Spacecitycon 2013

August 3, 2013 10:18 PM , Leave a Comment ,

I have looked forward to this for the last couple of months.  I had four major events this planned for this Summer.  Since the trip to the San Diego Comicon fell through this became the highlight of the season.

By far not the biggest convention out there.  Even our own local Comicpalooza convention in March is bigger but I was shocked by the growth this year.  They hired out the Westchade Marriott hotel in west Houston as the venue and already it is overflowing.

I arrived at 2 P.M. just after work and thought parking would be a breeze since most folk would be at work.  Ha!  I spent forty minutes driving round and round looking for parking till I finally had to park far out in the street.  Inside it was worse.  A long circuitous line wrapped round the lobby to get tickets.  Took me another forty-five minutes for a simple 3 day pass.  Walking was almost impossible and this was only day one.  Who knows how it will be during the main day!

Once past these onerous tasks I settled into my convention tasks.  I took a couple of loops round the artist alley and the dealer’s room.  Saw some old friends and acquaintances that I see all the time at these events.  They mostly travel the local convention circuit but some go around the nation doing these things.

I skimmed all the dealer booths to see what would be worth a return visit or three.  I never buy the first day of the convention.  Hate carrying stuff around and you never know what you might see that you like later.

I had some time to kill and took in the autograph booths.  Mostly minor celebrities.  Some recent and some from my childhood.  They had varying expressions on their faces ranging from being bored at sitting around for the locals to gawk at, to nervous excitement at meeting people.  Some chatted amicably with their fans for a good long time, others just scrawled a name on a picture or memento and sent the fan on after receiving the money.

I took in a sing along performance at the end of the first day.  You truly get a sense of camaraderie when you sit in a room packed with strangers and do silly things and sing silly songs.

I spent most of the second day at the convention.  Began with Tracy and Laura Hickman’s killer breakfast.  Essentially an en masse Dungeons and dragons game where the Hickmans invent the most amusing way to kill you and humiliate you in front of everyone assembled.

After that something a bit more serious.  Some writer’s workshops reflecting on building the backdrop to stories and how to edit and proofread your works.  Some really good ideas there.  More importantly for me some things to reflect on as I go through my pieces.

A book reading by a few authors there.  Very compelling writing,

The final event was a fan made star wars movie.  Stood in line for 45 minutes but it was so worth it.

Took my final turn round the dealer’s room and bought a couple minor items and took a last look round.  All the people in costumes, the kids running round, the adults acting like kids, people really get into these things.  And then there’s me.  As always I feel slightly apart from it all.  I still do yet here I feel more comfortable, I enjoy all the silly events, the costumes, the throngs of people, all the confusion.

I know that it’s all just pop culture nonsense and it’s not educational or improving me in any way but there’s more to life than those things.  Stop some time, look around and you may notice that life is happening and passing you by.

 

 

 

Posted in: conventions, Houston, life in general, pop culture

My online presence

July 31, 2013 6:20 PM , Leave a Comment ,

Have you ever Googled your name?  Or used Bing or Yahoo! to search for them?  (Note I refuse to use Bing and Yahoo! as verbs.)

I have been going over my online presence and it has blossomed in the last few years.  From about 36 unique results back in 2010 to over 800 results in 2013. The results are pretty similar in all the search engines.  Mainly it brings up my Facebook account, this blog, my Twitter handle, my Google+ account (which I pretty much abandoned on the first day of use) and some other random pages where my name pops up on the first few pages.

But a little digging brings up stuff that is more intrusive.  My address, various emails I have had in the past and present, my phone numbers through the years, the value of my house.  Things I don’t necessarily want random strangers to know.  Services do exist to purge some of these records but some things simply will not erase.

No doubt I have to exercise more care online with regards to what I release to the general public.  I already take some steps in this regard.  For instance I heavily restrict my Facebook account (my primary social network) to friends only.  On secondary service accounts such as Photobucket I use pseudonyms as much as I can and again I use the privacy controls as best as possible.

