The Thousand Dollar Month

Looking at the amount of money I will have to spend for college... wow. My financial aid and all the money I've gotten from working at McDonald's combined do not pay for all of it. The first bill is due on August 20th, and right now I do not have that much money. Don't know if/when financial aid will help with that.

On July 18 I decided I would start trying to get more money through various other means. I'm calling it the Thousand Dollar Month, because I'm going to try and make $1,000 in the next 29 days. Sounds difficult, because it is. I've assembled a list of ways I could do that both with and without a computer. I'm really hesitant about doing, say, house or yard work for people I don't know. But if it gets that desperate I'll go for it.

Already, I've begun trying a few different things to potentially net some income.

• I'm selling books and other things on Amazon. If you're interested in Star Trek or Garfield, check it out. Most of the books are in the $5.00-$10.00 range.
• I'm trying to get an advertisement system set up on my blogs. I understand people don't really care for those. The ones I've gotten are text ads, meaning they don't act all flashy and bothersome.
• YouTube videos. This is a bit more fun to do, because I can play Minecraft and potentially draw an audience. The idea is to produce good content and get a YouTube partnership, where I will get money from people watching ads.

I've been tracking my progress, and it's not been good. In my goal to $1,000, I've actually gone backward because of daily expenses. People paying me back, as well as income from my job, should reverse this issue. But will I reach my goal?

Got anymore ideas for me? Please do let me know in the comments.

A Peculiar Fascination

Nerdy words lie ahead.

There's something that's interested me for as long as I can remember: organized systems. Systems/networks of units that are connected and work together as a whole. I can't really explain why these things fascinate me. I'm not really sure, myself. Here are some examples of things that have caught my eye over the years:

Organ systems. Next to astronomy, this was one of the sciences that was most appealing to me as a child. I recall being able to name all of the organ systems they taught about in school, and I can still remember plenty: circulatory, digestive, endocrine, immune, lymphatic, muscular, nervous (includes sensory IMO), reproductive, respiratory and skeletal. Of particular interest to me was the digestive system, which I suppose is what I specialized in. I can still recite the various organs that are part of it and tell the story of how food is digested. I had a heck of a time trying to learn to say "duodenum" properly. Seeing the specific function each organ had and how it related to the other organs, as well as how the various systems interacted (for example, how the blood vessels of the circulatory system and the lungs of the respiratory system worked together).

Government structures. I've long enjoyed learning about the various part of governments - the leaders, monarchs, Congresses and Parliaments. I admit I've read the US Constitution more than once and also looked at the Belgian and Chinese constitutions. I probably have an above-average understanding of how the government works and what powers our Congress, President and Supreme Court do (and perhaps more importantly, don't) have. In stories and other things I've written, it hasn't been unusual for me to spend some time designing the governmental structures. There was a game I played for about half a year called NationStates, which was all about role playing as a nation. The government of the one I had was a sort of mix between the United State's system and the British Parliamentary model.

Religions. There are various forms that these come in and I've always found myself fascinated by them. How many deities do they have? Buddhism has no deity; Christianity has one; Hinduism has many many millions. What is their take on the afterlife - Nirvana? Reincarnation? Heaven? What kind of moral system do they have set up? What is their founder like? Are they philosophers like Buddha or miracle workers like Moses? Almost every religion has a sacred text, be it the Bible, Quran, Torah, etc. Some, like the gods of the Greeks and Romans, have been long abandoned. Others remain to this day. Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism rank amongst the most widely followed religions. I'm something of an amateur theologian.

Languages. English, Spanish, Latin, Esperanto, Klingonese, Japanese, Cantonese, so on and so on. I've invented languages, one time having a folder devoted to the many I've created over the years. In addition to their vocabulary there are grammatical rules, suffixes and prefixes, punctuation, alphabets. There's actually a chart out there showing how the various sounds are made. Each sound can be represented by a symbol, which can either be a letter the English speaker is familiar with, one borrowed from other languages, or invented.

