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In this series and whenever I say poor, I am referring to someone who will become happy or happier saving a couple of dollars or their local currency every month or every few days. Without such a saving, that person would not be able to afford rent or food or something very basic and essential to survival. If you wish to know a bit more as to what does and does not qualify as being poor, my article titled “5 Reasons You Are Not Poor In 2007” may help. I will be updating my poor guide to a 2008 definition very soon.

The below steps and ideas are not technical steps, nor are they the exact steps that you must take in order to save money by changing your electricity usage habits. All of the below steps have worked for me sometime in the past all the way up till today, though with varying degrees of results. If you are poor and desperately in need of saving money, this can help you get started along with anything else you have in mind. This first part of the series focuses on reducing your electricity bill expenses. As you read along, you may realize that each and everything described here is an extremely simple concept, so simple that you yourself may have thought of it but may have never gotten around to actually thinking about implementing it. I have subdivided different parts so that it can be easier to get the concept also.

Measure your meter first please, if possible

Before you do anything, it would be extremely good if you can go this very moment and take a look at your electric meter. Since you are focusing on your electricity usage, it is a very good idea to look at your electric meter. This meter is usually located at the side of houses, or at the back of the apartment complexes; it has to be located in an easy to find location, yet not right in front of the house all the time, so that the electric company technicians can have easy access to it when needed. Simply walk around your building or unit and you will see it sticking onto some wall, usually facing outside¹.

This is a meter which will have a revolving dial on it that measures the rate of electricity consumption in your very unit; this should be a very thin silver dial, and it will be moving. The faster the dial, the higher the electricity consumption is. Take a look at this dial and take note of any kind of a mark on the dial that you can use to see how many seconds it takes for the dial to rotate one full cycle, meaning the amount of time it takes for that mark to disappear and reappear at the exact same place.

Also, please remember the days and dates that you perform the below steps. Making a note of such dates and days will help later in figuring out whether or not you save electricity consumption in the end.

5 Practical steps to survive with different electricity usage: Unplug things

It would be an amazing thing if you could make a mental note of everything that you pay the electric bill for. This includes all the wall outlets, all things outside your house like outside lights and patio lights, the built-in microwaves which cannot be turned off easily, the electronic heat thermostats, and more. Knowing every available option that can be used to consume your electricity helps in realizing what is using electricity and how.

1. Unplug your hungry-for-electricity kitchen.

   Except your fridge if it has food in it, disconnect everything in your kitchen including your oven, microwave oven, toaster, and any other electronics from the wall outlets when not using them. Simply turning them off will not be sufficient many times. Many things like ovens and microwaves keep consuming electricity even when not in use.

2. Unplug all chargers.

   Disconnect all cell phone, laptop and any other chargers from the wall outlets when not charging or when they have charged completely. Many chargers keep consuming electricity in the form of discharges to the electronics they charge, while others consume electricity in order to show a small light which lets you know that they are connected to a power source. Either way, they keep consuming electricity if plugged into the wall outlet.

3. Make computers, monitors and televisions love the black screen of rest.

   Instead of using screen savers, simply turn off your monitors, computers and TVs whenever not in use and unplug them from the power outlet. Leaving the monitor on during the night still consumes electricity, unless your monitor can turn itself off after some time of inactivity. Why not turn it off directly? Turn off your computer completely at night if possible. If you must watch TV to fall asleep, set it to turn off automatically with a sleep timer. You will need to think how long it usually takes you to fall asleep and program your TV accordingly.

4. Unplug your heaters and A/Cs.

   Turn off and disconnect from the wall outlets all heaters and A/Cs when they are not in use. You will have to depend on your body feelings and not on the thermostat or automatic sensors to keep changing the temperature.

5. Unplug the pluggable house

   Disconnect everything else from the walls in the entire house when not in use, and turn off everything that cannot be disconnected easily. This means that all the wall outlet sockets must be empty unless they have something inside them that you are currently, actively and directly using at that very moment. This applies to air fresheners, night sensor lights, fish tank lights², exhaust fans, empty fridges and freezers, printers, modems, lamps, vacuum cleaners, etc.

   By anything, I mean anything. All the wall outlets of any kind should be completely unused unless something that you absolutely need is turned on fully and working. Everything in the house that cannot be unplugged and that is not being used should be turned off.

The above wall-socket-disconnection steps will overall save you at least about $1 to $4 a month in the United States, and a different amount in other countries.

If such kind of a saving seems to be too low for you to even try it, you are probably not poor or desperate enough, or you are poor and have needs that unfortunately do not allow some of all of the above steps to be taken. Please let me know if that is the case and I will offer suggestions based on your situation.

9 Practical electricity-conservation lifestyle trends:

With practical steps come the philosophy that dictate these steps and vice versa. You need to change your living habits and any habit that involves electricity. The following tricks will help you change your life style so that you will make different electric usage habits a part of your current life. You can start experimenting with these trends immediately. I am using a simple explanation approach throughout this article, if you have not already noticed.

1. Steal electricity from your car

   Use the car charger to charge your electronics in the car. Places like Radio Shack sell a lot of car chargers for different electronics, ranging from laptops to cell phones to mp3 players³. Buying a charger may cost you around $10 to $15, and saving the electricity in your home will save you around $1 to $2 for each thing you charge at your home. Some universal car chargers allow a lot of different things to be charged using the same chargers. If the charger is expensive or over $20, you should figure out whether using the charger at home or other places [described below] will be a better option.

