The new generation economy

What is this generation about. So far it seems as if for my entire life there has not been bountiful places to generate experience or skill or to gain real experience very easily. It has become very apparent to me that those things must be created by our generation.

As a white male in the typical white setting my parents did not want me working on my car in the garage. When I went to the University of Arizona I discovered that I did not want to be an Architect, when I came back to San Diego  I tried my hand at the concept of engineering. My last career interest was commercial diving. I am now attempting my hand at glass blowing, casting, movie production, and graphic design, as well as some other pursuits over time. I do not know if they are what I want but it is my next step.

Back to what I mean by thrifty and what I said at the beginning. Knowing that things have elevated in price, past successful generations are less likely to hire or train, if even minimum wage jobs. Community colleges and other forms of universities including the big ones offer the best form of minimum wage jobs. They also offer shelter from debt on certin types of loans. This means that the University system can be used as the best way to gain certain assets in this new economy. I do not know what type of economy it is. All I know is that it requires a type of resourcefulness.

I am not saying that everyone falls into this category but what I am saying is that for the people who are currently struggling it means that in order to make things better you must do it differently than the methods currently generating the difficulty. Something also to remember invention is not the same as innovation. Invention means to create something new and innovation means to alter or to change something slightly in order to make it more effective. For instance an added shell onto a cellphone does not make the purpose of the cellphone better but it does solve issues directly related to it. It preserves it s value and protects it from the elements including yourself.

Just like the shell for the cell phone protects it from the elements my goal is to do the same thing. My current idea that I am trying are online. I have been helping my friends and family advertise and cell there possessions. I have filed for financial aid but to me that does not necessarily count because that was not generated through my own efforts. To me it is not in exchange for something valuable. But it is what I am using and need at the moment. Need in the since that I want input on my ideas and a place to put them.

One of my ventures is this blog. This blog on its own is not what is valuable although it is very valuable to me. It is teaching me how to market myself and others, it is teaching me how to think and articulate how to take the next step. Having a skill is still necessary but how it is delivered must change. I feel as though e-commerce combined with a personal experience is the key. I do not necessarily know if that means to have a physical location. If that means to combine an online store with a face through business cards and a physical presence. Does it mean everything? Or does it mean that there needs to be steps? If so what steps need to be taken from beginning to end?

There is no sure solution just like anything else. The best strategy is to practice and then once you have come to the challenge to face it with separate strategies. Which ever strategies that do not work are not bad they are simply a poor counter for the given situation. For instance just because the same thing is not working in a different economy does not mean that we can not be successful in it.

My biggest question is how other people are thriving in this economy?

Man to Man friendships

http://artofmanliness.com/2008/08/24/the-history-and-nature-of-man-friendships/I am as a person starting to realize what it means to have quality friends because for the first time in my life I have some. For a long time I have based friend ships through a lense of greed and lust. Which people could get me into the best parties and which ones could help me become better at whatever it was I wanted to become more skilled at. And only for that fact. It is the difference in thinking for me at least that in order to have a good life and to survive this world you must learn how to be ruthless and find out how to discover other people that are ruthless. I have walked around this world thinking that other people had the same frame of mind. I assumed that everyone wants to take you. Meaning your money, friends, girls, and your lively hood. Though this may not be far from the truth how you see the world makes all the difference. It enables you to change the way in my mind probability works for you. The way you roll the dice if you will.

I was talking to my girlfriend about it. She is the only solid reason why I have developed this change of heart. Not that one talk did this. Its been due to me watching as things unfold between her and her friends. To be honest I have had no dependable friends, people who would look out for me, in fact they would ditch me at the first site of something better to do. Ditch as in not take me into any consideration and leave with out telling me.

Now I can not blame them for their choices. I can blame myself for my own and choose to make better ones in the future. My desire is to filter friends based off of dependability, adventures, acepting, with the ability to stand up for themselves.

I don't want anymore friends that will use me as a stepping stone, that don't tell me what I can do to help them, that wont help me, or that don't care in general. I think that's what I am subject to as a guy. This site puts the concept of manships into perspective as well as other things to help men be men.

Women and emotional clingyness

Caitlyn and I one day were on the subject of relationships. I told her that at one point in time I had considerd going out with another one of our friends but was scared off because I had the sense that she would turn into a living nightmare for me in terms of needyness, intamecy, and other emotional needs. When Caitlyn asks me why that is a problem and I tell her its because for me as a guy its like stepping into a shower that has been turned up to hot. Making me want to jump out and cool it down or simplty dismiss her or ignore her. The point being that she gave me signs that she would not control herself.

I'm looking for peoples thoughts so comment bellow and let me know what you think.

Actually good instructions for crazy at home projects

The best site for at home projects would be instructables.com. When I wanted to start brewing I went here. When I wanted to make a potato launcher I went here. Its a great and usually cheap way to do something new that is fun. The projects very on you and your ability to find and purchase the supplies. check them out and let me know what you think.

Where to buy the cheapest and best stuff on the web

For the weird people who like to pay full price on things that they could be getting half to even greator saving on the same stuff this post is not for you.

