the cursed job

I'm starting to believe that trying to be a web designer in a small town was a mistake. It is turning into one of those jobs that an individual only accepts if he is inclined to minor fits of masochism. If I lived in Colorado, I wouldn't pursue a job as a weather man; it can be warm and sunny one day and freezing cold the next - in May. When it comes to delivery truck drivers and movers New York would not be my ideal location. If the taxi cab drivers don't kill you, the bike messengers will. And I wouldn't service Volvo's in Detroit.

Being a graphic designer in a small town is the same way. The environment just isn't optimal. For one thing, our industry revolves around cutting edge developments - the latest design and usability techniques, internet fads like Web 2.0 and social networking, and lots of hours of programming. Here, most of the websites look like they're stuck in 1996. Gray backgrounds, standard black "Times" text, grainy GIFs from really old MS Office clipart discs - you get the idea. Initially, you might see this as a good thing. After all, what an opportunity to enrich the internet presence of these businesses, right? Unfortunately, that type of optimism falls flat when you realize that they don't want to pay more than $10 to $15 an hour for your work. Or, even worse, they want you to do it gratis and they'll pay you when the site brings in more profit for them. If only my utility, mortgage and credit card companies accepted IOU's, I might be down with that idea. Others want to barter services, but I need tourism-based amenities about as much as I need tourists.

Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm just not a good enough salesman. After all, isn't it my job to convince them that the new website that I will create for them will be the bee's knees? Perhaps, but it won't last. It will be good for two or three years - tops - and then I'll be knocking on their door once more to try and explain why their site needs to be updated yet again. Plus, I have to convince them to go with me, rather than so-and-so's teenage son, who knows a thing or two about Myspace, World of Warcraft, and Macs.

So maybe I need to find a new line of work. I've been feeling disillusioned by the web design industry for some time now, anyways. I could always try to concentrate my efforts on non-local design jobs, but then I'm competing with big names in cities like Los Angeles or New York. Plus, that might feel like sacrilege for me since I moved to a small town to get away from that type of big city corporate competition in the first place. So let this be a tidbit of advice for all the hopeful home-in-the-country-while-designing-the-web types out there: Don't. Unless you can live on IOU's.

spammers top the list of creative email marketers

When it comes to new approaches at email marketing, let's face it...
Spammers take the cake. Hands down - no question.

From no other company will I received unique rainbow colored, word ciphered messages with letters replaced by numbers and - S P A C E D - out product descriptions (to thwart email spam filters). While it is frustrating to wade through at times (to say the least), from a visual perspective I have to admit that it is somewhat creative. I also find the dummy text (lorem ipsum, anyone?) that they sometimes include to be absolutely bizarre. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I appreciate receiving email after email about overnight college degrees, penis enlargement, Viagra, faux Rolex watches, or Hydroxycut. I'm just saying that I find it interesting that spammers are the only companies to use these silly visual techniques to try and rope in customers.

And who is clicking on these emails? Who in their right mind would assume that it is safe to follow a link on an email that replaces the letter "e" with the number "3"? Therein lies the answer as to why regular companies don't use these same marketing techniques in their valid email campaigns - if it looks like spam, even if it isn't, it will probably get ignored. Some of these scams even try to address the receiver by name, as in: "John, I just had to share this breakthrough product with you!" I suppose that if they are sending out several million of these emails at a time, there's a chance that some of the recipients will be named John, right?

These types of emails must be working for someone, at least for a minute fraction of the time. Otherwise, wouldn't we see an end to them? Or has spam become the new B2B joke, where successful profiteers create landing pages and late night paid-for-TV programs to convince others that they can make a killing in the email marketing business by buying an e-book, lists of email addresses, or mailing software from a certain self-proclaimed industry "expert" (who never made any money himself, but is now rich because he can convince you that he has)?

disney versus branson

Last month, we took the kids to Disney World in Florida. We hadn't had a family vacation in several years, and my parents had offered to pay for part of the bill. Although we had a good time and the kids enjoyed visiting with their grandparents in such an exciting atmosphere, I walked away feeling a bit let down. Our last trip to Disney World was three years ago, and even though we enjoyed ourselves during that visit, we were in no hurry to return. Disney Word is expensive, and this stay only reinforced our feelings that all they care about is the cash anymore. For the price that the vacation ended up costing all of us, we could easily have booked a trip to Europe. And while Disney has few comparisons, there are other amusement parks where you can have just as much fun for a lot less cash, especially when you realize the real source of the fun - being with your family.

