Sweet, Sweet Springtime

So, it's Saturday and I've decided to sit down and work on my blog. It happens to be a beautiful spring day and that puts me in the mood to get a little work done. Well, that and Joey happens to be feeling poorly, so I don't have anyone to play World of Tanks with. All things considered I figured my time would be best spent working on this :)

As I usually do I'll go through the local news around here first. And first off it's finally really getting to be Spring around here and I thank the Lord for it. The cold and dark of the Winter make me lazy and shiftless and that's something I never need to be. Now that the weather is getting pleasant once again I should get to feeling back up to working some more regular hours. It's already got the kids outside enjoying it. In fact, I took a few photos:


I have an addendum to add here: It's Monday and the transmission on the van just went nuts. So, I would appreciate prayers about it.

So, in work related news: The Worlds of Magic Alpha has officially been launched. So, far we've only let in a handful of people (mainly our volunteer translators), but we hope to expand it next week. Now that the game is basically playable, I realize I've got to tweak a few of our numbers. Of course, alpha testing is meant to help you find things just like that, so all things considered “we're good”. This is a big milestone and we're hoping to be in beta testing by this Summer. That does mean that the final release date is probably going to be pushed back again, but it's better to do it right than “on time”.

I also have an addendum to my work news: We've opened negotiations with a publisher. Your prayers would be appreciated here as well.

That's really it for this week's news. It's been really quiet, which has been really nice. The boys are going to have to start doing some yard work next week. Already the lawn needs mowed.

Oh, on an unrelated topic I meant to tell you guys about the next project I hope to start working on soon. The fact is that once Worlds of Magic gets into beta testing I'm basically just going to be organizing feedback and overseeing changes. Once that's the case I should have a little time. I plan to use some of it to start developing my own RPG rule set. Why? There are number of reasons. The main one is that I need a solid RPG rule set for a few of my next games, but there's not one I like that has a reasonable license. So, I plan to build up a community to create a publicly licensed rule set. Then I'll be able to use it for my games and other people will be able to use it for theirs. There's a lot to it, but I'm not going to go into it now. The point is that I've already got an eye on my next project and it won't be long before I'm looking for people to work on it with me :)

Now I'll move on to the chicken part of my post. Those of you with no interest feel free to skip this part, lol.

OK, so last week we setup an imaginary chicken processing plant and starting selling local chicken all over Dominica. Up to this point we've helped Dominicans keep some of their money, but we haven't really helped them “make” any. We should be able to get to that point in this post :)

First off, we'll expand our little business and start supplying local eggs all over the island as well. In a real way the locals are already doing this, but we want to take it to the next level. We want to collect eggs at least every few days, sort them, assure they're fresh, package them, and then sell them. This is going to be a little harder to market locally because anybody can crack a local egg, not everyone wants to butcher a local chicken, lol. However, we want to build an infrastructure because we're about to launch our export business.

You see, local chicken in Dominica is completely “free range”. The chickens feed on local fruits and insects, not processed feeds packed with supplementary protein, preservatives, processed vitamins, etc. This effects not only the chickens' flesh, but also their eggs. The Dominicans are eating what would be considered gourmet chicken in the US. That's something we want to take advantage of.

Once we have our supply chain established and are packaging our products we can begin to market and sell them in the US (and elsewhere). We just run with the publicity the island is already pumping out there and make Nature Island brand chicken and egg products. We tout the fact that our products are all natural and that they're not nearly as “processed” as similar products sold in the US. The market is already there. People in the US are aware that a lot of the food they eat isn't necessarily good for them and many are willing to pay a little more to get “real food”. As a result we'll be able to sell Dominican chicken at a higher price than US chicken. After all, that's only fair because it really is a better product.

Now, as we ship out more and more chicken we may want to supplement local production with our own larger scale farms. The chickens we raise on these farms will be for local consumption, however. We want to save the non-farm chickens for export because that's where they're the most valuable.

