The lengths a government goes to in order to strip people of their personal freedoms suffers no limits. The latest in my ongoing study of governments who involve themselves too greatly in their people's lives shows the American government regulating neighbors and the favors they do for each other.
Remember that blog post I made earlier this month detailing how the US government is about to start telling its citizens they can't grow their own produce or have gardens because the average citizen is "too dumb" to know how to safely grow a garden? Or that if you don't have health insurance you are going to be fined, even if you couldn't afford to pay for insurance in the first place? This one takes it a step further.
Remember the days when you could knock on your neighbor's door and ask them for a cup of sugar? A couple of eggs? Watch the dog while we're on vacation? Take care of our son/daughter while we enjoy a night out on the town? Or heaven-forbid, something bad happens to your spouse, and you need someone to watch your kids while you work some extra hours in this recession-driven economy and you can't afford daycare because the rates are too high?
Enter the no-longer-allowed-to-be-a-good-neighbor-program. Gone are the days of being able to do favors for your neighbors. This is just the first step. Another personal freedom that is being wrenched away from Americans by a government that claims you aren't allowed to take care of your family in the way you see fit.
Need to go to the hospital and need someone to watch over your kids for the night? Better get a government-approved-and-appointed babysitter, because otherwise you are breaking the law and going straight to jail. Need a cup of sugar? Only if you get it from your government-approved-and-appointed sugar provider. Want to have a veggie garden? Toss that right in there with "only if it's government approved".
This article made me puke in my mouth just a little bit. Seriously. In the recession, people are having to find all sorts of ways to make ends meet. Spouses are working double shifts, taking part time jobs, doing everything they can to make ends meet, and it's not uncommon for people to ask their neighbors to help them out when it comes to taking care of the kids if grandma/relatives can't. But now the government is stepping in and telling you when and how often your friends and family can watch your children for you.
Recession got you down, hurting your checkbook, and making it so you can't afford official daycare? Doesn't matter...prepare to be fined for having your neighbour wait for your kids at the bus stop, because working that second job you need to work in order to put food on the table isn't as important as making sure that government-appointed-and-approved babysitter is getting theirs, and giving their cut back to The Man.
Makes me sick to my stomach.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Finally!
So, after living here for what is now approaching two years...
...I've finally signed up to take some Bulgarian lessons.
But Tim, you ask, how could you possibly have lived there for two years and not learned the language by now?
Believe me, it's a question I field quite frequently. And, to be honest, it's a little disturbing the growing number of the elderly generation (see 50+) who have begun to think that I'm lazy because I haven't spent the time to do so yet.
Let me explain my situation.
I work from home. All of my clients are in English. All of my work is in English. Evy speaks English. Everywhere I go in Sofia there are English signs as a result of their joining the EU 2 years ago. Almost everyone you meet in the stores speak English. The only place English is not common is with the 50+ generation or the vegetable markets and interior of the country, where things are still very rural and cultural/traditional. Most of the older generation speak Russian and Bulgarian, because Russian was an unofficial language for them because of the Communist regime, but now that English is the unofficial second language, anyone who is anyone speaks it because it's required by their jobs.
What this has boiled down to is that most of the time, I very rarely have issues with communication. I can do all of my shopping without ever uttering a single phrase of Bulgarian. I can use the taxi, order food at a restaurant, and do almost all of my daily activities without needing to know the language.
That's not to say I haven't learned a bit in that time. I can understand conversations about 15% of the time, and I know a lot of phrases. I order my food in Bulgarian at restaurants (I actually know a lot of "food" related words/phrases, so I can generally read a menu pretty well). I genuinely try to use my phrases as often as I can. I know whether or not the lady at the store is asking me if I want a big bag or a small bag for my groceries. I know whether or not the waitress is telling me they are out of Stella Artois and only have Kamenitza, and do I want draft or bottle. I can "get by" if I absolutely had to, purely using "baby" Bulgarian.
However, it's not conversational Bulgarian, not in the least.
My 2 year residency is up in June, which means I can apply for permanent residency. While it's not required to be fluent in the language to be granted permanent residency, I have decided that my goal is to be fluent by that point in time. Why? Well, I got to thinking about how pissed off I used to get at the Mexican immigrants in America who came to the country and proceeded to work, live, and use American resources but never bothered to learn the language. Then I realized I was doing almost the same thing. I might not be working for Bulgarian clients, but I live here, I use their stores, I walk on their sidewalks, I take their trams, and I plan on living here for the foreseeable future over the next 10+ years, and probably for the rest of my life.
