeting I'm going to refrain from using those words because it's not professional. I understand the distinction between the two, and I have no problems wearing two faces.

So, in closing, I do not believe that your blog posts need to be indicative of your talent as a professional writer. There is no need to edit your blog and casual posts with the same level of scrutiny as an article for the New York Times because it's not the same. One is professional, one is casual/personal.

Politics

Feeling a bit under the weather here, but before I go lay down I wanted to make a post regarding the issue of customer service, which is a topic I've covered briefly in the past in other blog posts.

Yesterday we had to get a few things done for my ID card renewal. Firstly, my wife had to get a declaration notarized, but it was a holiday week this week for Bulgarians, so many places are closed. However, we have a notary clerk we really like using and we went to her office. We rang the buzzer and the owner came to the door, obviously alone. All the lights in the office were out, other than her personal room, and she was obviously in surprise that there was someone at the door. I think what happened was that she was the only one in the office due to vacation for everyone else and was simply catching up on work or something and we happened to catch her, but she was gracious enough to get us in and out in about 4 minutes.

The lady rocks. We use her every time even though it's a 30 minute trip because she's always has a smile on her face, even when her office is packed and she's running around like a chicken with her head cut off.

This is a rarity in Bulgaria. The issue is that people don't make much money here, so they don't feel any real motivation to come to work, much less be happy while they are at work. The average wage is roughly the same as Mexicans make...something around 8-10k USD per year. This is the average, mind you...not what people with higher education make. I'm talking store clerks, warehouse workers, etc. It is blatantly evident in almost every store you enter, because the employees are obviously disgruntled over their jobs and would rather be somewhere else. We saw the same attitude less than 15 minutes later when we stopped into Office 1 to get some copies made on our way to the police station. The manager asked one of the employees to come help her with something and his comment was "fine, but don't expect me to enjoy doing it". Both my wife and I were in shock.

Along with the issue of poor wages is the lingering effects of communism. Many of the older generation dislike capitalism because the only way capitalism works is if you, the individual, put forth extra effort. In the communist era, their needs were taken care of. They would work the bare minimum and still make as much money as the guy working triple the hours, or triple the production. Everyone got used to doing next to nothing and having the government just hand them a check. Now that they have to work for their money, all they do is complain about how "unfair" the new system is. Keep in mind this isn't everyone, just "many" of the older generation (50+).

So, when you have the older generation complaining about having to put forth extra effort, and the younger generation bitter about the low wages, you end up with shitty customer service on either end. And while I can blame the older generation for having their heads up their asses, I can't fault the younger generation for being upset about their current situation. For example, I had a pizza delivery guy come to the door a couple of weeks ago tell me he's working 60 hours a week for about 400 USD a month, the equivalent of 600 leva per month. He was in awe over the fact that I sit on my ass in front of a computer and make 1500-2k USD a month for the same amount of hours. Now, by my standards, 1500-2k a month is low fare. In my previous occupation I made 6-7k a month, on average. However, the difference is that in the US our living expenses were 4500 a month, but here they are roughly 400-500 USD a month.

The point is, customer service and happiness related to your job can only exist if the job you are doing is A) something that you enjoy doing; and B) something that you are getting rewarded for in an appropriate fashion.

For example, trash guys in America make a damn good wage...better than the national average, the last time I checked. If you toss in benefits the local trash guy makes 50k+ a year, and in some cities make over 60k. Why do they get paid so much for a "menial" task? Because it's a shitty job, that's why, and the only way to get people to do it is if you pay them a wage that makes the job meaningful to them.

It's a sad situation. There's a reason that Mexicans flood into America to work. As much as I hate the fact that I was losing work to the illegal immigrants when I was running a construction company, I never once blamed the Mexicans. If the only way I could put food on my table was to sneak across the border into, say, Canada, and make 3 to 4 times what I would make in my home country, you can bet your ass I'd be running the risk, simply to make sure my wife and kids (which I don't have, but for the sake of argument) are taken care of. It's the same thing here. The Bulgarian government complains that Bulgarians don't want to stay in the country, and each year more and more of the younger generations are abandoning ship to find jobs and make lives in other countries where the wages are acceptable.

