Once Was A Dream

I’ve decided to continue my “$1200 in a month” project after all, energy levels be damned. After much thought, I really couldn’t come up with much else I could do at the moment without some startup funds (nothing blog-able anyways), and I really want to blog some interesting stuff, so I’m going ahead with my original plan!

I will be attempting to make $1200 in one month, hence the title of this post. Nothing completely off the wall, except for the simple fact that the largest sum of money I’ve ever handled at one time is $300. I’m a teenager, and a pretty lazy one at that, so this is pretty big money for me, and a sort of step into adulthood. Not that I’ll use the money for boring things like food and shelter, no indeed. I’ll be using the money to fund one or more of my life ideas, fun things that should help me grow as a person and give me some good blog material.

I did the math, and I need to make at least $280 a week, and that comes down to about $40 a day. I have until November 13th… Friday the 13th. Yeah, that’s a good omen.

I’ll probably make most of the money by doing freelance web programming. I already have a $400 job lined up, and possibly a $200 one in the coming weeks. However, that would make for a boring blog, and I will Not. Have. A Boring BLOG!

…

Okay, just had to wipe the spittle from the computer screen and move the dead body out of the room.

So, I’ve come up with a few cool money-making ideas that I’ll be exploring throughout the month:

Write comedy online

Ever visited websites like Cracked.com? No, of course you haven’t. You don’t let that time-wasting nonsense interfere with your productive internet time! Well, it’s an online comedy website, and it’s populated with articles submitted by viewers like you (and a crack (Ha!) team of professional comedy writers).  If you take a close look at the previous two sentences, you’ll notice how my prose flows like fine silk tickled by a gentle breeze, how deep and thoughtful the core concepts are (I achieve this by nesting parentheses (like this) ), and how amusing my witty, rhetorical repartee can be. I can so write comedy! Websites like these are always looking for new material, and they’ll pay to get it. Cracked.com offers $100 for every article published. Of course, this means that my article has to stand up to their high standards… Yeah, I’ll be rich.

Write for a popular blog (e.g. the-gadgeteer.com)

Like the previous idea, but with less scantily clad pictures of Tom Selleck.

Make a viral video and host it on a profit sharing site (revver.com)

How hard could it possibly be? All I’d need is a gallon of gasoline and a Barney costume… Wow, that’s a good idea.

Review Software

I’m an opinionated fellow who loves to mock the effort and dedication of others. I was delighted to the point of delirium when I found out that I could possibly make money doing this. I know I may not be able to bust into the big leagues of software review (gametrailers.com), but I found softwarejudge.com. It’s a website that pays it’s members a variable amount, $1-$50, to review a selection of software. The pay depends on the quality of the review.

There are a few problems, though. One, they have a very limited selection of software. Two, you need to actually own the software to review it (they don’t hand out freebies). Three, you need to have an account balance of $200 before you can cash out. These are major hurdles. I own exactly one piece of software in their list, but in order to achieve the minimum cash out balance, I would need to write at least 4 reviews. This is a problem that would usually be solved by piracy, but ever since I started reading Shamus’ Blog, I’ve forsaken my pirate-y ways. There are a few alternatives. Most of the software has a trial period or demo version, so I suppose I could write my reviews based on those, but then the review would not contain a complete picture of the software. I’ll give this one some more thought.

Be a movie extra

How cool would it be to rub shoulders with movie stars and actually appear on film?! Not that cool, I hear. Apparently, being an extra is one of the most mind-numbing, soul-killing experiences out there. Still, that’s at least $50 a day, and I do live in California, albeit northern California. This might be a cool experience, as long as I bring a gameboy.

An hour writing this post, and I’ve still got to make $40 today. Wish me luck!

Well, hello internet. I come to you with my head bent down in shame. I have been asleep for the past two and a half weeks, yet my insomnia problems continue. No, I haven’t been doing drugs and I’m not drunk. I’m just overusing a metaphor to the point of insanity. For the past two and a half weeks, I’ve been doing all of the nothing that I possibly can. I shirk basic responsibilities like keeping my room clean, responding to calls on time, or getting any work done.

