Musing Journal #8

On Being a Writer

So many people want to be a writer. Why not? After all, all you have to do is sit in coffee shop everyday for a couple hours writing and you're a writer. But is that a professional writer or a hobbyist?

Stephen King wrote that he maintains 4 pages per day work load. Sometimes it comes easy for him. Other times, not so easy. But he wrote those 4 pages every day.

If you consider that, considering standard submission formatting, each page would count for 250 words, then you understand that professional writers write 1000 words per day. That's every day.

One week, then, equals 7000 words. That's enough for a whole chapter (or two). One chapter per week means 50 chapters per year. Or about 2 books per year. 350,000 words per year or 175,000 words per book.

Of course, that's assuming Dictionary size book. Normal book length is only about 100,000 words give or take. So, if you are a real "professional" book writer, then you should be publishing 3 books per year.

That is what doing 1000 words per day will give you.

Consider that. 1000 words per day. Is that so hard? If you have jobs, and other responsibilities in life, then yes, it's hard. There are people who just cannot do that much work per day. However, there is a difference between a dedicated writer and a hobbyist. A dedicated writer, will write, at the very least, one page per day. And at the end of the year, they will have the next great American novel. Think about it: one page a day. 250 words per page, and you're a writer.

The most important thing is to make a schedule and keep at it. If you're doing it every day, fulfilling the minimum required word count, everyday, then you are a writer. If, on the other hand, you like to just chat, browse the internet, and maybe write something, then I'm afraid, you're not a writer.

Unless you are keeping up schedule, you're not a writer. A true writer will keep up his schedule every day. And to that end, I recommend Nanowrimo for every one who dreams of being a writer.

Nanowrimo basically forces you to write an average 1667 words per day. This, on the month where you are guaranteed to be busy, dealing with holiday activities. Having participated twice, I can tell you that it is not at all easy. Sometimes, I just have to force things out.

The neat thing about it is that at the end of the month, when I fall back to normal workload, my normal workload seems easy in comparison! So, yes, Nanowrimo was painful, but it's a good pain. Growing pains. Once I went through the exercise, my productivity improved. And so, I will keep on participating. I like to improve my productivity. And I am keeping up with my schedule. I am a writer!

Note: I have written 1896 words today, not including blog updates. :)

Musing Journal #7

The Tale of Two Bikes

So, I currently have two bikes. Which one I like better? Well, I like them both equally. It's just too bad that the older bike is falling apart.

The first bike costs me $10. I know that's the price because that's the sticker I have on the bike. It's a Tourney 920se 10 speed road bike. Or hybrid bike, as it has straight bar instead of drop bar. It certainly has road tires.

When I take that bike around Aurora Reservoir pathways, I have to built stamina and the first few times around it, I have had to stop at various points around the path. I did finally managed to loop the reservoir without stopping. It took about half hour to do, or about 16 mph average speed.

With my second bike, Schwinn Frontier MTB 21 speed. I didn't have to stop. I can climb the hills just fine by dropping down to the lowest gear. My legs do get exercised rather severely, and near the end I wasn't so much pedaling as kicking my way up the hill. But I didn't have to worry about raising my stamina up. The bike has enough gears to handle moderate hills.

So, is my second bike better? Come to think of it, I felt like my mountain bike is slower than my road bike. This is confirmed on flat road. Assuming the road is flat, I think that I'd enjoy my road bike more, even old and heavy as it is. On hills, though, I need my gears, and the mountain bike handles that well enough.

So, I like them equally well for different reason. Come to think of it, maybe a hybrid is better. Since the mountain bike has better gear and the road bike has better tires, how about if I put on a road tire on my mountain bike? Hmmmm.

Musing Journal #6

Price of Electric Bike

So, I noticed that Walmart is selling a cheap electric bike. It's about $600. Amazon also sells some, and it's slightly cheaper, but about the same price. However, I also notice that the electric bike conversion kit is priced about $400 something. The question is, if you take an electric bike, and subtract the cost of the conversion, will you arrive at the price of the bike?