Militaries. These are heavily structured, having complex rank systems, distinct personnel groups (squad, platoon, company, battalion, division, corps, etc.), uniforms, and so on. In my younger years I was able to memorize the ranking system for the US Army and thanks to Star Trek, I have the naval officer ranks fairly well remembered: ensign, lieutenant junior grade, lieutenant, lieutenant commander, commander, captain, and then the admirals.

Road systems. Another geeky admission of mine: I'm guilty of just wasting time on Google Earth browsing the highway systems that criss-cross the United States. There's actually a method to their numbering systems. Actually, one thing I like doing with Google Earth is zooming out and looking at the apparently randomly placed towns and cities. In this part of Kansas, there's maybe one large city per county, with smaller cities and towns scattered around the place. And farmland, so much farmland in between.

The Third Year!

Two days ago was June 30. That was the completion of my third year in Kansas. I can't believe it's been three years already. Certainly doesn't feel that long. Three years already since I left most of my friends and family back in New York and came here, where I would begin my adult life.

Looking back at the time between June 30, 2011 and June 30, 2012, there doesn't seem to be very much that has changed. Most of the bastions of my life - presently, church and work - have remained consistent. A couple things are notable, and I may already have mentioned them on here.

As you may know, in December I graduated from community college. When that school year started I was leaning more toward attending the University of Kansas; now I'm set to arrive on the Kansas State University campus circa August 19 of this year. That's under two months from now. My Associate's degree came in the mail a couple weeks after graduating. I was quite intent on finding some sort of employment with that degree. Unfortunately, nothing has come of it. I'm still working fast food, barely above minimum wage. I will probably put in my two weeks' notice on July 29th, so that I have a week before leaving for KSU off. Although, since that weeks will be boring and filled with anxiety that may not be advisable. I'll figure it out.

Just within the past couple of weeks I got a new cell phone. The old one had served me admirably with no major issues. However one day after work I pulled it out of my pocket and found that the screen had been damaged. One side only showed white when the phone was on, and the other had lines going either direction. No amount of time with the battery out drying would fix it. The next day I went to Wal-Mart and, after some thinking, purchased a Samsung R375C. It looks like the Blackberry in that it's wide and flat, with a full keyboard and wide screen. Since I text and browse the Web on it far more than I call people, this is optimal for me. I don't have much issue with the phone. Perhaps my only quips are that it's slightly unstable insofar as software, freezing up once in a while, and that it defaults to T9 when I prefer to type out the words myself. I could learn to use the T9 if I wanted to.

Amongst the very first things I did with my new phone, which doesn't have a name and probably won't, was install Opera Mini. I am very pleased with this. My former cell phone ran something like Opera Mini 4. Very basic Web surfing but most certainly did the trick. The R375C can operate Opera Mini 7 and I am quite stunned at the difference between the two versions. Stylistically speaking, version 7 is quite the upgrade, not looking nearly as compact as 4, yet still as functional. I wouldn't mind being able to make it look a little less flashy, but I'm fine. Two things about version 7 makes me really happy:

• A Speed Dial page such as was Opera for the computer has. I have a few pages set on it.
• The ability to have multiple tabs. Version 4 didn't have this. I didn't really discover this feature until just this morning but I'm already happy about this. I can have multiple Web pages opened, and switching through the tabs isn't all that difficult. Certainly I will have a much easier time using Facebook on it while still browsing the Web.

I still can't watch YouTube videos, but that's quite alright. When using things that require going on the Internet, my old T404G would constantly ask if I wanted to send HTTP data... which obviously I did. The R375C doesn't do that, making things simpler. Another enjoyment I have with this phone is its ability to run Age of Heroes online. It's a MMORPG that you play on your cell phone. With my last phone, I could never get past the menu. This new phone, to my delight, runs it without a hitch. Now if only the game weren't so darn confusing, I'd be able to play!