Of course, we don't want to farm raise chickens like many places do. We don't want to pump them full of hormones and feed them on super processed nutrients. No, we want to keep things as “natural” as possible. We want to produce our own chicken feed locally. (In time we can expand that to include cattle and pig feeds as well.) We also want the “farm format” to fill another of Dominica's needs. Chicken waste is an excellent fertilizer base. We can use it to produce high quality fertilizer locally. As a lot of Dominica's current exports are fruits, being able to get local fertilizer could improve the entire island's economy.

This is another self feeding loop. The more fertilizer the locals have, the better crops they'll be able to grow, the more feed they can produce, the more animals they can farm, the more waste they'll have to make fertilizer with. And this is one of those natural “circle of life” kind of loops. It's an “everybody wins” situation.

By this point we've brought more infrastructure to the island. We now have a food brand we're promoting, facilities to produce fertilizer, a meat packaging facility, and a company producing local all-natural animal feed. You can do a lot with that. (In point of fact, Dominica may have a local feed company. I'm not sure at this point. This is why a business plan is so important.)

We've begun to help Dominica pull itself up by its own bootstraps (as we say). As I said a few posts ago, wealth starts with necessities and then goes on from there. Up to this point we've focused on food and we may stick with that subject for another post or so, but in time we're going to move on. There's a lot Dominicans can do. Raising food is just one of those things. :)

Either way, that's enough for now. So, Goodnight from South Carolina!

The Chicken Barons of Dominica

The title of this post may seem a little odd, especially as there are, in fact, no chicken barons in Dominica (as far as I know). However, if you read my last post then you know know how it fits in, lol. Either way, we'll get to that in time, first we have to go through the local news. :)

I don't have a lot of pictures this week due to two main facts. One, we've mainly stayed home. Two, I keep forgetting to pull out the camera. So, I've taken a few pictures of the blooming spring and the kids in order to have something to show you. And here there are:


I'm actually working on this post Saturday afternoon. The reason is that our Internet is currently out. Apparently there's something physically wrong because the guy at tech support assured me that a repair crew had already been dispatched. (If I had to guess I would say that some backhoe somewhere has cut a line.) You see, even here in the US the Internet goes out from time to time, lol. That's the latest news around here, I just put it first because it explains why I'm working on this now.

So what other news is there? Well, first off, Titus finally got to his “Is this child alright?” doctor's appointment. Rachel had gotten concerned because he wasn't crawling or trying to talk, so she scheduled an appointment for him. It got pushed back several times before she finally got to take him. Of course, by that time he had been crawling for about two weeks and trying to talk for about as long. The doctor took a look and said that Titus was probably fine, but that we'd take another look in three months. I feel certain he's fine and I thank the Lord for it.

In work related news Worlds of Magic is still rolling along. We're hoping to have people in the Alpha by next weekend. There have been a few delays, but I think the game is going to have been worth the wait. One of the things that may have caused a delay this week (although I'm not sure it did) was getting Strategic War in Europe ready for Steam. Wastelands Interactive (the company producing WoM) got the game put up for sale yesterday afternoon. It's still too early to tell how sales are really going, but we're all hoping for good things. The more money WI has to put into WoM the better. I would certainly appreciate prayers about it.

I also made a great deal of progress with my design work this week. We've nearly wrapped up work on the Sorcerer Lords (the pre-made characters you can use in the game) and have started work on the Titans (super powerful creatures). I'm hoping in the next few weeks to get through them as well as wrap up the Heroes and Champions. At that point all the major areas of my design work will be done. After that I'll just be managing the project and making changes to the design as we need it (as well as tying up a few loose ends). At that point I should have time to start work on my next project. What's that going to be? Oh, we'll get to that in another post. It may give you something to look forward to, lol.

Anyways, that's the news around here at the moment. Now I can move on to the “Chicken Barons” part of my story. So, just to recap the main point of my last post, it was: Dominica imports chicken from Florida while at the same time it has a large number of Mom & Pop (that is to say, small time) chicken farmers. What's wrong with that? Good question!