This void of a life was so obvious that I started describing it as a period of sleep. I’d tell myself that I’d wake up tomorrow, or maybe the day after, or maybe next week. Like sleep, this state is very comfortable and a little disturbing. What? You don’t think sleep is a little disturbing? It’s a state wherein your body numbs and you fall into a dark oblivion for hours on end. It’s disturbing.

Anyways, this is the exact same thing I was talking about in my first post. I had said that I was at a point in my life where walking out the door was the most activity I’d get all day (or week). You’d be surprised how much nothing you can get done with a laptop and a strong will.  I succumbed to this state again, and just now I’m trying to drag myself out of it.

I’ve found what works best to fix this problem is a strong dose of internet/videogame/tv rehab. So, for the next week, I’ll be restricting my internet usage to blog posts, web programming, and study. That means no tv, no youtube, and no videogames… I won’t be able to watch a recording of somebody else playing a video game that I’ve already beaten three times. Yes, I actually did this… For 15+ hours.

Now, after all this time, I’ve finally decided to wake up. I’m putting my money-making project on hold again for at least a week, sorry to my readers (Dillon). I don’t think I have the energy to tackle that yet, so maybe I’ll blog about a smaller scale project. My important task for today is figuring out what to do with my week of rehab time.

For the past month or so my sleeping patterns have been really bizarre. I’m a teenager, so I’m expected to burn the midnight oil every now and again, but I’ve been doing it so much that I’m surprised there hasn’t been an oil intervention. I don’t just burn the midnight oil, I set whole towns ablaze with gallons of the stuff. I stay up till ridiculously late, and I sleep in till ridiculously late. This is a very bad thing.

Nothing feels worse than getting up at 1:00 in the  afternoon and going to bed at 3:00 in the morning. For some reason, I cannot bring myself to do anything even remotely productive at night. Possibly I’ve absorbed society’s work schedule while maintaining my own bizarre sleep schedule. So I have a five hour period, from 1:00 to 6:00 to do all of my important tasks for the day.  I spend three of these hours waking up, and then I give up and play video games.

I am not a morning person. I’ve tried getting up early, and I’ve even succeeded in doing it consistently for more than a month with no external pressure, but it was never pleasant. I’d drag myself out of bed at 6:00 and barely refrain from killing myself. I wouldn’t even get my first burst of energy till about noon. I’m just wired differently. I’m exhausted in the morning and buzzed at night. I can bounce off the walls at midnight, and I’m motivated, and I’m happy, but in the morning I’m a zombie.

I’ve tried to reset my sleeping patterns, I really have! I pull all-nighters so I can be sure to fall asleep really early the next night, but that just makes me tired during the whole day, almost on the brink of fainting, and then the next night I’m wired as usual. I try taking sleeping pills and going to bed really early, so I can wake up early the next morning, but I lay down and I’m so bursting with energy that my head can’t stop turning. An hour later I get up and prance around my room (literally).

This is a conundrum indeed, and I’ve yet to find a solution to it. I’ll try to think of some stuff, maybe post a few ideas, and then put one of them into action. I’m not one for idle complaining (…most of the time), so I’ll definitely be doing something about this… I’m just not sure what yet.

Well, looking at my list of life ideas, I need a couple hundreds dollars to really start on any of them. Plus, I’m about $800 in debt right now. My old laptop broke down and I’m financing my new one through my Grandpa. He said I could pay him back whenever (His precise words were “When you’re rich” ), but I really want to do it as soon as possible. So, I have to pay off that laptop before I start anything else, and I need an extra few hundred dollars on the side.

My goal right now is to make about $1200. I’m a deadline motivated person, and I like to keep things interesting, so I’m just throwing in a “do-this-in-one-month” clause. It may not sound like much, especially to you people out there who already have full time jobs or careers, but it’s quite a lot of money to me, and I’ve never made anywhere near that amount before.  To put this in perspective, a part time job (for us teenagers) pays about $8 an hour, and let’s say you work a five hour shift every day. That’s $40 a day; $200 a week.  So, in a month you could have around $1000. I’m aiming just a smidge above that, and I won’t be actually getting a job.

