Introibo Ad Altare Conscientiae

[nitroviper]

'Ello!

My name is nitroviper. I'm twenty-something years old. I am a web programmer specializing in vBulletin (this forum software). I was home schooled after 3rd grade. I learned programming when I was sixteen, and then fell into freelancing and then contracting work. The burden of my coding obligations quickly eclipsed the joy of designing abstract systems, and I fell into malaise for years, unable to move. I am quickly digging myself out of this rut.

I spend a great deal of time introspecting, observing my self and noting the discrepancies and dissonances. Why does this emotion arise from this stimuli, what intrigues me about this object, why do I behave differently in this circumstance than he does, etc.

My other time is spent working my 20-hour work week, indulging in leisurely pursuits like youtube-watching, tv-watching, and fanfiction-reading. I like Hunter x Hunter, Sherlock, My Little Pony, Day9.tv, itmejp, TotalBiscuit, Tested (With Adam Savage), and more.

I am now planning a 1-year sabbatical from work to test a different lifestyle. This lifestyle would involve backpacking the whole while with extremely minimal financial needs, to free myself from draining obligations, allow myself the time to 'do whatever I want', broaden my mind through experience, and embrace a dream that has always resonated with me emotionally. There is something romantic in it, being at the mercy of the world and holding the world at your mercy.

I've secured the time off, and I leave in March.

Greetings, fellow weirdos!

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

Hello,

Do you still freelance? What are your experiences?
Did you ever consider making your own projects or a small dev team?
How do you relate to your homeschooling experience and What were the things that you liked in it or you think you have had a better support in?

So you like day9? What is your race or strat in SC2? I played the terran for 6 months. I enjoyed the lategame ghost raven composition.

I am now planning a 1-year sabbatical from work to test a different lifestyle. This lifestyle would involve backpacking the whole while with extremely minimal financial needs, to free myself from draining obligations, allow myself the time to 'do whatever I want', broaden my mind through experience, and embrace a dream that has always resonated with me emotionally. There is something romantic in it, being at the mercy of the world and holding the world at your mercy.

I actually have similar plans, I need enough cash to free myself from obligations and I could start travelling and picking up new languages that are on my list. I have always thought that it is romantic to be alone against the world, sometimes it gets too hot or cold when you have no buffer zone.

Enjoy your stay in this pageant of madmen.

 

[nitroviper]

Hello,

Do you still freelance? What are your experiences?
Did you ever consider making your own projects or a small dev team?
How do you relate to your homeschooling experience and What were the things that you liked in it or you think you have had a better support in?

So you like day9? What is your race or strat in SC2? I played the terran for 6 months. I enjoyed the lategame ghost raven composition.

I actually have similar plans, I need enough cash to free myself from obligations and I could start travelling and picking up new languages that are on my list. I have always thought that it is romantic to be alone against the world, sometimes it gets too hot or cold when you have no buffer zone.

Enjoy your stay in this pageant of madmen.

It's difficult to sum up my experiences with freelancing. In the beginning, I worked for the sake of the work; it was an interesting field to apply myself to. I viciously undercut the competition, and I leveraged my better-than-average communication skills and a client-centric work ethic to regularly take on more work than I could handle. My skills and discipline were sub-par, so I was often stressed with my workload.

On a whim, I applied to work for a forum service company, simply because I had happened to acquire a portfolio of mostly forum-related work. I started to be paid a reasonable amount of money contracting for the company, and then what I considered an excessive amount of money, after my dissatisfaction with work-related stress led me to discuss leaving the company. I got a raise. It was still far below the market-value for my skills, but it was more money than I knew what to do with, especially in my teens.

The higher amount of pay and the slowly increasing responsibilities of my position only upped my dissatisfaction with the job. I quit and came back a few times, confused about what to do now that I was beginning to grow into an adult and actually need the money. I was emotionally incapable of leaving or improving my position because I was emotionally underdeveloped. The work netted lowered self esteem because it was my only form of validation and prevented me from seeking other forms of validation.