First, we need to consider the fact that Dominica has a fairly low national average income. That fact means that it's very important to try to keep Dominican money in Dominican hands. The country needs to focus on keeping imports to a minimum until it's economy is robust enough to take the strain of exporting some of it's wealth. You don't need to be an economist to understand this, it's just common sense. The island doesn't have a great deal of money (compared to the major powers anyway). Whenever possible they need to keep the money they have at home.

Second, we have to combine this need to keep imports down with the fact that Dominica has no choice but to import a number of luxuries that might as well be necessities by today's standards. Dominica is not in a position to manufacture computer equipment, cell phones, cars, appliances, etc. In many cases these items will always be imports. Even if every Dominican could buy a brand new car it wouldn't justify building a car plant on the island. So, their economy has to be robust enough to handle a certain amount of imported goods. This fact makes it essential to use local goods whenever possible.

Third, buying locally encourages local production. If Save-A-Lot got all its chicken locally more people would raise chickens to meet demand. The more chickens there were to be had the lower the price of chicken would be. The lower the price the greater the demand. This circle of increased production, decreased prices, and higher demand would continue until a natural equilibrium was reached. At that point the “natural” price of local chicken would be reached and “natural” demand would settle in.

Now, up this point we've talked theory. Let's talk a little “plan” in-stead. How would I go about getting local chicken into Dominica? Well, I'll explain. For the sake of this post we'll assume that all the stores in Dominica want to buy locally (in real life we certainly can't count on that, but we can run with the idea for now). So, all we need to do is get them the chicken they want to buy.

Step 1: We get the chickens. I feel that a lot of American's (I mean citizens of the United States) would want to do it the “American Way”. To do that we would buy acres of land, thousands of chickens, build hundreds of coups, etc, etc, etc. However, when solving a Dominican problem you have to look for a Dominican solution. The Dominicans don't want Dominica to be the US, they want it to be Dominica with more cash, lol.

So, how do we get chickens? We simply do the opposite of what they do with Bananas, Fish, Bread, or whatever they happen to be selling. We take a truck and put a chicken wire cage on the back of it. Then we park by the bus stop in Soufriere (or wherever) and offer X EC (X being an appropriate amount) per pound of live chicken. We weigh and pay right by the truck and we let everyone in town know we'll be back the same time next week.

Now, at first we almost certainly wouldn't be able to buy enough chickens to fill demand. There simply aren't enough chickens being raised on the island. However, after a few months of everyone knowing they could get extra cash just by raising a few chickens in the back yard, production would really increase. (You'd do it, wouldn't you Josian?) Every eight year old that wanted to save up for an iPhone would be raising his or her own little flock of chickens. Before long the island would be meeting it's own demand and wouldn't be importing chicken all. Oddly enough, up to this point the Dominicans wouldn't have actually “made any money”, but would merely be keeping what they had in the first place.

It's essentially free to raise chickens in Dominica. You would think that fact would mean that everyone would have all the chicken they wanted, but it doesn't. People don't realize that work generates wealth. The Dominicans could eat chicken all the time for practically nothing, they just don't realize it. Either way, we'll move on for now.

Step 2: We process the chickens. This is going to take a bit more work than buying did. We have to get enough land to setup a small slaughterhouse and meat packaging facility. It needs to be up to at least USDA standards because we want everyone to know that when you buy our brand of chicken it's at least as good as any from the US (and probably much better) as well as being local. So, we slaughter them, process them, and package them right there. We offer a number of skin-on and skin-off products, whole chickens, the works. We package them on Styrofoam “plates” and wrap them in cellophane, just like any other meat processing plant would. We mark each according to weight and have packaged chicken ready to sell.

Step 3: We sell the chicken. Again, this is going to take a little more work. We have to keep in mind that we're going to need to offer both fresh and frozen products. As a result we need a truck that can carry refrigerated as well as frozen goods. We'll have to setup delivery routes and make sure we supply each of our customers with enough product, but not so much that it's likely to go bad before it sells. There's a certain level of complexity, but it's very manageable, especially in a country the size of Dominica.