Not to mention, I know her grandparents and other people would love to have an actual conversation with me, and our rather talkative wine merchant will actually be able to talk to me directly instead of having to use Evy as a translator. And I can do more things on my own without Evy helping me when I need it.
But I also have another reason to do so. I want to branch out my business. Bulgaria is just now starting to get into the whole website craze. While a great many businesses have them, not everyone does. And not all of them are in Bulgarian + English. As more and more businesses get "up with the times" and the future with the European Union grows, more and more people are looking for translations. We have a friend of the family who recently told me how much money he was making doing translations and it was an obscene amount. Obscene! As in...a few hundred per day obscene, for just a few hours worth of work. And it got me to thinking.
Why wait? If I can get myself to the fluent stage by next spring I can start branching out my business into the Bulgarian market, offering translation services and freelance content work just like I do now all over the world. I have clients from Taiwan, Australia, the UK, the US, the Netherlands...just to name a few. I'd like to add Bulgaria to that list, and why not? I live here, and this is a developing country, which means there are far more opportunities than there are in other countries where development has stagnated or already peaked, so I might as well jump on the bandwagon of people making money off of the development.
Not to mention I was thinking (if you remember that blog post awhile back) about starting up a construction/remodeling company here catering to the high-end clients, and it would be better if I was able to communicate directly with people rather than just hiring someone to do it for me and being the "money" behind the operation only.
In any case...there are a lot of reasons I really do need to start worrying about it. And now that we are in a financially secure position, there's no time like the present. So I signed up today, and I start classes on the 12th of October.
...I've finally signed up to take some Bulgarian lessons.
But Tim, you ask, how could you possibly have lived there for two years and not learned the language by now?
Believe me, it's a question I field quite frequently. And, to be honest, it's a little disturbing the growing number of the elderly generation (see 50+) who have begun to think that I'm lazy because I haven't spent the time to do so yet.
Let me explain my situation.
I work from home. All of my clients are in English. All of my work is in English. Evy speaks English. Everywhere I go in Sofia there are English signs as a result of their joining the EU 2 years ago. Almost everyone you meet in the stores speak English. The only place English is not common is with the 50+ generation or the vegetable markets and interior of the country, where things are still very rural and cultural/traditional. Most of the older generation speak Russian and Bulgarian, because Russian was an unofficial language for them because of the Communist regime, but now that English is the unofficial second language, anyone who is anyone speaks it because it's required by their jobs.
What this has boiled down to is that most of the time, I very rarely have issues with communication. I can do all of my shopping without ever uttering a single phrase of Bulgarian. I can use the taxi, order food at a restaurant, and do almost all of my daily activities without needing to know the language.
That's not to say I haven't learned a bit in that time. I can understand conversations about 15% of the time, and I know a lot of phrases. I order my food in Bulgarian at restaurants (I actually know a lot of "food" related words/phrases, so I can generally read a menu pretty well). I genuinely try to use my phrases as often as I can. I know whether or not the lady at the store is asking me if I want a big bag or a small bag for my groceries. I know whether or not the waitress is telling me they are out of Stella Artois and only have Kamenitza, and do I want draft or bottle. I can "get by" if I absolutely had to, purely using "baby" Bulgarian.
However, it's not conversational Bulgarian, not in the least.
My 2 year residency is up in June, which means I can apply for permanent residency. While it's not required to be fluent in the language to be granted permanent residency, I have decided that my goal is to be fluent by that point in time. Why? Well, I got to thinking about how pissed off I used to get at the Mexican immigrants in America who came to the country and proceeded to work, live, and use American resources but never bothered to learn the language. Then I realized I was doing almost the same thing. I might not be working for Bulgarian clients, but I live here, I use their stores, I walk on their sidewalks, I take their trams, and I plan on living here for the foreseeable future over the next 10+ years, and probably for the rest of my life.
Not to mention, I know her grandparents and other people would love to have an actual conversation with me, and our rather talkative wine merchant will actually be able to talk to me directly instead of having to use Evy as a translator. And I can do more things on my own without Evy helping me when I need it.