So why police your online presence?  Several types of people benefit from what you put out there.  Let’s go from least to most dangerous and just for argument’s sake let’s say I was a neophyte user that loves to fill out online forms, never uses privacy options, and “likes” or “favorites” everything he sees.  Let’s call this user neo-bill

Marketers

The internet is such a blessing to people in advertising and marketing.  So much chewy and yummy data out there.  What can we learn about neo-bill?

Running some cursory checks we can learn his age range, we can learn his height and weight, his ethnicity, his food and drink preferences, what he thinks is a good song, his income bracket, and education level.  We can entice him with 10% coupons to fill out forms, free demo songs to try out products.  We can draw him in to fill out credit applications for “free items” and learn his phone number, address, his social security number and then learn about his credit score.  In short we can build up a complete preferences library of this individual.  You can then catalog and tag this specimen and follow him through his life and see how his preferences change.

Human Resource managers

it’s a picnic for these folks too.  Everything that is readily available is out there for them to see.  In some cases even stuff not readily available.  Some HR people are demanding access to your online accounts to see what you like or post.  If you want that job, you have to give up your privacy.

Criminals

Well I mentioned credit applications above.  Criminals don’t even need to use trickery.  Over the last few years there have been major data breaches at well-respected credit card and store card companies that store private information.  Thefts have included not only account numbers but personal information of users that would allow thieves to set up secondary accounts.  The only real defense against this is the anonymity of the herd.  You’re only safe because there are so many of you out there to choose from that the wolves haven’t gotten to you yet.

Aide from this you get the older style con jobs like infecting your computer and then extorting a small amount of money to release your computer.  You have the ancient but puzzlingly still effective “Nigerian prince” scams that target older computer users.

Lastly you have worm programs that turn your computer into a zombie being directed by someone else to do their bidding and commit crimes.

The government

When I started out on the net nearly 25 years ago it was an empty an open void.  The presence of the government was almost unknown at the time and pretty much everyone had an “anything goes” attitude.

Slowly over time we have sanitized and cleaned up the net and those of us that complained about privacy issues or overregulation were shouted down or ridiculed as paranoids.  Then 9/11 hit and all the arguments were shelved in favor of security concerns.

Monitoring of everything you say or post on the net is here to stay.  Massive facilities around the world (including the US) now record for all time everything you put in the net.  Including those private emails. texts. etc, etc.

For most folks it doesn’t mean much.  They see it as the price to pay for fighting terrorists.  From my perspective I find it incredible that a few thousand terrorists can force the major governments of the world to hold their own populations hostage just to keep them safe.  What is more incredible is that almost nobody cares about the potential abuse of power.

So what can we do?  Live off the net?  Hardly possible for those of us in the information and service industry.  All I can do for now is limit what I release into the public sphere, watch and edit what I do release, make myself as small a target as possible, and hope for the day I can retire and get myself off the digital world.  I have to remind myself that I once lived off the net for a good long time.  It’s still possible my friends, it’s still possible.

Posted in: internet

Energy and stamina

July 29, 2013 8:32 PM , Leave a Comment ,

For the longest time I felt dull and listless.  I imagined that this was the way that life worked.  You grew older and you ran down on energy. The thing is that I so readily accepted this because it was so easy to slip into that mindset.  The vicious circle was that I would eat junk food which sapped my energy, which made me want to do nothing, which made me somewhat depressed which made me want to eat.

Took a lot to break that cycle.  Took even more to keep it broken.  Those first few weeks…  Coming home after just half an hour of walking at night, bathed in sweat, achy, tired.  But you have to commit and you can’t expect instant or even near instant results.

For weeks I kept going out, I researched and researched health and fitness and my eating habits on the net.  I learned that a healthy person takes about 10000 steps a day and a fit person about 12500.  I bought a cheap little pedometer and found that I took about 2500 steps a day.  Some figuring and measuring and I determined I had to do at least 5 miles a day to be healthy or 6 and a half miles a day to be fit, so those became my initial targets.  Walk in the morning, in the afternoon, and night.  Add it all up and come up with my targets.  Later I would do that in one go but that took a long time.

