The Writer’s Coin

Outside the Box

Where I get to write on all things not writing or money related

I already posted on the guilt trip I had when I bought this phone last week, but that’s pretty much gone now that I’m learning all the cool stuff the phone can do. The app market has tons of cool programs you can download (and some useless ones), and that’s really where this guy shines.

Shop Savvy

The ShopSavvy tool is probably the one with the biggest wow factor:

Using the phone’s camera as a scanner is a freaking sweet idea and will change the way a person shops. Every time I show this to someone, they’re like “Oh my god, I have to have that.” Yes, you do have to have it.

Imeem

For those of you that know about Pandora, then this is basically what Imeem is. You start with a song or artist and then you fine tune that “station” by telling the program if you like a certain song or not. It works on the slower Edge network OK, but on 3G it doesn’t skip a beat. I can walk home and listen to my personalized radio station with no skipping, no waiting, no nothing. It’s pretty sweet. I did notice that some rap songs were edited for language, which kind of sucks, but whatever. It’s free music wherever I want it.

Iskoot

This is one that I have downloaded and sort of played with, but not all the way. This basically brings Skype to your phone. The only thing is that you will be charged minutes on every call you make. So let’s say I call my buddy in Nigeria, who is on his PC using Skype, then I won’t be charged for the call to Nigeria, but I will be charged the 20 minutes towards my plan that we spend chatting. That’s because it’s too much work for the phone to do all the maneuvering that Skype does on your PC, so Iskoot makes a call to their servers and they process all this information. So you’re “on the phone” even though you aren’t paying any long-distance charges. So if you want to talk for two hours, just go home. If you need to, say, ask your buddy if he wants the green jacket or the red one while you’re at the store, then you can ring him up and ask real quick. Neat.

Wi-Fi

Chicago is wired for 3G, so Wi-Fi is just an added bonus, but T-Mobile also lets you use any of their Wi-Fi hotspots, which are all over the city in places like Borders and even at the airport. So if I need to do some serious surfing I can take advantage of that. Also, since I’m an AT&T DSL customer, I get access to the Wi-Fi signal at Starbucks stores around the city, so that gives me even more coverage. I haven’t tried it out yet, but I researched the hell out of it and, yes, it should work.

Movies

I did a lot of research on this one too and it’s pretty straightforward to turn your favorite DVDs and TV shows into a nice, compact format that looks good on the phone. My 8GB memory card hasn’t arrived yet, so I haven’t started loading tons of stuff on the phone (it only comes with a 1GB card), so I haven’t gone nuts testing this yet.

Music

I have downloaded some of my music onto the phone and it sounds great, whether it’s through the speaker or through the headphones (which suck, by the way). I really want to test out the Amazon MP3 store but for now I’ve only used music I already own.

The Bad

This first-generation stuff is never perfect, and this phone is no exception. It gets very hot sometimes and the headphone jack is proprietary, so that sucks. It wouldn’t be a big deal if the headphones were good, but they suck, so you need an adapter. I’ve also had some lockups that froze my phone in sleep mode, so I had to reset my phone and so far that has fixed it. But the phone is open source, so if there is any issue, the community is fast to fix it and that’s pretty exciting.

All in all, I’m happy with my new phone. Long live Android.

If anyone else out there with a G1 has anything to add, please leave a comment.

PS. The other day I realized why I wanted this phone so badly instead of the comparable iPhone: everyone has the iPhone and I hate being a follower. Even though buying a phone like this (pretty much an iPhone) makes me a follower in itself, the G1 allowed me to buy into the trend without feeling like I did.

Tags: android, g1, imeem, iskoot, shop savvy, tmobile

Every time I receive the latest issue of Poets & Writers, it’s a treat and a reminder that I need to work more and devote more time to my writing. The latest issue is no exception, and it actually has a great interview with a guy named Chuck Adams, an editor at Algonquin Books.

Here are some of the fantastic tidbits from the interview:

What are you looking for in a piece of writing?

The first thing is the voice…I want a voice and I want to be hooked into a story.