Between talking to my sister and random conversations about where to buy anything on the web from extreme sports gear to everyday clothes. This post will never be complete because I will continue to add to it over time. 

If you want to buy everyday great stuff mostly luggage, backpacks, jewelry, and whatever other everyday stuff that you may need. Two sites are standing out to me. Those are Zappos.com and Overstock.com because not only do most if not all the products have some sort of % off of their products and are a good price to begin with but their shipping is next to nothing which is the biggest issue when it comes to buying things off the web. For instance if I were to ship a pair of shoes from another site instead of it being 1$ or nothing it could be 20$. Imagine this for bigger items or heavier items. For an example I purchased some dive weights off of a dive site and had them mailed to me. The shipping cost as much as the weights. The weights being like 50$ coming to a total of 100$ and some change. 

More ways to make money on the web

Like I have said in past articles this is my first time really checking out the online medium. I was looking at other ways to make money off the internet with out knowing any real hard skills. Something that you can do is a gaming site. You do not nesisarily need to make a game. You can add flash games that have already been made and add them to your site. Most games have adds and if the one that you added does not then you can still place an add and get something like .10$-.25$ per person so many people who play the game. Check out this eHow article for more info http://www.ehow.com/how_4901040_money-flash-games.html

Stock photo potential

I have been looking at different ways to make money off of the internet. Something that I have found interesting is the fact that you can sell your everyday pictures on the web. My question is whether or not this actually works and if it does? Does it work well? I intend to try it out and see what happens. The worst case scenario being oh no someone didn't buy a picture that I took.

Diving solutions

I recently found a site called divebuddy.com. Its been difficult for me to find someone to go diving with. Although I have not been successful with the site I only recently set up my account and started to learn how to use it. If there is another site or other recommendations for finding dive buddies let me know.

Just Doing IT: Traveling, Random Sports, Interests, and flipping off your lazy friends for people you do not know

For the most part as students we are poor poor poor unless you are a lucky bastard for one reason or another. Anyways there are several ways to travel cheap. The best two ways that I have come down to are both the couch surfing website and hostels. Couch surfing helps you meet, stay, and travel with other people. If you do not quite feel comfortable with staying with random people you can meet them before staying with them and stay in the hostal. There of course are easy ways to find cheep deals on hotels. Type into google cheap hotel and more than likely it will take you to a site where you set your standards of the place you wish to stay and the geographic area but not the actual place you stay at. This is how hotels sell rooms that they cannot fill otherwise. When I did this personally it worked out great and the room was nice.  Other than the couch surfing site there is both meetup.com and craigslist. Craigslist is also a great site for finding someone willing to drive or be driven where you want to go for half the cost because the deal usually is to split the gas. Meetup.com is a networking site to help get people with similar interests together and to do things. Simply make an account and find a group of your personal interest and meet during the groups scheduled or unscheduled events if you can swing it.

Pyros Unite

At one time I thought to myself I want to become a pyrotechnics specialist. I did not really know if I wanted to but I wanted to find out where and what it was about. My search took me to Los Angeles. Of course right because the angles need fire power that is pretty and not just firey. Anyways the program is run through Pyrosparuza. This company is actually the only distributer of fireworks in all of CA. All the displays you see, those fireworks were purchased through them. Makes me a little mad that they have the monopoly but whats not good for us is good for them. Anyways they offer what are called seminars and if you take four of them and hook up with a certified technician over time you will have accumilitated enough set up and break down experience to have your own crew and leave the dirt poor dream of blowing things up for a living.

That has led me onto other similar endevors. If you have anything you would like to share that is relevant to fire or ways to make this more profitable so that someone can make some real money doing it comment on this post PlEaSe!!! Remember if the world is unfair then lets be the reason!!

Paint Ball and Airsoft

Two of the most fun sports on the planet next surfing and diving in my experience. I have been told that there is a park in both Goleta and Ventura. Sucks for me because I am in Santa Barbara and have not met people that go. At the moment I prefer Airsoft because it is allot cheaper. Post if you are down and would like to go.

Back in San Diego when I used to play more often I had a Spatnaz AK and ran around in a camo jacket and green pants I bought from a military surplus store. It was really cheap and made playing less painful and more fun.

Post something about yourself below. Let me know where the hook ups are and if there are any forums up here that organize large scale battles. Remember if the world is unfair then lets be the reason!

More College related crap

If your like everyone you worry about getting the class you want. While perfectly capable people like myself with certain "role my eyes" mental disabilities get the privilege of priority registration. What I do not understand is why people do not take advantage of it. You could take the test they give. Fail and receive the benefits. I guess that is the supposedly devious side of me talking. Anyways I look at it this way. If you are taking time away from working you are not making money. If you are not making a substantial academic investment in yourself and are not receiving financial aid you are loosing money. The school is given money to help students based off of projections of attendance to programs and industry interest. So if more students did this there would more than likely be more funding to support the need. Now I do not understand completely how colleges receive money because that is not my job and I have not found out how yet. But based off of the colleges that I have both visited and attended Santa Barbara City College is the most maintained and the most financially supported one in comparison to the others which are basically starving from a lack of financial support. Also respect the crippled they are people to. Say hi to them and ask them how there day is going mkay.