Eating came next and in many ways it was tougher.  I read up on what minimum amount of calories I needed a day and came out with 1800 to 2000 per day.  I was around 3500 to 4000 a day.  An immediate cut in my calories.  I tried to negotiate with myself as to junk food.  I got the health guides from the restaurants and tried to come up with 1800 calorie menus but the thing is that those health guides may be right about the calories but it’s calories with a lot of starch, a lot of sugars, a lot of fats.  Three of the toughest things to burn off.  I had to get myself away from these things and that was a long, long battle.  In some ways it continues to this day.

The thing is that you don’t really see a result.  You can try to go the weight scale route and get super happy when you lose five pounds and depressed again when you gain back three but I put a stop to that early on.  No need to stress my emotions on top of everything.

My scale of success was how I was able to increase my daily mileage over time.  How I one day just broke out and began running, how I stopped coming home out of breath and feeling half dead and started coming home more relaxed and energetic.

I never got that magic moment when I could proclaim “you’re healthy!”  I have started getting those looser clothing moments, I have begun to see some definition in the bulges, and a lift in my mood, but I doubt that I will ever be able to say  that “I’ve made it”

Posted in: health, life in general

The rationalists

July 28, 2013 8:41 AM , Leave a Comment ,

 [Author’s note] – This is a story shard that has bounced round my head for a while and has demanded to be released.  It is a take off on Brave new world and explores and expands on the idea of a world state.  I may expand this idea further in future posts.

 

The state determined all aspects of life and the people accepted it as they were rational. and to be against the state was irrational.  Those few irrational souls that could not accept the state’s wisdom would be banished to the inhospitable zones of the world.

One of the first things that the rational revolution had done was to centralize the world’s populations into easily controlled and managed urban centers.  This notion that one could settle anywhere they pleased was thoroughly quashed.  Those living in deserts, jungles, arctic, or remote areas were forcibly removed and relocated for their good and that of the world state.  Mechanization had reduced the Farm workforce by 90% and most of those were also relocated to the cities.  With people all centralized in urban areas the state could more easily watch and direct them.  Travel between the Megacities was strictly regulated and limited to official state business.

Everything was state business.  Private entrepreneurship was no longer tolerated as it was considered a speculative and anti-state activity.  Sure entrepreneurs could succeed wildly but they could also fail miserably and this would place burdens on the state.  Brand names and private businesses no longer existed.  Advertising and marketing no longer mattered.  Everything, even the people were state property.  So how could there be competition against the state?

When you were born you were assigned your net name and I.D.  Your life depended on that I.D.  Your food ration was tied to it, your online presence was defined by it and your job would be assigned to it once you reached a useful working age.

The rationalists had long determined that overpopulation would be their biggest and most uncontrolled problem.  Oversized populations unable to feed themselves could turn ugly and easily get out of hand.

The only rational solution was mass sterilization at birth.  The initial riots in the early history of the rational state were of course unfortunate but through vigorous re-education most of the population eventually accepted this course of action.  In time it became an accepted practice.

The problem of making more humans was solved by the invention of artificial invitro chambers.  The state could now control the type of person being made for the good of the state.  An individual was now spared the anxiety of worrying about their future career and interests.  These were now predetermined and assigned before you were born.  The neo-serf was happy and content in his new life.  It had now been over 400 years since the last ‘wild’ human had been born and the state now enjoyed the benefits of a predictable population curve.  The population had finally settled on a sustainable 1 billion persons.

Part of that predictability was the need of keeping the food supply available and universal.  The consumption of flesh and by products from those animals had long since ended.  Cows and chickens had in fact become extinct.

