Entries Tagged 'Zeitgeist' ↓

The other day, Erik was talking about the personal zeitgeist.

These are things that are floating around in my brain right now:

• taking risks
• losing weight
• real estate investing
• Ruby on Rails

A couple of years ago, I read a fantastic book called Right Risk. The concepts presented in the book made sense to me and helped me to think about risks that I might take in my own life. The book’s author, Bill Treasurer, used to be a professional high diver for the U.S. High Diving Team. He likens diving off of a 100 foot diving board to any big risk you might want to take in your life. You don’t just go up there and jump. You actually go through a process of preparation. This appealed to me, as I am not someone who generally leaps off of cliffs easily. I prefer preparation and research. The breakthrough for me was a methodology for taking the big risk. Some months later, I came up with an idea for a big risk to take. More on this later….

I’m tracking a weight loss goal on 43things.com. The basic story is that I’m working out a lot and eating pretty well, but I’m still over 200 lbs. Yes, cracking back into the 190s will be momentous indeed. I really hope that will happen soon.

I’m currently reading Robert Allen’s Nothing Down for the 2000s : Dynamic New Wealth Strategies in Real Estate. I’ve been enjoying it. It has some ideas that I’ve never really thought of before with respect to creative financing. You know that it isn’t easy to pull off deals in non-traditional ways, but certainly it is possible to achieve if you learn how to satisfy what people need to get out of a situation. If you meet the needs of the parties involved (and behave legally and ethically), that is what is important. I’ve been checking into multi-family homes in Austin as possible investments. The analytical side of it appeals to my natural tendency to figure things out / solve problems and the financial side appeals to my goals of building long term wealth. It does seem that everyone and their dog is now on the real estate bandwagon. I suspect that will sort itself out. Investors in the know can make money in good markets and in bad. It really doesn’t matter.

And finally, I’ve been developing with Ruby on Rails since the beginning of the year. I’m thoroughly convinced that it is one of the most highly effective means for developing new web applications. I’m using it for all of my projects. For the last 5 years, I’ve been actively involved in helping to run Java Users Groups, first in Dallas, and then in Austin. With the bulk of my time being spent with Ruby on Rails, I’ve decided that the time is right to start up a Ruby on Rails group in Austin. I’ve joined forces with Robert Rasmussen and Rob Jones to put together our first meeting on Tuesday, November 15th. Stay tuned to austinonrails.org, which should have the basics up and running real soon now. We are super excited to get things off the ground. Pretty much everyone I’ve talked to about it seems psyched to get together with others who are using Rails already or are considering it for upcoming projects.