One local amusement park alternative for us is Silver Dollar City in Branson Missouri, which is about an hour away from us. Branson is quickly becoming the non-coastal entertainment capital of the United States. It is almost like a family-friendly Las Vegas, minus the gambling and the need for an alibi while you're there. Best of all, they've got a little something for everyone. We were a bit turned off by the town at first, assuming that all Branson had to offer revolved around country music and nostalgic celebrity impersonators, but we soon discovered other attractions like the Butterfly Pavilion, Acrobats of China and the infamous "Ripley's Believe it or Not" Museum.

Silver Dollar City reminds me of another park we had visited once before called Dollywood. SDC has an Ozark hillfolk theme, though. In addition to the rides, there are Ozark craftsmen and women peddling their wares, and a real underground cave tour. As a testament to the park's attractions that don't revolve around thrill-rides, you should see how many people pay the entrance fee, knowing that they aren't going to ride any of the rides.

Unlike Disney World, Silver Dollar City is set into the hills, and walking can be a little strenuous here and there. Some of the hills are steep, and tend to get crowded during peak seasons. It's confusing in places and difficult to navigate without a park map. The best thing you can do is to not try to rush through it. We had purchased season passes the first year we were living here, so that we could visit often and not feel guilty about staying for only a few hours at a time. This beats paying for daily admission several times during the year, and feeling the need to drag the kids around for the entire day to get our money's worth. Like any theme park, the food is overpriced, but thanks to the Ozark theme, it isn't your typical fare. Instead, you can get lots of grilled meat dishes and BBQ favorites.

Our absolute favorite ride in SDC has to be the rollercoaster called "Powder Keg". Instead of taking you up a large incline and dropping the coaster to get started, this one actually shoots you from 0 to 53 miles per hour in less than 3 seconds! We rode a similar coaster in Disney's Hollywood Studios that was themed around the band Aerosmith, but it wasn't as much fun. If you've never ridden a coaster that launches you onto the track instead of dropping you down a hill, I highly recommend it. Even my six-year-old couldn't get enough.

So after a rather disappointing (and expensive) visit to Disney World, we're considering picking up season tickets again to Silver Dollar City, and to save our cash for a few weekend trips to Branson this year. Although I'd never want to live there (too busy for me), I'm glad that we are only an hour away from Branson, so that we can let loose and have some fun without maxing out my credit card every time.

living simple, not poor

I was chatting with my mother on the phone the other day, and she was asking me how my business was going, and if we still liked our new hometown. I told her yes, but in truth I've been a little bummed out lately. Mostly about my work. I'm getting frustrated with the internet, which is a bad position for a web designer to be in. I'm just not as excited as I used to be about the web. I used to be one of those guys who stayed on top of every new technology and all of the latest software. Now that I have a family (and a life), who has time? It's not just a matter of time, either. I'm just not interested in most of what is happening on the web these days. Perhaps I'm becoming even more of a luddite.

But this approach works for me. I like to live my life simply. I don't blow cash on the latest technological gadgets anymore, and I enjoy trying to survive on as little cash each month as I can. I sometimes think I enjoy saving money more than spending it, which is a very powerful position to be in.

But my parents will never understand. They're too wrapped up in whatever their television tells them to buy. And they can't understand why we're not. Not having television obviously helps, but they see the way that my sister and her husband live and can't understand why we don't want to live like that. Why don't we want a huge house with tons of extra space? Why don't we want a new car every other year? Why don't I want a "crotch-rocket" motorbike? Why don't I also want to have my own media room complete with wet bar, plasma TV and custom beer pong table?