Amen brother. This is something I’ve complained about a lot, especially with that “other” magazine subscription I have. When I start reading something, I want to feel like a unique person is talking to me, like this is something new I haven’t read before. Once that starts to blend into the story—if it’s good—I’m going to keep reading. Otherwise I’ll quit—and believe me, I will.

I think beginning writers tend not to think about a reader. They tend to think about themselves…they lose sight of the fact that they’re trying to entertain somebody. You have to reel them in.

I’ve been there: you start to get so sucked up in how you’re going to sound and what it’s going to mean about you that you forget about the person who will read it. They could care less about you. They want something entertaining and they will care more for your characters (if done right) then about the author.

What would your ideal author be like?
Someone who understands that, while they are happy with what they’ve done, there may be room for improvement…I may be wrong with the fix I suggest, but I’m not wrong with the need for a fix…

This feels like it’s mainly about ego. A lot of authors are convinced that something is perfect and shouldn’t be touched. I’m the type of writer that is so insecure about most of what he’s written that any kind of suggestion is a chance at getting better. I also like that he’s not telling writers “Hey, I’m right and this is the way you should fix it.” He’s saying, “this is not right, here is one way to fix it. Don’t like it? That’s cool, but this still needs fixing, don’t ignore it.” This Chuck Adams guy is all right, isn’t he?

Then he goes into a little diatribe about writers who feel “cheap” when it comes to selling their book:

Bullshit. That’s part of the process. You wrote the book for a reason: You want people to read it. Help us. Help us get it out there.

I think all writers know this feeling of doing something they consider “art” and then turning around and trying to commercialize it. It must feel weird (I’ll let everyone know once someone is buying what I’m selling) but like Chuck says, what’s the point otherwise? You may not have done it for the money, but you wanted people to read your stuff right? So promote the hell out of it so that more people get to read it.

He then goes on to explain the difference, in his opinion, between the big publishing houses and the smaller ones like Algonquin. This is where he really gets candid: he says that, when he worked at Simon & Schuster he was “not a good person sometimes.” He would use the name to lure writers in when maybe it wasn’t the best place for them. Of course, it could be that it’s because he now works at Algonquin, but this guy has earned some trust up to this point.

Anyway, this is the kind of person I would love to work with if I ever had a book out. Honest, refreshing, and intent on making the book and the author better.

Attaway Chuck.

Tags: chuck adams, editing, poets and writers, Writing

I love boxing. More specifically, I love to watch the weigh-in interviews when both fighters are so cocky and so convinced that they’re going to knock the other guy out. If you don’t know anything about their records or their abilities (which I usually don’t), then you’d be hard pressed to pick a winner from listening to them talk. Each one seems legitimately convinced that they’re going to—not only win, but completely annihilate their opponent. It’s a blast to watch because you know one of them is 100% dead wrong. I love that.

Anyway, boxing has a real lesson to teach us about personal finance and spending. More specifically (love that phrase), when certain situations come up like an emergency, a product comes out that you just have to buy, or something else.

It all comes down to one thing: preparation. When boxers step into the ring, take off their robe, and dance around the ring, the match has already been decided. Very little of what the boxers do from that point on has any effect on the match. Confused? Think about it: they’ve trained for months, worked out, gotten into the best possible shape, gone over strategy, film, and talked to their trainers extensively about how they’re going to approach the fight. All the work has already been done—now it’s up to the fighter to just go in there and execute. Granted, the match could bring unexpected surprises, but a boxer can’t win the match without preparing. Even a “perfect” match won’t bring the boxer a win if he hasn’t done all the preparation beforehand.

The boxing world has seen it countless times: boxers that are superior fighters losing out to lesser opponents because they didn’t prepare properly. Whether it’s not being in shape or not working on footwork or not tailoring the approach to the specific strengths and weaknesses of the other fighter.

The same goes with your finances. You may not have an emergency fund, a budget, or realize how much you’re spending on frivolous things like chocolate ice cream every month—and that’s fine. But when the sh** hits the fan—when that bell rings—you’re in some serious trouble. If you lost your job or if your car needs a new johnson rod, it’s going to be a rude awakening.

