49 inch bunnyhop in 2016

New schooler riders with the most basic of BMX tricks.  A bunnyhop for height.  49" takes some serious hops.  Prop, dude.  

Rabbit hole #1

What Would You Do With A Billion Dollars

Last Wednesday might as well have been National Big Dreams Day.  As I'm sure you all know, the Powerball lottery jackpot rose to a record 1.5 BILLION dollars.  That meant that a single winner, after federal taxes, would take home over $900 MILLION.  It seemed everyone was talking about it, people were lining up to buy tickets all over the country, even though the odds of winning were something like 1 in 292 million.  That's about the same odds of being hit by a meteor while having sex with Angelina Jolie.  Or Channing Tatum for you ladies.  Pretty unlikely.

Still, many of us were daydreaming of that insane amount of money all day long, deciding how to spend it.  I never play the lottery, but I threw my change into a Coinstar and used it to buy a single ticket.  I mean, SOMEONE has to win, right?  Like so many others, I wondered just what I would do with that kind of money.  My first thought was to pay off bills for myself and my mom.  But that's a drop in the bucket of $900 million.  Then I wanted to buy a nice house.  The strange thing is, I realized I don't really want a McMansion.  Just a nice house, back in Huntington Beach, California.  OK.  that leaves more than $899 million left.  I'd build an INSANE bike and skate park, and work to get my fat butt in shape so I could ride and skate again.  $897 MILLION left.  Dang.  That's a lot of money.

I'd like to travel some.  But I don't really have the urge to sail around the world or anything.  I'd visit some old friends in Europe and roadtrip all over the U.S. and Canada.  897 3/4 MILLION left.  Holy crap!

Sure, I'd invest some.  But the stock market is a really lousy place to put money right now.  Real estate isn't the greatest right now.  Maybe it's better in California.  Even if I dumped $10 million into good rental properties, that would leave $887.75 million.  Now what?

The only real answer I could come up with was to do as much good as I could with the money. As someone who was homeless for years, that would be my primary focus.  Yes, there are plenty of losers out there, but NO ONE really deserves to live on the streets.  It's a horrible thing. 

As I went down the list of things I'd try to spend $900 million on, I realized something.  If I actually DID win that huge prize, everyone would say I got lucky and got bailed out of my financial situation by the lottery.  I could never say that I EARNED my way back to success after being homeless.  Suddenly, I didn't want to win.  Seriously.  It was a big eye opener for me. 

I have a confession to make.  I DID win the Powerball Lottery last Wednesday.  Really.  I won $4.  I doubled my money.  What did I do with my winnings?  I went to McDonald's, bought a Diet Coke and a caramel sundae, and wrote down what I really want to do with my life for the next few years.  The next day I started a Go Fund Me campaign to raise the money to start doing it.  I realized I don't need the lottery to follow my dreams.  I  can say I won the Powerball on the biggest day ever. More importantly, I can still EARN my way to success in this world.  I like the way that turned out.

A New Year A New Business

First of all, I'm sorry it's been so long since the last post.  My computer literally broke back in November, and getting enough time on another computer to be able to blog has been a challenge.  My laptop didn't crash, the hinge physically broke.  Then came the holidays, which is a time of year I always dread.  I'm really glad they're over.  Way too much drama on any holiday in my house.  It is kind of funny, though, that this year I got a candy cane for Christmas.  Seriously.  A single candy cane.  It's so ridiculous, it's funny.  OK, my sister and her kids came over two days later, and I got a gift card from them.  But on Christmas day itself, I got a single candy cane. 

So... I'm guessing this year will be better.  As I've mentioned before, it's become apparent that I'm not going to be able to find a good paying job here in North Carolina.  With the last 12 years of my work history being filled with taxi driving and gaps in employment, I'm pretty much out of consideration for most any job paying a living wage.  That's OK, though.  Years working as a taxi driver turned me into more of a business man than an employee.  So, starting with literally no money, my artwork seemed to be the place to start.  So I stepped it up a little, I've sold a few drawings, and I'm getting good feedback on the other drawings I've put on Facebook.  All in all, that's good.

