Death Of The Internet

RIP - YOU'LL BE MISSED

We had it good for a while. The freedoms of the internet to connect, share, break down walls and be free from convention - it was great while we had them. The Pirate's Dilemma promised so much.

Regulation, copyright protection, government intervention, corporation control - these have all started the demise and ultimately brought about the death of the internet. Do a search in Google for anything controversial - like torrent sites, government cover-up theories, compromising stories of the rich and powerful or left-field reportage and blogs. Even with a VPN, which used to allow access to stuff that was controlled by IP filters and locked down through various internet service providers - where you could find other countries free from the EU, UK or USA's control, that would show this information, but now the stuff isn't there anymore. Either they have been shut down or the powers that be have restricted their offering. Look at all the videos removed on Youtube for a sign of how heavy handed the copyright laws have become.

With the advances in computer power and low-cost digital filing, we are being monitored and censored like never before. And anything not fitting in with the powers that be is shut down under the name of terrorism, copyright infringement, or merely just because it could upset someone in power. We're being increasingly told what's 'good for us' and what they don't want us to know about is being filtered out. Some of the information could be potentially harmful to minors and yes, some of the digital property needs to be paid for, but the responsibility needs to be in the hands of the individual to make the right choices. That's why the freedom of information act needs to be signed and supported by the population.

The greatest era for learning, connecting and empowerment is here. It's up to us all to ensure it's still here for the future generations to enjoy with the freedom to make the greatest advances in mankind's ongoing development.

Special Places

TOTARA TREE - WAIPU COVE, NZ

Today I rewind the clock back to a special place in my mind - Waipu beach, New Zealand, which is where I spent some magical time travelling in early 2002. 

Jutting out horizontally from a cliff about 100 foot above a rocky beach, I balanced precariously on the thick trunk and looking through the branches of this majestic Totara tree, snapped a photo into the sun. 

It was a memorable moment in many ways - but this snapshot in time, symbolising the true beginnings of an adventure that would span continents, is my 'go-to memory happy place' that I pull forward when I wish to relive those blissful feelings of freedom and self-discovery. 

We should all have moments like these in our lives - places and spaces - moments when we felt secure, unafraid, happy and liberated. These are the memories that we can freely draw on to recharge our spirits.

Which Way? The Work - Life Balance

REWARDING WORK & GOOD MONEY

There are many different ways to live out our lives. We either choose the way we wish to live, or we drift along trying to make the best of a bad deal. We need to work, to earn money and live. How we work, the money we earn and how we choose to spend it will give us a measure on our work / life balance.

High Earners & Low Lifers
A friend of mine is a nanny for a family living near us in SW London. This part of town has become increasingly more affluent over the last few years, with a lot of the town houses, that used to be lived in by fairly poor immigrants from India and the Caribbean, taken over by rich middle class families who make their money in well paid corporate jobs.

Getting to know some of the original West Indian contingent from this area, I can see that, although they don't have much money, they do seem to have good quality lifestyles - with lots of free time. The family my friend nannies for, has two children that she looks after 5 days a week while the two parents work their long days at their respective finance/IT jobs in the city.

Quite often she'll have the children 'til after 7pm, which is around the time when the children have gone to bed. The parents will juggle the children around whatever it is they like to do on the weekends. This is their only free time in the week where they get to appreciate their kids, each other and have their own 'me' time.

What's The Pay-Off?
It's difficult to get a high paid job without also having the long hours, responsibility and stress that it brings too. So what's more important? I believe there's now so much competition between the high-earners, to get a decent property in the right part of town and immense pressure to retain the style of living that they have become accustomed to, that they surely cannot keep up with the intensity without severely compromising quality of life in the long term. So a lower-paid job that allows more time & freedom to enjoy family and life in general - rather than being stuck in an office etc. is surely going to be the better option for quality of life - providing the pennies are watched. The middle ground is surely going to involve having a well-paid role but just means spending less days doing it per week but there aren't many available full-time positions that allow for a 3 day week - and this is something we should be offering a lot more in the work-place.

The Hustle

ALL ABOUT MAKING MONEY

Being able to earn enough money through our own means, from doing various different odd jobs, is fun but it can also be hard hussle. The hours can be quite anti-social and sporadic, as you take the money wherever and whenever you can. It can mess with your sleep patterns, throw off the routine and make you lose track of the days & nights. 

Missing the 9 til 5

While the ritual of a 9-5 job can feel like a bit of a grind, having the set location, times and 5 day week routine to follow, can bring some order into our lives put a regular and potentially much higher income on the table too.

Having freedom to work when we really want to work, means having more discipline to spend less, a greater will to seek out work, a strong resolve to stay out of trouble and the ability to put some hard work in on some jobs that are demanding, yet offer very little financial reward at the end compared to the salary gained through regular employment.

The pay off for having freedom to work away from corporate life, essentially means applying tighter reins to ourselves and our lifestyles. This means having a lot more discipline and control over our daily lives. It means saying 'No' much more often. 