Corruption has a large part to play. For years the Mafia has had its dirty little claws in the Ministries and as a result money that should be going towards increased wages and otherwise has been padding their pockets instead. There have been some really good changes made in the past couple of years that are pushing the Mafia out of power, but you have to wonder if its happening fast enough to fix the problem within the next 15-20 years.

Anyway, I could go on with some more, but I feel like shit, so I'm going to go lay down for a few hours and continue this another time. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave 'em.

Spoke too soon!

As is the nature of such things, I spoke too soon :) Perhaps next time I should knock on wood.

It's 4 a.m. and I'm awake, curse of a slight fever and raw throat, courtesy of a sinus infection/cold that just kicked my patootie in. I started feeling the onset late last night around 8 p.m., and by 10 p.m. it was full-on.

I've had chronic sinus issues my whole life, with a record 16 sinus infections in the winter of 2005/2006. It was at that point I went to my doctor and said doc...wtf! Fix me! Faced with several options including sinus surgery, I opted to try a nasal spray and he gave me a prescription for Flonase. Lo and behold the next year my sinus infection problem vanished almost completely. I've been down to only 2 or 3 a year now, max.

However, I've been getting lax on using the nasal spray, and that could be a contributing factor. I generally only use it once every 2-3 days, which for the last couple of years seems to have worked just as well as once a day. But I have to admit in the past couple of weeks I kind of forgot to take it on a regular basis and I think I only used it 3 times. However, the weather here has been crazy as well, and yesterday could be the cause. I went out to get my ID card renewed and wore pants, a long sleeve + short sleeve T-shirt, and a sweater because I thought it might be chilly due to the wind. Before long I was sweating like a banshee, and after a couple hours of that we got home. I immediately changed into shorts + a t-shirt and we went back out to get something to eat from the suvleki stand up by the park. It was windy, and it started cooling off considerably, and by the time we got there I was quite cold...chilly, even. A few hours later...bam.

I can tell when one is coming on. Where other people might feel the symptoms over a period of half a day or so, I go from feeling absolutely fine to full-on sick within 2 hours. The first sign is the tickling in my throat which signals the sinuses draining, then it gets raw, and one side of my nasal passage starts to get stuffy. Within 2 hours my throat is like sand paper and within 4-5 hours I have a fever. Sometimes it's worse than others, but I haven't had a serious case in nearly 4 years now.

Apparently I have a buildup of scar tissue and/or some sort of blockage in my sinus cavity that prevents it from draining like normal. Mucus builds up and acts like a holding tank for bacteria, which causes sinus infections. I've been terrified of letting a doctor probe my nasal cavity because the idea of sinus surgery terrifies me. I have this mental imagery of a plumber with a rotor rooter tool inside of a pipe system, clearing out the blockage. Flonase has worked for me quite well because it acts as a steroid anti-inflammatory, which brings the swelling in my nasal passages down and allows my sinuses to drain properly.

But, I have to admit, I think I may opt for the surgery in the next few years if I can get over my fear of it. It's not that the nasal spray doesn't work...it works great, as long as I use it 3 or so times per week. It's that I am continually stuffy, and as I get older I've been thinking ahead to the time when I'm 65+. Do I really want to deal with sinus problems that far down the road, or do I want to deal with the issue now, while I'm still young and heal up relatively fast?

In either case, this is my first sinus infection in over a year. Getting out of the construction industry helped a lot, mostly because I am no longer around all of that dust. I did have a slight cold last winter, but other than colds/sinus infections, I rarely ever get sick. Just my time of the year, I suppose :)

In either case since I'm up so early, going to get some work done since I'll likely be sleeping this off during the daytime hours at some point today. I have a cup of hot tea brewing, and it's calling my name.

Another busy month!

So here I was, a week and a half ago, thinking about taking the month of May off in its entirety. Then I had a nice project offered to me that was going to take the first couple weeks of the month, and today I had the same client send me a mail saying one of their writers dropped the ball on another portion of this particular contract and they needed someone to pick up the slack.

Enter me.

