The SoapBoxers

I hate to spend a second month in a row talking about “immigration reform” in Arizona, but it is still a hot topic.  The currently passed bill is not what I am going to talk about today. On the near horizon Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, the man behind SB 1070 sometimes referreed to as “Mr. Ethnic Cleansing” is ready to unleash a fury of new proposals, many of which he has tried before that thankfully failed, but in the current climate that is the patients running the asylum of Arizona state politics they frighteningly will be likely to pass. One proposal will be to only allow Americans to marry Americans. Seeing as Pearce hates legal immigration just as much as he hates illegal immigrants I am supposing he means that only naturally born citizens will be allowed to marry natural born citizens. But even if it is just a restriction on allowing people not to marry someone who is a citizen of another country it is insane and unconstitutional. What is next Mr. Pearce? No race mixing? I guess Rand Paul may not be the only one wanting to revisit the Civil Rights Act after all.

Another proposal Pearce has already being debated titled Arizona SB 1097 that in general would require all schools in Arizona to count students who are in the country illegally or whose parents are in the country illegally. After doing so the school district would have to compile a report of the cost to taxpayers for their enrollment, expel the student and turn them and their families over to the proper officials. School districts that refuse to comply under this statue if it gets passed, then the state would be forced to withhold ALL funding the school district receives. I guess Pearce is willing to make sure every student suffers on his quest to rid Arizona of those pesky foreigners.

Education, or lack thereof in Pearce’s case, leads me to the next item that he could be bringing back on the agenda. In the past Pearce had proposed a law that would require all Arizona schools, K-12 and universities to disallow groups that as any part deal with ones ethnicity or race to be a member. Such as Black Business Leaders of Tomorrow or Native Americans United. The proposal Pearce says is to make sure that students are not indoctrinated by any anti- American teachings. What a crock of shit. From the company he keeps, American values for Pearce are expressed only by those with white skin. So I am guessing those types or groups would be excluded from any law made on this.

The mother of them all legislation Pearce is ready to bring to onslaught again is one that will be in direct conflict with the 14th amendment. This proposal would be to bar hospitals from issuing birth certificates to the children of illegal immigrants or as Pearce and his crowd refer to them as “Anchor Babies”. Pierce also takes things a step further stripping the citizenship granted in the past through being born to an illegal immigrant “If we are going to have an effect on the anchor baby racket, we need to target the mother” Pierce said. “Call it sexist, but that’s the way nature made it. Men don’t drop anchor babies, illegal alien mothers do.” However this type of law would be immediately stomped because it is clear as day unconstitutional.

The 14th amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” and that, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.”

You can say what you want about illegal immigrants having children and them being citizens, but until there actually is a change to it, there it is in plain black and white text unconstitutional. As far as making it retroactive is downright wrong as well as you create a whole secondary class of citizens that would be in the US illegally now and have no country they belong to. However I fully expect Sith Lord, I mean Senator John McCain, to fully back this legislation as the next cure all pill for immigration reform as he did with SB 1070 just to save his political life. But needless to say, thanks to the birthers, the tea party and Mr. Pearce and his long time supporters, SB 1070 is not the last thing you are going to be hearing out of Arizona for the foreseeable future. Mr. Pearce you are truly an American Idiot, if I can call you that of course as I have not seen your papers. May I have your papers please Mr. Pearce?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock – or just don’t care about sports – you know that LeBron James is about to become a free agent.

The 25 year old James is arguably the best player in the NBA. The financial piece of the equation is very easy. Under NBA rules, his current team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, can offer him more money than any other team. If he simply wants the cash, he stays with the Cavs.  The financial negotiations would not be complex.  The Cavaliers would simply write down the maximum salary allowed by NBA rules and wait for LeBron to sign the contract.

Over the course of the past few years, there has been widespread speculation that the New York Knicks would try to snap up James and some other top free agents. In an effort to gain “cap space”, the Knicks have rid themselves of expensive players. In addition to reducing payroll, this has also reduced wins.  The Knicks finished this season with a record of 29-53.

If LeBron picks the Knicks, he’ll be playing in the media capital of the world, and can become an even bigger star than he is now. There’s also the possibility that the Knicks can throw enough money around to build a championship caliber team.