Through careful planning, focus on time management and mindful objectives of how we obtain, maintain and retain work, dealing with our clients and suppliers in an honest and decent manor, we become the ambassadors of our brand. 

We can't afford to turn up and not deliver. There's no hiding, no shirking and definitely no feet under the table, which we find happening a lot of the time in the corporate world. 

Every day is a hustle - an urban forage of virtual beans and berries with a constant drive for finding that 'big game' that's lurking out there somewhere - the major prize, a giant, that once snared, will stock our reserves to help keep us going through the leaner times. 

Easy Money

MOVING MONEY

I'm meeting so many new people recently, who have decided to drop out of the corporate rat race. They've chosen to delve into the darker unknown waters of self employment where one's quest to find the means of obtaining enough money to pay the bills are part and parcel of day to day living.

So far in my new bob-a-job career, I've painted the front of a house. This week I'll be putting in some time DJing whilst also learning how to make cocktails in my local bar. And next week, I'll be a removal man with a van, plus a garden clearer and also a builder's assistant. If I can get some graphics work via advertising with local businesses, that should go some way to help pay the bills. I also have my experience as a personal trainer to make up some extra money too.

My list of jobs that I'm capable of doing well is steadily getting longer and I look forward to adding even more skill sets to the list as I go on. Although these early jobs seem low-paid and beneath my experience capabilities, they are all rewarding. Providing I always put my best efforts in and keep the variety going, they won't get boring either. I can always add more taxing roles to the list, but only if they offer the right balance of money gains against stress levels.

The first moments after leaving the security of having a regular 9-5 (although the hours were always longer) were daunting. But now the prospect of making money last longer by being frugal and careful with my spends, are allowing me to have more free time. This exchange of time against a bigger salary, should help me to find even more alternative ways to make a living.

A lot of the new alternative modes of making money have been localised. So, by finding ways to connect with local businesses, I'll be making money without the expense of travelling on public transport or travelling along the congestion-filled and potentially dangerous roads. This exchange could also benefit me in having even more time and freedom to explore other avenues for work and enjoyment.

Working The Benefits
We all have benefits in everything we do. It's how and why we make the decisions we do. For example: If we chose to live in closer to the city where we work, the benefits will be access to all the fun, culture and amenities that the city have to offer. Travel will potentially be faster, cheaper and possibly free. We'll be spending less money on travel, less time and having more fun - but our living costs may be considerably more and access to green areas, the coast or activities outside the city restricted. So, we have to weigh up the benefits and maximise on them.

Therefore, if a non-corporate life beckons, we should consider the benefits we currently have and weigh them up against the pitfalls of location and costs for living. Having a clearer picture of the reasons why we do the things we do, what we'd like to do more of and maximise on the live & work balance, will help to achieve our goals.

Isolated Living

GETTING AWAY FROM IT ALL

Living the dream can be tough - especially if that dream's to get away from the rat race. Cutting ourselves off from the safety and comforts of modern living to be at one with nature in far away lands, takes a special kind of resolve. 

Living in the UK, within a major city like London with food readily available on the doorstep and where the protection from emergency services gives us a greater sense of security and the belief we can live without fear, leaves us more worry-free time to get on with doing what we enjoy. But it could also be said that the illusion of city security stops us taking risks and takes away the very essence of what truly makes us feel alive. 

Opting for a riskier path is something a select group of families have gone for in exchange for a daily life full of adventure, by escaping to the wild. They have chosen to live in potentially dangerous parts of the world - gaining a level of freedom that we, in our developed cities, do not have. 

One thread that I observed while watching Ken Mcloud's documentaries, was how passionate the men were to have found meaningful purpose in their daily lives. The women were also complimentary of their chosen paths but nowhere near as much as the men - and likely spoke more in terms of their commitment to the cause in support of their partner, relationship and greater good of the family. 

Having a protector/provider role and a use for the fight/flight mechanism other than avoiding a drunk down the pub on a Saturday night or sticking up some shelves in the kitchen with the man-drill just doesn't cut it, so I can appreciate the extremes some guys are going to, often somewhat selfishly and at the expense of isolation from other friends and family. There needs to be more middle ground - meaningful, self-sustained living options available closer to home. With the rise of new trends in self-builds, off-grid and sustainable living, maybe we'll see more of these kind of living options closer to home and without the need for such isolation extremism. 

Festival Magic

BLOWING OFF STEAM

It's essential to let our hair down occasionally so we want to throw off our worries and feel some freedom from a modern conformist way of life, but it can at times, take us close to insanity as we shut off our minds to fully experience a state of abandon. And that's the way of a good festival. 

Dancing around in a field with a good set of close friends and like-minded strangers, all getting a bit too twisted on the hooch, forgoing sleep and taking on very little food for a few days - can bring about a magical mindset that resets the mind and brings about this much needed sense of freedom that we can only get through carefree abandon.