This particular project has been an absolute blast. I can't divulge too many details at present as I'm under an NDA, but let's just say it has to deal with history, specifically UK history. As a huge history nerd in my younger years (ok, I'm still young, but still!) the project has had me literally begging the alarm clock to go off in the morning because it allows me the chance to go research some of the things I've been passionate about since my childhood and teenage years: medieval history. This latest addition gives me another 2 weeks worth of work, so I get to spend the whole month researching medieval history from all parts of the UK. An absolute dream gig.

And I get to have the added bonus of all of this research going into my pile of helpful clues/concepts/ideas for my fantasy writing, since there is an underlying medieval theme there as well.

So I'm absolutely hyped about this month's work :) Hopefully everyone else is going to have as wonderful of a May as I am!

Newness...

Finally got my new desk and chair today, so I'm adjusting to a new corner of the room and enjoying the newfound freedom. We also took some pictures today when we headed out to the military parade (today was a national "4th of July" type day for Bulgaria, and the entire week is a holiday...yeah, they take 6-8 days off of work...and have several such holidays per year. Gotta love Europeans!) so I'll have a new profile picture up soon here, as well as updating my Facebook and Twitter profile pics.

May's schedule is going to be fun. I took the month of April off from novel writing, although I did write a short story in there somewhere. However, this month I'm getting back into the schedule. I've got a deadline to make, and I've taken just about all of the slack I can take and still get it done by Christmas. I'm currently getting up at 7, working out from 7:30 to 8:30 (I do 12 kilos on the elliptical, + Pilate's and 5 kilo weights), then showering and settling into the work routine somewhere around 9 a.m. I'm usually done with my work by noon, although it can sneak to 1 p.m. if I slack off and browse sites or listen to music while I work. Then I take a break for an hour or so and come back and put in a few hours of chapter work, usually shooting for 1500-2k words per day. At least, this was the schedule I kept prior to April, and I'm going back to it.

Downside is my lower back has been hurting like hell for a few weeks now, which has been putting a crimp in my Pilate's. I think I might have wrenched something, so I've been avoiding doing any stressful workouts that might irritate it, and I'd been feeling fine until today. I stood in one spot for nearly 3 hours during the parade today and by the 2nd hour my lower back was in agony, and is still bothering me as I write this at 8 p.m at night. I've noticed it gets really bad when I do certain Pilate's exercises, so I decided I'm going to simply avoid doing those for the next couple of weeks and see if it doesn't heal up. If it's still bothering me I'm going to go see a doctor to make sure nothing is too tweaked out. Not sure what I did, but I have extremely flat feet and poor posture, which I'm sure contributes to the issue. Still, it's odd, because it hasn't been an issue until a few weeks ago, so I'm not sure what I did.

Anyway, that's it for now. I've got a few articles to do this evening, plus get those two short stories back out in submission that I've been meaning to do for the past week. Hopefully everyone's month of May is looking up! Mine is shaping up to be a fine one, and I'm pressing ahead looking towards that debt-free marker that's just around the corner in a couple of months!

Holiday

It's been a great four-day weekend. Technically tomorrow is still going to be a holiday, but we are doing some necessary shopping (like a new desk + chair for me) as well as going over to a friend's for fajitas. I was initially planning on taking next week off, but I had another project offered to me and I took it.

Good thing, too, because I just realized I had forgotten my Bulgarian residency card was up for renewal on the 9th of May. I thought it was due in June, and was off by a month. It's about 400 USD for a year, and on top of a desk and chair I'll likely be dropping over 600 USD next week, so it's a good thing I had another project roll in or I'd be cutting into our credit card pay-off fund :)

On the plus side, Demand Studios is a great way to supplement income. You can do 3 articles in an hour, which is worth 50 USD, and if you do that every evening you can easily pull an extra 250 dollars a week (that's 1k a month folks), so I'm going to be spending my evening hours doing at least 3 of those. Normally I only use DS for those times when the other work is a bit thin, but I'm going to be doing some in the evening hours as well to make up for my forgetting about my residency card.

The plus side is this is the last time I have to renew the card. After living here for 2 years while married to a Bulgarian resident/citizen, you can switch your temporary residency card over to a permanent residency card, so next year when this time rolls around again I'll be able to get my permanent residency and not have to worry about it ever again. Thank goodness because dealing with the Bulgarian bureaucratic system is like having your teeth pulled out at the same time you are getting your pubic hair ripped out by a midget with a nail gun who's simultaneously driving nails into your feet and ripping out your toe-nails.