But here's my reality.  I'm a middle aged man who's been living with my mom since my dad died 3 1/2 years ago.  Lame.  We argue a lot.  Lame.  I've had some crazy health issues that have kept me from making money during that time, among other things.  Really lame.  So now I'm doing better on the health front, I'm motivated like I haven't been in a loooong time, and I'm doing something I really enjoy.  That overcomes much of the lameness in my everyday life.

But still, I'm starting a small business.  That has certain demands.  First, I need ideas and motivation.  Got that.  I also need SOME money.  Yes, there are lots of ways to creatively get around many expenses, but some money is needed for basic supplies.  I've got that covered for the moment.  But then some more money is needed for the everyday needs of the business.  If I sell a drawing to someone out of state, I need to be able to ship it.  I need to get my laptop refurbished.  I need gas money to get around town to do the various things that need to be done.  Here's where it gets frustrating.  Most people start a business by either using savings, or borrowing money from someone.  There are many, many ways to do this.  The basic idea is:  an entrepreneur uses saved/borrowed money to get the business off the ground, to get sales happening, and then they re-invest much of the money back in the business in its infancy.  I don't have that luxury.  I need this little business to start paying my bills immediately.  And that's difficult since I'm starting on a shoestring.  Shoestring, hell, I'm starting on a thread of a shoestring. 

Another issue is that, as an artist, I need to make a name for myself to be able to sell some of my work.  The same thing goes for my writing.  The cool thing these days is that the internet, mobile technology, and all of our connectivity today gives me hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to do that for very little money.  The down side of that is that I have to stand out from the millions of other people in the world doing their own creative thing.  Even with Facebook, blogs, Twitter, Instagram, the internet, and all the other things available, it still takes good old fashioned hard work to build a following, and ultimately, a business.  The downside of that is that this type of work doesn't look like work to a lot of other people.  While I may spend my time publishing a blog, and writing something other people actually read, to someone who spends their time online trolling Facebook, it looks like I'm just goofing around.  You may have noticed, but the high paying factory jobs are mostly gone, and the people making good money today earn it with intelligence and creativity.  Physical labor dosn't pay these days.  Mental labor does.

So these are the things that are frustrating me as I head into this new year of 2016.  I take heart in one of the great sayings of Mark Twain:  "The person with a new idea is considered a crank... until the idea works."  Happy New Year everyone, and keep plugging away at whatever it is that makes your life worthwhile. 





But still

Going over my six month goals

So... a month or so after a really serious hospital visit last spring, I set some 6-month goals and made my first vision board.  I was out of work and had no income whatsoever.  I set an income goal that would have been my second highest income for six months in my life.  I didn't even come close to that goal.

I set a goal to dump my old, refurbished, "Fred Flintstone" laptop, and get an up-to-date laptop.  That didn't happen either.  In fact, the hinge broke on my old laptop so it's out of commission for now. 

I set a goal to have 10,000 pageviews on my three blogs by now.  I have about 1700 total.

I set a goal to buy a good digital camera.  Nope.  That didn't happen either.

I set a goal to lost 47 pounds in six months.  Why such an odd amount?  Because I weighed 347 at the time, and I wanted to get under 300 pounds.  I lost ten pounds and kept it off.

Oddly, the only goal that I did come close to was, "Help the homeless in Forsyth County as much as I am able."  A couple months after setting that goal, my mom and I met a family teetering on the brink of homelessness while living in a single room.  We sold them a cooking appliance, and gave them some basic items like dishes, food, and a list of local agencies that might be able to help them.  Then we went to our Sunday School class, and were able to get the family some shelves to store stuff, more food, a coffee maker, and a few other needed items.  Their needs were far beyond what our class could offer, but we helped them stabilize their situation a bit. 