The truth is that none of that stuff makes me happy anymore. I've been there and done that. I lived in a half million dollar home and it didn't make me any happier than I am today - in fact, less. I drove an expensive sport sedan with all the bells and whistles and required premium gas for its high-horsepower engine, and it was no better than the aging minivan I drive now. It didn't take me long to realize that none of that stuff matters in the grand scheme of things. I've got my family time, and that's number one on my priority list. Any money that I blow on techno "toys" is money that could be better spent on the kids - or even the house. Sure, our peers think we're a little behind-the-times since we don't carry a cellphone or ipod, but I can live with that. I just hope that my kids can, too. I know that at some point, it's going to be hard on them. Schoolchildren can be downright nasty at times.

In the end, I had to explain that we don't see this as living poor, but as living simply. It's not as though I couldn't return to that high-dollar lifestyle if I wanted to. The corporations and jobs haven't disappeared - just the allure of their employment and all that it entails.

a place of houses

In the past, I've ranted and raved about the morons who built my home - the layout that makes little sense, the electrical wiring nightmares, etc. I'm feeling a little better today, though. For some time now, my wife and I have been toying around with the idea of building a house of our own, but the cost of land here in town is prohibitive. This hasn't deterred me, however, from reading some books on home design and I recently read one that actually has me inspired to fix up the home that we in now. The book was called "A Place of Houses" by Charles Moore, et.al. It's not that great of a read, really, as I find that it focuses a little too much on their own "modern" designs ad nauseum. It has some good information, but grandstands a bit too much for my taste. It is only worth reading, in my opinion, for some of the architectural theories embedded within.

One chapter includes a checklist for designing your home that I found to be very unique and pretty useful. Instead of focusing on which rooms you want and how big you want them to be, it addresses your needs based more on your lifestyle and the collective use of the family. There are also sections about rearranging existing rooms to breathe life into them, which will come in handy for us, since it doesn't look like we'll be moving anytime soon.

We had already started the obvious home improvement projects that many homeowners do once moving into a new house - adding new fixtures and painting. It has gone relatively smooth thus far, although I've had some problems with the discount bathroom fixtures that I have purchased online. (For example, I have a toilet paper holder that won't stay on the wall bracket, due to stripped tightening screw. The seller sent me a new one, but he sent me the wrong side. So I can either install it upside down with the screw facing upwards, or contact him yet again for a replacement. That's the problem with online orders.)

We've also been trying to rearrange some furniture, which seems to be helping us to feel a little more at home. The first step was to rearrange the living room so that traffic doesn't flow through the center. Instead, the sofa, loveseat, and armoire form their own little pocket of space, with the path to the bathroom and master bedroom running along the side of it. It makes a HUGE difference in the way that the room is perceived, and I find that we are spending more time there comfortably than before. It just feels cozier. We've got a new sofa on order that should help, too.

I also managed to take an old cabinet that I had removed from the kitchen when we first moved in and cut it down to about 6" deep. It now serves as a spice rack that matches the rest of cabinetry perfectly, hanging on the wall nearly within arm's reach of the stove.

Our next big project is to add a built-in dining area at the edge of the kitchen (by rearranging some floor cabinets), and turn the formal dining area into a reading room, anchored by a fancy new electric fireplace and hardwood mantel. The resulting kitchen will be a little smaller, but right now it is full of useless space. I have no idea why they designed it the way that they did. It's as if there was an extra set of cabinets, an island, or an appliance near the center that no longer exists. I don't know why else they would have left such a large space in the center. The new reading area will be perfect for those times when the kids want to watch movies in the living room, and we want to be close enough to keep an eye on them, but separated so that we can also carry on a conversation of our own, or get lost in a good book.

So, we're actually quite excited about our current home, or rather, its potential.

are you a rearranger?

Ever since I was a kid, I used to enjoy rearranging my furniture every so often. I didn't necessarily feel the need to do so because the previous configuration felt awkward or uncomfortable in any way. I just had a craving for change. As I grew older and had a place of my own, this same desire for change had me moving my family all around the country in search of some new scenery every so often. Sure, I can blame the company that I worked for, since they relocated me several times, but I didn't exactly pitch a fit when the conversation arose. I can also try to convince myself that I was on a spiritual quest for the perfect place, but deep down I have always known that utopia does not exist.

They say that awareness is the first step, and now that I am aware of my obsession for change and new scenery, how can I deal with it? It's obviously not healthy for my children to have to be uprooted every few years, and the last thing that they need is a military style childhood without the benefits of government housing and medical services.

