Archive for December, 2010
Happy New Year: A Look At 2010 & Onward To 2011
As another year passes into the mists of time, lets take a quick look back and then plan for 2011:
Click here to see the first Clockwork Clues on the new The Clockwork Manifesto Facebook page.
A Quiet & Gastronomic Christmas
Spent a nice, quiet Christmas at home this year. It’s wonderful spending Christmas in Klosters (my hometown in Switzerland, which looks like a winter fairyland at Christmas time) and the year we did Vienna was fantastic, but it’s also nice to stay home and be lazy.
Instead, did a lot of Christmas baking and cooking. Made a Weihnachtsstollen (German fruitcake). That was a dangerous mistake, as we couldn’t stop nibbling at it. Gone in a day and a half.



For Christmas dinner, I whipped up a Shepherd’s Pie. A little different from the usual, I used chunks of beef rather than ground meat, lots of red wine, and created a creamy mashed potato topping, with cream, egg, and parmesan cheese included. Was it good? Mmmmmm.

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas and are heading towards a Happy New Year!
Yamanobe No Michi: It’s A Great Life … If You Work For It
After 2 1/2 months of writing – and many, many more months of planning for it – The Clockwork Manifesto’s manuscript has finally gone to the publisher. A few minor adjustments were called for this morning, and now all I can do is sit and wait to get the proof copy. So, today was a reward for months of work. Rieko and I grabbed a train for Sakurai in Nara prefecture and hiked the twisting Yamanobe No Michi to Tenri.
This trail (more like a cobbled together batch of trails, paths through orchards, steps up to temples, and roads) winds for about 14-15 km along the foothills of the mountains that separate Nara prefecture from neighbouring Mie. There’s a bunch of temples, shrines, kaki (persimmon) trees, and mikan (Japanese oranges) orchards along the way. It makes for a great day out on the trail.
The air was crisp, but the sunshine and the climbs kept us warm. Being a Wednesday, the trail was mainly ours – with only the occasional pair of fellow hikers. This is one of the perks we enjoy since I started making our income from the Internet – taking off mid-week and avoiding the crowds. Which brings me to a VERY IMPORTANT point:
It’s A Great Life … If You Work For It
I see far too many who want to go the easy route. Far too many who just want to push a button and start making money. Far too many who want to put in the bare minimum of work, yet reap the rewards. Reality check! Nothing in life comes for free. I did not wake up one morning with money pouring into my account off the Internet like it was some kind of faucet that I simply had to open. I worked for it. I still work for it. And, some days, I work damned hard for it.
As I said earlier, I just finished putting in 2 1/2 months to write a book. Not because I’m a slow writer. Not because I only spent an hour or two a day writing. No, it was full days, writing and re-writing. Full days, taking screenshots, drawing illustrations, and editing them in Photoshop. Full days, assembling pictures, text, and page elements into a proper book. Full days, researching and finding the best examples to include in the book. Nothing good comes easy.
If you want to succeed in 2011, get ready to fully commit yourself to some hard work. It takes hard work to build a good venture that will make you a good income – long term and not just a spurt. But, once you’ve done that work … there’s the rewards. And those rewards are sweet!
Christmas Present: Your Guide To Making Instant Commissions
Right now, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, you can get a free copy of the popular guide to setting up a campaign over the next 3 days and putting instant commissions into your account (directly). Here’s all the info you need … laid out in my usual step-by-step manner … and absolutely FREE (not even a sign up).
