CLOSING IN ON THE END

Well, it is getting close to the end of a full year of adventure. I left the USA in the summer of 2008 about the time of the writers strike. I spent all of last year in Cebu City in the Philippines. I started this year of 2009 with a bang in Cebu City, full of fireworks, great friends and too much drinking. Me and my friends then went to Korea where I spent another few months of adventure. ow I am back in the Philippines where more adventure awaits. I will cover the year in detail if I do a "year end review".

So for the next year I want to expand the adventure. My business is doing better and I want to start moving toward what I really want to do. Although I am finding a good audience creating educational content online, based on my skills from my working life, it is not really my ultimate goal. My roommate Dylan also has considerable skill in the education and training industry, on the technical side, and has been talking about getting into the action too. When his site is up and running we have the opportunity to do some cross promotion and joint ventures like the real internet marketers do. But that is only one piece of the puzzle.

Recently I've been reading some articles and watching the sites of different artists who are really doing exactly what they want to do, and finding an audience that joins in and makes it a viable business, or even a path to getting rich. Some are doing comics, some cartoons, some serious CGi shows, music and some doing out there things we may not have thought of were it not for the net. That got me thinking.

When I was kid, I was most influenced by a TV cartoon called Robotech. It wasn't really known as anime back then, but the show was cobbled together from a few different anime shows to make something kind of new for America. I knew then what I really wanted to do. Unfortunately, I forgot that along the way and went in many different directions. I even fell victim to the Hollywood trap and started thinking I had to do things their way. I listened to people I had no business even talking to about my dreams and allowed myself to get severely sidetracked... for years! Now it is time to fix that.

Next year, it is time to reach for the stars and do all that I really wanted to do. Actually, I'm not waiting until next year, I've already started, but that will be my focus. I live in a lively house, now filled with nine people, in an interesting city, and everyday can be an adventure. I could say a lot about just how different and amazing a life one can create if they choose to be a little creative. It makes me look forward, always, to whatever might come next. I can relax, think about what I really want in life, rather than suffer the stress and business of the rat race, and actually go after it. That makes life real.

NEXT STEPS OR PAST STEPS

The other day I lost my wallet. With that I lost all access to my money. Luckily some solutions presented themselves in the meantime. Still, this forced to move toward some things I should have done months ago. I am in the process, also working with my fiance, to create as many channels and avenues of access to funds as possible. I had accounts that could have been of use that I let languish for too long. I am now getting them back up and running. I am also pursuing every new account, card, or other method I can get into to, in every country I can get into it.

One of my goals, of course, is still to get a Japanese bank account. This will be the holy grail of accounts which will allow me to break full force into the absolutely humongous indie comic and animation art scene there. Japanese tend not to use cards, Paypal or any such services. They do everything by direct bank transfers, which they can even do on their phone to another person's phone. This is how artists get paid. I want to get paid like this too! More on that later!

THE KIDS IN THE HALL

There are kids among us now. This is irrespective of the fact that my roommate's wife just had her baby yesterday morning. There are others. My roommate's friend Alexis, whom he has known for a while has been saying she was going to come here for months. She finally did, along with her daughter, who I am guessing is around 8 or 9. In anticipation of that, my roommate's wife's little sister, about the same age of 8 or 9 came over so she could play with someone her own age. Her other brothers and sisters are all older and most work in her mother's store. It is starting to seem, however, that they dropped her off and forgot about her.

Alexis also works, and she is gone all day, from around 7:00 AM until 10:00 PM. She is paying Aika to watch her kid. Since Aika works for my roommate's wife, she now has both kids to watch. Of course, her cousin Kim is often here and helps with that too. The problem is, Kim, ever being the party girl, likes to go out a lot and Aika wants to go too. Last night, after Alex arrived home from work about 10:00 PM, Aika was dressed and ready to go out. The kids had been fighting all day and Alex's daughter was still crying. I got the impression Alex wasn't in the mood to deal with that and was not too happy that Aika was going out. As it turns out, though, she was not going out to party, she was called to the hospital to stay with her employer, my roommate's wife.