But I also have another reason to do so. I want to branch out my business. Bulgaria is just now starting to get into the whole website craze. While a great many businesses have them, not everyone does. And not all of them are in Bulgarian + English. As more and more businesses get "up with the times" and the future with the European Union grows, more and more people are looking for translations. We have a friend of the family who recently told me how much money he was making doing translations and it was an obscene amount. Obscene! As in...a few hundred per day obscene, for just a few hours worth of work. And it got me to thinking.
Why wait? If I can get myself to the fluent stage by next spring I can start branching out my business into the Bulgarian market, offering translation services and freelance content work just like I do now all over the world. I have clients from Taiwan, Australia, the UK, the US, the Netherlands...just to name a few. I'd like to add Bulgaria to that list, and why not? I live here, and this is a developing country, which means there are far more opportunities than there are in other countries where development has stagnated or already peaked, so I might as well jump on the bandwagon of people making money off of the development.
Not to mention I was thinking (if you remember that blog post awhile back) about starting up a construction/remodeling company here catering to the high-end clients, and it would be better if I was able to communicate directly with people rather than just hiring someone to do it for me and being the "money" behind the operation only.
In any case...there are a lot of reasons I really do need to start worrying about it. And now that we are in a financially secure position, there's no time like the present. So I signed up today, and I start classes on the 12th of October.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Shows We Love, Part III
Stumbled across a new one that I'm surprised we had never watched before.
Numb3rs.
There's not a lot I can say about this show other than "amazing".
I love math. I've enjoyed reading about it since I was a small child, and its basis in science fiction has driven me to explore the "theories" of math to some small degree since that point in time. I enjoy talking about dark matter, chaos theory, quantum physics, and beyond.
The only thing is...I suck at math. I don't "get" math. I understand the theories. I can talk about it using "everyday-man" speech. But I don't get math equations. I was close to a straight A student in high school. Except for in math. I struggled to even get a B, and hovered near a C most of the time. Although it depended on the subject. In geometry I was the star public of my class, with well over 100% on my grades due to enjoying it enough that I always did extra credit just because. But algebra? For some odd reason those equations and other things just escaped me.
In any case, the show is produced by Ridley and Tony Scott, and I guess it's been on the air for 5 seasons, with the 6th just starting. We discovered it last week, and are already mid-way into season 2. It's great!
The premise, for those who don't know, is this FBI guy whose brother is a math genius. The brother uses math to help solve FBI cases. They use math for everything. It's just frickin' awesome! And they go into the math theories using analogies that are easy for us math-dummies to grasp and understand. Which makes it even more uber because I can "get it" even though I don't understand the equations or the actual quantifying of the numbers or any of the "math" stuff they are actually doing to come to the conclusions.
Still, it's highly entertaining :) I recommend you try it out if you haven't watched it yet. Very good show, and is now added into our schedule of shows we follow.
Numb3rs.
There's not a lot I can say about this show other than "amazing".
I love math. I've enjoyed reading about it since I was a small child, and its basis in science fiction has driven me to explore the "theories" of math to some small degree since that point in time. I enjoy talking about dark matter, chaos theory, quantum physics, and beyond.
The only thing is...I suck at math. I don't "get" math. I understand the theories. I can talk about it using "everyday-man" speech. But I don't get math equations. I was close to a straight A student in high school. Except for in math. I struggled to even get a B, and hovered near a C most of the time. Although it depended on the subject. In geometry I was the star public of my class, with well over 100% on my grades due to enjoying it enough that I always did extra credit just because. But algebra? For some odd reason those equations and other things just escaped me.
In any case, the show is produced by Ridley and Tony Scott, and I guess it's been on the air for 5 seasons, with the 6th just starting. We discovered it last week, and are already mid-way into season 2. It's great!
The premise, for those who don't know, is this FBI guy whose brother is a math genius. The brother uses math to help solve FBI cases. They use math for everything. It's just frickin' awesome! And they go into the math theories using analogies that are easy for us math-dummies to grasp and understand. Which makes it even more uber because I can "get it" even though I don't understand the equations or the actual quantifying of the numbers or any of the "math" stuff they are actually doing to come to the conclusions.
Still, it's highly entertaining :) I recommend you try it out if you haven't watched it yet. Very good show, and is now added into our schedule of shows we follow.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Some personal musings
Just got confirmation on continuing work with one of my newer clients, with an extended schedule that will be until roughly the end of December. That means I have the rest of 2009 booked with work, and can rest easy in terms of paying gigs.
As it stands now, I've got three different projects going for two different clients. Busy, busy little bee, for sure.
