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Is Digital Nomadism the Pinnacle of Work?

What if it wasn’t all that great in reality? Most people working in any capacity online have heard of the term digital nomad, as this is the informal pinnacle of work in our modern world it seems. Essentially, a digital nomad is someone who can do anything they want, anywhere, anytime, and without any restrictions. It doesn’t matter what they do to make money online, as long as it gives them this freedom. Get a Real Job Kid I get it, wouldn’t it be nice to have your cake and eat it too? Wouldn’t it be nice to act like a teenager in the summertime when school is out, except having all the money and freedom you want too? Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to work a real job and just have fun all the time? The younger generations are especially enthralled with this idea of not having to work, yet having all the money they need to spend on themselves. Traveling, shopping, buying toys, doing drugs, drinking alcohol, partaking in dating games, etc. Sounds like the makings of a large spoiled chi

How is Virtual Reality Conditioning Humanity?

The subtle and overt influences are changing our thinking and behavior. Ever since the Roswell incident technology has been exponentially accelerating to the present, yet what does this mean for humanity? Where are we collectively going as human beings, as mankind? Besides those who claim they are from the future, no one really knows the answer to these difficult questions. Yet by logically examining the trends of technology and how it has affected people within a relatively short period of time, we can extrapolate some reasonable conclusions.  In short, the outcomes look like transhumanism; the melding and coalescing of man and machine. By now, this term is fairly commonplace among younger generations, as technology trends exponentially grow and expand with the term progress attached.  For instance, I wrote an article in 2013 claiming Eminem was a clone, which brought with it plenty of mocking insults; now, at the end of 2022, this doesn’t seem to be that far-fetched. Why would it be

The Following Leaders on Medium

I remember one distinct moment during a career development course at a community college I attended 21 years ago when the professor asked us to stand up and do an exercise.  She asked the class to separate themselves into two groups; those who thought of themselves as leaders on one side of the classroom and those who thought of themselves as followers on the other.  This question came without warning at the beginning of the class, so we didn’t have time to think it through. The result was probably more sincere because of this suddenness.  For some context, the class consisted of about 30 students, mostly young adults under 21 YOA; I was about 21 years old. An interesting thing happened.  An Important Life Lesson in Social Perception The vast majority of the class went to the leader side of the class and only two of us went to the follower side. I was one of the followers along with another young man. How awkward; then the professor focused on us followers and asked us why we though

What I Learned From My Most Popular Article on Medium

It was an experiment I didn’t mean to happen. When I first published the article back in 2018, the Medium Partner Program was open to everyone despite their following status. All you had to do was sign up for it with Stripe, which I did, earning my pennies every month while not paying too much attention to it.  Only recently have I rediscovered Medium and noticed one of my articles actually did pretty well just sitting here without much love from me. Here it is: A Guide to Winter Fishing on the Oregon Coast And why wouldn’t it when it has such a fetching picture — that is a huge fish! And the pipe is a nice touch, very authentic.  Actually, this is a piece I wrote for a client that was rejected. In hindsight, I’m grateful to have this article/guide as my own. If you read it you’ll see I put a lot of work into it, especially considering I didn’t know a lot about fishing in the winter on the Oregon Coast (I can barely catch a fish in a stocked pond).  At this point you may be asking, how

The Bicycle Years in Portland Part 1

Losing my driver’s license was a blessing in disguise. The big city life awaited me in Portland Oregon after I lost my driver’s license and decided living in a larger city may help my prospects. The year was around 2005 in the early spring and I was in my late 20s. Getting to the City At first, I wanted to bring my gas-powered scooter on the Greyhound bus, but they didn’t allow it in the luggage compartment. Visions of flying around Portland with a gas scooter that was louder than a lawnmower were probably a bit naive anyway, especially since I would be homeless. Having only around $250 to my name, rock-bottom credit, no driver’s license, no bank account, and not knowing anyone in Portland, I set my sights on the strange “big city” to get out of Eugene and make a new start. Maybe it was the Cannabis clouding my judgment, as it was likely the culprit for me being in the tight spot I found myself in anyways, but it was my lot, my mind, and my life to navigate regardless. After getting a

The Year of the Open Mic Musician/Poet

There was a time in my early 20s when I spent about a year playing my guitar and reading poetry at open mics in the Eugene Oregon area. I say area because I ventured out to a neighboring town called Cottage Grove a couple of times too. This was a special time in my life dedicated to music and writing. I wasn’t particularly exceptional at either, especially poetry, but the experience was unique and interesting. There was a studio apartment I lived in close to the University of Oregon campus called apartment 101. Besides being actually the number of the apartment, it also correlates with learning the introduction of life as a young musician. This apartment ended up being a hub for a rag-tag bunch of creative misfits who stayed up late into the night smoking, drinking, and playing music. While the experience may seem grand and the likes of Jack Kerouac may romanticize similar instances with amazing prose, the actual time was full of questions and consternation— there was a chaotic sense o

