July 30, 2008
Today begins a new schedule at work - 12:00 noon to 9:00 pm - and a new surge to embed critical activities into my life.
I have no choice. The job is tough and beating me up, but diabetes is kicking my ass.
Actions I have to take at my age (54) include:
June 9, 2008
As young baby boomers, we railed against governments and corporations and preferred poetry to accounting or finance.
Now we are paying the price.
I cannot image any part of my liberal arts education more seriously lacking than the study of economics, finance, central banking, and money.
The way to start: LewRockwell.com
Next:
and others.
May 26, 2008
High gas prices will cause some interesting results:
- more people will shop for bargains online, rather than traveling from store to store
- delivery charges will be reasonable compared to picking it up yourself
- home gardening and locally grown food will enjoy a resurgence
- people will think twice about drives to the beach or to the lake
- going for a Sunday drive is a sign of wealth
- if your neighbor fills up his SUV at one visit to the pump, he is probably doing better than you are
- you may see some unlikely people - bankers, lawyers, doctors - use the gas crunch to justify commuting by motorcycle
- some smart commuters will get their exercise by commuting by bicycle
- people will need second jobs to stay afloat - most will create new businesses online to earn extra income
- small restaurants will suffer first as more workers shift lunch money to gas tanks
- fast food places will suffer next as prices of oil run up food prices
- over the next few years, temporary dips in oil prices will not be long-lived enough to let Americans drive huge cars and trucks again - SUVs will be like Cadillacs with fins
- supply increases will be sopped up by China and India
- alternative sources of energy will be great businesses but will not dethrone big oil
- Florida will be unhappy when offshore oil wells appear near their coastline in the Gulf of Mexico
- placement of refineries will be hot political topics and push abortion and gay marriage off the table
- politicians, as usual, will screw things up then demand more tax revenue to fix the problems they created in the first place
Just a few of the issues I believe will dominate the economic and political landscape over the next 10 years. With any luck, it will bring back some of the lean, mean, fighting spirit of the American people - but only if the politicians are pushed out of the way.
—
Charles Lamm is a junkyard philosopher whose blogs include Live Free in an Unfree World, the Asset Protection Iron Triangle, and Virtual Joe Friday.
April 23, 2008
I begin this morning on my first real day as an Admissions Officer for Kaplan University, an online university owned by the Washington Post. The company is first rate regarding training new hires, creating a fantastic work environment, and focusing on the students.
With homeschooling and layoffs on the rise, more students will choose online education for college or as a way to retrain for the changing economy.
My own expenses are way up, and I have a daughter 2 years away from college. I need the regular pay and benefits a large company affords while building online business in the evenings.
I want this to be the last job I ever have, or at least the last company.
Charles Lamm
caketrust@gmail.com
February 29, 2008
This blog will be a notepad for my efforts to create a free life in 777 days. Can it be done? Of course it can. Will it be done? If I hone in on my why. And I really mean dig deep and honest.
Freedom means freedom from debt, jobs, bad relationships. I must have the money in place to take care of my daughter’s college tuition which will start right after the 777 days end. I must have money in place to travel at will.
Raw notes and ideas will be posted here. Nothing will be posted that can be used against me. Blogging is part of the discipline.
My plan - if successful - will lead to the life I want, and to a book. It incorporates 7 areas of improvement, and the critical activities in each area to make it happen.
- mental
- physical
- emotional
- spiritual
- financial
- vocational
- social
Knowing what has to be done, and doing it, are 2 different things.
November 24, 2007
Every year for several years now, Mark Hendricks of Hunteridge.com gives away a collection of the best software and ebooks from dozens of authors who contribute to the 12 Days of Christmas giveaway.
He starts with one gift on December 1st, and goes to 2 on December 3rd, and on up to 12 gifts on the 12th day.
Usually, he gives out more because more and more contributors want to be a part of the action. In the past, the gifts tend to be better quality and more up-to-date than one should expect.
Why do contributors support this? They get your email address when you download their individual gift.
Join here:
www.hunteridge.com/12days/index.php?id=M300
====
Charles Lamm is a retired attorney and a lifelong scanner who recently discovered his “affliction”. You can read this and other articles – on a variety of topics, of course – on his blog at www.virtualjoefriday.com. His websites include www.clixforbrix.com and www.affiliatemarketingforscanners.com.
September 26, 2007
My Observations Re Scanners
by Charles Lamm
Scanners exhibit a number of specific traits which separate us from the masses. None of these make scanners right or wrong. Of course, it doesn’t make society right or wrong either. It’s more important to understand what is happening instead of judging.
