NezSez

I’m not talking about hitting the lottery, or cashing out on stock options, I’m talking about being an average Joe or Joy, one who either works for someone, or who runs a small business.

My Idea of a Perfect Life

It is one where I:

1. Have a profession that I truly enjoy - a job that is stimulating, creative, and pays a little bit more than enough. I do not require vast wealth, just enough to live on, and to save for retirement.
2. Spend plenty of time with my kids - to show them the simple pleasures in life, the wonder of our world, the diversity of our culture, and that there’s more to life than TV and video games.
3. Periodically travel - to enrich my own experience of the world and its peoples.
4. Leave a positive stamp behind - what’s my legacy, will I leave this world a better place than when I entered it, how will people remember me? I hope that this blog will become something worth reading down the line.
5. Am fit in body and in mind - a healthy mind and body go hand in hand. Coupled with a good personal and professional accomplishments, I’d say that makes a perfect life.

Where I am

For me, I’ve only (partially) accomplished number 1.

I happen to be self-employed, and enjoy my chosen profession very, very much. It’s my fourth year in business, and I am not yet at the level I want (or need) to be, but certainly a lot farther along than what I originally conceived because I gained a business partner in second year.

I am working towards that first plateau almost every day of the week.

Which, of course, puts the rest of the list on the back burner. It’s not that I don’t do any of 2-5, but rather not I don’t do them in the amount I want — something about not enough time in the day…excuses, I know.

What about you? Do you think my basic criteria is too simple? What are your ideas of a perfect life? Are you living it?

Thank you so much for checking out my blog! If you like what you see, I'd like to invite you to subscribe to my RSS feed and maybe tell your friends about it. I'd really appreciate it!

With weekly fervor over the United States Presidential primaries right now and Election in November, I am reminded of one of my favorite science fiction novels, Ender’s Game.

A Prophetic Subplot?

In Ender’s Game, one of the main subplot involves manipulating Earth’s various governments and societal sentiments through the use of diametrically opposing political commentaries, written by Ender’s older (genius as well) siblings, and distributed via their version of the internet.

The pseudonyms they used were Locke and Demosthenes, and their writings polarized different groups of people, and thrust their online personas into the limelight. (There’s more to the plot, but that’s enough for my purposes here).

Blogs and their Effects

Of course, in real life, we have blogs.

One would think that blogs can truly be used to broadcast a candidate’s message directly to people out in the blogosphere, and perhaps even engage in constructive commentaries among other politicians (I know, wishful thinking).

And perhaps they are. A little.

A Flaw in Today’s Politicians’ Blogs

When I take a look at the blogs of the major candidates — John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — I notice one thing they all have in common:

None of the candidates write on their own blog (as far as I can tell).

Why is that?

The blogs I’ve seen have posts written ostensibly by campaign managers and other like-minded supporters in their respective camps.

Should Politicians Blog (Subscriptions = Votes)

Could you picture a politician’s blog with 100’s of thousands, or perhaps millions of subscribers, dwarfing the “superblogs” I’ve seen so far? Would it be possible? I’m not sure.

Could you imagine looking at a politician’s feedburner count to see how popular he or she is? Wouldn’t it be kind of like voting?

But, maybe the time isn’t ripe yet.

Perhaps there’s a lack of a critical online mass (e.g. not enough voters are online), or perhaps the recent failures of electronic voting systems make people (and candidates) hesitant about security and authenticity, or perhaps these politicians just don’t have time, being out in the public eye all the time. Whatever.

But as the blogosphere continues to grow, I think blogs will play a more and more important role in shaping societal opinions, public policies and a whole lot of other stuff falling under the realm of governments.

Certainly Local Politicians Should Blog

At the least, on a local level, a mayor or a council member can easily start and maintain a blog to inform and gain feedback from their respective constituents. The numbers would be more manageable, and the communication between politician and people would stay more narrow, focused on local issues at hand.

In any case, I hope to see better, more informative, more constructive ways of using the web to broadcast a candidate’s message, and to engage with people in positive ways.

I realize I’ve only touched the proverbial tip of the iceberg in this matter. It will be interesting to see what happens in the years to come.

What do you think?