Now, I am still making under the market value for my skills, but as I don't need much money and have already given notice, I don't care to optimize the situation right now.

That was mostly my emotional experience with freelancing and contracting work. My practical experience has been that web programming is fairly easy to learn, and good work is fairly easy to get ahold of when you demonstrate your care to a client. It also seems fairly easy to create a situation wherein you need to work very little to get by, if you are used to saying 'no' or 'that's not good enough' to projects that don't suit you financially or peak your interest. I have never had a prolonged problem with having too little work -- it has always been too much.

I have considered pursuing personal programming projects, and I have tried, but the constant pressing of my actual obligations and a low tolerance for the necessary drudgery-work has prevented me from completing all but a few. I may have been overutilizing INTJ methods of time blocking and scheduling, methods anathema to my personality, in my attempts thus far. I am currently considering other methods of project pursual that should hopefully yield better results.

I related to my homeschool experience the way a denizen of the interwebs relates to Nickelback; with humorous disdain. The whole attempt was so flawed and half-assed that I can't honestly say I did much 'schooling' at all, and it only served to further alienate me from society, leaving me unequipped to deal with basic conversation and networking. It did give me time to pursue some personal projects, and I enjoyed the lack of structure, but the lack of guidance, help, and validation meant many years wasted.

I like Day9 for his personality, though I can relate to him less in his current state than I did previously. He has obviously grown in confidence and technical skill, but at the cost of his charming vulnerability and humorous self-awareness. I find that his Starcraft analysis is often over my head, and not nearly expository enough for me to enjoy-- I'm missing some logical steps that are second nature to him, and I can't reconcile my understanding of the game with the points he makes.

I play Starcraft very occasionally. For a period of perhaps a few weeks I played regularly as Terran. I enjoyed developing my mechanical skills to the point where I could dominate similarly skilled players in the late game, but I had no understanding of the structure of the early game, and no interest in developing such an understanding.

I've only ever been up to gold league, and that was a fluke because my placement games were all against opponents who played a late game. In my first gold league match, I lost to a zergling rush because I had never before attempted a wall-in on that map. My opponent was confused, and typed 'wut?' before destroying my base. I grokked that I would have to put in a lot of effort into learning uninteresting early-game principles, and I stopped playing.

I still play team games with my coworkers as Protoss every now and then. We generally play against the Elite AI, which is not something to brag about because it's dead easy. The AI operates under the same principles I operate under, which are very general ones: optimize your early game to build the biggest bestest army the most quickly and expand to support a growing infrastructure. I am comfortable at this level of abstraction and this level of play.

If you don't mind me asking, what are the details of your plans, or are they still in the general phase? I'm currently in the detailed phase of my planning, and I'm dealing with things like: how to wash clothes on the road; creating an efficient smartphone-accessible mapping system with markers for free wifi, cheap food, etc.; and trespass laws in the regions I'm travelling through.

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

I am now planning a 1-year sabbatical from work to test a different lifestyle. This lifestyle would involve backpacking the whole while with extremely minimal financial needs, to free myself from draining obligations, allow myself the time to 'do whatever I want', broaden my mind through experience, and embrace a dream that has always resonated with me emotionally. There is something romantic in it, being at the mercy of the world and holding the world at your mercy.

I've secured the time off, and I leave in March.

This is what interests me. What are your plans here? Where do you plan to do this, and where are you from?

 

[nitroviper]

This is what interests me. What are your plans here? Where do you plan to do this, and where are you from?

My plan, in a nutshell, is to assemble some gear, pack a backpack, and wander for a year. In long form, the plan actually doesn't get very much more complicated, but the term of one year was a convenient oversimplification; I actually intend to test-drive this lifestyle for three months initially, to see if this lifestyle is sustainable in the long run, and to possibly make adjustment to it if need be.

I live on the west coast, and I intend to hike up through to Washington state during this trial period. I've saved about four thousand dollars for this journey, which is actually more than I strictly need according to my maths, accounting for gear, food, and emergencies. Everything else is just detail-work, like deciding which brand of tent I'm going to purchase, which smartphone navigation app offers me the best features, how I should handle being asked to leave property, how to maintain hygiene on the road, etc.