So... I basically failed at most of my goals.  I'm at the point where many people think, "goals are stupid, I'm not going to bother setting goals anymore."  But I come from the action sports world.  If you've ever watched a BMX freestyler or skateboarder, you probably noticed that they seem to fail time after time while trying to learn a new move.  I don't see failure as an end all, be all.  Failure is just part of the process.  My biggest lesson from these six month goals is that I set way too big of goals for the position I was starting in.  I've learned over the years that that is a way people will self-sabotage to keep from sticking to their goals.  If you set a huge goal that is just plain ridiculous, you start thinking, "What's the point?"  And you give up on it.

So I just set a new series of six-month goals and made a new vision board.  The goals are smaller, and even more important, they're broken down into even shorter term goals that I can use to chip away at the bigger goals.  So I don't see missing my goals as a failure, I see it as a learning process, and I've reset my expectations to a more reasonable level.  Most important, I've made some progress in my everyday situation.  We'll see how it goes this time.

How To Get To The Top Of The Mountain

As I've mentioned before, I'm basically starting all over in life.  I'm seriously overweight after years as a taxi driver, and I need to lose about half my body weight.  That's a big challenge.  I'm unemployed, and with my "eclectic" job history, I've realized that it will be real hard to find a good paying job here in conservative North Carolina.  So that means I have to start a business with literally no money.  That's also a big challenge.  I don't have a working computer of my own at the moment.  That's another big challenge in the information/connectivity age we're in now.  There's a list of other things that "normal" people have that I don't.  Perhaps most challenging, I have to keep my spirits up in this time of facing multiple big challenges.  Many people out there are dealing with one or more of these same issues.

There's an old story that's been popping into my head recently.  I'm not sure where I heard it first.  But the basic story is a young seeker asks a wise old man (or woman) how to get to the top of a certain mountain.  That mountain, of course, represents your big goal in life.  The wise old person says, "To get to the top of the mountain, make sure that every step you take is in the direction of the top of the mountain."  Simple yet profound advice.  But we rarely take it seriously.

If I want to lose a lot of weight, then I have to make sure every action I take leads towards that goal.  That means eating only things that are healthy and exercising daily.  That's hard.  It's a simple idea, but it's hard.  But that's the nature of life. To start a business, it's the same thing, weed out the things in life that aren't part of that goal, and focus on building the business.  In other aspects of life, the same formula applies.

Do I do this right now?  No.  But I know the idea is out there, and I've begun to focus myself in different aspects of my life.  It's hard to just quit "normal" life and start a completely new lifestyle immediately.  Some people, in certain situations can do that, but it never seems to work for me.  So I'm slowly trying to delete bad habits and build good habits.

So what is your big goal?  Do you even have a major goal?  Or a series of goals in different aspects of your life?  If so, does each of your daily activities lead you towards that goal?  Or away from it?  Most people spend a huge amount of their time doing things that don't specifically lead towards their goals.  Now I know that if you have kids, you have to spend a lot of time caring for them in many different ways.  Don't neglect your kids or spouse to accomplish your goals.  But how do you use the personal time you do have?  Are you making steps towards the top of that proverbial mountain?  Or are you going in circles around the mountain?  

Let's Talk About Death

Yeah, I know... this is a subject we all try to avoid thinking about.  Here's why I'm bringing it up now.  In the past two weeks, I've been to three funerals for people from my church.  On top of that, this past Sunday the church observed All Saints Sunday, where we lit candles in memory of those in the church who've died in the past year, and family members who've died in years passed.  So the subject has been on my mind.

What I want to ask you is this:  How will you be remembered?  Have you lived a life of mediocrity and failed to do many of the things you once dreamed of?  Have you made a positive difference in the lives of those around you?  What do you regret more:  the crazy things you did do?  Or the things you didn't do?  Will people tell great stories at your funeral?  Has your life touched only those in your community, or has it touched many people far beyond?  What will your family members say about you?  What will your friends say about you?  Have you achieved the things you set out to?  Did you squeak through life afraid at every turn?  Or did you take life by the horns and thoroughly live it?