I think not. Assembling the bikes does cost money, but adding a few more parts at the factory isn't going to cost the same as aftermarket additions. So, you probably are going to get a better bike for the price.

And yet, I wonder if that's a wise decision. First of all, in a cheap bike, heaviness isn't a problem. Whatever energy drain that the bike has, is counteracted by the electric power. Even the smallest pedal assist level will be enough to counter the drag. So, about the only concern is to have a bike that is strong enough to last a long time.

As I wandered around REI store, however, I found a sample electric bike. I picked it up and noticed that the whole bike with battery weights less than my current bike with no cargo! Huh, I didn't think that was possible. I also noticed that the price tag on the bike is $1700! At that price level, I'm probably getting $1000 bike, which would be really sweet indeed. But I don't need $1000 bike. I'm perfectly happy with my current heavy mountain bike. With electric motor? Who cares about the weight.

So, figure $400 bike plus $400 conversion kit. That's about $800, and that's my current limit for an electric bike. Anything above $1000, and I'd rather get a scooter.

Musing Journal #5

Electric Bike Cost

If you have been following my posts, you know that I have been smitten by electric bikes. No wonder. They are clean, light, simple, and really a good transportation mode all around. The fact that I have bike path from the house really does seal the deal. There is only one problem: The cost.

Now, I can go buy myself a cute little red scooter for about $2000. A used one can be had for $1000. So, I really don't want to spend more money than $1000 for an electric bike. A scooter can get you places bikes can, faster and safer. Of course, there is the cost of ownership. Scooters costs more to insure and maintain. But let's face it, with 100 mpg effective expense, it just doesn't cost all that much.

But how about electric bikes? You can always pedal. Yes, that's true. But with regular bike, that's free. How about the cost of an electric bike? There have been a lot of calculations thrown about that says an electric bike gets an equivalent of 1000 mpg! Some people, in fact, attached the battery charging unit to solar cells. That's probably about 1 million mpg. How can a scooter beat that?

I'm not interested in calculating pedal power into the equation. So, first, I'm taking the range of motor only. Then I take the cost of purchasing replacement battery. Finally, I take the amount of recharging the batteries can take before losing capacity. So, the true mpg cost of an electric bike is Price of batteries / (mile per charge * number of charge). That gives you dollar per mile. A simple price check will give you dollars per gallon. That will give you mile per gallon figure.

In my calculation, I get about 80 mpg for electric bikes. So, that's slightly less than that of a scooter. I consider, cost wise, scooters and electric bikes are the same. Perhaps I will change my mind later, once the battery technology has improved much and gasoline cost more that it is now. However, that's some time in the future and for now, I will not buy an electric bike that costs more than $1000. I'd rather have a scooter!

Musing Journal #4

Plan, Do, Learn

For the longest time, I always work with Learn, Plan, Do. This is because I value my time and by properly learning the materials, I am able to properly plan the activity, so that when it comes to actually doing it, I will have no trouble at all.

This has served me well throughout the years, whether it's engaging in a project, or writing term papers, the proper outline has been essential in getting things done quickly.

Lately, though, I have a second thought about the process. Probably because I'm being overwhelmed right now. There's so much to do that if I have to fully learn everything, then a lot of things won't get done quickly. I suppose there's a good side about "do one thing at a time" philosophy, however, I wonder if that's a good thing when there's so much to do at one time. In essence, I wonder if there's a faster way to do things than one at a time.

So, I have been doing things around. Instead of Learn-Plan-Do cycle, I decided on Plan-Do-Learn cycle. Make plan, Do plan, and Adjust accordingly. So far, it has been working well. Things are getting done, and more importantly, I am able to manage various projects at once. I still limit myself to doing two or three big things per day. And I focus on the most important thing to do in that day. But as weeks go by, I am able to see improvements in all aspects of my life.