I imagine a world wherein my obligations are few and my possibilities are almost infinite, a world in which I am completely free to pursue any passing fancy or long held dream. Luckily for me, my fancies and dreams rarely involve attaining new 'things'. They deal with the more abstract, like reading the majority of widely-acclaimed classic literature, or improving on the current generation of computer-user interface paradigms, or waking up in a place of beauty I've never seen before.

I have a very long list of wonderful things I could do without a home, without a job, and without a great deal of money. And these are the things I care about most. Why sacrifice the things I hold most dear for the things I merely tolerate? Why do this, when this country is so rich that you could work one month out of the year and spend the rest of that valuable, precious time pursuing the things that make you come alive?

I already have access to the entire library of human knowledge and imagination through the miracle of the internet and these newfangled mobile computers that double as phones. I have access to a near limitless supply of energy in the form of extremely cheap, remarkably efficient, and practically portable solar panels. All of the entertainment and information I'll ever need can be downloaded almost anywhere in the United States with a fairly cheap cell phone data plan, and given the sheer number of locations that offer free wifi, even that is an almost pointless luxury.

The food I need to sustain myself, with both comfort and variety, can be bought for less than five dollars a day. The shelter and clothes I need to keep me warm for years can be purchased for only one week of work. The illusory security that so many whine and moan about can be acquired for a year, in a few weeks of work, in the form of travel insurance. The friendships and connections I want can be experienced in abundance on the road. And, as a plus, the rate of violent crimes is probably lower than it's ever been in the history of the world.

All of the tools I need to live 'well' are cheaply gotten, the few physical comforts I appreciate are almost free, and the rest is just so much dross. Or, that's the theory. Let's see if reality will vindicate me.

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

Adrian Lamo of the forest. Me likey.

It appears you're about to live my life's backup plan, though mine involves less travel & general work and the creative use of adverse possession (Do folks like Ted Turner and John Malone really respond to certified letters declaring one's intent for adverse possession of what, to them, is a very small parcel, especially from folks who may value the same things they do? Do they really check up on all that land?). I'd even go so far as to eventually eschew tents entirely and build a network of small cabins. I get the feeling that if you research your local ecology your costs will drop even further, and you may even find the necessary profit without the requisite traditional labor.

The possibility of renting out a house in the U.S. while I myself am living, say, in the Philippines on only that income, interests me as well.

Keep us updated.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

I like Day9 for his personality, though I can relate to him less in his current state than I did previously. He has obviously grown in confidence and technical skill, but at the cost of his charming vulnerability and humorous self-awareness. I find that his Starcraft analysis is often over my head, and not nearly expository enough for me to enjoy-- I'm missing some logical steps that are second nature to him, and I can't reconcile my understanding of the game with the points he makes.

Yeah, I used to watch some of his casts, now I prefer to spend my time on something else. I liked his nerd stories and how he dealt with various stuff.

I play Starcraft very occasionally. For a period of perhaps a few weeks I played regularly as Terran. I enjoyed developing my mechanical skills to the point where I could dominate similarly skilled players in the late game, but I had no understanding of the structure of the early game, and no interest in developing such an understanding.

I stopped playing mainly because there were more valuable things to do. It's just a game, as with most games, I have better ideas and projects that I can work on. I played with a friend and we got to the platinum, I was good at macro and the stuff that didn't require muscle memory. I usually did well with eco and lost because someone made a timing attack or a balanced mid game push.

If you don't mind me asking, what are the details of your plans, or are they still in the general phase? I'm currently in the detailed phase of my planning, and I'm dealing with things like: how to wash clothes on the road; creating an efficient smartphone-accessible mapping system with markers for free wifi, cheap food, etc.; and trespass laws in the regions I'm travelling through.

I have several plans, but they are not crystallised yet. I thought that I could travel third world countries and work as an elementary grade teacher for the local communities. This is quite popular in india and I like the culture they have in india.