To have or no to have a roommate that is the question.

For me the answer is simple. I will do my very very best never ever to have another roommate except for my current girlfriend. The reason is simple, if you have a roommate that you hate with a passion and they do not want to leave and you do not have the ability to leave you are stuck with them.

I am currently in this situation. There is basically one way to kick them out and that is if you give them a pay it or fix it contract. If they pay it everything continues which if you are in my situation you do not want. Or if they do not fix the said problem. In our case its pay or pay because he's been holding out on the rent. Also he is the biggest jackalope on the planet. He deals, blasts music till 12AM-1AM when I have to get up at 6AM or 5AM for classes. The only other option we had was to give him his thirty days notice which does not make since his lease will be up on Dec 1.

On the same topic here is the other reasons besides this bad experience with these roommates. An example would be what if you move in with your friend and you guys are fantastic before you move in together and the opposite happens after you do. Well you will never know how well two people will do with in a given living space until it happens. You never know things may stay fantastic. But before you take those steps make sure you set up a month to month lease that way if shit happens you are not stuck living together for several months building up hate and doing shitty things to one another the whole time.

This post is not complete I will be adding more details to it including some sites for the Santa Barbara area that will help with tenant land lord issues. Knowledge is power and if the world is unfair lets be the reason.

Mentos Trap

The mentos trap that I invented is my second most favorite prank of all time because I created it. Yay to me!! Anyways I do not have a video of it but I will tell you how it works and the important aspects. 

Materials List

1) Mint Mentos "It is important that it is specifically mint!!!"

2) Small sowing kit or needle and thread

3) A liter of soda. Coke seems to work the best.

Instructions

1) Thread the Mentos with the needle and string

2) Cut the thread so that it is at least 6" long

3) Open the bottle of Coke and hold the Mentos so that it is over the hole by holding the thread at the sides tight with one hand. You can use both hands to get it situated. LoL

4) Use your other hand to screw the cap over the thread.

5) Cut the thread at the base of the cap.

You now have a Mentos trap. Go out and leave it some where for someone to think "hey that looks like Coke. I like Coke so I will have some. Hey HackLife can I have some Coke. Yes of course you can have some Coke. Unscrew sound unscrew sound plop spray ROFL ROFL. 

Pranking your friends, enemies, and innocent bystanders ;-)

I have a couple of pranks that I have invented that I really like. The first one being my RAT TRAP FLOUR PRANK!!!! Basically it is two rat traps in a box that when triggered launch flour in someone's face. Below is a demo of how the contraption works.



Materials List
1) A box preferably 12" x 8"
2) 1/4" Wooden Dowels
3) Duck Tape
4) Power Drill and screws or nails and a hammer
5) A plank of wood with the same dimensions as the rat traps if placed head to head by there widths
6) A rag that you do not need anymore preferably 12" x 5"
7) Fishing string or kite string
8) Flour
9) Stapler and staples
10) Fish hooks

Instructions
1) Take the rat traps and lay them on the wood so that when the traps are set the bars are in the middle of the wood
2) Place 4 nails or screws on the four corners of the rat traps.
3) Take two dowels and strap them onto the bars using the duck tape.
4) Take the fabric and staple it to the dowels so that when the trap goes off the fabric is taught. And when the traps are set the fabric has slack.
5) Take duck tape and pinch it so that there is about an inch together with excess.
6) Take the duck tape and tape across the tape that is not pinched onto the surface of the lid inside of the box reasonably with in the center.
7) Take a nail and punch a hole through the extended lip
8) Loop the string or line through the hole in the duct tape on the lid of the box.
10) Cock the rat traps, load the flour, and hook the line to the trigers on the traps, hook the fish hooks on the trigers carefully as you close the lid.

You are now ready to plant the RAT TRAP FLOUR PRANK. 
Here is what happened when I used it. I was riding with my friends in a car on our way to a flag football game. I had the trap loaded and with me at the time. My friend James was to my right and I asked him to hold onto the trap. I bent over to my left and pretended to do something. James naturally opens the box and gets a flume of flour in the face and I run out of the car as we reach the football parking lot. As I ran out I had two cans of shaving cream and as I ran I shaving creamed the crap out of him. Soon after I was promptly PWNED by his mad wrestling skills.

Paying For College

If you are a student then you know about FAFSA and how it may allow you to take out federal loans, subsidized loans, as well as grants and work study. There are other types of loans but the best form of loan is federal because you do not need to make payments and the loan does not gain interest while you are in school. Pell grants are also fantastic.

Anyways what I have found is that if your family is poor you are actually going to be in a financially better situation than if your family were rich. Also the more siblings the better. Mark down you have like thirty.

I personally have not looked up the laws on the topic and I am primarily looking to hear from you to gain more knowledge on grants and the potential loop holes for current students like me struggling to afford living on their own for the first time and for students about to enter the arena.