1. When you see friends and associates who are less intelligent pass you by on the corporate ladder, you start to question your own talents and abilities.
2. When working in a “good enough job” considered beneath you or blatant underemployment, you allow others’ opinions to poison your mind against that job or company.
3. You don’t trust your own gut feelings.
4. When you are finished with a job/hobby/interest/relationship and want to move on, you see yourself as a quitter.
5. Others feel sorry for you when you are at your happiest.
6. If you learned on Friday afternoon that you had to be an expert witness in court on Monday morning, in a subject you knew nothing about, you could fool a jury with your expert testimony.
7. People suspect you have ADD when you don’t.
8. You don’t want to specialize in one particular field because it would take time away from exploring other career paths.
9. Scanners allow themselves to be tagged with labels like “selfish” or “self-indulgent”. Others tag you with these labels in order to manipulate you into following their rules.
10. Universities have changed from scanner safe liberal arts environments into vocational training schools. Many “core” courses of the past such as art, music, foreign languages, and physical education have disappeared as requirements for graduation.
11. Scanners are often afraid to update their resumes because it “looks bad” to have a wide variety of short-term jobs. Employers want drones, not free agents. A scanner resume is a red flag.
12. Instead of seizing control of our lives and taking full responsibility, we drift.
I have gone from employment highs like practicing law and serving as a U.S. diplomat to lows like tech support in a call center.
I have destroyed more good careers than most people would even dream of attempting.
I have walked away from more relationships than I can count.
And yet, I’m not broken. God doesn’t make junk.
The scanner solution is to:
1. accept yourself as the scanner you are
2. embrace and exploit your diverse talents on your own terms
3. create a new life around those talents, not a traditional career
For most scanners, your path will now start with your own YOU Inc. business. The trend with globalization is a shift away from traditional jobs and toward a free agent nation. Scanners who accept their own strengths and celebrate their differences will prosper.
—
Charles Lamm is a retired attorney and a lifelong scanner who recently discovered his “affliction”. You can read this and other articles – on a variety of topics, of course – on his blog at http://www.virtualjoefriday.com. His websites include http://www.clixforbrix.com and http://www.your-dating-directory.com.
September 3, 2007
In her book “Refuse to Chooseâ€, Barbara Sher fleshed her concept of scanners. Scanners are hard to define, but as the Supreme Court once said about pornography, you can recognize it when you see it – especially if it’s you.
Here are a few clues to help determine if you are a scanner:
If you believe taking a tangent is the shortest distance between two points . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you can’t stand to do anything, or anyone, twice . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If focusing on only one thing is as exciting as a nap . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If your “to do†list is longer than your phone book . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you can’t commit to one checkout line at the grocery store . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you skim 6 books at once at the bookstore but never buy . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you think potential is a dirty word . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you goal list looks like a total work of fiction . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If the only way you can stick to one subject is with duct tape or superglue . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you don’t go to class reunions because you feel less successful than the class idiot . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you believe jack-of-all-trades should trump aces . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If perpetual student sounds like a perfect career . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you have every been called ditsy, Renaissance man, jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none, dilettante, flighty, dabbler, or generalist, and not in a good way . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you work at a series of job beneath your abilities . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you wonder why rich people seem so stupid, and why you are not one of them . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you feel you have a lot to offer but nowhere to offer it . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you can’t get to the most important goals in your life because you are just too damn busy . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If your last great passion seems so last month . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you change lovers more often than Julia Roberts before motherhood . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you believe that Barbara Sher should have played the Oracle in the Matrix . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you believe in your heart you were placed on this Earth for a reason, but have no clue what that reason is . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If many of these scanner traits hit home, buy “Refuse to Choose†at your local bookstore and see for yourself. Chances are, you are in for an “aha†moment when your life finally makes sense.
Charles Lamm is a retired attorney and a lifelong scanner who recently discovered his “afflictionâ€. You can read this and other articles – on a variety of topics, of course – on his blog at www.virtualjoefriday.com or contact him by email at focus@vitaclix.com.
July 22, 2007
It’s finally finished (at least for now) - Visual Guide to Free Traffic Exchanges. Ebooks have a way of never being finished,
This is my way of turning raw junk traffic into most wanted responses from surfers at the traffic exchanges.
Get your free copy here:
http://www.clixforbrix.com/requestvgtraffic2.html
February 25, 2007
RSS feeds like the one to the right which delivers articles automatically to my blog is just one example of what will, if not destroy, alter the power of the search engines.
Why?
Because I get articles about subjects I am interested in. Only the categories I want. Only the keywords inside the subject category if I choose. Delivered automatically until I tell it to stop.
Search once. Read as long as you wish.
RSS Feed