The only way I can think of to achieve this goal is freelance web work, pretty much the only ‘work’ I’ve ever done in my life. If I take on a whole bunch of jobs (or a few big ones) then this goal should be attainable, but that would be a bit boring. I’m not saying that coding is boring, because it can be very interesting, but doing nothing but coding for a month… *shudder*. I’ve done it before, and I have no idea how professional programmers handle it. After a while you start dreaming code.

This project will officially start on monday, so I’m still open to non-boring ideas flying into my brain. Perhaps I can open up a  $5 therapy booth in the mall (therapy meaning that I’ll patiently listen to your problems). Maybe I’ll cover this blog with google ads and capitalize on my traffic… Yes, I’m pretending to have traffic! Anyways, I dunno, but maybe I’ll think of something. Leave a comment if you have an idea.

This is part two of my series of life-idea posts, basically thing I could do to make my life more interesting. Once again in no particular order, here they are:

Memorize (learn how to memorize) my favorite book, Animorphs #3

There’s something about this idea, memorizing a whole story by heart, that interests me greatly. I’ve always wanted to do something like this, even considering the great hunk of time I’d have to put into it. I’ve actually attempted this several times before, but I never took it very seriously, and I always gave up after a chapter or two.

This would involve an immense amount of effort and concentration, but considering the short length of the book, I could probably have it memorized within four or five days. This is just a rough estimate, as I don’t really know how my brain will handle all of that information. I could memorize it in a few days, or it could take more than a week.

The upside to this project is that it wouldn’t cost me a dime. The downside is that it will be extremely tedious, and almost no one will appreciate the effort I’ve put into it. I would only tackle this project in order to be able to take pride in the final result. I know of no average person (superhuman brains excluded) who has memorized a book.

BTW, I stand by my book choice. I don’t care what anyone else says, but Animorphs was a truly great series!

Complete, edit, and try to publish a book within two months

I’ve written books before, three to be exact. They were the product of much caffeine and little time, of sweat and cramped hands, of pain and of pride. All of my fellow word padding soldiers will know that I’m talking about the great NaNoWriMo competition. It’s a competition wherein you write a book within a month; thirty days to reach fifty thousand words.

I’ll be completely honest and say that these books were drivel. What else can you expect from three days of hurried writing?!…. Yeah, I always waited until the last minute to even start typing. I always told myself that I’d edit or rewrite my books after finishing them, but I never did. There are some gems buried deep within the mountains of garbage here, and I’d like to show them to the world in proper form!

In order to complete this project I’d have to either completely rewrite one of my earlier novels, or I’d have to come up with a new idea and start from scratch. It would take me at least three weeks to get a decent first draft from either approach. After that, I’d need a two week break to distance myself from my beloved manuscript before I give it a complete overhaul. That would take another two weeks. Another week for fine tuning, and I’d have myself a passable final draft.

After writing the book, I’d need a few days to study up on how to get it published. I’d need to print out manuscripts to show to agents or publishing houses, which might cost me around $100, and unless I’m much mistaken, this would be pretty much be the only cost of the project. The publishing world works on commission, so my agent or publisher would just take a cut of my profits instead of charging me anything up front.

Spending an entire day learning how to front-flip

This isn’t a huge project like the others. It’s just a cool little idea I had. Who doesn’t want to wow their friends with being able to front-flip? I’m stupidly ambitious, so I think I could nail it with a whole day of practice and a pile of cushions. That is, if I don’t get seriously injured on the first try.

Walk from California to Washington

Okay, this is a dream I’ve had since childhood. So, that would be about three years ago. I’ve always wanted to walk all the way from California (the armpit of the world) to Washington (my home state). Don’t ask me exactly why I want to do this, because I don’t think I’ll be able to give you an answer. I just want to.

Ever since I turned thirteen (four years ago), I loved to walk. I would wander in the fields surrounding my house for hours and daydream. There is something really freeing about getting out of the house and exploring nature on your own two feet. Nature is really beautiful if you take the time to look at it, and I did take the time. I had the sunburn to prove it.