One of the things that I noticed is that whenever we would move, we would always "tread lightly" on our new surroundings, as we always felt that we weren't sure if we would be staying. We didn't hang many pictures, didn't paint many walls. We managed to make our existing furnishings fit into the new place that we were temporarily calling home. Now that I'm tired of moving, and determined to make our new house our home, I have been doing things to make it feel more permanent.

I painted some walls, changed out a number of fixtures, and we've got a shopping list of improvements that we'd like to get to when time and budget allows it. We've also been eyeballing some new Coaster furniture for the living room, and I'm planning on building some built-in bookshelves for all of the books we have managed to collect over the years. If there's one collection that we haven't ditched during our numerous relocations, it is our collection of reading material. I dream of someday having an entire wall of books, like you see in English manor houses and traditional library rooms.

And what will I do when that urge to purge and relocate comes along, and we've already settled ourselves into our home? Well, we can always rearrange the furniture, right?

the single greatest mistake of being single

When you're single, you tend to live your life a little wastefully. I used to blow about $100 a week on CDs and cassettes, and of course managed to go out to eat whenever I liked. When it came to my financial responsibilities, I had my car insurance payments and the cost of gas. I was still living at home with my parents, and they had agreed not to charge me rent as long as I stayed in college. I had no utility bills, although I had set up a separate telephone line that I was paying for myself. These days, I would have probably picked up a cellphone (they were a little less common back then). I had really good individual health insurance coverage courtesy of my employer, and I didn't even have to pay a premium each month. So I was making decent money and not putting much away. Like many of America's youth, I ended up getting into credit card debt soon after.

I was fortunate, though. I met my wife when I started college and we married fairly young. As such, we picked up all of those married household-type responsibilities pretty early and started a savings account. Then I see how people like my younger brother live...

He's got a great job, making $80k+ a year. He doesn't put any money into savings, but has managed to get himself into a townhome. He frivolously spends his dough on all the latest gadgets and technological toys. He owns two cars in addition to his company-provided work vehicle. One of them is your typical tuner vehicle, complete with thousands of dollars in non-factory upgrades. Yet it barely runs.

He could be putting so much money away for the future, but he doesn't. He could probably live on half of his income (or less) and use the rest to pay off his townhome. Just imagine having the power to pay off a house in a few years at such a young age, and living the rest of your life without a mortgage. It's probably the single greatest mistake one can make when you're single and making such good money. While I have few regrets from my single years, I do wish that I had spent a little less cash on my music collection, especially now that the value of the music CD is shrinking so fast.

more on the middle of expensive nowhere

All concerns of eminent domain aside, I'm also a bit dismayed that land in the Ozarks has become so prohibitively expensive. A few years ago, it seemed like there was land everywhere for sale, and you could easily find it for $1000 an acre (or less). Now you're luck to find anything listed for $1500 an acre. Of course, it is important to keep in mind that these are asking prices, not selling prices. There's no telling just what land is selling for, short of watching county records as they are (eventually) updated after a sale. But even that isn't a very good indicator, as many land sales that are financed by the seller won't show up in sales records until the land is paid off in full, since the seller is still carrying the loan in many cases.

The truth is that everyone wants a nice piece of land in the middle of nowhere, that they can retreat to. People in the Ozarks are no exception. Unfortunately, when everybody wants to get out in the country, it is no longer a getaway from your neighbors, but a getaway with your neighbors. Obviously, the farther out you go (and the farther away from modern conveniences and human life), the cheaper land will become, but who wants to have to drive 30+ minutes to get to a hospital in case of an emergency?

And of course, we can thank all of the developers who have the gaul insight to buy up large parcels of farm and wilderness and subdivide them into 2 acre lots at a 800% (or more) markup. In most cases, they choose areas that lie just outside the borders of established towns, just outside of zoning regulations in most cases. Also certain towns are more desirable due to their recreational amenities and conveniences. In my particular area, when it comes to real estate Branson is probably the most sought after vacation destination, and the second home market is exploding accordingly. But there are still areas that are relatively close-by (Berryville, Blue Eye, Green Forest) with some affordable acreage here and there. Unfortunately, you have to deal with the white trash, who also tend to flock to the more affordable areas. Catch 22, I suppose. You want neighbors with a high standard of living, but you want them to be cheapskates like yourself.

