Will Bridges

When you work at home some times it can be difficult to get the right space to work in. I just moved my office upstairs in to one of our empty rooms. Reason being is because it used to be in the dining room downstairs. Yendis would bring the baby and lay him down in the dining room and she would tap my shoulder and ask me to do things, the tv would be too loud, etc… Generally it just interupted my work flow. So, I made some logical choices on the placement of my office.

• My office must be away from main traffic of the house as to not cause minor distractions.
• My office must have enough room for equipment.
• Windows. I don’t like my office to have open windows so I put up shades. I like to easily be able to control the amount of light that comes in my office so I don’t get glare or anything like that.
• My office had to have a door which I could close and not be interrupted by the others in the house. Those other people in my house had to know not to interfere with me unless it’s very important.
• No children. You cannot have children near by your office. It will cause interruptions.
• Small snacks and beverages. This is nice but I don’t currently have it. You should have snacks and beverages available to you in your office.
• Cooperation. You need to have cooperation between you and the others in your household to maintain a good working environment and a good living environment side by side.

Also, remember, one of the advantages of working at home is being able to easily spend time with your family. So, take time out, no matter how busy you are to escape work and see the ones you love.

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Those crazy drunk chicks are running around Argentina having a great 25th birthday. So much so, they got one of their purses stolen and there are reports that the embassy asked them to leave. I wonder if they will be on the next Girls Gone Wild movie. Hypocrisy is great isn’t it, Mr. Bush? Oh, when they come back I guess you can all sit down and pray for forgiveness with them.

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I have so much work over the next month that I don’t know what to do with it all. I just got done planning all of these projects (mostly) and am ready to begin programming. But, I also have to be looking for other work to make sure I have a steady influx of work after these projects are done and because I would like to keep a couple other people busy. So, balance is difficult between 3 paid projects, a volunteer project leadership position, a local auto dealership that wants a site done, and 2 part time clients that want work for me. I’m putting my hard hat on though because the more money I make the more I will have to save for my big move to Uruguay in 2008. I’m still going to vote in the Presidential Election! Just because I’m moving out of the country doesn’t mean I don’t care about my home land. I’m just not interested in living here.

This month I’m really going to be putting the ruby on rails ’speedy’ development to the test. I hope it works out because I have a lot riding on it. I will keep everyone updated and try to post in my blog regularly. I hope everybody’s Thanksgiving was great. Talk to you soon.

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I know… I know… But for real. I want to move to Uruguay. On the trip home from Thanksgiving Yendis and I talked about it and we want to move out of the country. I can do my job from anywhere with a good broadband connection. Here’s some good points I came up with about Uruguay. I’ve been researching this for a couple days between working.

• Uruguay speaks mostly Spanish. That’s great because I wanted a good excuse to learn, Yenids wants to learn, and I want my son to be bi-lingual.
• It’s not too far out of the US time zones which is where most of the people I work for conduct business.
• It has a stable economy and democratic government.
• Crime is extremely low for that part of the world.
• The health care system is great and it’s free to citizens & residents who have been living there for 3 years. Further, if it’s not free it’s extremely cheap for great private health care and they have most of the modern equipment we have.
• Public education is free all the way up to the Doctorate level of the university! But further, private education is fairly priced and diverse.
• Montevideo is only 3 hours by ferry from Buenos Aries which would be a cool place to visit every now and then.
• Citizenship is easy to get. You only have to live there for 5 years if you are single or 3 years if you are married.
• The climate is perfect. Equivelent to Long Beach, CA.
• The public officials seem easy to work with and responsive as well as the rest of the businesses in the culture from the reports I’ve seen.
• Montevideo is a city of 1.5 million people which is a great size.
• Broadband internet is available and not extremely expensive.
• It’s a fairly modern society. They even have a couple grocery stores online that will deliver to your house.
• It’s about a 40-60% cheaper cost of living than most places here in the US.

That being said. There are some small cons. Here is a list.

• The sidewalks are in terrible condition in some areas from reports and some areas of the city look like they have went unmaintained for years.
• It’s far away. It’s between Argentina and Brazil in South America on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s about $900 for a round trip ticket per person to Washington DC and it’s an overnight flight.
• It’s an adventure. I have an extremely low knowledge of Spanish. Yendis has almost none. I’d have to learn some before I went.
• To be comfortable in a foriegn country I would like to have about 25k worth of money saved up and it’s going to be difficult to save that over the next 12-18 months.
• While there are tons of resources it’s hard to know if it’s going to be right for me. But, from everything I’ve read it seems right for me and my family.
• My son is very young and will still be very young before we move. There’s a good chance we will only get back home 1 or 2 times a year. I intend on going to become a citizen so I will have to be there for 5 years, at least. So, he won’t get to see his family very much.

We looked at many other options including Norway, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, Austrailia, and some of the islands. Overall the pros for Uruguay still outweigh the cons. There was some serious or major drawback to all of the other countries we considered. So, I’m going for it but I need to be as frugal and as motivated as I can be so I can save a large enough amount of money to be comfortable. I have enough clients that I’m comfortable now but that could always change. However, I doubt it will. So, I intend on moving in the next 12-18 months. Yendis wants to wait but I’m pretty sure I can convince her because I know she wants to leave the country. We may visit next year to see how we like it before we go. If you would like information on the resouces and knowledge I have obtained please follow these links.

Uruguay Living - An American living in Uruguay who has lived in many remote places in the world. Tons of information here and all very recent. Plus, he sells a book that anybody considering a move there should buy. A real good book.

Sociedad Southron - They guy who created the blog above created a society to help people trade information about moving to Uruguay. You have to join the forum but it’s free and there are tons of posts there about everything from dozens of people. A really great resource as well.