What I’m trying to say is that what you do at the specific moment that a situation comes up has very little impact on how well or how badly it goes. Most of the work has to be done beforehand, when things seem to be going fine. Think about any sport under the sun and you’ll see how much sense this makes.

• A marathoner can’t “will” himself to win a race if he hasn’t trained thoroughly.
• You can’t decide to throw a 94mph fastball by a hitter if you haven’t worked up to that.
• You can’t skip ahead to level 17 of your favorite video game and expect to clear it.

Preparation is key. The problem is that we don’t see the warning flags that something needs to be prepared for until it’s too late. So take this article as an uppercut to your face and snap out it! Better to realize now that you need to get ready before you have more than you can handle on your plate.

Everything I know about boxing I learned from watching old ESPN Classic fights, the books Rope Burns and Cut Time, and the movies Million Dollar Baby and The Power of One. So all this comes accompanied with a fine grain of salt. Enjoy.

One of my favorite phrases out there is “You stay ready, you ain’t got to get ready.” I don’t know whose phrase it is, but I remember seeing some random guy on MTV saying it years ago and it stuck with me. Think about it: it’s brilliant!

Tags: boxing, emergencies, personal finance, preparation, rope burns

I had never heard of Ben Fountain until I starter hearing some buzz for his book of short stories, Brief Encounters with Che Guevara. I made a note of the good buzz his book had going for him and I moved on. Then I read this article in the New Yorker about him and how long it took him to publish said book. It’s a fascinating read and it’s one of the reasons I’m content with subscribing to said magazine.

Anyway, his story resonated with me. He sat down at his kitchen table to write and 18 years later he had his book out. Eighteen years! Every writer is familiar with what happened in between: rejection and a lot of hard work. He quit his job as an attorney and devoted himself to writing—here’s a guy that’s real easy to cheer for.

Any writer wishes they could do this—stay home and devote all your time and energy to the craft. How was he able to pull this off? His wife made enough money for the both of them and she understood how he felt about writing:

…she believed in her husband’s art…

“Sharie never once brought up money, not once—never…”

“I never felt any pressure from her,” he said. “Not even covert, not even implied.”

But my favorite line is:

But sometimes genius is anything but rarefied; sometimes it’s just the thing that emerges after twenty years of working at your kitchen table.

I love that line because most of us think of genius as something you are born with. Artists that simply create and boom—they’ve made a masterpiece. Ben Fountain’s story shows the other side of that coin. Someone who worked hard and polished his craft for 18 years. He got better and better and kept working—the man never gave up.

And all this coming from someone who hates hearing that you can achieve anything with hard work and perseverance. It’s cliché and it’s not always true: some people work hard and try hard and never get anywhere. But I believe in Ben Fountain’s story. I have to—I consider myself to be in the same boat. I’m sitting at the kitchen table right now, at 5:42am, trying to become a better writer. Trying to do whatever I can to see if there isn’t a little bit of genius in there somewhere.

[by the way, the above picture is of Ben Fountain in one of my favorite places in the world: St. Malo in France. Full circle...full circle]

Tags: ben fountain, brief encounters with che guevara, late bloomer

I can’t believe I’m doing this, but I’ve been hearing a lot about how people are so upset when they see CEOs of companies that haven’t done well (or done really badly) get these incredible severance packages worth millions of dollars. I too felt this way and part of me still does, but now that I have a better understanding of why they get these packages, I think a little differently. Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s outrageous, but at least now I know how it works and can have a knowledgeable discussion about it.

Here’s the problem: you can’t hire a “good” CEO without sweetening the pot. The problem is that CEO salaries are inflated across the board (in my opinion) to the point that, in order to be competitive and attract top candidates, you’ll need to throw in some clauses that make your offer a good one.

If you’re a sports fan, you’re familiar with this problem. Once big-time players become free agents, they can field offers from different teams, pit them against each other, and watch as the offers become more and more inflated. That doesn’t make it OK, it just puts the whole issue into context.