How I Got 48 Followers on Medium in 4.5 Years

First off, I want to congratulate everyone who has more than 48 followers on this quality writing site, and I want to encourage those with less to not worry, within only a few years of hard work, you too can achieve this milestone of success. Well, in reality, it wasn’t hard work, but the time that elapsed before I achieved the nearly 50 club is sort of a wonder. I hope it doesn’t take me until I turn 50 years old before I reach 100 (only 7 years away!). At the rate I’ve been going, earning 48 followers in 4.5 years, I’ll just make the 100 club before I turn 50 — that is, if I’m still alive, the world is still intact, and Medium is still a thing. Of course, I’m praying for all those things to be set in place for this to happen. Starting before many of the younger users here were still in high school (maybe junior high, wow), I began my journey on Medium (August 9, 2018) with an article about HubSpot — not a bad piece, yet I didn’t use the canonical link thing and it was originally on m

Remembering Bubblews and Similar Others

Thinking back to 2014 I remember this exciting website that hit the scene called Bubblews. The theme was atrocious and the type of writing was mostly inane, yet the video game atmosphere and hopes of making cash drew many people into its playful bubble. It didn’t take me long to catch on to the most exciting money-making endeavor for online writers, although it did seem like I was late to the party considering how rapidly everyone moved up in social status with every view, star (like), and comment being compensated for payment through PayPal. Bubblews originally hit the scene in beta mode in 2012, which is why I probably felt a bit late coming to the scene in late 2014. They didn’t officially launch until July 16, 2014, according to Business Wire . The founders were 26-year-olds Arvind Dixit and Jason Zuccari who moved to San Francisco to launch the grand idea. To be fair, this was during an early time with internet adoption, only a couple of years after smartphones became ubiquitous

The Dormant Blog Dilemma

  With the internet changing so rapidly, being stuck in time with an archaic blog and writing to the obscure winds of vacant space within its outdated theme seems to be an exercise in futility at times. Yes, I can syndicate the content to places like Medium, yet what is the point of pointing them back to my blog anyway, and won’t that ruin the chances of the Medium article being indexed if by chance the site thought it worthy? All of these thoughts and more run through the mind of the old blogger. The crux of the issue has always been strategy and the lack thereof. Honestly, the majority of my writing efforts online have been committed to the strategy and technical aspects of blog design, building, and formatting. What a waste to spend the majority of my writing time trying to face the huge and ever-changing learning curve of building a blog and creating an online writing strategy. The importance of having a strategy of some sort is vital, yet in the back of my blogging mind, there has

How Online College Changed My Life for the Better

Going to college was a dream for me when getting out of the Air Force around 22 years ago. Visions of learning, reading books, and earning degrees filled my ambitious mind. I wanted to be a secondary education history teacher. I started the journey at a community college in Eugene OR called Lane Community College. Working full-time as a janitor and using all the financial aid I could get (I opted out of the GI Bill in basic training), I was dedicated to the vision of earning my Associate’s transfer degree and then graduating from the University of Oregon with my Bachelor’s degree. To make a long story short, I ended up becoming a college dropout. Fortunately, I’ve lived long enough to redeem myself and am set to graduate in two months, at 43 years old, with my B.S. in Human Services with a Criminal Justice concentration from Walden University.  I thought starting out this article with my personal story might intrigue readers to consider their own situation and what is possible. Honestl

Ghostwriting vs. Byline Writing

Giving credit to whom it is due isn’t always the goal of an article or eBook. Many articles and eBooks online are actually written by someone other than the byline indicates. Byline writing means writing and getting credit for the work rather than ghostwriting (or content writing) and letting someone else get the credit. Most of you already know the distinction, yet I thought I would clarify what I meant. I have written around a thousand articles as a ghostwriter, mostly for business blogs. I worked through broker sites online and got paid around .01 to .05 cents per word. Essentially, I earned around $10 to $50 for each article. The biggest article I ever wrote paid $120 for a two-thousand-word article about elevators. At the time, I wanted to write for my blogs and as a freelance writer, but I needed to make money and I didn’t have time to develop my freelancing capabilities. I was grateful for the opportunity to refine my craft and make some money to add to my day jobs, yet what did