It is time for National Novel Writing Month to start

Well, it is almost time for National Novel Writing Month to start. It is just a four more hours here in Denver; and then at midnight, the fun begins.

I got my Neo in the mail today, so I don't have to write any of this by hand and type it in later.

I am both excited and nervous. Comfort food has already been indulged in.

To delay payment or not

Today, on MyLot, I responded to a discussion about whether or not, someone should raise their payout from the standard ten dollars to a higher amount (ex. twenty-five).

Now, due to my experience running a business (a restraurant in a chain), I approach it from the viewpoint of a business owner. Being in a second economics class this semester just amplifies that tendency.

Personally, I set all of my payouts (the amount that one must earn before a company mails you a check or paypals you) to the lowest possible amount whenever I have a chance. It is my money, and I want it in my grubby hands as soon as possible.

And not just because I am a straving college student either.

If one has earned enourgh to make payout, and rises the amount of their payout threshold, what happens? The company that owes you the money holds it in their bank account. Standard business practice is for this account to be an interest bearing account. I watched my bosses depositing money into their bank as quick as they could, and then take as long as possible to pay their expenses (labor, rent, suppliers, etc.). This practice earned them a lot of interest income off of money that rightfully belonged to other people.

Paid to post sites, and other online work sites, want you to raise your payout amount. They give you the option because it benefits them. It is not for your convenience; it is for theirs. They hope that you set your payout thresholds to a higher amount, so that they can hold your money longer and earn interest off of it. Essentially by setting your payout threshold to anything above the minimum, you are giving them a free loan.

(The other type of free loan that people are fond of doing is to have more money withhold from their paychecks than necessary--yes, a big income tax return is nice, but why give the government an interest free loan. If you want to loan the government money, invest in government bonds instead.)

The only time when rising your payout threshold makes sense is when it is close to the end of the business year and you are trying to avoid slipping over into a higher tax bracket. And that is a very rare situation for most of us--so do yourself a favor, collect your money as soon as you can and deposit it in your own saving account.

After all, the money is going to be earning interest anyways, so why shouldn't it be you that collects it?

To Join MyLot, click here.

Helium's new look

Helium introduced a new homepage look today, along with some new features. In my opinion, it looks better than the old version. And they have introduced bigger ads, hopefully we get more revenue from them.

My Helium Profile

Origins of words--Beautimous

One of the things that writers are fascinated by, or at least I am, is the process by which new words come into being. And while there are a couple of countries where the government has a say in it, Isreal and France, most often it is speakers and writers who coin new words.

For instance, the word Utopia was coined by Thomas More. I know this because of my college philosophy class. It actually means "no such place" being a nod to the fact that More was writing about a place that did not exist; much like Plato used Atlantis to talk about his idea of the perfect society (detailed in The Republic)--of course, I have to ask if it was so perfect, why did the gods decide to destory it?

But outside, of the language committees (meant to keep the language pure) and the occasional writer who coins a word, most new words come from the spoken language. They come out of the way that people talk. When we see a dictionary that traces the first known instance of a word, you have to remember that they are tracking written instances of the word--if it came from the spoken language, it was properly being used in conversation long before (or at least, a decade).

The written word is conservative. It is slow to change. The proof lies in the spelling of Knight--pronounced nite. We still spell it with a K, despite the fact that none of us have pronounced it that way in centuries.

The makers of dictionaries are especially conservative. They have to be. It would serve no one if they allowed every bit of slang into dictionaires. Because of that, words have to prove that they have staying power; they have to pass the test of time.

In our modern time, this test of time has gotten shorter, but that is a subject for another day.

Seldom do we know who coined a word because of this. For instance, today on one of the MSN groups that I frequent, one of the wonderful ladies there used the word beautimous to describe a graphic that someone made. It is a wonderful word (personal opinion). Yet if it stands up to the test of time, no one will know who or how it came to be.

In this case, Gina admits that it she was tired and trying to amuse her fussy baby when it came out of her mouth. Her daughter likes it when she makes up songs, and the occasional word. I find it a charming story; but if the word survives, the story will be forgotten. For that is one of the property of the spoken word, the origin of a word must be forgotten before it is allowed into the written language--if it has not been around long enough for people to forget its source, it has not been around long enourgh to allow into the dictionary.

Sad, but true.

No sympathy

Yesterday, one of my classmates was complaining that he had a five page paper to write in one class, and a ten page paper to write in another.

And I felt absolutely no sympathy for him.

I am not sure when I became a heartless B, but I feel no sympathy for those students in college that complain about how much writing there is in college. There is writing to be done out in the real world also--get used to it.

Of course, it might be easier to feel sympathy for them if I won't have hacked out 25,000 words in one month earlier this year. Or chose not to engage in National Novel Writing Month this November. I am the one that should be complaining about the amount of writing that is on my desk. Besides the 50,000 words for NANOWRIMO, I have two term papers and four finals to study for in Novemeber.

Do I complain? No. Or at least, not that much.

So quit complaining about how much writing you need to do--it could be worse; you could be me.

Yuwie page views and its earning potential

Looking at my Yuwie page views, I realize that I am making progress there. There has been 124 views of my profile this month. And I have racked up 1708 page views so far.

But what I am really impressed by is the 155 friends. That is an one hundred and fifty people I can give a shout out to about whatever the next project is that I decide to crow about.

Nevertheless, I will admit that there are people actually doing much better than me. There is one guy (Vic) who earned $2.97 in July, $96.13 in August, and $166.90 in September. Of course, he has 13,646 members in his referral tree, but it just goes to show that if someone is good at getting referrals (or able to get just a couple of people in their tree that are) that Yuwie does have a lot of money making potential.

(Thanks for my friend CatAnne for sharing his blog entry with me; actual screenshots are nice.)

Looking ahead

Been thinking alot about what I want to do for my novel next month; I think I have some good ideas and am looking forward to doing National Novel Writing Month. C'mon the first of November!