2. Deceive your laptop into giving you electricity

   Use the laptop to charge your electronics. A lot of electronics like newer cell phones and mp3 players come with USB cables for syncing. Majority of these cables also charge your electronic devices while they are syncing. Leave your device connected to the laptop until you see that the battery charge icon on your electronic device is showing a fully charged notification.

3. Create the concept of public electricity at public places

   Use the public libraries or educational and cafe outlets to charge your electronics. Places like many Starbucks will gladly allow you to use their wall outlets in return for you buying their coffee or something else. Buying coffee costs also, so using colleges or public libraries may be a cheaper option.

4. Make daily places that you visit the venue for your daily tasks

   Use your nearby university or college for different stuff. For example, you can not only charge your electronics at public libraries or other places, but you can use microwave ovens at colleges and universities. You can also use the computers at the public libraries and nearby community colleges and universities to browse the internet or do other computer stuff. Many places allow you to print up to a certain amount of pages for free each day, while also allowing you to use their computers as much as you wish. This will save all the electricity that is needed to use your microwave at home for small things or things that can be delayed, and also for many computer and printing related tasks.

5. Start dating only rechargeable and free batteries

   Use rechargeable batteries only and recharge those batteries in your car or the laptop. Many places now sell batteries that you can recharge using a USB plug or a car charger. Buying them will save you money in both battery costs and also in recharging those batteries through your laptop or in your car.

   Stop recharging batteries at your home, if you have rechargeable batteries, and get free batteries. I read an article somewhere a few weeks ago which talked about batteries present in all disposable cameras that you can reuse; I cannot find the link to that article again, unfortunately⁴. You can open up a disposable camera after you are done with it and use the actual batteries inside it for your normal use. You can even ask photo labs to get your or other people’s unwanted disposable camera batteries to you after the photos have been grabbed from them⁵

6. Give your electronics some life support only when they are near their deaths

   Plug in your laptops and cell phones with their chargers into wall outlets only when they are within 20% to 15% of their empty life capacity. This goes for both your own and other wall outlets. Not leaving the laptop and the cell phones connected to the wall outlets all the time saves electricity. Forget the advice that leaving new cell phones connected to their chargers all the time improves battery life by a few percentage points: while that advice is true, your focus here is to save money by saving electricity, and not to prolong the life of the battery, even though that is a noble cause too. Your cell phone battery should easily last you a year or two with regular usage.

7. Fire the fan; hire the window

   Instead of turning on the A/C or even the fan during summer, open each and every window in the house about half way, and make sure nothing obstructs them directly. You can put a small cover or even a notebook for privacy if you wish. Leave all the inside doors open in the house. With air coming in from every room in the house and all the rooms open, the circulating air will create a very nice flow of air in about an hour unless your unit is built or blocked like a stuffed labyrinth. Make sure you close any doors to any rooms that do not have a window, like closets, bathrooms with only ventilators, laundry rooms and more.

   In winter, instead of turning the heater or the A/C with a heater on, close all the windows and the doors of the rooms with windows in them and instead open up the doors to places like your kitchen, your closets and your laundry room. This will rotate the cycle and allow more closed/hot areas to be able to waste the cold air.

8. Build seasonal relationships with your rooms

   Adapt your habits around rooms with the least power consumption. For example, if during summer one of the rooms is the coolest and you are feeling too warm, move your most active activities, like doing your homework or using your laptop, to that room, while making sure that you limit any introduction of new electricity usage into that room. Do the opposite during winter, moving into the hottest room of the house if you are feeling too cold. Leave most doors open during summer, and leave most doors and windows closed during winters.

9. Make your home the backup home

   This is also one of the most practical steps that can also change your life from the day you start doing it: move most of your activities out of your house. Go to the library to study or use your laptop there or charge your phone there. Go to the nearest public garden or something else that may help you relax. Use public computers to do your MySpacing or whatever it is that you do online to stalk others or be stalked. Exercise outside, even in your patio or in the parking lot somewhere early in the morning or late at night if you are shy or want to hide yourself while exercising⁶ If it is summer, go to the library and enjoy the nice cool atmosphere there. If it is the winter, do the same and places like a library or university buildings will be warmer than the outside.

The above brief guide is a practical pointer to some very basic things that can help curb electricity consumption immediately. The batteries step alone will save you around $8 to $25 every year or so, averaging to about $1 to around $2 of savings per month that you get usually every 6 to 9 months, depending on how often you usually buy batteries.

Measure your meter and observe your detailed electric bills

After about 12 hours of following any of the above lifestyle tips, go back out and recheck the electric meter. Measure its speed again using the same exact measurement and compare it to the previous 2 measurements. Has the dial slowed down? While this is not the perfect measurement to see whether or not you are consuming less electricity, the dial itself should hopefully let you know that you have started to save electricity. The next electric bill should reflect that change also.

If you wish and if your electric company allows it, you can request a detailed daily summary bill that will tell you the daily consumption by your apartment or house. That way, you can see how the electric consumption had been for about 20-50 days before you tried the above steps, and how it turned out to be after you tried any of the above steps. If you want to plan even more, you can perform different steps or combination of the above steps every 2 to 3 days and then see the detailed bill to see how big of a drop in electric usage each step or combinatorial step brought for you every 2 to 3 days.

If you pay your electricity bill directly to a landlord of any sort, let that landlord know that you have reduced your electricity consumption and ask them if you could work out a lower electric bill by looking at the bill. If the landlord does not wish to share the bill, have them analyze it to see the drop in the electric consumption.

Thank you for reading. Do you feel the poor electric shock yet?