I don't necessarily have a problem with poor folks - I just don't like people who use their acreage as a trash heap and let their pack of six or seven un-spayed rabid dogs run free to terrorize anyone in a three mile radius.

So I guess you can't really win. As I mentioned in my previous post, selling all your possessions and playing gypsy is about the only way to really be "free" in this country.

that middle of nowhere attraction

The older I get, the more disgusted I seem to feel about our society. Look at the morons that we elect for presidents. Look at the laws that we make. Look at the laws that we endure (tax. tax. TAX!), when a clear majority of the population doesn't agree with them. Look at how we allow our choices to be dictated by THE MAN. Yep, I said it - THE MAN. I know it is cliche, but let's face it. THE MAN (or woMAN if Hillary makes her way into office) is stepping all over our liberties on a daily basis. Is our nation so full of imbeciles that we need our government to do all of the thinking and decision-making for us? And do we really want somebody like McCain (who doesn't have the best history of educational achievement), in a position where he gets to decide what is best for us? Geez.

It's all very sickening. And I'm not even your typical bleeding-heart liberal. I had a very conservative upbringing, and still retain some of the more common sense values. But I can also rally behind much of what the liberals are saying. I even empathize with the libertarian point of view that Ron Paul is pushing, but I fear that if it wasn't given enough consideration and careful planning, the "good ole boy" system will return to much of the south. But I see no light at the end of this tunnel.

All in all, it makes me want to turn into one of those survivalist types, and stake out on a few hundred acres of land (off the grid) with my family and a small arsenal to ward off the looters when the apocalypse comes. Am I *that* paranoid? Well...sometimes I guess I am. What's sad is that even an extreme action like this wouldn't protect us the evils of fascism. The government can decide at any moment to seize your land in one fell swoop, reimbursing you with what they feel it is worth. And so it seems that the isolationist approach is just a pipe-dream any longer.

To really escape the horror, one would have to give up all of his possessions. If they can't take anything from you, they can't control you. In other words, become a gypsy. Live your life on the road, constantly moving under the radar. But the money's got to come from somewhere...so you play "illegal" and get an under the table job for a few days here and there. As long as you can get a cell phone signal, you can grab a prepaid cellphone and keep in touch with friends and family while on the road, if you don't mind those calls being tracked.

So, yes, the results of this latest election do nothing to quell my fears of a revolution eventually happening in this country. We're getting the same types of silver-spoonfed corporate profiteering puppets for president as we have been getting for years, so how can they possibly change anything for the better? I am so disenchanted at this point, and I know I am not alone.

choosing the lesser of two evils...again

Well, the polls are nearing a close, and it appears that our choices for this election are going to be Clinton and McCain. Somebody please shoot me now.

At this point, I'm hoping that Ron Paul decides to follow up with his threat to run as independent since he didn't get the Republican vote. I'd rather vote for him than see our country endure either of these two. On the bright side, if somebody like McCain makes it into office, we'll probably see a revolution take place at some point in the near future. Americans can only take so much fascism...

bush acknowledges a suffering economy?

My neighbor was just informing me that there was an article in the paper that Bush just admitted that the economy is worse off than he thought. And this is news? I mean, come on! We're talking about a guy who only a couple of years ago hadn't heard of "The Google". What a complete moron.

But I guess if you live in la-la-land, you may not notice certain things. Like the fact that American workers' 401k plans are falling into the toilet, or that the real estate market is falling apart across the country. Let's face it. Nobody in the white house is ever going to care about the problems of real Americans because they aren't affected by any of them. They're not going to care that social security is doomed, because they don't pay into it. They don't care about tax, pension or business reform because they're covered under some of the most lucrative golden parachute policies in existence. They only push for some sort of change when their corporate sponsors tell them to.

And when one of the "approved" candidates makes it into office and doesn't deliver on any of the changes that they are all promising, will anyone do anything about it? Will the American public hold them responsible for making false promises? Yeah, right. And next they'll revolt.