Assorted Notes

MONDAY, 7 FEBRUARY 2011

This evening I saw the news that Gary Moore had passed away yesterday.

This afternoon, while watching the video of “End of the Line” by the Traveling Wilburys, I made two decisions:

1. I need a business partner. Additional capital will be nice, but it is more for the critical voice that will not be impressed by another “fantastic” idea. “Convince me,” I need to hear.

2. I am almost forty. I reckon I have at most five years to do something with the writing I produced in my twenties and thirties. If I do something with it, my vocation as a writer of semi-unique material will continue. If I carry on with my writing in the same vein as the last five years – with every now and then a move in the right direction only to lose momentum … I can forget about it. It will be over and done with.

Gary Moore died yesterday. But as I listen to his masterpiece “The Messiah Will Come Again”, I realise: he made music, and his music is his legacy.

[Eleven days later, on 18 February 2011, one of my favourite Afrikaans singers, Lucas Maree, also died. It confirmed the importance of the thoughts of 7 February 2011: If you have something to say, if you think you have something to contribute, don’t procrastinate.]

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WEDNESDAY, 2 FEBRUARY 2011

The average foreign English teacher in Taiwan’s income system has four disadvantages:

1. The work is boring and repetitive.

2. They work for people who sometimes make bad decisions that make their work more difficult, and they can’t do much about it.

3. Their income system is linked to specific places, which means they need to spend anything between thirty minutes and two hours on the road every day, probably on a scooter, and sometimes in hot, humid weather and/or heavy monsoon rains.

4. Their income system is not sustainable – in many cases they cannot still do this work in ten or fifteen years’ time, and there isn’t much opportunity for career growth.

That being said, I sometimes envy foreign teachers with a reasonably full schedule their income system, because of one advantage: they have to follow a set of rules every day of the week, Monday through Friday, and the end result is about NT$3,000 [approximately US$100] per day. Three thousand new Taiwan dollars. Per day. Five days a week.

THURSDAY, 3 FEBRUARY 2011

I hope to become less enthusiastic about taking a position on something without considering all the angles, and less eager to inform others without delay why I think someone is wrong, and why I am right.

I hope to become a better listener, because even when someone is wrong about one thing, they can still make valid points about something else. And even if someone is wrong in your opinion, their arguments are still coming from somewhere, and it is always better to understand where a person is coming from than to not understand it.

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WEDNESDAY, 8 DECEMBER 2010

1. Many people cling to their salaried positions for all they are worth, and place their hope on god’s grace and mercy if they lose the position.

2. Take any business with, say five employees – including the manager, and lay everyone off except the manager. Then take 90% of the business’s working capital away, and tell the manager that he must simply do without it. Then tell him, “Do your best. I’m sure you’ll be okay.”

TUESDAY, 14 DECEMBER 2010

“I was once free. Now at least I have money.” ~ from a daydream

THURSDAY, 13 JANUARY 2011

I wouldn’t like to put up a poster on my kitchen wall that says, “Death to all new ideas!” but let’s just say it would be better, especially in the next few months, to rather produce something to sell, for example, than to make more notes on how to produce something to sell.

FRIDAY, 14 JANUARY 2011

I hope to raise a decent amount of money over the next six months with a schedule that looks something like the following: ten hours a day, four days a week; or ten hours per day, five days a week, three weeks per month; or five hours a day, six days a week.

One thing is certain: I will never again make the mistake of allowing commercial endeavours to become the focus point of my existence.

FRIDAY, 21 JANUARY 2011

Ricky Gervais said an interesting thing this morning on Piers Morgan’s show on CNN: “Do your own thing, and see if you survive.”

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MONDAY, 17 JANUARY 2011

I live like a person who has escaped from somewhere and who’s now in hiding.

– I have a work permit, granted on the condition that I work at least eleven hours per week at a specific school. Actually, I only work three hours per week at the school.

– I don’t have a driver’s license, although I regularly ride a scooter, for which I need a license.

– I don’t have a National Health Insurance card – the only legal resident of Taiwan of which I know that doesn’t have one. Which means I always have to explain why I can only present a residence card when I go to see a doctor or a dentist.

– I have been renting an apartment for seven years, but I have never signed a lease. I don’t even know what the owner of the apartment looks like.

– I don’t live in the apartment anymore. I use it as an office and storage space.

– My phone bill is in the name of one “Ma-li-ou Ma-ka-ne” – the sinified name of a South African friend of mine who left Taiwan five years ago.

– The residential address on my ID card indicates that I live in the school where I work. Naturally I don’t live there.

A few years ago, I spoke of rehabilitating myself for entry into the socio-economic middle-class. Before I get to that phase of my life, I can think of quite a few benefits I will enjoy if at the very least I can manage to no longer live in apparent fear of doing things right.

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WEDNESDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2010

A short while ago a thought came to me – inspired to some extent by Michael Moore’s documentary film, Capitalism. The thought is about the emergence of a new aristocracy, the increasing decline of middle-class socio-economic stability, and more and more formerly middle-class people whose lives, considered from a certain perspective, resemble those of peasants in the Middle Ages.

Where do I stand in this world?

There was a time when I identified with the working class – or at least my idea of the working class. There was also a time when I expressed willingness to “make peace” with the middle class. Now I say, “Don’t get caught on the wrong side of the line.”

I have spent the last few years learning a thing or two about how your background and your upbringing affect your relationship with money, how it affects how you view “work”, and ultimately how it determines where you end up in this world. I have also learned how difficult it can be to de-learn certain things, and to change your attitude towards work and money.

Nevertheless, I believe in my own ability to improve my life. I also believe any person can improve his or her life if they believe they can, and are willing to make the necessary changes. Finally, a peasant I do not want to be. As regards to the middle class, I believe the dream is not what it used to be a few decades ago.

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Practical implication of the above text: Learn to develop and maintain a half dozen or more sources of income. Work for your own “company”. Only sell your time on a contract basis if you have already established other sources of income, and you are still actually working for yourself – which means, in real terms, the less dependent you are on the person who pays you, and the less of your time is linked to his or her profit, and the less dependent you are on this person’s or these people’s consent and/or approval of how you make use of your time, the better.

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