Now that it has been decided, and announced, and everyone involved knows and agrees, I can begin, in earnest, the planning for the trip to New Mexico. I started, a few days ago, with MapMuse, which was helping me plot the locations of all of the scrapbook stores along the roads I anticipated traveling upon. Then I said to myself "I have no money, why am I doing this?" I suppose it is because old habits die hard. Regardless of my ability to shop for scrapbook supplies, there are other preparations which mush be made. I must visit roadsideamerica.com, to ensure that I do not miss any kitschy or oddball attractions for which I might later kick myself. Then it's over to the USGS to map out all the hot springs we might come near. Then it's over to ghosttowns.com to find all the sites of that nature that are worthy of exploration. Then I have to research, well, everything else in New Mexico. I have a tendency, when I "do" a state, to really want to do it right. This is a far cry from Jeff's "let it happen" mindset of wandering into a place, wandering about, and then wandering off. But, well, we're different in other ways too, so this shouldn't shock anyone. Oh, and did I mention that I enjoy doing research? I guess it's just that I have, on too many occasions in the past, gotten home and discovered something that I missed completely in the area I was just visiting, and been quite angry with myself about it. I know it's unproductive to be angry after the fact, but hopefully it can be considered useful that it's taught me to plan ahead more thoroughly.
Off I go to research again!
Friday, March 10, 2006
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
What I know about me
What I know about me
I finally figured something out this morning. The reason I like buying and selling on eBay is because I enjoy research & learning. Like programming, it offers an almost unlimited learning curve, and with each increment of knowledge I acquire, I can make more money. I once had a friend who pointed to a 4-inch tall book about programming some language or another, and said “I just read that. Every time I read a book like that, I can ask for another pay raise.” Ebay works in a similar manner. Every time I learn something new, or begin researching a new niche, it opens up the possibility of making more money. And I have loved research since high school, at least. I don’t really remember when I first enjoyed it, but I definitely spent a lot of unnecessary time in libraries, with the ostensible purpose of writing a book. The book never materialised, because I was wont to jump from subject to subject in my research. I could never commit to a single subject long enough to even get a decent outline together. But that sort of style suits eBay to a T. Because it is so large, I can monkey around with Bakelite goggles one day, and then skip over to machinist’s squares the next. And every nugget of knowledge I collect makes me that much better when I cruise the garage sales the next weekend. Granted, that source is somewhat flaky in the quantity and quality of items it produces, but, unlike my mainstay (eBay arbitrage), there’s no shipping.
A Monty Python line fits here on so many levels…”And now for something completely different!”
In indulging my penchant for reading yesterday, I happened across a particularly meaningful sentence in an older book by one of my favorite authors, Tom Robbins. The book is Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, and the line is “It is more important to be free than to be happy.” I’m pretty sure this was one of the thoughts that spurred on the founding fathers of this country. And it’s one we would do well to bear in mind during the reign of the current administration. But such weighty concerns aside, it struck me much closer to home, and since that is what I know, that is what I wanted to discuss here.
I think yesterday was my one-year anniversary of freedom from jobhood. If I remember correctly, February 18th was my last day of work, and the 21st was the first day I didn’t have to go back in to the office. I think. And to think that, at the time, I believed it would be a date I would never forget. At any rate, many times in the past year I have pondered to myself about how happy I am to be free of the machine. There have been plenty of other times, however, that I have wandered aimlessly about, not knowing what to do with myself and my leisure, and wondering if I made the right decision. If I were to accept this newfound superiority of freedom over happiness as a truism, then I could say unequivocally “yes.” But I am no good at mindlessly adopting new mantras. I have to test them and turn them over and poke at their bellies and see if they’re ticklish or grumpy or flatulent or most of all if they truly resonate with me in the deep manner that I would expect of a phrase that is to become a personal tenet. So I am in the middle of this process now, and you get to see some of its guts. I would certainly argue that freedom is a precursor to happiness; if you are not free, you must work very hard to maintain any semblance of joy. But I think the real crux of it for me is, “how do I define freedom?” I will grant you that I consider my escape from jobdom to be a very liberating experience, but that in itself is not freedom. Freedom comes from beyond our external circumstances. Or perhaps it comes from a place before them. Even though I am free to do what I wish with most of my time now, I am still bound by monetary constraints. And the life I have chosen does not lend itself well, despite all my eBay research, to making piles of cash. Yet, like the early philosophers who, once a society was in place to help them meet all their basic needs, were suddenly able to turn their minds to higher pursuits, I am gradually finding the time to mull over this whole money vs. freedom thing, and finding it to not be what it first appears. Sure, there are people who manage to travel all over the world without having a steady income stream of any kind, and though I respect them, that is not what I am referring to. Mostly, I just think that freedom is somewhere inside of you. That it’s a state of mind, not a state of body. Does that mean that I was barking up the wrong tree when I quit my job? Not at all. Thank goodness! I definitely believe that different people must find freedom via different routes. That was just part of my route. The larger, part, however, is still ongoing. To be free, I must first realise that it is a state I already have within myself. Then...the hard part...I must begin to act on it. I do this. In fits and starts, stumbles and backward slides...I'm getting there, but it's a long road. When I make it, I'll let you know ;)