Getting my residency card consists of: going to the police station and getting the application paperwork. Getting new passport photos. Getting a declaration from my wife, stating that she is "providing" for me while I'm here (as in, providing a place to stay), which we then have to get notarized. And unlike in the US where any bank can provide notarization, here there are special offices that deal with notarization, and they are always 2-3 hours behind in waiting lines. Then, after that, you have to get everything copied in triplicate, then go back to the police station and stand in line again, pay a fee, stand in another line, pay another fee, stand in another line, turn in the application, then wait 2 weeks, come back, stand in another line to get your card, and dread having to come back and do it again next time. And to top it all off, remember that customer service I mentioned doesn't exist here? Now imagine all of what I just said, only with people who don't believe in queues, butting in front of you, clawing their way through, and people behind the counter who seethe with hatred over the fact that your Bulgarian language skills aren't up-to-par (a sentiment I recall having myself in terms of people who come to America but don't speak the language, so I can't fault them for it). So my wife usually comes along (bless her heart) to make sure I don't get screwed somewhere along the line.

Anyway, that's my vacation blurb. I'm cooking steak and eggs and potatoes for breakfast (sooo healthy I know! It's my cheating weekend!) and I've got taters and eggs boiling to make potato salad this afternoon. Talk to you next week sometime!

Why do you struggle?

Last post of the night, as it's 1:30 a.m. and I'm drifting, but I got to thinking about something that bothers me about many of the freelance writers out there: they just don't seem to want it badly enough.

If you have a goal in life, you do everything you can to achieve that goal. If you can't run, you walk, and if you can't walk, you crawl, and if your legs are amputated and all you can do is pull yourself along, then that's what you do. Why? Because you want to reach your goal.

Let's say you have a family to feed. Now, I'm a bit jaded in the sense that it's just me and my wife and no plans for children, but let's just say that you do. Wouldn't you do anything in the world to provide for your progeny? Anything at all?

So why do so many freelance writers struggle? Do they simply not want it badly enough? Or does it have more to do with working outside of your comfort zone?

Let me give you an example. Let's say you are a manager of a bank, making 50k a year. Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that you lose your job, and there are no other bank jobs to be had. The only jobs available are to clean porta-johns for 38k a year, or to work part time in your particular niche market and make 15k a year. You are married, have two kids, and you need to make at least 30k a year to combine with your spouse's income to hit at least 50 or 60k and have a livable amount of income.

This is an exaggerated example, but the point I'd like to make that is that it seems to be there are a lot of freelance writers out there who claim they want or need income, but they are unwilling to do work that they deem beneath them, or out of their comfort zone. The question I have to ask is: how badly do you want it? I regularly see writers refusing work because it's not what they "want" to be getting paid, yet in the same breath complain about how they are unable to pay their bills. I'm sorry, but that's just moronic. There is work out there. Sure, it might be comparable to sucking human feces from a porta-john with a giant vacuum, but the fact is, the work is there, the money is there, and you have the capabilities.

You can either put food on your family's table, or they can starve. Me, I'm not afraid to don a pair of gloves and wear a respirator.

The Trade Off

No matter where you live in the world, there are always going to be things that you nit-pick about in your location. It might be the food, it might be the way the coffee is made, the cars people drive, the cultural traditions...there are a variety of things which can crop up.

In our case, it's customer service and pride in your work. Neither exist in Bulgaria.

Please note, this is a generalization. There are those who exist outside of the following stereotypical descriptions, but they are rare.

Customer service does not exist. I've covered this in another blog post, but it ties into what happened to us today, so I thought I'd re-touch on the matter. Here, the customer is never right. In fact, the customer's only right is the right to be flat-out ignored and pointed in the direction of the door should they bring to the attention of the clerk the negligent attitude displayed.