If I were James, though, I’d be very cautious. Throwing money at players doesn’t guarantee that the team will meld into a championship contender. It’s just as likely that the Knicks will end up with a huge payroll and a crappy team.  The Cavaliers, on the other hand, have already proven that they are able to build a contender around him.  Yesterday, they fired Mike Brown – whose .663 winning percentage is tops in Cavaliers history – apparently to make way for LeBron’s choice of coach.  LeBron has a huge amount of influence over the future of the Cavs organization.

In terms of media exposure, I’m really not sure how much more exposure James can get. He’s already the most popular player in the NBA and a cultural icon. What does he really want – his own late night talk show?  At some point, don’t you get to a level of “global icon” that makes your geographic location irrelevant?

Although James may gain a bunch of fans by moving to another city, he might lose a lot of his existing fans.  Certainly Cavalier fans would leave in droves, but so would many other fans around the country.  LeBron is an Ohio kid (from Akron).  Watching him attempt to lead his hometown team to an NBA title is a great story line for me.  If LeBron is trying to lead the Knicks to a title, I’m not nearly as interested.  If he’s playing for Phil Jackson in Chicago (the Bulls are rumored to be courting Jackson) then I would be actively rooting against him.

As you can guess, my advice to LeBron is to stay in Cleveland.  He may make a few less bucks in endorsements, but he’ll be treated like royalty in Cleveland.  He’ll also continue to be just a short car ride away from family and old friends.  How will he be treated in New York if the Knicks plans to rebuild around him fail?  Sometimes being a big fish in a small pond can be the better choice – especially when that team can pay you better and contend for a title.

THE RESIN BAG

The US Supreme Court ruled against the NFL in an anti-trust lawsuit.  The league is being sued by apparel maker American Needle, Inc.  The company alleges that the manner in which the NFL collectively bargains with apparel companies is in violation of anti-trust laws. In the case of American Needle, they had produced hats for a variety of NFL teams before the NFL awarded an exclusive headgear contract to Reebok.  American Needle would prefer that teams could make independent decisions on apparel licensing.  It is important to note that the scope of this case was limited to apparel licensing and does not impact the league’s collective bargaining with players.  The case now goes back to a lower court that had previously ruled against American Needle. 

Former Major League pitcher Jose Lima passed away on Sunday at the age of 37.  In 1999, Lima won 21 games and was named to the All Star team.  In 1998 and 1999, Lima went a combined  37-18 with a 3.64 ERA.  For the rest of his career, he was 52-84.  As an encore to his 1999 campaign, Lima struggled to a 7-16 record with a 6.65 ERA.  His final full season in the majors (2005) was marked by a 5-16 record and a 6.99 ERA.  Through the good times and the bad, Jose Lima appeared to be the happiest guy on the world, declaring it to be “Lima Time” and, in general, acting like a guy who was being paid large sums of money to play a child’s game.  RIP, Jose.  Coincidentally, Lima was on the same Astros pitching staff as Darryl Kile, who died at the age of 33 in 2002.

The Colorado Rockies have been very average so far this year.  After hammering reigning AL Cy Young winner Zack Greinke on Sunday, the Rockies went into play on Tuesday with a record of 22-22.  Oddly, they haven’t been more than two games above or below .500 all year.  There are signs that the Rockies could be about to bust out, though.  Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki had been mired in a power slump all year.  After hitting 32 homers last year, he had just a single homer during the first 38 games of the year.  In the last four games, Tulo has hit three homers – all on the road.

Nationals prospect Stephen Strasburg is on the cusp of being called up to the majors.  Delaying the callup this long will allow the Nationals to push back Strasburg’s free agency and arbitration eligibility by a year.  With the Nationals beginning a road trip today, Strasburg’s debut will likely be on June 4th against the Reds in D.C.

It is that time of year, when high school and college students leave the perceived safety of the status quo to move on to new adventures and challenges.  For some reason, people across America (students and parents) feel the need to celebrate this transition with a party.  We have just experienced such an event as our second child (a daughter) graduates from high school.

There is always a great deal of preparation.  What do we cook?  What do buy?  What do we serve?  How many people do we invite?  How much seating should we provide?  Will there be any decorations?  As the dad, I do not have to be part of the discussion, I just have to perform the assigned tasks.