I talk about it a lot, but I really am torn. I love my job, but I do want to write fiction full time. The downside is that fiction writing doesn't pay well...not for the first few years, unless you get exceptionally lucky. It also takes an increasingly frustrating length of time to hear back from editors regarding your submission. Right now I'm at the four month mark on three different short stories that I haven't heard back on yet. I won't make much more than a few hundred dollars per story at most if they manage to sell, so you can see how getting started in the fiction world just doesn't work unless you happen to have a paying job and/or a spouse who is willing to foot the bills while you struggle at finding yourself getting published.
Now, I'm blessed in that I've already been published here and there with some short stories. The real issue I'm having is this: do I want to pursue my passion, or do I want to keep padding the savings account?
Thing is, we spent all of our savings in moving over here + living off of it for the entirety of 2008. By the end of October we will be where we were before we moved here in terms of how much we have in the savings. On the plus side, we will be considerably more than that by the end of December. This year has been very good to us in terms of finances, which was a blessed relief in comparison to 2007, which was a horrid year. Up until that point I had been making a steady 60k a year on the net end, which afforded us to live rather high on the hog. 2006 I dropped to 48k, and then in 2007 I didn't even clear 38k on the gross end of things, and I was working twice as many hours and driving 4 hours up the mountain every week. I'd leave home on Monday mornings at around 6 a.m., and I'd work four 10-12 hour days, leave Steamboat Springs around 6 p.m. on Thursday evening and be back home by 10 or 11 p.m. and get to spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with Evy, before turning around and doing it all over again. There was literally no work in the Denver area in 2007, nor along the Front Range. Housing market had dried up completely, and with the immigration crisis on top of it...well, it wasn't a pretty picture.
So...we are padding up nicely. I have now determined that my book, as much as I enjoy working on it, and as much as I want to get it done, has pretty much been pushed to the back burner. I started out at the first of the year with good intentions. I did the first 11 chapters plus the prologue between January and June, with each chapter between 6 and 7k words. Not a bad start. I was doing at least 2 chapters per month. But by June my freelance work had picked up to the point that the book got shelved in favor of paying gigs...and now I find myself still struggling to get chapter 12 written. Not for lack of wanting to, nor for lack of time. I just...don't seem to be that motivated. It's pretty much turned into a pet project that I do in my spare time. As much as I want to work on it, I just don't. I started working on chapter 12 last Sunday...and that's the only work I've done on it all week. I'm hoping to get some more work done on it tomorrow morning while she's sleeping, but we have to go to Grandma's house to help paint tomorrow afternoon, so my time is limited there.
However, when everything's said and done I have one consolation: I'm being successful. Which makes it really hard to feel all that bad about not getting work done on the novel. It's a passion project, after all. A life-long dream. And I will get to it. I'm just enjoying what I'm doing right now so much that I'm not stressed about it.
Now, of course a lot of it's simply motivation. I have a lot of spare time. A lot. But Evy and I do a lot of different things. We take walks every day. Those take 2-3 hours. And yes, it's every single day. Then there's working out...that takes at least an hour. We also watch a lot of shows, and September means that all of the ones we follow just started new seasons...Fringe, Dexter, Dollhouse, Castle...and Legend of the Seeker, Sanctuary, and Stargate: Universe all start in October. Plus she follows Gray's Anatomy (or is it Grey's?). I also read, do a lot of Internet browsing, and we also play computer games from time to time.
As the winter months come closer, I think what will happen is that our 2-3 hour walking sessions will end up transferring into book writing sessions. Or at least, that's what I hope happens. It's too damn cold to go traipsing around Sofia in the middle of winter, so that's a slot of time I hope to put to good use, and stop procrastinating for no good reason.
I think what it boils down to is that I've become complacent in my success. I didn't anticipate freelance writing was going to be this easy, or this lucrative, and now that I'm firmly established in the field as a bonafide writer, I've met one of the major goals in my life. It also doesn't hurt that our living expenses are negligable, and we aren't starving by any means. Mostly, however, I think it's something psychological in terms of being established as a writer...any writer. It doesn't necessarly have to be fiction. I just wanted to be a writer. And I've done that.
So...kudos to me. And kudos to Evy for letting me spend the time necessary to branch out to do it. The first few months were noticably barren, but since then it's only continued to grow, and I am extremely comfortable now, which is a good thing.