If you hop on over to my wife's blog you can get her side of the story as well, but what it boils down to is this: a couple of weeks ago she and her mother went out to buy a new bed for our bedroom. No one thought to measure the size of the mattress (I was not involved in the process. I'm not blaming anyone, but let's just say that the matter was entered into with a rushed state of awareness and some things were left to the side, only to come bite us in the ass later), and lo and behold when the bed is delivered, it's larger than the mattress. The memory foam topper that was ordered was also larger than the mattress, because they ordered it to fit the bed.

K, no big deal. Order a new mattress. Her mother dealt with it, because it was her gift to her daughter. Now, here's where matters get sticky. Because customer service does not exist here, certain questions are never asked, such as: what kind of a mattress are you after? Apparently, here, there is no difference between a box-spring/frame+mattress hybrid and a regular old mattress. So, when the mattress was ordered, no questions were asked. The guys show up today, and it takes them (no joke) 20 minutes to get it up our 6 flights of stairs to our apartment. They were also 5 hours late. They were due here at 4 p.m. and didn't show up until 9 p.m.

We go to unwrap it and it's....not a mattress. At least not what the two of us were expecting to be a mattress. Instead, it's a mattress+box spring/frame combo that weighs well over 100 lbs. But we didn't pay for it (the whole thing was a gift) so we don't have much room to bitch, and considering the fact they were 5 hours late and it's been such a hassle to get this all worked out in the first place...well let's just say I threw my hands up in the air and said F-it, let's make it work. Then I find out...it's built out of square. More than 1/2" out of square. Which means it doesn't want to fit into the bed frame.

What followed was an hour's worth of grunting and heaving as I forced the damn thing to fit within the confines of the frame, with a little squeaking as things adjusted and were forced into square. Not an easy task, and one that had me wishing for good old American craftsmanship and customer service, because if it were built in America it would likely have fit in the first place without me having to break my neck.

Now don't get me wrong. I grew up as a third generation craftsman in the ceramic tile and natural stone trade. I've been on job sites since I was 5 years old, and I have seen some horrifically bad construction in my day, but today's experience just sort of put me in mind of some of the things I miss. Which aren't much. I very rarely miss anything about the US.

The point is...it grates me the wrong way on occasion. Last year we had a horrific experience that I simply have to explain so you can understand just how bad things can be in certain parts of the world, so you can appreciate the things you take for granted. We live in an apartment building, on the 6th floor. We got a notice on our door that plumbers would be coming in to replace pipes in the floor above us and below us, in the shower room.

The first thing that happens is the guys walk into our apartment smoking cigarettes. They then proceed to put out their cigarettes on our tile floor, leaving the cigarette butts behind, completely IGNORING the fact that my wife and I were raising holy hell over the matter. They rip holes in the wall, create a shitload of dust and mess, rip out the old pipes, put in the new pipes, and then leave. Without cleaning up one iota of their mess. They did this to half a dozen apartments. Then they have the gall to present the apartment complex with a bill, expecting 400 dollars from each apartment.

Now, in America two things would have happened. First, the company would have been sued. Secondly, they wouldn't have received a dime of their money. Here, there is no such thing as a Better Business Bureau or anything of the nature, and when we complained, (I did more than complain; I went on a 45 minute F-bomb laced cursing spree that involved hurling pieces of pipe down the hallway) everyone simply shrugged their shoulders and we were told "tough luck. That's just the way things are here".

While I do agree that "the customer is always right" is an over-used gig in the States, and too often people become arrogant to the point of ignorance, believing that they are in the right by default, it has its benefits in the sense that it has created a sense of responsibility that doesn't allow for such happenings as occur here.

What have I learned? That despite the many benefits we have in living here vs. in the US, such as an extremely low cost of living, the opportunity to travel to all sorts of great European destinations out our back door, and being close to her family, there are nonetheless a few trade-offs that you get in return, such as a lack of customer service and common courtesy, as well as people taking pride in their work and giving you honest and accurate craftsmanship.

Still, we do love it here, and we would rather have to put up with a couple of inconveniences in comparison to the literal boat-load of them back in the US. The main thing is the cost of living. Our bills are 500-600 USD a month. Tops. That's everything. We lived fairly bottom-of-the-middle-class road in the US and our bills were 4500 a month. I'm willing to put up with a little bit of inconvenience to get away with such cheap living.