All foods was now plant-based or chemically produced.  The diet consisted now of a porridge made primarily from wheat (people with wheat allergies no longer existed).  To this porridge were added various minerals and vitamins necessary to keep up good health.  In parts of the world with different climates a similar porridge was made from rice.  All porridge was chemically altered to taste the same so there would be no jealousy or desire for something different.  The only drink available was water.  Things like coffee or tea were eradicated along with mood altering chemicals as being against the common good of the state.

Clothing was also regulated.  The basic uniform was a plain taupe colored pair of pants and shirt made from plant and artificial fiber.  Different colors were seen as an unnecessary and dangerous luxury that might overexcite a person.  Some differences were allowed for people who lived in cooler or warmer climates but the same idea was applied.

Entertainment is provided by educational texts and videos.  Things like plays, songs, movies, or stories all had been destroyed in the great reorganization of civilization when the rational regime had first been set up.  At first a thriving black market had existed in bootleg entertainment videos and texts but through vigorous effort it had been eventually rooted out.  The generations to come never knew these corrosive influences and never had a yearning for any of it.

Despite all the care taken some uncategorized individuals do still seem to make it past the genetic scanners and social screeners.  These individuals are banished into special quarantine zones in the less hospitable parts of the world.  As they are born sterile they will not reproduce in the wild and are left to fend for themselves.  Most die off in the first six months of exile.

Posted in: short story

Quality vs. Luxury

July 26, 2013 9:49 PM , Leave a Comment ,

I have previously posted my thoughts on quality vs. quantity.  This is a continuation of that train of thought but focused more towards the other side of the spectrum.

While I disdain luxury I do recognize that some higher level items are built and designed better than common things.  Some of these things I don’t disparage.

Computers for example.  Pretty central to my life.  How sad is that?  It’s pretty much essential for my work and a good portion of life now revolves around leveraging the resources that the internet provides to make my life better.  While it’s easy and tempting to get the cheapest machine possible, I have to keep some things in mind.  I want to get the longest service life possible out of this machine.  Getting a clearance priced machine on its way out is cheating myself out of that service life.  Also back in the day when I used to game I needed a pretty up to date machine to keep up with the graphics.  I don’t splurge on unnecessary things such as surround sound or 27 inch monitors but I do get good graphics and processing speed.  These are key to making sure my computer will be with me a long time.

Cars are another thing I feel strongly about.  I took six months to research my last purchase.  Very possible that in the beginning of the year I will begin a search for a new car.  But let’s wait and see on that.  I road-tested various models from PT Cruisers to Mercedes before settling on the Dodge Charger.  Now, The Mercedes C class sports sedan is a very fine automobile.  Technically there is nothing wrong with it.  The couple of times that I have driven one I have found them to be excellent.  But the thing is, how much am I paying for quality and how much am I paying for a name?  In the end I felt I could get the quality that I was looking for in a cheaper direction.

Even food has entered the equation.  My fit foods has recently opened up in my neighborhood.  This is high-end nutrition with a focus on getting healthy and keeping healthy.  At first I balked at the price; anywhere from $5 to $8 per meal.  But then consider that this easily falls in line with the price of junk food meals out there.  I am getting food that is good for me, that is prepared and ready to heat and eat, that takes calories into account, and most importantly it tastes good.  I don’t have to cook all the time and I don’t have to resort to fast food if I find myself in a time crunch situation.

Things like Rolex watches, name brand suits or shoes, or jewelry I don’t see the point in those.  Things like high quality smartphones, tablets, cars, and foods I do find to be worth my while.  I don’t see these as useless luxuries but things that add value to my life.

 

Posted in: Automobiles, food and drink, life in general, technology

The listener

July 25, 2013 8:47 PM , Leave a Comment ,

I have always been the listener in the relationship.  No matter what the relationship is.  I am always open to listen to the other person no matter what their problem is or who they are.  I have listened to my parents concerns, my friend’s fears, my (back then) S.O.’s hopes, and a stranger’s lament.

Why they open up to me I don’t know.  Maybe it’s because I don’t mind and never judge.  It’s one thing to keep a thought locked up in your mind, even talking to yourself lacks something.  But telling that thought to someone else.  That’s some sort of release for them, or maybe a balm.