I've been having a discussion with some of our gaming friends recently about Halloween traditions around the world. I find it interesting that America has commercialized every single holiday under the sun in order to maximize profits year-round, and when I'm in other parts of the world it's sometimes disconerting in a sense to notice an absolute lack of marketing in regards to holidays. Not to mention many European countries don't even worry about "celebrating" Halloween, or other such days. There is no trick-or-treating, no decorating, no costume parties, or otherwise. It feels weird to me.
In any case, it's close to 2:30 a.m. here, and I've a need to sleep. More next time!
As it stands now, I've got three different projects going for two different clients. Busy, busy little bee, for sure.
I talk about it a lot, but I really am torn. I love my job, but I do want to write fiction full time. The downside is that fiction writing doesn't pay well...not for the first few years, unless you get exceptionally lucky. It also takes an increasingly frustrating length of time to hear back from editors regarding your submission. Right now I'm at the four month mark on three different short stories that I haven't heard back on yet. I won't make much more than a few hundred dollars per story at most if they manage to sell, so you can see how getting started in the fiction world just doesn't work unless you happen to have a paying job and/or a spouse who is willing to foot the bills while you struggle at finding yourself getting published.
Now, I'm blessed in that I've already been published here and there with some short stories. The real issue I'm having is this: do I want to pursue my passion, or do I want to keep padding the savings account?
Thing is, we spent all of our savings in moving over here + living off of it for the entirety of 2008. By the end of October we will be where we were before we moved here in terms of how much we have in the savings. On the plus side, we will be considerably more than that by the end of December. This year has been very good to us in terms of finances, which was a blessed relief in comparison to 2007, which was a horrid year. Up until that point I had been making a steady 60k a year on the net end, which afforded us to live rather high on the hog. 2006 I dropped to 48k, and then in 2007 I didn't even clear 38k on the gross end of things, and I was working twice as many hours and driving 4 hours up the mountain every week. I'd leave home on Monday mornings at around 6 a.m., and I'd work four 10-12 hour days, leave Steamboat Springs around 6 p.m. on Thursday evening and be back home by 10 or 11 p.m. and get to spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with Evy, before turning around and doing it all over again. There was literally no work in the Denver area in 2007, nor along the Front Range. Housing market had dried up completely, and with the immigration crisis on top of it...well, it wasn't a pretty picture.
So...we are padding up nicely. I have now determined that my book, as much as I enjoy working on it, and as much as I want to get it done, has pretty much been pushed to the back burner. I started out at the first of the year with good intentions. I did the first 11 chapters plus the prologue between January and June, with each chapter between 6 and 7k words. Not a bad start. I was doing at least 2 chapters per month. But by June my freelance work had picked up to the point that the book got shelved in favor of paying gigs...and now I find myself still struggling to get chapter 12 written. Not for lack of wanting to, nor for lack of time. I just...don't seem to be that motivated. It's pretty much turned into a pet project that I do in my spare time. As much as I want to work on it, I just don't. I started working on chapter 12 last Sunday...and that's the only work I've done on it all week. I'm hoping to get some more work done on it tomorrow morning while she's sleeping, but we have to go to Grandma's house to help paint tomorrow afternoon, so my time is limited there.
However, when everything's said and done I have one consolation: I'm being successful. Which makes it really hard to feel all that bad about not getting work done on the novel. It's a passion project, after all. A life-long dream. And I will get to it. I'm just enjoying what I'm doing right now so much that I'm not stressed about it.
Now, of course a lot of it's simply motivation. I have a lot of spare time. A lot. But Evy and I do a lot of different things. We take walks every day. Those take 2-3 hours. And yes, it's every single day. Then there's working out...that takes at least an hour. We also watch a lot of shows, and September means that all of the ones we follow just started new seasons...Fringe, Dexter, Dollhouse, Castle...and Legend of the Seeker, Sanctuary, and Stargate: Universe all start in October. Plus she follows Gray's Anatomy (or is it Grey's?). I also read, do a lot of Internet browsing, and we also play computer games from time to time.
As the winter months come closer, I think what will happen is that our 2-3 hour walking sessions will end up transferring into book writing sessions. Or at least, that's what I hope happens. It's too damn cold to go traipsing around Sofia in the middle of winter, so that's a slot of time I hope to put to good use, and stop procrastinating for no good reason.