If you look at my blog, you see various things going on. That's because I have wide ranging interest, and the fact that had I focus on one thing at a time, there will be some holes on it. So, I have no choice. I have to spread my activities around, regardless how I feel about it.

And that's a good thing. The ability to learn from doing does have value. I keep changing things and well, I see definite improvements in each separate activities. Mind you, I'm still overwhelmed. However, I manage things much better now. I am now able to see progress on my schedule.

So, all I have to do now is keep improving, and I will catch up with the rest of the schedule eventually. It takes longer than expected, but steady progress is better than heroic actions, especially since I have a tendency to burn out after such heroic actions.

Musing Journal #3

3 Priorities

I think that's me. For some reason, I always fixated to number 3. Or maybe number 4. In this case, I'm thinking about what I'm doing with my time, and there are 3 answers:

1. PTC: There will be GameJam this weekend, and I really, really want to go there. Basically, I'll spent the weekend doing one whole game using PTC. It should be fun. There is a lot of projects that has been held up due to my setbacks. I need to step up my productivity.

2. My home. It's kind of a mess right now. I just discovered that the previous owner cleaned the oven by using the "self-cleaning oven" setting. Which is to say, burn all grease to a crisp. Unfortunately, that's all he did. So, I'll be scraping all the fat that is currently sticking to it. Sigh. Where's Mr. Clean? I also need to work on my paperworks, speaking of which...

3. My books. I have 4 books nearly done. 2 needs editing, 2 needs a little more materials before editing. I also have some more materials for more books. So, I need to step up to that also.

It's kind of bad when bad health is causing havoc with the schedule. Then I have the tendency to make up for time lost, then I get sick due to overwork, and repeat. I'll have to figure something out to break the cycle.

So, I should ride my bicycle more often. That gets my heart rate up, and hopefully raised my stamina so I can get more work done.

Musing Journal #2

Schedule

It is amazing how a little planning can go a long way. I have been doing it ad-hoc, doing improvisation along the way. It works, but I noticed a lot of repetitions going on. So, the question is, if I can schedule my activities, will that help speed things up?

The answer is yes. What surprised me the most is the amount of time saved in doing so. My productivity quadruples! That's amazing. Therefore, for this year, I resolve to plan  and follow through all my activities for the year.

So far, the result has been uneven. Some activities are easily done. Others, not so quick. The most important thing, however, is that the activities are done one after the other. There is no longer periods of indecision. That helps a lot.

I'm redoing all the directory pages and they will be in this format:

#N Title
Description
URL
Date

Sometimes, description is unnecessary. In those cases, I will omit the description. Also, there will be no more "ETA" notifications. I find that putting the date directly is sufficient. Obviously, if the date lies in the future, that means ETA.

I'm reserving News Directory for completed projects. It makes a handy reference if you just want to get to completed projects, instead of having to wade through my various journals.

Musing Journal #1

Happy New Year 2014

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Sometimes, life needs a reset button. There's quite a lot of happening in 2013, and unfortunately, it's more bad than good. Well, the thing is, bad things will happen in life. The real question is, what are you going to do about it?

The first order of the day is to organize everything. I have been learning time management, project organization, and house organization. I now realize that the system I had for 2013 was woefully inadequate. Little wonder when I was so busy last year!

Fortunately, I have had sometime to reflect. November Nanowrimo showed me how totally unprepared I really was. So, for my resolution, I vow to organize my life so that everything I do will be like clock work and effortless.

Hopefully, in time, it will be better.

I also resolve to start my Personal Productivity Hour (PPH). This is basically a way to keep moving forward, one step at a time. The idea is to write down in a journal, one new thing to do, every day, in one hour. This is separate from work. This is for personal development.

You can have just about any project you want in there. The only requirement is that you need to have a different item in it every day. If you need more than one hour to complete the project, you can do "part 1", "part 2", "part 3" etc, outlining what you did different for each project.

You can also have "Learning" as a way to develop yourself further. And that's about it. Learning and Applying what you learned, is what PPH is all about.