Ultimately I have several locations that I would l like to visit apart from the usual travelling I would live there for some time and decide whether I want to stay.
I picked up freelancing fairly recently and after dealing with some initial projects I find it a very flexible opportunity to allow me for travelling and studying various cultures.

I find your experience quite constructive and it may further my lifestyle that seems in it's basic principles as similar to yours.

 

[Marcel]

… broaden my mind through experience, and embrace a dream that has always resonated with me emotionally. There is something romantic in it, being at the mercy of the world and holding the world at your mercy.

Excellent idea! For maximum effect:

• Don’t play the (photographing) observer
• Talk to everyone you can grab
• Enjoy the sensual life

Write a diary to collect material for the publication of (at least) an electronic book. It is obvious that you can write, and it is also obvious that your project can fascinate people.

If you travel with other backpackers you live like a typical tourist who communicates and copulates most of the time with his fellow tourists. Not bad for introverts!

The more time and effort you invest in understanding a foreign culture the longer you want to stay there in order to dig even deeper and intensify your personal relations. I would not spend less than two months per country, enough time for experiencing a culture shock.

If you are unprepared and try to ask people about their mentality you will be surprised how ineffective that approach is. The more you know about a foreign culture the better you can understand what you experience there. You have to read books and articles, not just travel guides.

By the way, India must be a really interesting country; the French embassy there employed a psychiatrist who explains in his book how India can trigger off mental illnesses of Westerners. Just in case.

Régis Airault, Fous de l'Inde: Délires d'Occidentaux et sentiment océanique
http://www.jobtrotter.com/actualites/14789/Le-syndrome-indien--mythe-ou-realite--.aspx
http://www.slate.fr/story/47491/folies-voyage-inde-choc-culturel

William Sutcliffe: Are You Experienced?
http://www.amazon.com/Are-You-Experienced-William-Sutcliffe/product-reviews/0140283587

 

[nitroviper]

Adrian Lamo of the forest. Me likey.

It appears you're about to live my life's backup plan, though mine involves less travel & general work and the creative use of adverse possession...

Keep us updated.

Hopefully, I'll be a bit more stable than Mr.Lamo XD.

Due to your post, I found myself reading up on adverse possession a bit. How interesting! I think that you could indeed leverage this to obtain some small parcels of land. However, I also think that it would be a bit more involved than challenging a richer-than-god type and hoping that they don't care; they have lackeys that can care for them, and the negative precedent you could set would likely outweigh the minimal effort of outing you. Regardless, there is potential here.

Excellent idea! For maximum effect:

• Don’t play the (photographing) observer
• Talk to everyone you can grab
• Enjoy the sensual life

This is interesting advice. I agree with the spirit of all three points, as I would like to improve and revel in my less-used cognitive functions. But, I would also like to make a point of catering to my INTP-ness as well. I have a list of potential projects and goals that emphasize a balance of these two approaches.

Write a diary to collect material for the publication of (at least) an electronic book. It is obvious that you can write, and it is also obvious that your project can fascinate people.

Why thank you! I am also tinkering with the idea of starting a blog/vlog series that documents my attempt and breaks down my methods. I think video content is in the same place that articles and ebooks used to occupy when it comes to easily reaching the masses.

The more time and effort you invest in understanding a foreign culture...

I will be traveling in the U.S. only, so culture shock should be nigh nonexistent. I may or may not embrace international travel at a later date.

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

Hopefully, I'll be a bit more stable than Mr.Lamo XD.

Due to your post, I found myself reading up on adverse possession a bit. How interesting! I think that you could indeed leverage this to obtain some small parcels of land. However, I also think that it would be a bit more involved than challenging a richer-than-god type and hoping that they don't care; they have lackeys that can care for them, and the negative precedent you could set would likely outweigh the minimal effort of outing you. Regardless, there is potential here.

Eh... It takes some creativity. You've got to be a weasel to make it work. It's much easier in counties that allow online access to property records and parcel maps. Paper trails and well... any type of dated trail/documentation will help. In many circumstances it can turn any rental situation into a rent to own deal if one simply isn't on the lease.