I hope the above article helps you in even the least form to save some money by changing your habits that revolve around electricity consumption. Remember, being poor is a blessing that can be further changed to become a blessing with money, but wasting money can be one of the biggest curses, specially if you do not have enough money for things that you consider basic and essential to your survival.

What do you think of the above steps or guidelines? Do you think some or all of them could work in most or all situations? Do you have any experience with any of the above? Would you recommend or not recommend anything? Do you have any tips, suggestions or comments of your own? Please let me know what you think.

The next time we continue this series, I will show you the Poor Practical Guide to Surviving Without Much Money by selling stuff that you already have.

Thank you for reading. Long live the poor and the not so poor!

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A keyboard allows you to interact with the computer. You use the keyboard to convey a lot of your thoughts so that the stupid computer can understand it. Sure, the new robots can take over the world on their own without using a keyboard to type commands into their own brain, but they still use the input and output mechanism. The keyboard usually tries to provide us with the former. The original keyboard we are talking about here includes both the actual and original original 5-pound keyboard that plugs into a computer, and the actual keyboard that many people, who cannot easily type into a keyboard, use their eyes or touch or sound to command their computers to type through automatically.

But is the keyboard only a way for us to tell something to the stupid computer? No. A keyboard is much more than that. The meaning of the keyboard has been lost so much that talking about a keyboard itself qualifies as an archaic person in the eyes of many. Let me talk about the useful archaic nature of the keyboard in different ways, so that the keyboard and the concept of being archaic can be appreciated.

Transformation - new devices, on-screen monitors, etc

Slowly, gradually, and maybe surely, the keyboard is slowly slipping away from not only the minds of everyone and everything, but also from their access. We have touch based screens now, eliminating the need for the standard keyboard. We have styluses flirting with touch-based screens doing all the inputting, and we have hand-cuffed and non-handcuffed mouses running around, trying to bypass the powers that the keyboard had originally started to provide to others.

One of the biggest things was laptops. Oh yes, the laptops came with the keyboard built in. It made the original keyboard feel weird. It was not jealousy; it was a feeling that the real power will never be fully unleashed, and that the archaic powerhouse that can continue delivering forever was being replaced. Here was a replacement built into a replacement for the actual computer. Replacement within a replacement that was a replacement for a replacement. “Wow“, the keyboard thought. Aaah yes, the “Wow” that comes to mind not because of gratitude or complaint, but because of realizing what is being valued, what should be valued, and what is not being valued. It goes a bit along the lines of sadness, actually.

The keyboard is being evolved without its permission, and without it. It is being phased out with newer technology.

Abused when you get mad, ignored when you become happy

The keyboard is the most traumatized being in the computing world. When you get an e-mail from your ex or from a boss or a friend that you do not like, you first curse at the monitor. The monitor is used to hearing this, and the monitor, even though it has gone through a lot of therapy, can easily ignore you. The second rush of anger and frustrations lands on the keyboard: literally. You slam the keyboard, you smash it, you curse at it, you start typing really hard in order to vent your emotions or to express yourself while you react to the e-mail or anything that the monitor shows or does not show. Other forms of original keyboards from the earlier decades that were commanded using different methods like sign, sound and other things for people who could not easily type also suffered such madness: you either used them less, typed faster or cursed more at your touchless keyboards.

Of course, sometimes the monitor plays a game on the keyboard, if the keyboard was not nice or something. The monitor will show error messages or ugly emails from people you do not like. What happens then? You pound the keyboard. You try to break it. You try to assume that the person you hate is the keyboard, and you start taking revenge. Sometimes the monitor laughs. Sometimes the monitor starts ignoring. Sometimes the monitor goes “Oh $%^&“, after realizing the kind of psycho the keyboard is being beaten by.

The poor keyboard has suffered almost 40 years of such abuse. Even when the keyboard patient came to me for therapy, I could not do anything other than to listen and try to help the keyboard myself: the police does not allow keyboards to file restraining orders against their owners.

One of the real forms of depressions comes when you become happy and you do not express such happiness onto the keyboard. When was the last time you kissed the keyboard when you got a good email? The closest you have come to showing affection is to not slam on the keyboard when you are happy. The keyboard is a very thankful entity, since the keyboard is happy with not being abused whenever there is a chance of being abused.

Feelings, broken relationships with mouse and others, etc

The mouse was the first and only true sidekick to the keyboard. It was more of a handcuffed relationship, where both the keyboard and the mouse were handcuffed to a machine that controlled both of them. Together, the keyboard and the mouse gave millions of people ways to control and dominate and make a slave out of the machine called “a computer.” And the keyboard and the mouse did it all while being handcuffed.

Then one day they witnessed something bizarre. There were new slaves on the block. It is not yet known which one came first, but all of a sudden, slowly but surely, the new keyboard and mouse duo were coming over to replace these previous handcuffed slaves. What was so special about these new replacements? After all, they were also going to do the exact same job as the original keyboard and mouse? Well, there was only one different thing about these replacements. This difference would mark an era of new advancements that would make the original keyboard realize that not only was the end near for the original mouse, but also for the keyboard her/him/itself.

The new replacement keyboard and mouse were not handcuffed. They would operate with a lot of cooperation without the need to be tied to a gigantic machine that was almost 30 times their size. “Fear“, the new keyboard thought. It probably was fear, a fear so great that even without any way to hold them down, these new keyboard and mouse duo would not run away. Sure, they would sometimes not obey orders, but such disobedience would result in either replacement of blood through torturing experiments or in complete disappearance with new replacements replacing the replacements which were meant to replace the originals. Even if it was not fear, the keyboard and the mouse realized what was going on.

