First of all, I applied for a freelance print magazine assignment on a whim, and I was offered the job.  It was quite fun researching the topic and finally writing and editing my piece.  Hopefully I will get more assignments in the future since the pay is actually quite good. I feel that I should write a new resume specifically for my freelance writing.  Right now I have a pretty decent resume for my software engineering experience, but I do not have any writing related experience listed there because it is non-relevant to software engineering.

Next, I started writing for ‘s sister blog .  I am planning to write down more mommy-related experiences on Parenting Squad since they are on topic.  It is pretty fun to write these stories down, and I think if the blog stays around long enough it would be hilarious to show my kid the stories once he is old enough to read.

Finally, I am working on building some more websites for affiliate/adsense income.  I built one at the beginning of this year as an experiment and barely updated it, and so far in a year it made a profit of $200 or so.  It is not bad considering that there is very little overhead to keeping the site around.  I really need to research good keywords and affiliate programs to make it more profitable, though.

Since my husband went back to work this month, it has been really quiet around the house.  Even though I am keeping myself busy I feel that I still need some human interaction, so I am sort of looking forward to going back to work.  On the other hand I really enjoy working on my own and spending all the time I want with my baby.    Another thing I realized in these few months is that I will probably do fine without a permanent job, too.  I have many skills that I could make a living with as long as I use them and work towards my goals.

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Before class started, my roommate told me that someone bombed the World Trade Center. All I thought was, “well, that seems like a popular target”. There was a girl in our hall that came from New York, and she was watching the small TV in the lounge. I walked past her and she seemed somewhat petrified by the images on the screen. Columns of black smoke replaced the once gleaming towers. It wasn’t a bomb that did this, it was planes. I had to go to class.

In class I saw a friend from high school, and he told me that the towers completely collapsed and there were simultaneous plane attacks in other parts of the country. He laughed and said that at least the terrorists will not try to bomb the World Trade Center anymore. Details were still streaming out, but we weren’t exactly concerned. We were 3000 miles away in California. How could this affect us? All we saw was the constantly pristine blue California sky outside.

When I got back to the dorm for lunch I saw that my mom left me a message on the answer machine. She insisted that I get an answer machine before I moved into the dorms. All she said was, “Xin, AMERICA UNDER ATTACK. BYE” My roommate and I cracked up at this message because it was serious and yet at the same time so comical. How could America be under attack? How much damage could this event possibly do? It was incredulous. It was just a couple buildings that got destroyed? Right?

For the most part that day was almost like just any other day for me because New York was a world away. It was the days and years to come that stirred up fear and unrest in everyone. The death toll in the attack and the constant warnings of further attacks made everyone on edge. Even my granddad in China told us not to go outside to public places, because he was afraid for us. The entire world changed for the worse on that day. The safety that we took for granted was no longer a guarantee.

Now eight years later America is still fighting the terrorists and Ground Zero is still vacant. I would say that wounds caused by 9/11 definitely have not totally healed, and for some the scars will be permanent. When I look back on that day I see how naive and immature I was about the whole event, and I wonder if the hijackers who died on that day now see what a mistake they made.

Finally, I hope that those who remember the events of 9/11 teach their kids never to hate something or someone so much that they are willing to destroy themselves and others. The senseless deaths on that day also remind me not to take my life for granted no matter what, because each day is a gift from God.

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he makes a point that money is imaginary, and that the power of money only becomes real if both the creditor and the debtor both believe in it.  The example he uses is that if you give a bushman in the jungle some German marks then it is nothing but colored paper to the bushman.  That money has no meaning to the bushman.  This is definitely true when you think about it.  Why is the United States able to literally summon trillions of dollars out of thin air?  It is because the United States’ creditors have faith in the word of the U.S. government.  Why did California have to cut spending?  It is because creditors no longer believed in California.   Money is only real because people believe in the system and participate in it.  If you bestow an account with a trillion dollars to an extraterrestrial who places no value in it then it is meaningless to that alien.

Another point on Suelo’s site is that in reality goods and services can be exchanged without money.  One example he had was of a German woman named Heidemarie Schwermer who has lived without money for about 12 years.  She does this by bartering within exchange circles and she is the subject of an upcoming documentary appropriately titled  .  This is not a new idea since people have been exchanging goods and services for thousands of years.  Money just became a global system of accounting that made these exchanges less personal.  It is certainly more efficient to swipe a credit card to buy a sack of rice rather than trading a bag of almonds or something else.  However, for those without money it may make more sense to barter.

Finally, another thing that made Suelo swear off money is the recurring theme of “mo’ money, mo’ problems”.  The example he gave was that when he worked with Ecuadorean tribespeople he saw how money made them buy useless things.  The tribespeople also became less healthy as they spent more because they started to buy things like soda, MSG, and refined sugar.   Suelo said that he charted their development and “it looked like money was impoverishing them”.  I have certainly seen how money could impoverish people.  Some people forget the real things in their lives such as family and friends and pursue money relentlessly because they never feel like they have enough.  The fact is that if they never feel like they have enough then it does not matter how much money they earn, because they will never be satisfied.

Anyway, I think that these people demonstrate that it is definitely possible to live without money, but the hard part is to unplug yourself from what is considered normal.  I am definitely not cut out to live in a cave, but I have to admit that I am a little envious of those living abundantly without money.  For now I am very thankful for the lot I have been given, and I will just have to do my best in this world that is controlled by this “imaginary” system.   I have to admit that this whole financial meltdown made me less fearful of losing money, because life can and will go on without it.

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Currently the book is doing pretty well in some categories on Amazon.  It is currently #2 in Personal Finance and #1 in Money Management and Budgeting.  The Wise Bread admins are doing a really good job in promoting it.  I have been too busy lately so I haven’t done much in terms of blog related things.

Anyway, I was going to write a really long post about the special election coming up tomorrow morning in California, but I didn’t have time.  If you want to read about it .  I am hoping that all the voting citizens realize that a pretty much all the measures on the ballot are tax hikes in disguise.   I am not a citizen, so I can’t vote, but as a taxpayer I think I have the right to say that they really just need to figure out how to cut a bunch of useless things and learn to budget better.  Most of my friends who are voting are voting yes on 1F, which limits pay hikes on legislators, and no on everything else.  That probably will be the end result of this election.

Have a great week everyone!

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