We see this practice in many older cultures too, where trance-induced drum beating and mind altering potions are taken to bring about these altered states - for joining communities together, healing the sick or connecting to the greater forces in the universe. Nothing has really changed in that regard as is evident with the modern dance music scene that's influenced our hedonistic culture - a rite of passage that so many of us go through to lose ourselves at the many festivals across the world. 

Work & Life Balance

THREE DAY WEEK

Life is short. Five days out of seven at work is a lot - especially when the days are long. A third of our time is spent sleeping and it only leaves a couple of hours in the evening when we're already spent with just the weekend to recover and fit in some enjoyment around the other life chores. Wouldn't it be better if we had double the weekend?

I always liked the idea of not working on a Monday. It's a terrible day in work terms. The first day back after a great weekend can be a real downer - and if you've had a lot of fun, chances are the battery could have done with a longer recharge... Not much gets done on a Monday in real work terms. So, a small sleep-in followed by a relaxing day means that Tuesday will be very productive. And if we could work to deadlines rather than hours a day, I reckon the majority of people could get their work done a lot faster - especially if we all got to do shorter weeks. That means Tuesday to Thursday would be a lot more productive, potentially leaving Friday free to enjoy too. Think how many long weekends we could have travelling to different countries, or how much more of our families and loved ones we could see and share good times with. Life would still be short - but richer on a three day work week for sure.

Do nothing

CLEAR YOUR DIARY

It's amazing how busy your day can get when you've got 'free' time. How do we manage to fit it all in when we're working 5 days a week and bringing up a family? 

There's always lots of tasks that need require action on the to do list. Many of these tasks do seem to have gotten more complicated these days - especially when it's dealing with customer services. You can't just call up and deal with something quickly anymore. Data protection, voice recognition telephone services and out of the UK call centres, means dealing with banks, credit card companies and even other standard service providers like mobile, satellite, broadband and other tech centres, takes a lot longer and often brings up additional tasks that need addressing.

Consequently, I've spent half my day dealing with accounts, insurance and banking issues. All have been fairly simple tasks in principle that have dragged on and left me feeling stressed out. It would be great to have a PA deal with these boring and life-draining tasks to free up the time for more rewarding pursuits.

Simplify

I've now decided against using my credit cards any more, mostly as I wish to clear my debt but also because their call centres irritate me that much. So knowing I won't have to deal with these calls anymore this will be a good motivation to stop my spending! I will also avoid having any internet provider other than using hotspots or use my phone's data for the same reasons. And I'm certainly not subscribing to satellite TV - so this will stop so much lounging in front of the TV. 

Ultimately, the less I have to deal with any of the above, plus banks, councils, HMRC or DVLA - the better it will make me feel. So, maybe it's also time to sell the car too. I'll then cycle more often or use a hire car when its required instead...

I've still got a couple more annoying calls to make today. Tomorrow I will clear the diary completely and switch this phone off instead. That way I'll see if it really is possible to clear the diary and do nothing!

Injustice

SPEAK UP!

There's so much injustice all around us. Horrible things going on right now in another part of the world that we are allowing to happen by not speaking up. Looking at some of the footage from the war crimes in Iraq, committed by American military - atrocities that the US Government have tried to cover up and hearing about some of the terrible abuses of women in Pakistan - stoned to death for 'bringing dishonour' on their families, we can see where abuses of power and ignorance are creating much misery. We need to do more about it.

There's also stories closer to home about abuse of power, corruption and greed and this is in a seemingly developed nation in time of peace. But we haven't advanced much as human beings if you look at all the misery and suffering in the world. With all the knowledge and technology available to us in this modern age, why do we still have:

– Poverty
– Starvation
– Gender in-equality
– Mistreatment of the elderly
– Orphans
– Racism
– Physical & mental abuse
– Sex trafficking
– War
– Abuses of power

Apathy, plus a general lack of concern or empathy towards others appear to be at the heart of it. There's so many people walking around like the 'living dead', not even in charge of their own lives. All seemingly in too much of a rush to stop and think. People are turning a blind eye because we're all too busy, caught up in our own affairs to really care about others. Surely, if we took the time to look up - we'd 'see' an easier way for us all to live happier lives. It just takes more of us to come away from doing pointless and selfish actions to use our minds for the greater good so we can rid the world from all of this injustice.

An Analysed life
Epicurus believed that all we needed for a life of happiness, were three things: friends, freedom and an analysed life. So here I am in the alps with 7 friends, gliding down a mountain with the sun in my face, taking it all in and being grateful for what I have. Life is sweet. I'd say Epicurus was right - but without good health and some money, it becomes difficult to have this kind of life. This moment is a true luxury for me and I'm aware how fortunate I am to have been brought up in a time, country and loving family, which has given me this opportunity to enjoy life so much. When I come back from this trip, I'm going to make sure I'm giving some more of my time and money over to charity - so I can do some part to help someone else have a moment of happiness too.