Sometimes the relief is so palpable that I can see them visibly relax, the tension draining from their frame.  They can go about their lives or they can then make a decision that was till then stalled in their mind.  They don’t necessarily want me to say anything or make up their mind for them.  They just want to bounce those thoughts off another living person.

I don’t speak much but I do pay attention.  I sit forward and keep them in the center of my gaze.  They feel safe and the center of attention and that’s really all that they want.  They know I won’t interrupt them and steer the topic away from something that they don’t want to discuss.

Sometimes they share everyday concerns and sometimes they share darker problems.  That’s when I feel like Dante walking through hell and having all the lost souls confess the sins that brought them there.  Sometimes it’s hard but I don’t judge.  They put their faith in me.  They have opened up to me and need me to act as a sounding board and nothing more.  it is a rare honor that they bestow upon me and I don’t take it lightly.

Posted in: life in general

Faith

July 23, 2013 7:58 PM , Leave a Comment ,

My faith is a private matter and I rarely discuss it.  I do not feel bound to share or force my religious views on others.  I am no proselytizer.  I would probably drive away more people than I would convert and there are people far better suited in temperament and persuasive powers to fill that role so I leave that to them.

As with most folks I came to my set of beliefs through my family.  My father is a Presbyterian, although he himself would admit not the best one and I’ve yet to see him attend a single service at any Presbyterian church.  My mother is Catholic and devout.  She wanted all her kids baptized but that’s as far as she pressed it.  In her opinion a person’s faith was their own to develop as they saw fit.  I suppose I inherited that viewpoint as well.

I keep my faith quiet as it is an internal matter and does not need the input of others to work.  I see it as a source of comfort and strength during hard times.  I don’t mean hard as in work sucks or my significant other is cheating on me or any of life’s little dramas.  I mean those times when nothing and I mean nothing is going right.  When the walls of your world are falling down around you and even those precepts that are the foundation of your life seem in doubt.  Rather than testing my faith I find those times strengthen my faith.  Delusional, right?

That’s the thing about faith.  You will never prove it by logic, you can’t point to it and say here it is.  No facts, no figures, and nothing you can pin down.  It’s either there or not.

I do not look down upon those that do not have faith just as I do not look down upon others that have their own beliefs.  I have met many people from different belief systems and have found that their believing or not believing has nothing to do with whether they are good or bad.  I have met atheists that embody the ideals of christian compassion better than some christians I know.  However that doesn’t mean I want to be an atheist.

So do I believe in a creator?  Yes

Do I believe in an afterlife? Yes

Do I believe that there is a point to this life thing and that it’s not all just one incredibly complicated math equation playing itself out to completion over several billion years?  Yes

Am I going to hassle you with pamphlets, ask for donations, or shun you if you don’t believe as I do?  No

Am I ever going to blog about religion ever again?  Probably not

Posted in: religion

DVD list

July 21, 2013 7:32 PM , Leave a Comment ,

[Author’s note] – I am going through several websites and forums that I have posted or written in for the last 20 years and pulling out several posts of some things that I consider better than average or at least worth saving in one place.  This is from April 2010

 

yes I was this bored.

I went through my collection to see what I had and what I could ditch.  and while I was at it I reclassified everything.

movies grouped in categories

 

70s to 90s cult classics

A boy and his dog – a post nuclear apocalypse movie

Repo Man – a surrealist view of car repossession with nothing to do with the Jude Law movie

They Live – A libertarian view of world finance and space aliens

Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man – Fallen Idols back for one last fight

Falling down – a man tries to go home

Network – prophetic movie of mass entertainment 30 years ahead of its time

Soylent Green – a Malthusian nightmare

Logan’s run – Michael York’s finest movie

Andromeda Strain – extremely well made

the 13th Warrior – speculation into the modern human/Neanderthal relationship

westworld – odd mix of westerns and robot movie

Heavy Metal – american cartoon movie epic

 