Uruguay Human Development Report - Tons of stats on the situation of human development in Uruguay.

Uruguay CIA World Fact Book Report - Genral information about Uruguay and it’s people.

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Thanksgiving with the family turned out great.You can see from the pictures below. Only three families attended out of the Bridges side of the family but it still turned out great and truthfully I’m not sure Bill & Greg’s house would have handled any more people. But, anyways, they cooked everything they could healthy and organic and without any sugar. Still it was one of the most delicious meals Thanksgiving days I have ever had. We felt right at home. I would have liked to go out in the city a bit more and explore as it looked interesting but we just didn’t have the time.

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I’m going up to Ohio to have Thanksgiving with some family for the holdiay. It will be my first time going to Cincinnati and my first time being in Ohio. I havent seen some of my family that is going to be there in about 4 years so it will be good to see them. I will bring back pictures and maybe get to post in my blog while I’m there. I’m really too busy to go but I’m making an exception because it’s family. I Hope everybody’s Thanksgiving turns out great.

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I saw in the news there was a giant open forum amoung scientists the other day there was a massive debate amoung scientists on religion and science.

It doesn’t seem to be that religion and science are opposing forces. Science can explain the creation of the universe but it cannot explain why that from nothing there came something. I would argue that the processes of science are real, evolution is real, and the world and universe are billions of years old. But, I am sure the processes of science were created by a higher being. I feel god in the things I do and the reality we live in. Because I can’t measure it doesn’t mean it’s not real. I’m spiritual in that way. However, I am not much a religious person. I believe the stories in religion teach valuable lessons about life. But, they are only stories and most of them are not real. I believe in the teachings and stories of Christ and believe they have real world value. I do not believe in a hell, a devil, or that god is vindictive or vengeful. I believe the processes that make this universe work the way it does are creations of god. They are beautiful and splendid in the way they created the world we live in.

Science allows us to measure, analize, and control these processes more and more every day. Also science allows us to create beautiful and intelligently made things based off of the rules and processes of the universe. Science is man’s outstreched arm, reaching in to the darkeness to know and control that which he cannot yet see, wholy. To me, science is as holy as the teachings of Christ. Christ was here to teach us that we each have the ability to be as he was and further that we each have god within us. Take these quotes from Jesus:
“Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
I John 4:4
or
“…behold, the kindom of God is within you…”
Luke 17:21
Science should be respected by Christians however it is reviled by many Christians. Spirituality should be respected by scientists. However, blind religion leads to ignorance, stupidity, and danger in one’s own life and possibly the life of others. Know and feel what you are priasing. Don’t do it just out of fear and you may come to the same conclusion as I have.

God is real, she is in me, walks with me, and through the processes of him I can create anything, good or evil, wise or unwise. Praise god.

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I’ve got this friend that has been programming in ASP since back in 2000 or around that time. He helped get me a job at FEMA programming back in the day. However, being at the government for any long period of time kinda puts in a learning bubble. That’s the main reason I left working for the government is because I saw nothing that would help me advance as a programmer. Of course there were many other reasons.

But, anyways, my friend left FEMA about 3 months ago and found another job doing classic ASP programming. He found a pretty good one working for this company locally in Winchester, VA. But, because he was in a technology bubble from working at the government he had never been around .NET or any of the new Microsoft techs that are out now. Anyways, this company gave him a raise after three months and then laid him off two days later. To me, that seems absurd. Why give somebody a raise and then lay them off. Regardless, now he is
out of a job, he has a morgatge, and a son he is raising by himself.

All of the windows jobs I know of are .NET. If anybody knows of any freelance windows work in classic asp let me know and I’ll forward the information on. This is a terrible situation. All programmers need to take some lessons from this.

• Never over-specialize.
• Always continue your dedication to learning when you are a programmer.
• Diversify your skill set and be vigilant to find the tools and people to get you out of career choices that are a dead end.

Most companies do not care about you in this industry, even if you care deeply about their success. It’s just not the nature of the business. It’s unfortunate and maybe it would be a good idea for programmers to unionize at some point to relieve some of these problems. But the problems with unions is there is always someone out there, just as talented, who is willing to work outside the union for less money or more hours. So, maybe unions are not the answer, but then what is?

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It really disgusts and discourages me when I look at these freelance programming sites where tons of people are bidding on a project. Why? There are Indian & Chinese programmers bidding $12/hour. No American can compete with those rates and live a decent life. It would be great if someone put up a freelancing website for Americans only where real American businesses would put out a fair rate to do the jobs they want done by Americans only and/or foreign companies that are willing to bid a fair rate. I’m for international competition because I don’t by any means think that American programmers are the only ones who are capable programmers. I just think there should be an arena where they must bid a decent and fair rate for projects instead of always coming lower to get the project because all they need to support themselves is $400 a month. Driving down the rate for programming just because you want to get the project hurts everyone. I know, I’m bitching… but somebody needs to.

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As I wrote before I was diagnosed with anxiety disorder a while back. Well, I’m donating some of my programming & project management time to a project that deals with that. I don’t want to discuss it much until the final plan is laid down and the programming starts. But, I’ve been helping to write a plan for a website called unburdenus.com which will help gather statistical data about treatments and side effects for common psychological ailments such as anxiety and depression. It will be a tool to put unbiased data in the hands of health care professionals and other sufferers of these illnesses so such ailments can be treated better. It looks like a promising tool and I proud to be a member of a team of about 5 programmers and designers who are working on this concept. The other good news is it’s Ruby on Rails so it will be Web 2.0 and I will be the technical lead on the project.

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