More in the field of electronics is a new MP3 player. My last one was just dying out on me. It couldn't send music to a left earpiece and I was getting tired of that. So I went to Walgreens and got a new one, apparently called the Eclipse. To be honest, I could have done better for myself. The headphones it came with were faulty and eventually its left earpiece died, then the right went out on me too! The MP3 player itself has a remarkably slow menu system and doesn't even do proper alphabetization of songs. I don't recall the letter "F" coming before "A" in the alphabet. Its shuffle feature also leaves much to be desired since all it really does is go to a new letter in the alphabet, pick a few songs that start with it, then go to a new letter. I would recommend it only as a cheap started MP3 player. Perhaps that's why it was so relatively cheap.

I've actually had 2 or 3 headphones died out on me recently. All of them were cheap. Today I went and purchases a not so cheap pair. These, hopefully, will last a good while.

My website has experienced some updating. I'm slowly in the process of consolidating the string of blogs I have into one place. I'm starting to publish posts both here on the Blogger site, and the respective blog on my personal site. I figure that if I have that website, I may as well do something with it.

Segue out of technology and into life skills. Despite being nearly 21, I still don't have my driver's license! I should have had this years. Fortunately things are about to change. The high school offered driver's education. Although intended for students, adults were allowed to sign up. So I did. The week's worth of classes was murderously boring. I found myself annoyed with the constant chiding and lecturing the teachers were giving us. Then came to drive. It's been 9 of the 10 days already, but it really feels like it's been forever. My driving skills have improved enormously, however. I used to freak out when there were other vehicles around or behind me. I'm now much more comfortable on the road, although I would still do well to relax a bit. I already know what vehicle I will be driving once I get my license: a 2000 Ford Ranger. Driving a truck will take me some getting used to. I do plan on writing an entry on my driving experiences, so I won't go much further than that for now.

It's surprising that I didn't mention it on here, but in September I had a sever crisis of faith. You see, on the Internet people are constantly bashing and questioning the Christian faith. Sure there were some basic answers seen here and there, but up until that point I had very little useful knowledge to support my faith. The constant presence of people deriding Christianity eventually upset me. I began to question my faith, myself. Is our faith really blind faith, or what there any kind of logic for it?

I asked two of my more knowledgeable youth leaders what evidence there was for God. One said, "There is none," and the other didn't know how to answer the question. Talk about dismaying! As I struggled to find an answer, my faith wavered. For short periods of time I would descend into agnosticism. On a Christian message board I regularly post on, which I know to be filled with intelligent people of faith, I made a thread asking for good, clear reasons to believe the existence of God and Jesus. At first, people replied with nothing of particular use simply saying "It's by faith." Then another poster replied showing how the few strands of logic I had picked up actually were the basic component of three widely used arguments for God's existence (the cosmological, teleological, and moral arguments). Around the same time I asked my second pastor (whose church I visit Wednesday evenings) this question. I mentioned I had an interest in apologetics, the defense of the faith using reason. He let me borrow a book he had, called "Holman QuickSource Guide to Christian Apologetics." This was exactly what I needed. It showed three philosophical arguments for God's existence, the argument for Jesus's resurrection, the accuracy and reliability of the Old and New Testaments, as well as a few other things.

That book would launch me into the field of theology called apologetics. And since then I have been awed and amazed by it. To think, a religion could have good reasons to be believed in! One apologist, William Lane Craig, has become an intellectual hero of mine. I've been soaking up his work like a sponge. Actually, there are many men whose work I've been engorging myself in: Ravi Zacharias, Greg Koukl, Hugh Ross, and Lee Strobel (his book "The Case for a Creator" was so awesome I read it twice). Being a thinker myself, apologetics comes very naturally to me. Honestly, I feel like this may well be part of God's purpose for my life. I do struggle with fear when facing arguments against God. I worry that they'll be able to disprove my logic, thus debunking part of the reason behind my faith. This is something that all apologists face, though. As long as I can remember that what I believe is true and empirical, I will be fine.