None of us knows how much time we have left.  How are you going to live this moment, and the remaining moments you have left?  Are you satisfied with your life so far?  I know I'm not.  I've had a lot of crazy adventures, but there's a lot more I want to do in this life.  Take some time to mull this over and see of you need to make some changes.  What would it take for you to be on your deathbed and say, "I gave it my best shot?"

The Big Thing People Are Missing

My weird journey through life has led me to North Carolina, and most of the people I interact with on a day to day level have lived a much different life than I have.  They're good people, but most have worked normal jobs, often one job for decades.  Most of these people are older than me, and grew up in the Industrial Age that was still dominant in our society when I was a kid.  Many of the civic leaders here in this area, and many other small cities, towns, and rural areas are still lamenting the farm economy that has changed drastically in their lives, and the factories which have shut down in their communities.  This part of North Carolina I live in now was a major player in tobacco, textiles, furniture building, and what NASCAR racing.  Those industries, except NASCAR, have largely moved their factories overseas.  The leaders, both local and statewide, are working hard to bring back good paying factory jobs. 

And that's the point I'm getting at today.  We used to live in a nation where the huge middle class worked at factories in their area.  That was the end of the industrial age.  To paraphrase internet expert and entrepreneur Seth Godin, "People used to be able make above average pay for average work, those days are over."  But a huge number of people in this country, many in leadership roles, are clinging to the memories of the world they grew up in.  They're not adapting to the world we're in now.  Right now, we're in a long, weird transition phase between the Industrial Age and the Information Age.  Old business models and social constructions are imploding as technology opens up opportunities for other business models and social constructs.  On one hand, most of the people around here have smart phones.  But I don't know anyone else around here who publishes a blog.  I can't afford a smart phone right now, but I publish two blogs and am starting another one soon.  My
point here is that everyday people start using the technology that's helping to change our world so dramatically, but most use it only as a consumer.  These technologies are changing the very way we communicate, which is leading to an incredible amount of opportunities in business, social movements, and other aspects of society.  But most people are so used to the status quo, that they stick to their old way of working, but with quicker communication.  Meanwhile, the future is being built by people looking at the possibilities that technology makes possible, and figuring out new ways to do things. 

As an example, how do you watch TV and movies these days?  Do you go to the theater to see every new movie that interests you?  Do you set aside a couple hours on Monday night to watch Dancing With The Stars?  Or do you record shows on a DVR and watch them when you have the time?  When's the last time you went to the video store and rented a VHS movie to watch that night?  Or do your kids watch movies on tablets in the back seat of your car while you shuttle them to baseball and dance practice? 

I'll be honest, I was pretty much a Luddite from the mid-1990's until 2008.  I was a taxi driver for much of that time, and I hated the continual change of technology.  I didn't keep up with what was happening and I didn't learn new technology as it became available.  Then, the taxi industry collapsed in California, years before Uber came into the picture.  I wound up in a small town in North Carolina wondering what had happened.  I'm a writer at heart, and I looked for ways to make money with writing.  But the whole writing world had completely changed because of technology and the social changes that went along with that technology.  So I started a blog, mostly just to vent.  That began a long process of self education about how to work in this technological world we now live in.  I started writing again using the internet and other tools now available.  I still don't make a living with my writing, but I'm heading in that direction.  I built a following online, quite by accident at first, and began to build my own little (very little) publishing empire point down the road, I should be able to make a decent living on the  from the platform I'm now building.

My point is this: Are you still clinging to the notion of the Indutrial Age world you grew up in?  Are you still looking for a job where someone pays you a lot of money and gives you benefits for doing what they tell you all day?  Or are you adapting and learning about this new, rapidly changing world, and charting your own course into the future?  Very few of the old factory jobs will ever come back.  Today's world belongs to those people who are willing to take risks and try new things as the opportunities arise.  Are you prepared to work in the world that's evolving now?























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