So important, yet so uncared for

The keyboard usually does not get much attention, even after going through events such as seeing his/her/its own replacement. The keyboard gets the least care in many houses, even though it is the most widely used external peripheral along with the monitor. The monitor screen gets cleaned more regularly than a keyboard. You can drop something on the keyboard, but you cannot drop anything on the monitor. If your monitor gets a scratch, you try to repair the monitor or get a new one. If your keyboard gets scratched, harassed, molested, beaten up and more, you try to replace the broken keys or you keep using it as long as the buttons are there. For the original keyboards commanded through sound or movement of other devices for people who cannot type easily into the keyboard, such an aura of uncare also stems onto such keyboard systems in different ways. Of course, usually, if your mouse gets dirty, you clean it. You can easily pound on a keyboard key if it does not push easily, but you will not abuse a mouse if its buttons or its ball bearing does not work properly.

Of course, the keyboard is thankful that you keep using the keyboard after such incidents, since throwing away the keyboard in the trashcan is not good in my eyes or in the eyes of the keyboard.

Where it’s headed?

Just like other things that aid others with utmost honesty and no self interest and whose status is considered archaic, the original keyboard is being aimed at the darkness. The dark side is willing to accept the keyboard, but not you. You prefer the wireless keyboard, the built-in keyboard in laptops and desktops, and you prefer manual dials and the mini-wireless mouse and the touch-screen monitors which have they keyboard software and recognition built in.

To make sure the meaning is understood: Keyboards do have some self interest. They want to help and they want to be helped or liked or listened to, like many others. Of course, like many of us, keyboards remain quiet, they keep doing their work, they keep helping in every way possible, and they keep going through the stages of not being thanked or appreciated simply because they do not know a world where they can manipulate like others. The original keyboard gets plugged into a world and it wants to start working right away. Little does the keyboard know that it is archaic, for the new ideas keep stemming up simply because they can stem up.

The life of the keyboard

That is the life of the keyboard. May all the universe realize the real reason of the keyboard and the reason behind its behavior, even if the real reason behind its life cannot be easily understood, or if such a reason is considered unimportant by everyone who wants to stop dreaming about the original, wired keyboard. It is time I stop using my laptop-keyboard in order to end this micro-biography of the keyboard: my laptop-keyboard cannot understand why anyone, even an archaic person like me, wants to talk about the original archaic keyboard.

Have you ever met the original keyboard? Do you still know or remember the original keyboard?

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The 12 year old won’t give me my $8 back

The 12 year old kid by the street sells me cookies, takes my $10 first and then, only after I have taken the first bite, says that he does not have the $8 change, and that I should come back tomorrow to get discounted cookies from the money he owes me; cannot damn him, since the cookies are either really good or they have drugs in them. The sub-sandwich store gives me a $5 coupon valid for 3 days only for a new sandwich they have, and this sandwich costs $8 more than their current, most expensive sandwich.

I return a defective electronic item I buy at an electronic store to get back my $389 in cash, since I paid cash, and I am told to either wait 5 weeks for a refund check, or to get their store gift card with $389 on it, which I can only use to buy more electronics from the same store.

You want me to pay you to lure me in? Sure.

The funny thing is that despite all the typical bias many people have against businesses and entities which take your money, each one does provide me with a service before trying to lure me in. Maybe I like paying people to seduce me?

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1. You own an iPod, or something similar.

   Think of the iPod as a luxury. Majority of the world cannot afford to buy food once a day, yet you have an iPod. You could have gotten the iPod as a gift from someone, or you could have bought it yourself. Now, how does this make sure that you are not poor? If you ask someone to lend you $100, while your iPod can be sold for $70, it means you want someone else to be inconvenienced by them giving you their money, while you do not want to give up listening to your iPod. Similarly, if you have something along the same lines, like a new laptop, and cannot part with it, you may not be poor. You can easily sell a laptop and get some money for it.

   Exceptions: Your job may depend on the laptop, or in some very rare cases, the iPod. Someone close to you may have given you the iPod and thus you cannot sell it, or else they will be greatly offended. Your iPod may probably be so old that you can only get $5 from it while you do not have money to pay the rent, which costs a couple of thousand dollars, etc. Of course, I can also say that if you can get $5 from your iPod, it means you are doing your best to make sure you utilize every resource possible before feeling that you are helpless and poor.

2. You can afford to buy a home or pay rent

   Home is another important factor that people and society have worked together to create. If you can afford to buy a home or pay rent for your current place of living, you are most probably not poor. Some ways to save money could be to cut off on living expenses: using less electricity, finding a cheaper place, selling off the home, renting a room to someone, etc.

   Exceptions: Even if you find a cheaper place, you may still not have the money you need. You may also already have the cheapest place anyone could get, unless you had a gun to force the landlord into lowering your rent. However, a gun usually costs money, so a really poor person may not be able to afford that. Unless, however, you use a knife to get a gun, but a knife costs too. Unless you use…..ok, never mind.

3. You can buy large combo meals from fast food places every day

   Food prices are a good way to measure the performance of an economy, and food is also a good way to measure the strength of your bank account, if you have one. If you can buy at least 2 large combo meals at McDonald’s or Carls. Jr.s every day, you are probably not poor. Why? You can buy cheaper stuff at grocery stores and cook things yourself for weeks, saving more than half the money you spend in a month on fast food.

   Exceptions: You don’t know how to cook, you do not have a kitchen, you get gift cards or coupons for the fast food purchase, etc.