Dr Who – tom baker only

The talons of Weng Chiang – A Dr Who story set in foggy Victorian London

Genesis of the Daleks A must see for any true whovian

The horror of fang rock – Another Victorian style story

 

Horror

The last man on earth – Vincent price version

omega man – same movie with Charlton Heston

brotherhood of the wolf – surprisingly good french movie

Salem’s lot – the 70s version

The Exorcist – the only really scary movie ever made

Exorcist prequel – not so good

The legend of hell house – best haunted house movie ever

The lost boys – wonderful vampire story

Zodiac – strong movie about serial killer

the nightstalker series – you must love this!

nightstalker/nightstrangler – the made for TV movies for above

Blade II – good vampire hunter movie

 

Comedy

Better off dead – the best John Cusack movie ever

one crazy summer – companion piece to above

grosse pointe blank – the last good movie above made

Mr Blandings builds his dream house – Mirna Loy, the funniest redhead ever

Philadelphia story – sophisticated comedy

Clerks – a classic comedy

Clerks II – dovetails into above

Mallrats – widely panned but good

Jay and silent bob strike back – wraps up viewaskewverse

Arrested Development – seasons one to three, the smartest comedy ever

Mystery science theater 3000, the movie – same as series

MST3K – same as movie

Ed Wood – biopic about worst director ever

1941 – arguably Steven Spielberg’s worst movie but funny

the goonies – 80s cult comedy

Fanboys – movie about fans of star wars

the gumball rally – race across US

Hopscotch – Walter Mathau as a spy

Volunteers – early tom hanks

Joe vs the volcano – the first of the tom hanks/meg Ryan romantic comedies

kung fu hustle – throwback to 70s kung fu movie

the drunken master – jackie chan movie

young Frankenstein – mel brooks horror comedy

animal house – american comedy classic

Jeeves and Wooster, seasons 1 to 4 – PG Wodehouse at his best

the Simpsons movie – it was a Christmas gift : /

the adventures of baron Munchausen – wonderful movie

yellowbeard – graham Chapman’s last movie

groundhog day – a comedy but also existential in nature

raising Arizona – best Coen brothers movie

office space – relates to me

 

 

Action/Drama

treasure of the sierra madre – complex character driven story

the Shootist – this is the film John Wayne should have won an Oscar for

the outlaw Josey Wales – vengeance ride

Henry V – Kenneth Branaugh gives an over the top performance

the crossing – made for tv movie surprisingly good

the good earth – pearl buck story set in china

gladiator – I like it for the first 15 minutes of the movie that’s all

master and commander – great sea story

a midsummer’s nights dream – similar to henry V but more comical

Charlie Wilson’s war – tom hanks semi action movie

Elmer Gantry – movie about revivalist movement

inherit the wind – scopes monkey trial

lord of the ring; return of the king – I am sick of this movie now

Dogs of War – the novel is better

Enemy at the gates – Jude laws last good movie

Excalibur – shiny knights

 

Sci Fi

Star Wars episodes 4 to 6 – the only star wars movies

Buckaroo Banzai and the 8th dimension – classic sci-fi of the 80s

Battlestar galactica – the miniseries 2000 era

Dune – the 1984 version

Serenity – the best sci-fi movie in a long time

 

edutainment

Myth and legend – tv documentary on myths

the power of myth – collection of interviews with Joseph Campbell

 

last but not least, guilty pleasures.  movies I shouldn’t like but I do, at least some parts

 

sky captain and the world of tomorrow – eye candy

Hudson hawk – I don’t understand why people don’t like this movie

cross of iron – a sam peckingpah movie about the russian front

revolution – Al Pacino as a revolutionary war hero

ford fairlane – Andrew dice clay; nuff said

Scary movie – spoof of horror movies

Gods & Generals and Gettysburg – civil war movies

 

 

Posted in: Uncategorized

Perspective

July 21, 2013 9:09 AM , Leave a Comment ,

Funny old thing, life.

