For now I’m just celebrating a little.  It’s Done!  I can spare a litle time for celebration today.  This weekend the edits come back in.  From there work continues.

I’ll get back here with something more useful tomorrow.

Peace.  I’m out.

Maybe it’s the fear that once this thing is done, no one will find it of value.  I’ve poured just about everything I know about blogging into the pages of that manuscript.  If it flops, is that really a reflection on what I’ve written, or is it just that the market is saturated with other books making inane promises that I refuse to make?  After all, I don’t promise I can make you rich, just that if you follow along you’ll be able to boost your traffic.  It’s a fact.  I use these methods and they work.

Whatever it is that’s keeping me from jut writing those last few words, it’s got me frustrated.  I mean honestly! I write every day for a living, what’s so difficult about this?  It should be the same-old same -old thing that I do every day but it’s not for some reason.

Have you ever had this problem?  If so, what did you do to get through the last push?  I’d love to hear about it, because If I don’t get this thing finished I’m going to go insane.  Really.

Help me out here guys, will ya?

Two days wasted.  Beware the non-humans.  They aren’t going to take the earth by force.   If they are intelligent they will make a game as addictive as Resistance or Guitar Hero and the next thing you know, even John Scalzi won’t be posting any more. (This would be a terrible thing, mind you.)

For today I’ve unplugged the evil machine, at least for the morning, so that I can get something done that doesn’t involve blowing the hell out of a few non-zombie mutants.

But I want to.  It’s crack for me.  I NEED it.  It’s like a Heroin fix.

Just… One… More.. Clip…

Argh!

Back to work.

Peace.  I’m out.

If you are one of those people, you may consider a regular brick and mortar business as your method of gaining independence.  One of the easiest way to get into the world of owning your own business is through franchising.  A franchise may limit what you are able to do, but it also comes with the security of a known brand, marketing and respect that a new start up business just does not have.

If this sounds good o you and you love people, why not think of working with children, families and weeing parties by opening your very own Partyland franchise in your town?

There is always a need for party supplies.  They are needed for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, you name it.  It’s one business you can be sure will be around for a long time to come.

If you’re a people person and love seeing satisfied looks on the faces of others, this one may just be perfect for you.

Unfortunately, I’m not a structured writer.  I’m what’s known as a “Pantser.”  I don’t outline and I don’t really know where my writing will take me until I get there.  “Done” happens when there’s nothing left to say on a subject, not when a set of bullet points says it’s over. So for today I say I’m on the last chapter.  Edits may prove that this is not quite correct.

At the very least a long journey is coming to a close.  I started this project a long time ago and many things have managed to delay or postpone the early progress I made on the project.  It’s nice to see this phase coming to an end and have the book shipped off to test readers to see if there are any areas that need clarification.

I hope in the end that the project proves useful to people who wan to improve their blogging skills or increase their online revenue through their blogs.  That is, after all, what I’m writing it to accomplish.

For now it’s back to work.  I just wanted to let you all know where the project stood at the moment.

Of course the money keeps rolling out, too.  Hosting fees, rent, utilities, expenses, fuel, food, these things don’t stop needing to be paid.  Neither do my loan payments and my credit card statements.  Each requires my attention monthly, but the current state of the economy hasn’t bounced back enough to make it simple. For a while we just used credit to fund some of the extras, but those days are gone as well, we’re maxed, but still moving.

My wife and I have considered many options, from consolidation loans to credit management over the past few months.  For now we’re hanging on, but if times get slimmer before they get fatter, we may have to take one of these routes to keep ends meeting while we wait for her promotion to go through. (She’s Military.  Ranking up can take some time.)

For now there will be less steak and more hamburger.  Ramen has found it’s way back onto my menu as well, but there is no option to stop trying.  I’ll still make money each and every day and diversify sources until that happens.

And I’m putting the credit cards into forced retirement for a bit.

Of course I unfollow these fools as soon as I realize what’s going on, but it’s still annoying.  The thought that there is no really safe place to be, that these predators of the uninformed will stop at nothing to grab the last dollar of someone who is struggling to make it with their false promises and techno babble just makes me a bit ill. I’ve seen this sort of thing for my entire career in the Internet industry.  They just. Don’t Stop.

If there weren’t people out there gullible enough to buy into these schemes then the morons who propagate them would simply go away.  The irony of it all is that most of the people touting the latest and greatest get rich programs are people that were suckered into a pyramid schemes themselves.  They’re just trying to make back the money they spent on the initial investment.

Most of them never will.

99% of the people who buy into these schemes will never, ever make their money back.  they’ll try for a while to get a few signups and get discouraged before they ever come near what they’ve already spent.