My roommate and his wife will be in the hospital for days it seems. That leaves me and my girlfriend here with Aika and the kids, and sometimes Kim, which takes Aika's attention from watching the kids. Who knows where that will go. Me and my girlfriend have our own plans though. We need our own internet service and many other things. I don't know yet how things will turn out, but I am sure it will be an adventure!

GPRS IS YOUR FRIEND

When you're out and about, in the depths of the country, GPRS can be your best friend. I'm visiting with my girlfriend's family for the weekend, for her cousin's birthday, and as if we didn't already live far enough from the big city, this place is even further. WIFI is not likely to be found out here. With this in mind, I stopped in the mall before coming here to load up my phone and then turned on GPRS.

I'm not sure what GPRS stands for, but it gets you the ability to access cellular data networks here. Just like in the U.S., on the AT&T plan, the iPhone can access Edge networks pretty much anywhere, with GPRS activated, this iPhone can access Edge or other data networks out here, and they cover pretty much everywhere. Unfortunately it's not unlimited like with AT&T. It costs 10 peso per 30 minutes.

GPRS has other costs too. It eats up my battery 3 or 4 times faster than normal. It makes the phone get really hot, and calls and texts seem to have trouble getting through. I've had texts come even a day late. Usually it's just an hour or so though.

Out here, though, none of those drawbacks matter. I'm checking my mail, keeping up with Facebook, and still participating in my regular forums. The speed is not bad either. In fact, the Internet at the house gets so bad sometimes, I might just keep this on!

FALLEN IN

Okay, so I bought into it. I'm now spending almost as much time on Facebook as Annalyn. I'm playing the Cafe World game that she got everyone in the house playing. What can I say, it's a lot of fun! This is not to say I've totally lost my focus. Last night I released my greatest product to date. I will be pushing this one to be the success it deserves and it will vault me into doing what I truly want to do, which is my animation work. I expect great things on that front.

I now have to be careful about my weight again. Annalyn has been cooking up a storm and she is really good! I mean really good, and of course she cooks enough for a small family. We had some amazing dishes just in the last few days including her fried chicken which is amazing. Last night we have Pancit Canton (chow mein) done local style and that definitely had me going back for seconds. hehehe

INTERNET WOES

Now that I finally got my girlfriend a computer, that still doesn't take care f all our problems. The internet here just plain sucks! Unfortunately, this can't always be blamed on the service provider or the poor infrastructure common in this country. Yes, there are problems on that end to be sure, but also I think a lot of what we are experiencing is simply too many people, or at least processes, fighting for bandwidth. I'm not entirely certain my roommate doesn't intentionally unplug us at times so we don't interfere with his online gaming.

The worst thing is, this interferes with my work. My work is all about the internet. When I create art for people or training videos on how to make animation, I have to send them wherever they need to go on the internet. These recent problems are slowing that process down and, thus, interfering with my influx of cash. It's not catastrophic by any means, but things could sure be a whole lot better. I think my girlfriend is not entirely happy here and may wish for us to go elsewhere, even another island.

Speaking of travel, we have been talking about going to the famous island of Bohol for Christmas. No solid plans yet, but it sounds like a cool idea and could be a fun adventure. Whatever we do next, I am looking forward to it. For now, though, back to work!

GAME OVER MAN!

My girlfriend has monopolized my computer with her cooking games and Facebook for long enough! 2 days ago it was time for a change. We went, with my housemate and his wife, to the supposedly best computer store in town, and began to buy the pieces of what would be a new system for my girlfriend. Last night it was completed. Housed in a sleek, black case which looks something like a modern DVD player, the system is up and running. She is, at this very moment, watching a movie on her own system with headphones. MY HEADPHONES but one step at a time, right?

The point is, she can play her cooking game and do Facebook all day without interrupting my computer endeavors. We also just happened by a used book store on the way out and found a hard cover copy of The Da Vinci Code for around $5 USD, in great condition. She already finished it. After recently reading Dan Brown's latest work, I am curious to dive into The Da Vinci Code myself. She told me there are many great things which did not find their way into the movie version.

Now I'm waiting for a few updates to be made to my system, namely OS X 10.5.8. Because we are doing a fresh install, as I'm changing to a larger startup drive, I will likely spend the next day or so just getting the system back to where it was. Once there, it'll be time for some serious work. I want to make a real schedule for a while and start doing those things I believe I was meant to do!