I finally figured something out this morning. The reason I like buying and selling on eBay is because I enjoy research & learning. Like programming, it offers an almost unlimited learning curve, and with each increment of knowledge I acquire, I can make more money. I once had a friend who pointed to a 4-inch tall book about programming some language or another, and said “I just read that. Every time I read a book like that, I can ask for another pay raise.” Ebay works in a similar manner. Every time I learn something new, or begin researching a new niche, it opens up the possibility of making more money. And I have loved research since high school, at least. I don’t really remember when I first enjoyed it, but I definitely spent a lot of unnecessary time in libraries, with the ostensible purpose of writing a book. The book never materialised, because I was wont to jump from subject to subject in my research. I could never commit to a single subject long enough to even get a decent outline together. But that sort of style suits eBay to a T. Because it is so large, I can monkey around with Bakelite goggles one day, and then skip over to machinist’s squares the next. And every nugget of knowledge I collect makes me that much better when I cruise the garage sales the next weekend. Granted, that source is somewhat flaky in the quantity and quality of items it produces, but, unlike my mainstay (eBay arbitrage), there’s no shipping.
A Monty Python line fits here on so many levels…”And now for something completely different!”
In indulging my penchant for reading yesterday, I happened across a particularly meaningful sentence in an older book by one of my favorite authors, Tom Robbins. The book is Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, and the line is “It is more important to be free than to be happy.” I’m pretty sure this was one of the thoughts that spurred on the founding fathers of this country. And it’s one we would do well to bear in mind during the reign of the current administration. But such weighty concerns aside, it struck me much closer to home, and since that is what I know, that is what I wanted to discuss here.
I think yesterday was my one-year anniversary of freedom from jobhood. If I remember correctly, February 18th was my last day of work, and the 21st was the first day I didn’t have to go back in to the office. I think. And to think that, at the time, I believed it would be a date I would never forget. At any rate, many times in the past year I have pondered to myself about how happy I am to be free of the machine. There have been plenty of other times, however, that I have wandered aimlessly about, not knowing what to do with myself and my leisure, and wondering if I made the right decision. If I were to accept this newfound superiority of freedom over happiness as a truism, then I could say unequivocally “yes.” But I am no good at mindlessly adopting new mantras. I have to test them and turn them over and poke at their bellies and see if they’re ticklish or grumpy or flatulent or most of all if they truly resonate with me in the deep manner that I would expect of a phrase that is to become a personal tenet. So I am in the middle of this process now, and you get to see some of its guts. I would certainly argue that freedom is a precursor to happiness; if you are not free, you must work very hard to maintain any semblance of joy. But I think the real crux of it for me is, “how do I define freedom?” I will grant you that I consider my escape from jobdom to be a very liberating experience, but that in itself is not freedom. Freedom comes from beyond our external circumstances. Or perhaps it comes from a place before them. Even though I am free to do what I wish with most of my time now, I am still bound by monetary constraints. And the life I have chosen does not lend itself well, despite all my eBay research, to making piles of cash. Yet, like the early philosophers who, once a society was in place to help them meet all their basic needs, were suddenly able to turn their minds to higher pursuits, I am gradually finding the time to mull over this whole money vs. freedom thing, and finding it to not be what it first appears. Sure, there are people who manage to travel all over the world without having a steady income stream of any kind, and though I respect them, that is not what I am referring to. Mostly, I just think that freedom is somewhere inside of you. That it’s a state of mind, not a state of body. Does that mean that I was barking up the wrong tree when I quit my job? Not at all. Thank goodness! I definitely believe that different people must find freedom via different routes. That was just part of my route. The larger, part, however, is still ongoing. To be free, I must first realise that it is a state I already have within myself. Then...the hard part...I must begin to act on it. I do this. In fits and starts, stumbles and backward slides...I'm getting there, but it's a long road. When I make it, I'll let you know ;)
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