Take the cases of Alex Rodriguez and Darren Dreifort. ARod is widely considered the best baseball player in the game, and he’s paid like it. He was already getting paid a ridiculous sum, but this year he opted out of his existing contract (10 years, $252 million) to re-sign a much more lucrative one (10 year, $275 million). Why would he opt out of his current, ridiculous contract? Because he could—it was an option in his contract that was negotiated in there. Why? Because he’s so good that New York had to give him whatever he wanted to get him to come to New York.

The story of Darren Dreifort went slightly differently. He was an OK pitcher with a great arm, pitching in Los Angeles—a pitching friendly ball park. He had an OK season but the Dodgers thought he was about to break through and become a star. So they signed the 29-year-old pitcher to a five year, $55 million contract. He would pitch about 200 more innings over the course of three years before retiring. They wound up paying him around six million dollars per win. The kicker? He didn’t even play for two of those years. He retired from baseball and, due to the guaranteed nature of baseball contracts (much like CEO packages), he got to keep all his money.

The Lesson?

Buyer beware, I guess. If you want to rail on someone when these kinds of things happen with CEOs, blame management for choosing the person and giving them what they want. Sometimes it’s a terrible decision, other times it’s just bad luck (Dreifort was a hard worker but injuries derailed his career). If companies want to play with the big boys, they’ll have to throw in some pretty sweet deals (including golden parachutes) to get the big-name CEOs to come work for them.

On the flip side, management could pick qualified candidates that don’t necessarily have those needs or that kind of leverage. The baseball analogy works here too: teams that don’t want to pay those crazy contracts can do a few things to skirt them. They can dip into their farm system and promote from within, they can hire a candidate that might not have the name recognition but is just as capable too. It’s another common problem—management (and stockholders) often want a sexy name as their CEO: “Oh he used to be the CEO over at Goldman Sachs!” Take a look at the Tampa Bay Devil Rays: they have one of the lowest payrolls and they’re in the World Series thanks to young players, great drafting, and a good manager. The Oakland Athletics do it year in and year out.

Next time you see a CEO get a crazy package and you’re going to start to get upset, don’t forget that it isn’t their fault—they just asked for stuff and were given it. We all wish we could get that kind of a deal.

Tags: alex rodriguez, ceos, darren dreifort, golden parachutes

I found a couple of really good, timely deals that I wanted to share with readers:

• Restaurant.com: You used to be able to buy gift cards for all kinds of restaurants for $10 and then they would be worth $25 at the restaurant. A great deal in itself, but I never tried it. Well, today I read that they’re running a deal until Halloween I think where promo code TREATS will bring that down to $2. So I tried it today and it worked! I got a deal at Geja’s, the best/most romantic fondue place here in Chicago that M and I love, and paid $2 for a $25 gift card. Not too shabby!
• Amazon Kindle: Not sure how many people are in the market for this, but just in case you should take note that until November 1 you can get $50 off by simply entering this promo code: OPRAHWINFREY That takes the $359 Kindle down to $309. Not too bad either. I’m a big reader, and I still have not played with the Kindle, but I’m a ways off from getting something like this to replace my books. For now, I’m sticking with good ol’ fashioned paper books and my trusty library card.

Enjoy!

Tags: amazon kindle, great deals, restaurants.com

Image taken from this great site

So the markets are tumbling from day to day and all us responsible investors know that this is the perfect time to buy more. As I was thinking about it though, I wondered what different strategies people are using right now. I keep hearing about this being the time when people get rich—OK, I feel that whole vibe. But what are people buying? Are they buying individual stocks that they had on their watch lists? Or are they buying index funds? Mutual funds, ETFs? More of what they already own? There are tons of options.

Watch List

If you’re a really prepared value investor, you probably have a list of the stocks you’d love to own at a good price. Well, now’s the time that they’re finally hitting those price points that make them a real value. If you’ve read Rule #1 (a fine book, in my opinion), you know how impossible it is to find stocks that meet that criteria. Well, now a lot of those strict filters actually spit out companies you can guy. So if you’ve prepared and already done the homework, start cherry picking.