Remember: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Take a look at the site and you can find deals at Tiger Direct, HP Shopping and Best Buy, just to name a few. Each of these stores usually has some pretty amazing deals, so why not sweeten the pot a bit with some extra savings on the laptop you need to keep your business poised on top of your competition?

If you’re less a Redmond guy and more a fan of Cupertino, you can find some great deals at The Apple Store and Mac Mall as well.  If you’re an apple user you know how expensive Apple products and accessories can be, so getting a break on the cost is a god thing indeed.

No matter which way your tastes in computers run.  A sleek new laptop is sure to improve your work flow and help keep you in the know.  It can also greatly help with any downtime you may have. Seriously, what’s better than a good HD movie or playing your favorite video game as quickly as you can on most desktop computers?  Today’s laptops can do it all, so go have a look and save some money in the process.

Even the most fanatic workaholic needs a few good reasons to waste time now and then and I am definitely no exception. The latest in my absolutely nonproductive pursuits is a free online game of conquest and world building sort of like a cross between Civilization® and Sim City® meets Age of Empires®.  It’s a combination that could have fallen flat, but in this case it worked, and I’m hooked.

Evony has all the hallmarks of greatness.  If you’re a strategy game freak like myself, you’ll have a hard time walking away from it once you get started.  There are a lot of things to think about as you go along, with the added worry that you’ll get wiped right off the face of the map if you don’t get it done fast enough.

Game play is pretty basic.  Sign up for a free Evony account, pick a server and start following along with the quests to get your city up and running. (If you’re gunning for me, go for server 67, you’ll find me there as Lord Galen.  My wife is on the same server though, so if you’re feeling like getting frisky I have the most dedicated backup there is!) After a few minutes you should be rolling along pretty well on your way to getting a few awards and free gifts.

Like most massive multi-player games, the world of Evony is packed with players who are far more experienced than you will be when you’re starting out. If you’re a first time player, you’re in luck.  You have a one week period of safety in which to get your city in shape before the hordes of the world at large are allowed to pummel you into the ground. Be prepared to spend a lot of time with Evony on the first day.  You’ll need to get a population going and then get them to work.  Just watch the task window closely and follow along for the first day or two while you get your resources built up.  You’ll need them, trust me.  Don’t worry about trying things on your own at this point unless you’ve played Evony before, jut follow the quests related to resources, wealth and the ability to get more of each.

For the first few days your attention should be on getting your resources as high as possible and your population levels as high as you can manage, but at about day four it’s time to start worrying about your military.  Don’t forget that on day seven (or when you’ve upgraded your town hall to level 5), you’re at the mercy of other players.  You’d better make sure you’ve go a defensive force that will make them think twice about coming after you before they go after someone else or you may just find yourself in a very bad situation quickly.

I would suggest that you save any speed-ups that you get for later in this process when upgrades can take 5 hours or longer to complete. (This is experience talking, people.  I’m currently waiting for an upgrade that won’t be done until late this afternoon and I used up everything I had earlier in the game.) The plus to this is that the time-wasting factor of the game becomes less excessive as the days go on.  Things take longer to upgrade so you can get a few things rolling and then get back to more pressing tasks while you wait for projects to be completed.

So you build up, you prepare, you stockpile and your army is ready.  What happens when your 7 days of safety are gone?  Do you get owned or do you stand tall as the master of your domain?  Only you can answer that question.  In the end your strategies and alliances will determine whether you stand or fall.  That’s the beauty of a game like this.

Go sign up for an Evony account and see if you’ve got what it takes to be a king in the realms of Evony.  While you’re at it, send me a “hello”.  I’d love to see you there.

You can probably tell from that last statement that I'm not a huge fan of satellite radio, and I'm not.  Not only are the selections they play generally generic, but there's no local news, road condition information or alerts/  you don't even get some cool local DJ to love or hate. The only plus to satellite radio until now has been the quality vs. traditional broadcast radio.  This is no longer the case; HD radio stations broadcast in digital music quality just like satellite radio, but on a much more personal level.

Local radio stations are now broadcasting in high-quality digital audio, this kills the issue of quality, but there are other perks as well.  If you own the right HD Radio tuner, like the JVC KD-HDR20, you can also get a list of songs to download to your iPod with the click of a button from anywhere at any time.  No gimmics, no loging on to a website.  No having to remember the name of the song or band you were listening to.

This is called Song Tagging or iTunes Tagging . When you hear a song you like on the radio (assuming it's got an iPod port), just press the "tag" button to automatically add that song to a playlist called "tagged".  When you get back to your computer you can easily jump over to the iTunes store and grab a copy of the new songs you like and buy them when you're ready. Just tag it and get it later.  Simple!

I know a lot of my readers are serious about their iPods and iPhones, so I thought I'd share.  Hopefully most of you will find this as interesting as I do.

At least I hope so...