I think what it boils down to is that I've become complacent in my success. I didn't anticipate freelance writing was going to be this easy, or this lucrative, and now that I'm firmly established in the field as a bonafide writer, I've met one of the major goals in my life. It also doesn't hurt that our living expenses are negligable, and we aren't starving by any means. Mostly, however, I think it's something psychological in terms of being established as a writer...any writer. It doesn't necessarly have to be fiction. I just wanted to be a writer. And I've done that.
So...kudos to me. And kudos to Evy for letting me spend the time necessary to branch out to do it. The first few months were noticably barren, but since then it's only continued to grow, and I am extremely comfortable now, which is a good thing.
I've been having a discussion with some of our gaming friends recently about Halloween traditions around the world. I find it interesting that America has commercialized every single holiday under the sun in order to maximize profits year-round, and when I'm in other parts of the world it's sometimes disconerting in a sense to notice an absolute lack of marketing in regards to holidays. Not to mention many European countries don't even worry about "celebrating" Halloween, or other such days. There is no trick-or-treating, no decorating, no costume parties, or otherwise. It feels weird to me.
In any case, it's close to 2:30 a.m. here, and I've a need to sleep. More next time!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
On the Aion bandwagon
We waited until the last minute, but decided to jump on the bandwagon for Aion.
Contrary to AoC and WAR last year, I think Aion is going to take those 500k+ pre-launch subs and keep them...and keep growing.
In the past few days since we've had a chance to play on the headstart, I can say this:
It's flawless. No glitches. Amazing graphics. Smooth as silk. We get 65+ FPS regularly, dipping down to around 50 in the most crowded cities...and with 1 hour queues during prime time, they are crowded.
Combat is a lot like Fable...very fast-paced, but also very complex. The higher you get, the longer your chains become, and the more branches become available. I can see this being a strategy game at the higher levels, needing to choose which branch to take dependent upon where the fight is, or if you are in a group or not.
Gameplay is easy, a lot like WoW. Very easy to pick up and learn. The storyline and cut-scenes remind me of the single-player storyline in Guild Wars, so it's very easy to get sucked into being "the main hero" of the story. While there is a lot of extra fluff quests to do, the main storyline is very linear, so it's impossible to get lost along the way.
Harvesting reminds me of EQ2. Crafting is fairly complex, actually, but also reminds me of EQ2.
Flying around with wings is...pretty damn cool. The first time I experienced it I was literally giggling like a little school girl with her first Barbie doll. Was pretty epic.
Also, the leveling is fairly slow in comparison to some of the recent games I've played. Took us about 5 hours to get to level 10, which is about twice as long as it takes in LOTRO or EQ2. Hell, in EQ2 you can get level 10 in about an hour, hour and a half.
So far...I'm impressed. It's a nice, new, fresh MMO, and I think it's going to keep us busy for the winter months. LOTRO just kind of grew stale, and the fact they are going to start charging for book quests now on top of the monthly fee just kind of put us off, even though it's Middle Earth and all. We may still play, but...probably only when Rohan and/or Gondor/the major expansions come out.
Anyway, yep...on the Aion bandwagon in our spare time, and loving it.
Contrary to AoC and WAR last year, I think Aion is going to take those 500k+ pre-launch subs and keep them...and keep growing.
In the past few days since we've had a chance to play on the headstart, I can say this:
It's flawless. No glitches. Amazing graphics. Smooth as silk. We get 65+ FPS regularly, dipping down to around 50 in the most crowded cities...and with 1 hour queues during prime time, they are crowded.
Combat is a lot like Fable...very fast-paced, but also very complex. The higher you get, the longer your chains become, and the more branches become available. I can see this being a strategy game at the higher levels, needing to choose which branch to take dependent upon where the fight is, or if you are in a group or not.
Gameplay is easy, a lot like WoW. Very easy to pick up and learn. The storyline and cut-scenes remind me of the single-player storyline in Guild Wars, so it's very easy to get sucked into being "the main hero" of the story. While there is a lot of extra fluff quests to do, the main storyline is very linear, so it's impossible to get lost along the way.
Harvesting reminds me of EQ2. Crafting is fairly complex, actually, but also reminds me of EQ2.
Flying around with wings is...pretty damn cool. The first time I experienced it I was literally giggling like a little school girl with her first Barbie doll. Was pretty epic.