Stocks

Warning: just because stocks are “on sale,” it doesn’t mean you can just go out and buy any stock expecting to make some money. You still have to do your homework. Sure, you could just invest in blue chips like Coke, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and the other big companies that have been around forever. It’s *likely* they will continue their stability in the future. But if you’re going to buy stocks, make sure you’re not getting caught up in the moment—think of all the crap you’ve bought during those crazy Black Friday sales when it’s 4am and you think you’re getting great deals left and right. Unless you’ve got a list, chances are you’ll buy stuff you don’t really need/want.

Index Funds/Mutual Funds

Instant diversification in one simple purchase—that’s what these guys supposedly offer. I’m not a mutual fund guy, so I can’t speak on them too specifically, but I’m a huge fan of index funds. People keep saying “the market has tanked.” Well, that means the S&P index, the DOW index, all the indices out there are down in the dumps. That means the indices tracking those benchmarks are down. Simple enough for you?

ETFs

Similar to picking stocks, only they can have more diversification built into them. You can go just as broad as an index fund or just as specific as a stock, really. This gives you more flexibility if you know exactly what you want to put your money into.

Anyways…

That was just a quick rundown of my thoughts on each one of these securities and how they can help (and hurt) when you’re thinking of “buying when the market is down.” I’m more curious to hear the different strategies people are actually putting in place right now, today, as they navigate these treacherous waters.

Last weekend I ran the very first race of my life: the 2008 Men’s Health Urbanathlon here in Chicago. I was excited/nervous because it was my first race ever of this kind but I’m glad I did it. Here is the breakdown of what we had to do:

Run 10.5 Miles

Just about as hard as it sounds. And believe it or not it would’ve been a cinch if it wasn’t for the stuff we had to do in between…

Jump Some Hurdles and Crawl Through Tubes

Not too bad really, the adrenaline really gets going once you see the hurdles and since it was a little wet I just slid right through the tubes. Once you finish it you feel like you just used up ALL your adrenaline. Not good.

Cargo Net Crawl

Another adrenaline rush—though I did scrape my legs up pretty good. You hear people cheering you on and you just want to blaze your way through it. I did something to my neck here, which bothered me the rest of the way. No big deal though, I had bigger things on my mind…like stairs.

Monkey Bars

Monkey bars? Easy, right? Anyone who can’t do monkey bars is pretty weak. Not so much, actually. The bars are a little wet with dew/sweat and all of the sudden your body feels REALLY heavy. If you fell to the ground you had to do a penalty lap. Luckily, I made it through, but it was a LOT tougher than I thought it would be.

Marine Hurdles on the Beach

No one told me this was going to be on the beach. At the southern-most tip of the course, these things were killer because of the sand and how tall they were. Luckily, I’m tall so it wasn’t as hard for me as for others. People were boosting each other up and over to get through. At this point I was so gassed that everything was hard. But there’s only one thing on my mind…the stairs.

Soldier Field Stairs (aka Hell)

The one obstacle I actually trained for. We had to run up to the top section, then go up the stairs three times. There was such a bottleneck that it was slow going at first, but once people got all excited everyone got pumped up and powered through it. One girl almost passed out. This was HARD and it left me completely GASSED. But now I only had one thing on my mind…do I have enough to clear the wall?

Jump a Cab

This is a fun/quirky one. You’re supposed to go across the way cops do in 80s—90s sitcoms, but everyone was just walking on the hoods—no energy for smooth-looking moves at this point. Plus, you can already see the finish line…it’s lurking somewhere behind that wall over there…

The Wall

That doesn’t do it justice. Here, try this instead:

Think about that for a second: that’s 10.5 miles, crazy obstacles that sap your energy, TONS of STAIRS, and then you have to find the energy to clear this thing. I did the exact same thing as the guy in the video: just go as hard as you can the first time because otherwise you won’t make it.

FINAL TIME: 1:39

Next year I’ll cut that by at least 10 minutes…I hope.

PS I was going to use real pictures but there are copyright issues. To see all the “official” pics that were taken check them out here.