4. You can buy the things you want

   The things you need are usually different than the things you want. Wanting to eat food daily is something you need. Wanting to buy coffee and chocolate everyday, in addition to other kinds of food, can be something you want. If you can afford to buy things that can be avoided on a regular basis, chances are you are not poor. Paying for a blog, host, design and extra features for your site just for a hobby also means that you are probably not poor since you can afford such a thing.

   I knew this guy once who would drink coffee 3 times a day, finish a pack of premium cigarettes every day, buy food supplies and also eat at fast food places multiple times a day. On top of that, he would ask from time to time to lend him something so he could pay his rent. I calculated his expenses with him and in front of him, and figured that he was spending around $250 for the things I just listed above. How much did he want me to lend him? Around $100 or so. I told him about this, and he stopped being friendly after that.

   Exceptions: You are addicted to smoking. By addicted, I do not mean that if you do not smoke you feel weird. No, feeling weird for not smoking is an excuse for people who want a lame excuse to keep spending money. By addicted, I mean if you stop smoking or drinking you feel extreme depression, or you get seizures and have to go to the hospital, etc. Also, without things like coffee, you may actually get literal headaches throughout the day resulting in you getting admitted to the hospital. Also, things like blog may maintain your sanity by allowing you to express yourself, and without that, you would be poor and insane, though some can say that such a reason is simply an excuse to spend on your blog while you do not have enough money for offline things.

   Another important exception to this rule is if you are Bes: Bes needs and wants chocolate every single day; no exception to this rule. Period. Bes used to give packs of chocolate to homeless people before someone threw it back at Bes and yelled “I want some change! What the HELL am I gonna do with that?” Bes apologized and moved on, and ever since, Bes has been thinking of never giving away any chocolate, but keeping it in the fridge to devour while writing posts at night.

5. You can buy things for others

   If you can buy things for others, you are most probably the opposite of poor. You may be rich. There is nothing wrong with buying a $500 watch for your boy/girlfriend, but there is something wrong with buying a $500 watch to impress someone and asking someone else to lend you $200 for your car payment at the same time.

   Exceptions: You feel your job or some relationship depends on you buying something for others so much, that you do not even have enough money for some personal things, like your own rent, enough food, etc. Sure, such an exception means you do not know how to have a good relationship and are in touch with the wrong people, but it also means that you may be poor and cannot help it. Another exception may be that you are raising a child or someone, and you want that child or anyone depending on your financially to be really happy, and thus you are sacrificing your own financial happiness.

I hope this list helps you realize whether or not you are really poor. Also, if you want to borrow money from someone, you may think twice before asking someone to part with their money, while you do not part with yours.

Can you think of more things to add to this list?

A good next topic could be “5 situations in which you wish you were poor.” Thanks for reading.

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And I think my “ass” felt threatened. The woman started saying that she would kick my “ass” if I didn’t disappear. I just wanted to talk on the phone. I didn’t care about my freedom to go away at that point. I didn’t care about my freedom to drive at that point. I didn’t care about freedom to say stuff at that point. All I cared about was the freedom to talk on my god damn Kyocera phone, and the freedom to sit in that exact spot. Besides, the last time I checked, I paid the freaking taxes for the bench I was sitting on.

The screaming woman didn’t care; she kept yelling that she will beat the crap out of me, and she kept repeating that at the top of her lungs. Some rubberneckers started to stare at me. They were probably wondering who this guy was that could infuriate a lady so much. I got tired of standing. Screw this woman. I sat back down. For a moment, I felt like Rosa Parks defying a screaming lady’s demands.

“HEY YOU ASSHOLE!! YOU GONNA MOVE???” I looked at her with a serious face and nodded a no. I was talking on a cell phone. To heck with this lady, since I wasn’t bothering her directly at all. As a method of retaliation, she started picking up her papers and started throwing them on the other side of the bus stop. Her retaliatory methods encouraged me to keep sitting.

Finally fed up with this woman, I decided to embark on a case of hired mayhem. I ended up hiring a robotic-armed woman as my secret agent to silence the screaming woman who had a fetish with the spot my ass was parked on. How did I achieve such a feat? Read on….

The screaming woman, furious and crying like a little baby, yelled (even louder than before), “WILL SOMEBODY GIVE ME MY SPOT BACK? HE FUCKING TOOK IT!”

There were other people sitting on the bench, and I had changed my bench spot several times by sliding from one end to the other. She simply had a problem with me and my cell phone existing in this part of the universe. The homeless woman with the robotic arm came around again and asked if I had some change. I smiled a sorry face and nodded a no, and then I had an idea! I motioned the one-armed woman to come back and took out a $5 bill, and pointed at the yelling woman, who was still yelling, and made some figures with my hand to show that she was talking a lot.

“Get this woman off my back.” I implied with my gestures and figures.

Then, while I was on the phone, listening, I pointed at the one-armed woman and made a zipper type gesture on my mouth. The robotic lady computed for a few seconds, looked at the other woman, and then smiled with a huge grin and then looked at me and whispered “More.”

She had understood what I wanted, and she wanted more money. I looked at the screaming woman; she had taken out her cell phone and was doing something on it, while still screaming like crazy.

I looked at the one-armed woman, and then took out another $10. The one-armed woman said “More“, so I took out another $20. She immediately took the $35 with her menacing robotic claws, put her index finger on her lips as if telling me to be patient or silent, and then walked off in the other direction.

I was stumped! I thought “Wow, $35 given away for nothing!” I myself wanted to scream at the robotic lady, wanting to tell her “At least do something before walking off with my money to buy a stainless steal cleaner for your robotic arm!”

Then…

The iron-arm secret agent strikes!