Consider those moments of extreme stress or joy in your situation versus the situation at large and you’ll see what I mean.

You might live in a nice upscale neighborhood, pour yourself a glass of fresh juice, turn the AC up since it’s going to be a hot day, meet loved ones for brunch.  Yet a few miles away a single mom with five kids looks at her light bill for the fifth time and knows she doesn’t have enough to keep the electric company from turning off her lights the next day.

When you go through some stressful situation or when you’re sick that while you feel miserable out in the world someone is kissing on a moonlit bridge over some river.  elsewhere a young person gets their first car or another person discovers their gift for playing music.  During your moment of personal hell the world keeps going.

Conversely during those moments of joy when things seem to be going so right for you that elsewhere someone hasn’t eaten for days and probably wont tonight.  A family watches helplessly as a loved one slowly slips deeper into illness and slowly dies.  During your moment of bliss the world keeps going,

In some far off land two peoples that have been enemies for untold centuries plan the next round of atrocities that they will commit upon each other.  Nothing has changed and nothing will change in their lifetimes.  In some other land several different peoples plan and gather to celebrate their cultures and exchange ideas.  The mixing of ideas and cultures brings about profound changes and creates a new culture.

Sitting quietly by observing it all, the trees add one more layer of bark, mountains erode a quarter of a millimeter, continents creep along their paths set eons ago, a mass of molten hot rock churns and spins deep inside the planet.  Another thousand or so tons of hydrogen converts to helium in the blink of an eye deep inside the sun.  None of them pay any mind to the little monkeys.

Posted in: life in general

Retirement

July 19, 2013 5:58 PM , Leave a Comment ,

 

This topic used to be not just somewhat but totally ignored by me.  Now though it’s becoming more and more tangible.  Still a ways away but something to think on.

So we have to go back to the ancient eighties and my youth.  Like probably 99% of kids anywhere I had no retirement plan in place.  Unlike most kids though I was certain that I wouldn’t need one.  I had this overly developed sense of doom about the world’s prospects in the future.  Nuclear armageddon at the very least, end times and judgment day or something like that at most.

For a more serious perspective though I had to look to my role model, my father.  Already in his sixties back then he had no retirement plan at all.  Living by the mantra of “work till I drop so why plan on retirement?”.  All very romantic I suppose, but he never stopped to consider that maybe a third alternative existed.  One in which you get crippled up in life and you need to have a retirement plan in place.  Fortunately for him and my mother, they are well off and comfortable and don’t have to worry.

I on the other hand ran around like an idiot for the first decade after college spouting this drivel about “working till i die” and not planning at all.  I even ran around without health insurance for a time and just got lucky I didn’t suffer more.

Then I got a root canal.

Nothing deflates that sense of invincibility like having to sit in a chair for an hour while a doctor does something unspeakable to your teeth with items found at your local hardware store.  Actually the procedure was fairly pain free.  The $1500 bill afterwards was not.

Then maybe it starts to dawn on you that you might not last forever.  Maybe you need to put aside something for the future or that maybe you don’t really want to be doing the same thing over and over again till you do drop dead.  So then I start looking at my financial situation and start to get educated about what i will need and how I’m going to get it.  Shocking what life costs, specially in the future.

What that experience did do (financially anyways) was make me realize that I had to mend my ways and play serious catch up with where I should be.  My physical reform would still take years but it is happily now underway.

So here we are now.  I’ve played out various scenarios over the years and I warm to one or the other from time to time.  Some of the more popular ones:

  • Part time professor in some small college in a western state where the teaching load isn’t too bad and I have plenty of time to write a book or three
  • Some sort of farmer or rancher, possibly overseas like in Australia or New Zealand raising….things
  • Self imposed exile in some european city with some museums and cafes and plazas where old people gather to play chess and talk politics or whatever
  • Volunteer work in East Africa.  Helping dig wells, teaching kids.  Seeing if I do have something worth sharing with others.

Still plenty of time to think it over.

 

Posted in: life in general