If I did set out on this crazed journey, I would take the scenic route. Who wants to walk eight hundred miles and see nothing but highways and hotels? I dream of camping under the stars in the plains of California and being rained on in the forests of Washington. So, I would have to carry a lot of gear with me, and I would need to pack food, and I would need to have a constant supply of water. These are a lot of problems to overcome, but if I plan my pit stops carefully and visit a good chiropractor afterward, I might be able to make it.

I could do a lot with this project. I could try to get sponsored by companies that sell wilderness survival gear, so I wouldn’t have to buy much. I could take a bunch of photos and blog the whole thing, which is possible now due to solar panel technology. I could write a book.

This project would involve a considerable amount of time and effort. I would need to research property laws and ownership to make sure I’m not trespassing, plan a route that allows me to have access to all the food and water I’d need, try to find sponsors, buy all of the necessary gear, and maybe look for a traveling companion. I’m guessing that a minimum of $700 would need to go into this project. It would take a month to cover the eight hundred mile distance between Northern California and Central Washington.

Well, that’s part two of my life-idea series. I might write a part three, or I might just put one of these ideas into practice right away and blog the results.

In reference to wanting to do something with my life, this post is part one a collection of life-ideas I’ve had.  In order to keep this blog interesting, all of them are a bit unconventional. I wouldn’t want to start a blog about doing something with my life and end up writing papers on how to get into an accounting firm.

Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Try to cram physical activity like skateboarding and become skilled in two weeks.

I have a thing for cramming knowledge. I’ve done it several times before with varying levels of success. I figured out that trying to learn another language, especially a difficult one like Korean, in ten days is a little too much. However, I had another cram session of three weeks for learning all of the prerequisites for freelance web programming, and that turned out rather well. I was able to immediately take on a few freelance projects and make some money.

So, I figure I could apply these same principles, namely hard work and deadlines, on a physical level.  There are some noticeable differences like muscle memory and physical exhaustion to deal with (it’s not really a toll on the body to sit in front of the computer all day studying programming), but I’m curious about how different the two really are in practice, and I’ve always wanted to learn skateboarding. Why? Cause it looks cool!

In order to see this through, I’d need quite a bit of money. I’d need bus fare there and back ($50 for a two week pass),  entrance to the park ($2 a day = at least $20), and all the required padding (at least $30). That’s about $100 more than I have right now. Of course, every other project will cost a similar amount, so this isn’t a bad thing. It would take me at least a week to gather that sum of money.

2. Learn better people skills by getting to know everyone (all regulars) at the local mall on a first name basis

I’m not great with people, an unfortunate side effect of being home schooled most of my life.  This doesn’t mean I’m awful with people. Under the right conditions, I can make friends okay, and I do alright in social situations. My problem is that meeting, being, and talking with people is a little scary for me.  This gives people the impression that I’m aggressively anti-social, which isn’t actually the case. I do enjoy being with other human beings once I relax, but I’m hyper nervous around other people, especially large groups of people, and I can’t relax all that often.

I figure I can solve this by simply having more exposure to… the world outside of my room. If I can learn to naturally start conversations with strangers and get to know them more, then my problem will be pretty much solved. Of course, it would take a great deal of time to get to know everyone at the local mall, maybe months, maybe years, but it just sounds like a cool idea to me.  You’d walk in the mall, and everyone would know your name.

I’d probably go really slow, and for the first few days I’d just get accustomed to being around that many people.  I’d bring my laptop and read, game, work, or write. Then, for the next week, I’d challenge myself to talk to one new person a day. I wouldn’t just walk up to a stranger and start talking…that might be creepy after a while.  Instead, I’d ask someone in the same line as me for Jamba Juice what they were going to get, or I’d join in on a game of Time Crisis at the arcade, or whatever. The week after that I’d talk to two new people a day, etc.

This project really appeals to me. I find the whole concept of creating a group of acquaintances or friends out of nothing very interesting. Most people don’t do this. Instead, they use either their place of work or their school as their only social outlet. Perhaps there are good reasons for this, I don’t know yet, but maybe their aren’t, and the one thing I enjoy most is challenging the norm.