I was sitting, looking in the other direction, almost starting to become moody as the lady kept yelling all sorts of profanity at me. Then, all of a sudden, I heard a huge “AAAAH” scream, from some female. I heard some people scream too. I looked in the direction of the screaming woman and noticed she was on the floor.

“What happened?” I thought in ignorance as the robotic woman jumped on the threatening lady and proceeded to beat the crap out of her.

The screaming women started pulling hair and kicked my robotic savior, and the two started shuffling on Shattuck street between Center & Allston, stopping the oncoming traffic from Center.

Many people started running towards them, some trying to get them off. The one-armed woman had fulfilled her promise; she had shut up the woman for $35, though I never imagined it would be through a fist fight. I wonder if I missed the actual action scene, with the iron-fist hitting the screaming woman from the side, while she was still screaming. Who needs to go see action movies in a movie theatre when I can direct my own, action-packed movie for only $35. Talk about reality TV.

The two women were finally separated from each other by some nearby people, and the robotic woman started walking towards me. Some guy tried to stop her from simply walking away and she yelled with her iron arm pointing at the guy, “YOU WANT MY DAMN ARM UP YOUR ASS?” The guy backed off, scared.

The screaming woman started to push and hit others around her, so people started wondering if everyone in the universe was crazy. As the iron-clawed woman approached me, she started saying out loud, “Put down the fucking phone and walk away foooo’” She started sprinting and it was an epic scene; have you ever seen a woman with a robotic claw hand running down on Shattuck street, or any street in the world? I knew I had to move now, no matter what. I couldn’t just put the phone down, so I started walking towards Fed-Ex again. I stood outside it for a few minutes, watching the chaos that Bes had just created from across the street. After the important phone call finished, I went into Fed-ex and started faxing the things I wanted to fax. I kept checking outside every few minutes to see what was going on. The police had arrived, and they were probably asking different people different things. No one was pointing towards me, which was good. Within 20 minutes or so, the street was clear again and there she was, the screaming woman, sitting at the same spot. Some people never learn.

I left FedEx Kinko’s and started walking towards my car. I got into the car, wondering about what had happened. That was probably the 7th nice incident that had happened to Bes on that same day, so it was noted in Bes’s memory for future reference. If only Bes could write a book, it would be awesome (I’m accepting pre-purchases).

I started driving down the street and had to stop at the red light. The light was one light before the screaming lady’s bench area. I heard the same lady screaming again, so I thought she had spotted me and was alerting everyone again. I looked in her direction, surprised. She had not spotted me. She was yelling at some girl who was sitting at a bench near the bus stop. The girl didn’t have any cell phone on her, but she did have a terrified look on her face as she got up and started walking away really fast. I wonder why the screaming woman got mad at her. If only that terrified girl had thirty five dollars.

Perception ruled almost everything

The screaming woman viewed the whole scene as being able to be solved by her yelling at me, without perceiving my situation. I had looked at the situation considering the idea that anyone can sit at bus stops, and that I was not bothering anyone, and that the woman was not homeless. Many homeless people have territories in the Bay Area, so if you invade that space, they can get upset. The screaming lady was surely not homeless, so I thought the invasion of territory shouldn’t be significant. The one-clawed woman/male/something assassin had looked at the entire perspective based on how he/she/it could return some value to me for the $35 I gave to the iron claws, and hitting the other woman seemed the only way for her to achieve some useful results. The imagined or perceived perception of everything resulted in three different characters causing a chain of events that the universe observed.

Who said one-clawed people were evil and not trustworthy? Chaotic, yes. Extreme, yes. But trustworthy, I think. Or at least this one-clawed human being was.

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Following are 5 random reasons you may be hiding from other people online on instant messengers and other forms of live, instant communication.

1. You are busy

   You may be working on some projects online, or you may be researching something online. You may even have accidentally opened your instant messenger program to check e-mails or something. However, someone has caught you, and now they are continuously talking about different things. In the future, you just remain offline or invisible because you are busy and do not want to be disturbed. You may even be just wanting to go to sleep at night, and thus you turn off your instant messenger or your computer.

2. You think you have done something wrong

   You may have stolen someone’s design or ideas. You may have even said or done something in public, whether good or bad, and may want to avoid people who may ask you embarrassing questions. For example, I know people who have tried to hide from online people because one of them told his friends that he was gay, and the other one told her friends about dating a close friend’s ex. Whatever the reason, you may feel as if your action of any sort may be being taken in a negative manner, even if what you did was a good thing in your view.

3. You want to avoid the other person

   You may have some grudge or some feeling against another person. You may even have strong, good feelings for the other person. You may simply not want to talk to a person because you want to talk to them for long, and you may not have enough free time right now. Such feelings and thoughts may result in you wanting to avoid that specific person only. One of the ways to do that would be to stay offline, to block someone, or to even come online during times when the other person is usually not online.

4. You do not know how to, or do not want to, interact with others online

   One of the things many people may not realize is that they may not be good at communicating and interacting with others, either offline or online, or even both. People may be shy, or they may not feel like talking to people most of the time. Whatever the reason may be, many people come online only to talk about specific, absolutely necessary things like personal or business related issues, and then they go offline right away.

   You may also simply not like communicating with others. That is why going online and telling others about your daily personal events or even work-related jokes may not sound appealing to you.

5. You have a great offline life

   This can probably be the simplest or the most complex reason for many people. For you, your offline life overshadows the online one completely, and there is probably nothing online that you cannot find in your offline life. You prefer being offline, as it makes you more happy. You do not feel the need to go online that much, or at all. Cell phones, meeting people in person, mailing postal letters, doing offline activities, and even e-mailing people sounds better to you than chatting instantly with people online.