Also, the leveling is fairly slow in comparison to some of the recent games I've played. Took us about 5 hours to get to level 10, which is about twice as long as it takes in LOTRO or EQ2. Hell, in EQ2 you can get level 10 in about an hour, hour and a half.
So far...I'm impressed. It's a nice, new, fresh MMO, and I think it's going to keep us busy for the winter months. LOTRO just kind of grew stale, and the fact they are going to start charging for book quests now on top of the monthly fee just kind of put us off, even though it's Middle Earth and all. We may still play, but...probably only when Rohan and/or Gondor/the major expansions come out.
Anyway, yep...on the Aion bandwagon in our spare time, and loving it.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Coming Soon™
- An actual website.
- A book on freelancing.
- The separation of personal and professional.
As my career continues to grow I find the need to distinguish my personal blog posts from my professional blogs posts. I've discussed this in the past, but it's becoming even more prevalent as my business continues to expand. I've gotten to the point where my resume is literally so thick that it's impossible to cover it all in a simple blog, and in order to give clients the opportunity to really explore my credentials as a professional, I need to expand into an actual, full-blown website.
I've also finally taken that nugget of an idea my wife suggested months ago and I'm taking my consultation and advice for freelancers to the next level: a book. Probably an e-book. I can't give away too much on it at this point in time, but suffice to say it will be regarding freelancing in general, and how to be competitive and successful in a global market, based largely upon my own success and the success of a few of my peers and friends. The outline started to go into effect this morning, and my new schedule is as follows:
8-10 is work on the e-book.
10-3 is freelance work.
In the evenings I continue to work on fiction as I find time. I got a good chunk of chapter 12 done yesterday morning.
I think I can have the majority of this e-book done by the end of the month. I've already written most of the content via my blog here, and this morning was spent sifting through my blog posts and creating the outline. Tomorrow will be refining the main points and continuing the outline. I'd like to further edit and refine and flesh out and have a marketable product by the end of October.
I never anticipated having so much success as a freelance writer when I first started out in this career last year. I went into it knowing that I had a talent, and a passion for the work, at least from a fiction perspective, but I never knew that the industry could be this lucrative. I am absolutely thankful to have been blessed with these opportunities, and I am eternally grateful that I have made it as far as I have, as fast as I have. I honestly feel like shouting it from the rooftops some days because that's how passionate I am about this career. It's incredibly invigorating, incredibly rewarding, and incredibly fun.
Also in October/November will be a new blog attached to my website. Again...I'm still in the early phases of planning everything, but I fully anticipate having an entirely new website and blog up by the New Year. I have a ton of energy and I have been finding a lot of reasons to be inspired lately, mostly due to the amazing successes I've been blessed to accomplish. I can't go into details on everything due to NDAs and such, but suffice to say I am swimming in work up to my ears, and the opportunities just keep rolling in. I'm diversifying in a lot of ways, and I've also got a lot of opportunities I'm looking at here, locally, in Bulgaria. Most of those won't begin to go into effect until 2010, and of course are dependent upon other things, but so far everything is looking swell.
In any case, I hope this message finds all of my readers enjoying as much success in their own careers, and I look forward to continuing these little notes from time to time, and making this blog my personal, with the other being aimed at professional blog information.
Cheers!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
The World is Your Oyster: Part Six
It's been a couple of months since I've written one of my "World is Your Oyster" posts, and I figured it was time to dive back into it.
Recently I have been discussing the topic of digital media and the Location Independent Lifestyle with a lot of different people. The Internet has changed the face of the world not only on a communication level, but also on a business level. As I've discussed in previous posts on the topic, you (the person working in the digital age in digital media, regardless of its form) are no longer simply competing with people in your same town/city, state, or even country. College degrees exist in nearly every country in the world, and as long as someone has the relevant qualifications it doesn't matter if they live in the US, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, some coastal town in Scotland, a hut in the middle of some unheard-of South Pacific island, or kicked back on the beach in Milan or somewhere in Montenegro.
Digital media has opened the doors for people on a world-wide basis. You are no longer locked into the concept of "I have to live in X to take advantage of Y". As I've expanded my base of operations over the past couple of years, and through my travels as well, I have come across a wider and broader range of people who are taking advantage of working in digital media by living and working in countries far removed from their country of origin.
And contrary to popular belief, it doesn't always have to deal with the tax benefits of living and working abroad. Quite possibly the best part about the LIP lifestyle is the fact that you can live anywhere, as long as their is an Internet connection, and take advantage of the same wage you made back in your home country, but such a drastically reduced cost of living that you can literally spend your hard-earned money on things that you can appreciate now...not in 30/40/50 years when your house is paid off and you can finally retire.