This project would be expensive only because I don’t have a car, and the public transportation fees where I live are ridiculous. I would go to the mall every day at around noon and come back at around nine. It would take at least a month to even start this project, and it’s $100 for a one-month bus pass. What’s with that?! I could almost lease a car for that! </rant>

I still live with my parents (I’m 17), so I can just pack food to take with me. We have a huge thermos and a littler one. I could fill the big one with juice and fill the little one with coffee. Add in a few salami sandwiches and a bag of chips and you’ve got yourself food for the day. My grandpa just recently bought me a really nice ultraportable laptop, so I can just work from the mall (As I mentioned earlier, I do web programming.) Anyways, this idea is very interesting to me, so I might try it for a month and see what happens.
3. Cram pool (billiards) playing skills at the local pool hall for two weeks.

We all know that playing pool is cool. In turn, playing pool makes you cool. Now, I’m already pretty cool *intense five minute fit of laughter*, but let’s say I want to be more cool. How? Playing pool. See,  it’s almost like a poem.

Ok now, let’s forget that paragraph of insanity and move on. I’ve only played pool half a dozen times in my life, and I’ve always been awful at it. Still, I love it! There’s something about the whole atmosphere surrounding the game and the concentration required that intrigue me. This is another variant on the cramming theme, but this is a bit different from both physical cramming and mental cramming. It’s a bit of both.

Now, the cost of doing this would be considerable. I’d need a two week bus pass ($50), and the hourly charge for playing pool is $5. I’d pack food. If I play for eight hours a day for ten days (two weeks doesn’t include weekends), then it would cost me $400. This is quite a hefty sum. If I were to try this, I’d find a small pool hall and ask the manager or owner if he could give me a deal considering the business I’m giving him.
Well, that’s part one of my life-ideas. Tune in for part two soon!

Hi internet!  This is Nick, or Nitroviper, blogging once again. This will be the third time I start up a blog, and hopefully I’ll stick with it this time. I want to use this blog to push myself to try new things, to live life more fully, and to become a better person… Yeah okay, it’s just a blog, but hey, it could happen.

For some reason, every one of my projects that I’ve blogged about has turned to gold, or at least been moderately successful. For instance, I’m a lazy type of person, and there was a period in my life where I did so little that walking outside the door was worthy of note. I noticed this, and I started to hate it. I wanted some discipline. So,  I came up with a big plan. I set aside a whole month for this plan, and during that month I woke up at six every morning, went to bed by eleven every night, did five hours of school every day (I was homeschooled), cut all sarcasm and nastiness from my speaking, gave up television, computer, sugar, and caffeine, and got my discipline (for a time at least).

This project was about a year and a half ago, and I’m in roughly the same situation now, except I’m much more aware of it. You may say that this makes my discipline project a failure, but for me it was a victory, one of few in my life.  I had a plan, applied a great deal of willpower, and followed through on it with such zeal that I did not allow myself to even think about quitting. Whether the plan worked or not was less important than actually following through on it.

This same success has held true for every project I’ve blogged about. I tried to learn Korean in ten days, and I put more work into that than anything I’ve ever done in my life. I’m still immensely proud of how well I did.  I went raw, eating nothing but raw fruits and veggies for a month, and I made it without cheating. I was more healthy that month than at any other period in my life.

I’m not exactly sure how blogging makes big projects easier to tackle, but I think it has something to do with accountability. If no one knows I’m trying to do some impossible thing, no one will care if I fail , but if I tell people beforehand and fail, they’ll call me out on it, and I’ll have to make up some lame excuse.

Like I mentioned before, I’m kind of in a phase where I’m not doing much, but instead of being apathetic to the whole thing, I’m uber aware of it. It’s like an itch I need to scratch. I feel a need to do something, interesting with my life.  I used to get this feeling in short bursts, but then I’d start playing computer games and forget about it.  Now it’s always there, almost like a subtext to my life.

So, with the power of accountability, this blog will chronicle my efforts at the vague goal of “doing something with my life”.  I’ll try to make it interesting for my readers (yes, I pretend to have readers)