What is difficult to understand about these events is how truly eclectic they are.  They cannot be on the day of graduation, or there would be too many at once.  They cannot last too long, because people have to go to many parties on the same day.  Gifts are usually only given by people who cannot attend the event.  The students cycle through during the allotted time; eating, talking, then moving on to the next party.  The honored student disappears with special friends for a while, or shows up late from a preceding party, then leaves early to catch the next one.  Parents invite their own friends and sometimes old neighbors.  This group rarely intermingles with the younger crowd and seldom even discusses the future plans of the student, although there is always the obligatory “I remember when she was only this tall” comment.

We had a relatively easy time of it.  I had to grill hamburgers and hotdogs.  We made some pasta salad, cookies and brownies the night before.  Everything else was prepackaged; from carbonated beverages to the cutlery.  Even though over 200 people were invited, we only cooked for 50 so the costs were not that bad.  Clean up was easy, what wasn’t eaten was tossed, and the kids who came were very helpful before they left.  Much more mature than I was at that age.

The older crowd stayed well beyond the published end time for the party.  It was nice to reminisce with old neighbors and friends.  You can find out so much about other peoples plans, dreams, troubles and histories by just sitting and talking on a warm May evening.

So why have a graduation party?  I say for the parents to enjoy themselves.  My daughters say it is for the students.  My son, who had six pizzas and six friends in the basement for video games, claims it is all for the stores to make money.  In the end, a party is for everyone who plans, throws or attends it.

For the last year, I have been spending a fair amount of time writing fiction.  Every Friday, with very few exceptions, there has been a brand new short story.  There have been occasional bonus stories on other days, and even holiday specials like Friends for Thanksgiving.

Most of these stories are less than a thousand words.  Every few months, I have had the goal of writing a 10,000 word longer story to be included in the short story collections that I sell in the Hyrax Publications store.

The longer stories have a dual purpose.  First of all, they provide exclusive content for the purchasers of the short story collections.  Purchasing the eBooks is the only way you can obtain these stories.  The main goal, however, is to get me into the habit of stretching my ideas into longer stories in preparation for my novel.

Several months ago, I began work on a novel focusing on the exploits of a serial killer.  I sketched out a synopsis of the story, and quickly got 6000 words written.  At that point, life got much busier.  Unfortunately, I haven’t written a single word in the novel in months.  In fact, I have struggled even to write the 10,000 word stories.

I expect to be able to begin making progress on the novel again, as the kids settle into a more predictable bedtime routine.  However, at age 35, I seem to be getting a bit of a late start.  What if I never finish my novel?

Throughout most of my entire writing career (dating back to elementary school), I have considered the novel to be the highest art form.  All other forms of writing – shorter fiction, poetry, and non-fiction –  were of considerably less interest to me.  In the words of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, I wanted to be a paperback writer.

I still do want to finish my novel.  However, over the course of the last year, my opinion of short stories has changed considerably.  When I began writing short stories, the main goal was to refine my writing style and experiment with various techniques – all in an effort to improve the writing in my eventual novel.

At some point along the way, the stories stopped being stepping stones toward a future goal and became writings that I was proud of.  Is it possible that I’ll never become a novelist, and will instead spend my time churning out hundreds of short stories?    The one downside is financial – as mentioned in my guide to short story writing, publishers don’t pay very much for the stories.  However, there’s a certain feeling of accomplishment in writing an interesting, yet compact story.  At times, I can hammer out a short story in 20 minutes (which, given my typing speed, is very near the theoretical minimum time).  Others have taken an hour or more.  Interestingly, there’s not a strong correlation between the time taken the write the story and the quality of the story.  Some of the more popular stories have been written during an episode of The Office.

Today, I celebrate my 35th birthday.  Or, as I like to refer to it, “the end of the first third of my life.” Here are some Casual Observations from my first 35 years.