Tags: 2008, chicago, men's health, urbanathlon

I’m feeling a little dejá vu right now—it’s the exact same feeling I went through when I bought a Wii and a new TV. It happens to me every time I buy something rather expensive that I really don’t need.

Is it that when I talk/write to people, I try to convince them NOT to spend on things they don’t need? To curb unnecessary spending? I don’t know, I think it’s just because I’m very efficient with my spending (read: cheap).

But I did it again: yesterday—after over a month of research and lusting and obsessing—I bought myself the new G1 cell phone. It runs Google’s Android software, which is why you might hear people calling it the Google Phone, even though they would be wrong.

It’s a cell phone. It’s a music/video player. It tells you where you are, gives you GPS capability. It has 3G, Wi-Fi, and tons of sweet apps. It lets you surf the web, check your email, and do cool stuff like this:

Anyway, it’s the closest thing you can get to an iPhone without actually buying an iPhone. And that was an issue with me for a while. I don’t know that writing a whole review on this phone really belongs on this site, excited as I am about it all, but if there’s any interest out there I’d be happy to post my impressions on it as I use it more and more. But so far? Super cool. And the 3G speed in Chicago has clocked in at anywhere from 800 kbit/sec to over 1000—not bad at all.

I’m getting a little carried away. The point of this whole post was to talk about how hard it was for me to shell out the cash for this thing. The up-front costs are one thing: I can come up with that relatively easily. But the extra monthly payments hurt. My monthly bill will go from $39 to $65. That’s not much, but it’s month after month after month—every month. It’s the perfect setup for one of those articles that goes: “If you invested that money instead, at 8%, for 20 years, you’d have $X.”

I’ve written those articles. Several of them. That’s another reason why this was so hard.

Living Your Life

Here’s how I rationalized it: You gotta live your life. We’re not perfect and the best we can do is to minimize how often we buy things like this. I got the Wii in December of last year and other than that I can’t think of the last thing I spent money like this on. So you know what? Who cares. I bought a phone I don’t need, it’s freakin’ sweet, and I’m super happy with it.

Compound that.

Tags: android, g1, google, HTC Dream, phone, tmobile, TV, unnecessary spending, wii

What’s that famous quote about insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Well, I’ve complained repeatedly about how I haven’t written enough fiction because of the time I put into this blog, so I’ve decided to try something I did briefly a few months ago. Instead of waking up each morning and dilly-dallying around, responding to every email I get, checking yesterday’s scores, and so on—I’m going to focus a little bit more and get more done.

If I do that, I can hammer out at least two posts per morning (maybe more), leaving me with the next morning to write fiction. Theoretically, it should work, though I need to fine tune some things to make it happen:

• Preparation: I prepared for this morning last night by listing out what I was going to write about and when I was going to publish it. It really doesn’t take that long to do if you already have the idea mapped out or at least jotted down somewhere. It can even help expand on them by giving your unconscious some time to mull it all over. The next day you may have even more to say/contribute to that idea. Either way, it’s just like having a short-term goal for the next morning and then going out and meeting it. It all starts with preparation.
• Focus: This used to be easy because I used to go to a coffee shop to write and, believe it or not, it was easy to focus. All I had was a pen and paper and if I was really stuck, I’d take my book out and read a little. Always worked. But now I’m writing from home (no coffee shop close) and the Internet beckons with it’s box scores and blogs. As long as I can keep it all to a minimum (or write first and then do that stuff), I’ll be OK. Today is easy enough because it’s day one, but I have to keep it up.
  
• Follow through: Like I said, today is easy. Sticking to it day after day is going to be challenging. If anyone has any tips on this one aspect, feel free. I have a history of lagging as time passes. How many books have I quit this year already?

That’s the idea, anyway. I know what the problem is (not writing enough/any fiction) and I know what the solution is (write more fiction)—now I’ve set up a system that will hopefully work and resolve the problem. The next step? Finding a way to write fiction every day (a necessity, believe me) and still write decent stuff for this blog.

Stay tuned…

Tags: Blogging, discipline, efficiency, focus, insanity, Writing