I regularly meet people now who are from the UK, America, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and otherwise, who work from countries where the cost of living is a fraction of what it is back in their homeland. People who make 60k+ a year, but in their home country, 55k of that goes towards living conditions and taxes. Now they live outside of their home country and their hard-earned paychecks go towards what they want, because their cost of living is negligible.
I talk about our own situation quite frequently because it's proof of how this works. Our living expenses are less than 1,000 USD per month. In fact...they are about half of that, INCLUDING entertainment. And yet we have the *same* amenities we had back in the US and were costing us 4500+ a month while living in Colorado in a 40+ year old apartment.
One of my favorite websites on the topic, Location Independent talk about this regularly on their website and blog. They chronicle their journey since they first started the lifestyle back in 2007, about a year before Evy and I started doing similar. I actually wasn't even aware of their website until a few months back, but since then I've become an avid fan and I promote the concept to everyone I talk to, and I regularly meet people who are involved.
If you are lucky enough to work in digital media, it's worth looking into. Don't be fooled into thinking that you have to live in a country where your cost of living is 50k+ a year for as a couple, or 25-30k as an individual. You can live quite comfortably in another country for literally a fraction of what it costs to do so in a Western country, and you can enjoy the benefits of frequent travel, a paid-for home LONG before you are 60, and plenty of time/money to enjoy your life now, while you are still young and in your prime.
I highly suggest you read the aforementioned website/blog, because it is extremely informative on how the world really is your oyster.
Recently I have been discussing the topic of digital media and the Location Independent Lifestyle with a lot of different people. The Internet has changed the face of the world not only on a communication level, but also on a business level. As I've discussed in previous posts on the topic, you (the person working in the digital age in digital media, regardless of its form) are no longer simply competing with people in your same town/city, state, or even country. College degrees exist in nearly every country in the world, and as long as someone has the relevant qualifications it doesn't matter if they live in the US, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, some coastal town in Scotland, a hut in the middle of some unheard-of South Pacific island, or kicked back on the beach in Milan or somewhere in Montenegro.
Digital media has opened the doors for people on a world-wide basis. You are no longer locked into the concept of "I have to live in X to take advantage of Y". As I've expanded my base of operations over the past couple of years, and through my travels as well, I have come across a wider and broader range of people who are taking advantage of working in digital media by living and working in countries far removed from their country of origin.
And contrary to popular belief, it doesn't always have to deal with the tax benefits of living and working abroad. Quite possibly the best part about the LIP lifestyle is the fact that you can live anywhere, as long as their is an Internet connection, and take advantage of the same wage you made back in your home country, but such a drastically reduced cost of living that you can literally spend your hard-earned money on things that you can appreciate now...not in 30/40/50 years when your house is paid off and you can finally retire.
I regularly meet people now who are from the UK, America, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and otherwise, who work from countries where the cost of living is a fraction of what it is back in their homeland. People who make 60k+ a year, but in their home country, 55k of that goes towards living conditions and taxes. Now they live outside of their home country and their hard-earned paychecks go towards what they want, because their cost of living is negligible.
I talk about our own situation quite frequently because it's proof of how this works. Our living expenses are less than 1,000 USD per month. In fact...they are about half of that, INCLUDING entertainment. And yet we have the *same* amenities we had back in the US and were costing us 4500+ a month while living in Colorado in a 40+ year old apartment.
One of my favorite websites on the topic, Location Independent talk about this regularly on their website and blog. They chronicle their journey since they first started the lifestyle back in 2007, about a year before Evy and I started doing similar. I actually wasn't even aware of their website until a few months back, but since then I've become an avid fan and I promote the concept to everyone I talk to, and I regularly meet people who are involved.
If you are lucky enough to work in digital media, it's worth looking into. Don't be fooled into thinking that you have to live in a country where your cost of living is 50k+ a year for as a couple, or 25-30k as an individual. You can live quite comfortably in another country for literally a fraction of what it costs to do so in a Western country, and you can enjoy the benefits of frequent travel, a paid-for home LONG before you are 60, and plenty of time/money to enjoy your life now, while you are still young and in your prime.
I highly suggest you read the aforementioned website/blog, because it is extremely informative on how the world really is your oyster.
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