• Laughter is the best medicine.  It’s not always the most effective – insulin is much more effective for treating diabetes, for example – but it’s free, and it can be used to treat any ailment known to man.
• When I was younger, I always assumed that the Challenger disaster would be the dominant news memory of my lifetime.  In fact, I had the foresight to save two newspapers from the next day.  Then came 9-11 and took Challenger down a notch.
• I am now old enough to run for president.  I think I’ll take a pass on that for the moment.
• Fantasy baseball teaches some great skills.  Most notable are negotiation and scarcity of resources.  A shortstop who hits 40 homers is worth a lot more than an outfielder with a similar offensive skill set.
• Everyone should hike in the mountains and play in the ocean at least once in their life.  I’m what swim coaches refer to as a “drowner”, but I thoroughly enjoyed the ocean at Daytona Beach.
• You have some control over the stress in your life.  A favorite quote of mine comes from Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer:
  

  God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

• Technology is a tool, but not a panacea.  It cannot be used as a substitution for adequate parenting, teaching, or training.
• Past performance is no guarantee of future results – but it can often be a solid predictor.
• Take time to stop and smell the roses.  Or even better, watch the birds and squirrels play.
• Tolerance breeds peace.
• Eat lots of bacon.
• One of the best ways to improve your writing is to read books written by great writers.
• College is a time to learn.  You’ll certainly gain academic knowledge during these 4 (or 6) years, but just as important are the life skills you’ll acquire.
• Wave a pedestrian across the crosswalk when you’re at a stop sign.  Really, are you in that big of a hurry?
• I have been a baseball fan since I was very young.  My teams have made the playoffs five times – the ’84 and ’89 Cubs and the ’95, ’07, and ’09 Rockies.  The long waits make the eventual experience even sweeter.
• Don’t confuse education with intelligence.  You can have education without intelligence or intelligence without education.
• Tackle a fear every now and then.  I went from being afraid of roller coasters to being a huge fan – literally in a matter of minutes.  In the words of President Franklin Roosevelt, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
• Whether you support the actions of your government, show support for the armed forces.  These brave men and women don’t have the ability to choose their work assignments.

Well, that’s all for now.  This turned a bit more into advice than I intended, so I’ll hop off my soapbox now.

This guest post is by The Digerati Life, a site dedicated to a wide range of personal finance topics, from online banking and investing to credit card use and debt management. You can check out the site’s OptionsHouse review or their TradeKing review for a taste.

[Editor’s note: I’d like to welcome the visitors from Mint.com.  While there are a handful of finance-related articles on The Soap Boxers, the site is very broad based and includes sports, fiction, politics and more.  Find out more about us and check out some of the other 500+ articles on the site.]

Could you really make money by snapping off a few pictures and uploading them to some website or another? I have been looking into this possibility lately and one thing is clear –- not just anyone can make money in this way because you need to have some degree of skill. If you take a blurred photo with someone’s head cut off, the chances are you can expect to make zero sales.

But with that said, there are possibilities for you if you can take reasonable photos. There are lots of websites that allow you to sell your photos through their platform, and they take a small cut of each sale to keep going. Some of them are very well known and are best left to the professional photographers, but others are not so intimidating and can be good for the more casual crowd.

One thing I have noticed is that most people are known for favoring a particular style of photography. For instance, some folks are known for shooting landscapes. Others are known for taking unusual angles and snapshots of mundane and everyday subjects. And there are those who concentrate solely on taking photos of people. The possibilities are endless but it certainly seems to pay to be recognized as a photographer who specializes on a particular style of photography.

I’ve also noticed that when it comes to sales, the people who’ve had the most success with selling their images are those with the most images and photos up for sale online. Well, this makes sense since it’s a simple numbers game, for sure: the fewer photos you have available, the less chances you’ll have of someone coming across your work and appreciating what you’ve done. If you have a thousand photos available for sale though, you’ll get some pretty good benefits as a result:

• You stand more chance of your photos coming up in search results.
• Once people find your work, they will probably spend more time looking through what you have to sell.
• The more photos you have on sale, the greater your chances of having a buyer come back as repeat business.
• With a bigger portfolio, you have a greater opportunity to make more sales and income on an ongoing basis.

Most sites will let you sell different rights to your photos. For instance I went on the Fotolia site the other day and they have three different types of rights you can sell. For many sites, the simplest one you can charge is a one use only fee. This is a cheaper option that allows you to retain the main rights to your photo so that you can sell it repeatedly. Just imagine -– one good photo could earn you a lot of money if you never sell it outright.

Another type of fee is one that permits the buyer to buy the photo outright. In this situation, you no longer retain the rights as the photographer. You may or may not want to do this, depending on how popular the photo is with other buyers. But if you do let these rights go, you can do so at a much higher price.

This seems to be a great way for hobbyist photographers to enter this market. You could be making some nice additional cash by selling your photos online if you have a talent for taking them.

If you like this post, check out The Digerati Life.