That is a list of various reasons you and others may want to hide from other online people. These are not the only reasons people hide from others online, though these reasons will give you a good idea how our own personal and offline mentality about things is resulting in us applying many offline principles to the online world.

Can you think of more reasons why you or someone else may be hiding from others in the online world of chats and instant messengers? Do you agree with the above points, or disagree with any point? Have you ever thought about such a topic and such reasons? What is your opinion on this?

Thank you for reading.

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1. How is school/work going?

   Many people will either have good or bad experiences at places they study or work at, and even if they have a boring experience, it is something that can spur up a conversation. I like asking this question as it is nice to know what people think of two things that they may be doing more than most of other things in their life: study or work.

2. How is the weather?

   Almost everyone you ask such a question randomly, will have at least something to say about it. I like such a question as I sometimes like comparing the weather I may be experiencing, good or bad, with what other areas in the world are experiencing. For example, I love the rain, so if it has not rained for a while in my area, I may ask you if it has rained in your area. Why? Probably because I miss the rain.

3. Have you seen any movies lately?

   You can probably talk for hours if you ask some people any question about their favorite movie. Many people see movies regularly, as it is an activity that can be a hobby for many. This can be a very good question to not only carry on a conversation, but to start discussing a lot of things related to what is shown in almost any specific movie. I love asking this question because I love watching movies, and I want to find out about movies I have not seen, and I want to find out what people think of different movies, and watching movies in general.

4. So, what are you doing up so late at night?

   “Talking to you, of course!” This question can be asked when a conversation has literally stopped. The “So” word basically allows you to change the direction of any topic, if it has not stopped already, to something new. Finding out why one is up so late is not the destination for such a question; the reason why one is up is what you are after, as that will allow you to come up with some new topics. I like asking this question as it tells me more about the late night habits of other people, unless the other person is in some country where it is daytime, while it is night time in my area.

5. What did you eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner?

   This is a question you will rarely hear someone asking you, but this is a good thing to ask, since the topic of food can be a very typical one, and special too, for many people. Almost everyone will have an answer to this question, and it should give you some time or direction to steer a conversation towards something, including the concept of eating food or favorite restaurants. I love asking this question because I like eating food. I also ask this question when I am very hungry.

Thank you for reading. What is your opinion about these questions? Can you think up of some other questions that can do a similar trick? These questions may not only allow you to carry on a conversation, but they may actually become interesting to you after you have learned to use them for a while.

So, what did you have for lunch today?

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Being inconsiderate offline

Almost every week I talk to some friends who tell me about how they ran into some people who had no manners because they did not respect the culture, religion, political view or something else that my friend believed in. However, people usually do not talk about their own character not having any rules or views on how one should be accommodating of other views. For example, if a certain culture dictates how someone should eat, it can be very hard to find any rule or cultural characteristic that dictates how one can let someone eat anyway they want, if they did not subscribe to certain cultural trends.

If a culture, religion, or any other guideline view about something in life about is not accommodating of people who want to do things their own way while not hurting others, why can we ourselves not be more considerate to and of others and still follow our culture and our rules? If our culture or religion does not consider other conflicting views, does that mean our culture and religion is not good? Why can people not be all right with others doing the same thing in different ways? Does everyone have to have the same religion? Does everyone have to have the same culture? Does everyone need to have the same political view? Does everyone need to do everything in the same exact manner? As long as someone is doing something and not hurting others directly and intentionally, why can we not be happy with them, coexist with them, and even incorporate them and their views into our own lives?

Being inconsiderate online

I run into many blogs daily where people get upset over someone having differing view about something then them. A blogger may get upset and feel offended if someone else talks about contradictory views on religion, politics, or even blogging. However, should we not have the quality of being considerate to other views? Why can our own online views, such as blogging rules, dictate something like “We will treat and deal with the people who have the exact same views as us, in exactly the same manner as the people who have different views“?

Why is it that I cannot write something, like saying that blogging is just a stupid fad, without getting people to attack me without any reason? Being inconsiderate does not mean that you do not disagree with others. Being inconsiderate means that you cannot live normally while knowing that people have different views. The only reason we may be upset at others online, and thus be inconsiderate to them, is because those other people are going after ideas that we ourselves have either not thought of, or we have decided not to utilize them. We do not disrespect and disagree with others people because we believe we are right; we disrespect and disagree with others because they have a different view and because they do not subscribe to our views.

This mentality creates a little dilemma, if one believes in the concept of applying a theory to different things; does everyone then, when following the concept of being considerate to others, need to follow the same standards online? Why can we not have more blogs without any RSS feeds? Why can we not have nonstandard, and strange, labeling around a site, like the word “Backroad” instead of “Archives“? Why can we not have more blogs without the comment feature? One of the grand questions of all: if we want to be considerate to others, why can we not be comfortable with blogs that deliberately aim to be inconsiderate?

Do you think the concept of being considerate to others has any value for you?

What is your view on this? Do we have to criticize or hate every instance of something that we disagree with? Could that be the reason why many married and dating couples look like brothers and sisters, because many people want to find someone who not only acts like them but also looks like them? Can human beings, as a whole, ever have a mentality where they not only respect different views and people, but they also make it a part of their own character to revolve their own views and character on such a thing? We we, as individuals, easily have a mentality where we are not only considerate to others, but where we also revolve our own ideas and beliefs around the idea of letting other ideas and beliefs prosper within our own life domain?

I am touching the introduction of this touchy subject very lightly, as this subject probably defines the lives of many people out there, and deserves more than just a single post that was written while Bes was hungry. Do you agree or disagree with this?

