If all has gone according to plan, the blog should have just surpassed 50,000 views.  We are ten months into the project, so it's about time!

I am done with affiliate linking and advertising.

I was reading another blog yesterday, specifically a review of a product I have been considering purchasing.  I had been to this site many times before.  The author's points struck me as fairly convincing, and I was leaning more and more into the 'make the purchase' column.

And then, there it was: the paid affiliate link.  No deal.

This site has seen a lot of action lately!  October encompassed 31 posts in all, one for every day of the month, bringing the total for the year to 80.  I'm not going to count the words for you, but it was quite a lot of them.

So, what was the point of this exercise?

This was Experiment 01: Write Every Day!

The result: overwhelming success.

my brainstorming-and-initial-drafting weapon of choice, believe it or not

After the success of the first book review, I'm at it again.  Our second book review victim is "How to Write a Lot", by Dr. Paul J. Silvia.

click the image to buy it on Amazon (don't worry, I don't profit!), or check your local library

Paul is a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina.  This book is primarily aimed at an academic audience—the subtitle is "A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing"—but it's lessons are applicable by anyone struggling to write at the desired volumetric rate.

Education has been my primary business over the last twenty years, but it's been far from my only scheme in the works: I've made a huge effort to use every spare minute to develop a wide-ranging collection of hobbies and skills.  While I'm counting on leveraging my formal education to finance this Project (i.e. life), it's these other hobbies and skills that will make the process of achieving financial independence (and the Golden Age that will proceed it) a hell of a lot of fun.


Some of these thing save my money directly; others have the potential to actually make me money.  Nearly all of them save me money indirectly by allowing me to have fun at little or no direct cost.