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User participation

• Comments - increase or decrease in number of blog comments
• Visitors - increase or decrease in number of blog visitors
• Feed/Email subscribers - increase or decrease in number of e-mail or RSS feed subscribers for your blog

Blogger participation

• Posts - whether you write posts more or less regularly on your blog
• Design - whether you change or keep the same blog design
• Content - whether you add more types of content on your blog, like photos, audio files, videos, etc

These two categories can give you an idea on how you can think about where your blog will be in the future. You can also look at anything else on your blog to see how or where you see your blog in a year, like the fonts you choose, the type of topics you pursue, etc. It is your blog. You define your blog future.

What do you think? Where do you see your blog in 1 year? Where do you see your blog in 6 months, 3 months or even 1 month?

Please let me know what you think, thank you.

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Hoping for comments vs. expecting comments

Expecting comments : You feel that readers have an obligation to comment on your blog.

Hoping for comments : You feel that readers do not have an obligation to comment on your blog.

So, do you expect your blog readers to comment, or do you hope that they will comment? Or do you combine the above two feelings together and come up with something different when it comes to blog comments? Why and how did you arrive at those conclusions or views related to reader comments?

Please let me know, thank you.

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1. Brushing teeth
2. Eating breakfast
3. Doing laundry [if you skip this today to blog instead, imagine you have to wait a week before doing laundry again]
4. Finding out the latest news [Reading a newspaper, watching news online or on tv, or listening to the news via radio]
5. Exercising in the morning
6. Showering
7. Spending time, romantic and non-romantic, with your significant other
8. Combing hair
9. Cleaning the house - considering the fact that if you do not clean right away, there might be ants or insects by the time you get back home
10. Taking a 10 minute nap, considering the fact that you are not feeling well because of not having enough sleep for days

What would you give up for blogging, and what would you not give up for blogging? Please let me know, thank you.

Ronald helped me with the above list. Thanks Ronald.

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I think this is one of the hardest memes ever. I also think this is one of the best memes ever. A point about a goal in life? A point about several goals in life? That is so hard! I think life itself is here so we can find out what our goals are. Along the way, we can figure out a few things we would love to have to see in our lifetime. There are a few such things for me. I just focused on one point and decided to write about it below, because if I start wondering which goal or point in life to write about, I might spend a long time thinking and not actually writing. I would like to list a goal in my life here:

Find out whether goals involving only myself are more important than goals involving others

This is one of the most interesting questions in my life. Do I focus on myself, or do I focus on others? Is a secluded life better for me than a life spent among others? Can I live a life where I keep my entire personal life private from others, yet at the same time I blend with others to be part of other people’s lives in order to live life together? If you know me in person, you probably know the answer to those questions. I ask myself everyday whether or not focusing on myself can be good and better than simply helping others all the time.

Some people help others to feel better. Some people help others to find out more about themselves. Among the many other reasons, I think I help others for two main reasons because of my experiences in life:

1. Bes cannot imagine helpless people in misery or pain, both mental and physical, conscious or unconscious, direct or indirect
2. To figure out more about Bes each and every moment of life.

Thank you again Carolyn!

Thank you again Carolyn for tagging me with yet another amazing meme. As usual, I would like to tag anyone who would like to be tagged. Please write a post or comment below, or comment on Carolyn’s original post letting others know your goals, or one of your goals, in life. If you write a post, please be sure to give credit to Carolyn for this. I will link to you directly in this post through an update; you do not need to link back to this post.

Thank you for reading.

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Motivation in the offline world depends on real efforts to be useful

Self motivation is a good thing. Being motivated on your own can help you be more comfortable as you pursue different goals. However, motivation is usually reliant on emotion. Emotions change. If you depend solely on motivation to do things, you are depending on a dynamic part of your life that can constantly change. Motivation is nothing without real action that backs it up.

For example, you might feel interested in building a wooden table. Reading books on the topic can motivate you. If you wait a month before starting any real work, you might lose interest in building a table and may move on to other things. If you find motivation to do something, you can work on that motivation and start achieving the goals you have in mind. Sitting around and thinking that you have motivation to make a wooden table is probably not going to result in anything useful.

Motivation online needs actual efforts to make a difference

Online things like blogging, commenting and even socializing with other people require some kind of an interest on your behalf. Successful blogging requires an enjoyable passion, and enjoyable passion and motivation require active efforts in order to be useful. Having the motivation to do something is not an achievement. Acting and utilizing your motivation to do something is an achievement. It may be hard to find the motivation to do things online, but it is even harder to act upon such a motivation when you find it. Even if you feel motivated daily because of your emotions, you still have to act and do something in order to get results you seek.

For example, I was thinking for a few years to start a separate photolog site. I had the motivation as I was already taking a lot of pictures and posting them on my Flickr account. However, I only kept thinking that I was motivated. I did not start any photolog site until 2006, when I decided to act on my motivation which was slowly fading away and start Eyeography. Simply having the motivation did not result in anything useful, but when I acted on that motivation, I created the site. I accomplished something only when I acted on my motivation.

Look for motivation only when you are willing to act

Motivation is important for a lot of people. I think I have realized over the years that even when I am passionate about some things and feel motivated, nothing actually changes until I act a little bit, regardless of the level of motivation I feel. Motivation is a tool that you realize exists for your situation; the only important thing to do is to do something by using such a tool. While feelings and thoughts are beautiful things to pursue, your actions are also needed in order to achieve something. Planning something with great care and passion because of being motivated is worth nothing until and unless you start carrying out your plan.

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