In just three simple steps we've brought local chicken to Dominica. Of course, the actual implementation would be more complex (and would cost a fair amount to get started), but the concept is simple. Before I attempt it (which I hope to in time) I plan to put together a business plan. It will address points like where we'll get our trucks and what the best location for the packaging facility is. It's going to take a bit of planning to do right, but the point is that it could be done right and doing it would help Dominica.

Now, in truth, that represents nothing more than a very small start. In fact, there's a lot more that can be done and I plan to flesh out the idea in my next post. For the moment, however, good night from South Carolina!

Shiny Things

Last week went by very quickly and very well. I was a good bit busier at work than I have been and as a result I didn't get the time to write this post a day early. So, here I am typing away on Monday morning after having gotten my Worlds of Magic work done for the moment. It's almost 10AM and I feel half asleep. Sadly I've had trouble sleeping for the last few nights. The reasons have ranged from indigestion to Titus waking me up again and again. I'm burned down, half asleep, and draining pots of coffee in an attempt to keep up with everything, lol.

First, I'll share a few pictures of the kids:


The first two are of Felicity and Issac playing “trains” (or something) with cardboard boxes. The third is the “bed” I found Caleb in one morning. (I really need a better camera. The one I have needs just the right amount of light to take a good picture.)

As I said earlier I had more Worlds of Magic work than normal last week. The fact is that the game is supposed to be finished by July and that I'm trying to finish almost all of my design work by the middle of next month. I've taken my time up to this point because there was plenty of space between me and the release date. That gap is closing, however, and I want to be done well in advance.

I ask you to keep us in your prayers. Several publishers are looking at us now and Leszek is certain that we'll do better with a publisher than without one. Wastelands Interactive (the company producing Worlds of Magic) also gets its first game on Steam this week. Good sales could give us additional funding to dump into WoM. So, feel free to pray about that as well :)

In other news, the weather has been fairly nice. Spring is certainly on its way. However, it's not here yet. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be cold and wet. Either way, I took some pictures that show off the impending Spring.


That's most of the news around here. Joey Miller's new laptop screen did come in and we got it replaced. I meant to take some pictures of that, but I forgot about it... It wasn't exactly a perfect fit, but it works. Of course, I have e-mailed the seller to see what they can do about it (if anything).

Anyways, that's the news. Now it's time to discuss what's been on my mind. As you can imagine it's basically a continuation of what I was talking about last week, that being wealth. Now, I do want to say before I go any further that I'm not really wealth obsessed. I mention that fact because the subject of my recent posts may make it look like I am. What I'm obsessed with is happiness. True, eternal happiness. That comes from the Lord.

However, as the bible says in James 2:15-17: “If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” I put a focus on wealth because I want others to have it. (Although I freely admit that I would like a good bit of it as well, lol.) I want to be able to help people become more wealthy, while explaining at the same time that true and lasting wealth comes from the Lord. I think we all have our own talents that can be used to further the Kingdom. I strive to make wealth creation one of mine.

So, “Shiny Things” is the title of my post because what I've been thinking about is the next step of wealth. We've already discussed necessities. Now we can talk about luxuries. Now, for the purposes of this post “luxuries” aren't just fur coats and diamond rings (although those things certainly apply), but are anything that aren't one of the necessities of life. Now, with such a general definition the luxuries category may seem huge, but the fact is that it's actually a lot bigger than that. (At least in a modern country it is.) Luxury goods are what make up a vast majority of the total market. How? Well, let me explain.

First, we have the necessities of life: Food, Water, and Shelter. Anything that goes beyond that falls into our luxury category. What about gasoline? Well, if it's used to produce food or shelter it can be looked at as a necessity because it's a tool. However, when it's used to drive to a job where you make soda or pencils or paper plates then it becomes a luxury. We could survive without soda, pencils, or paper plates. So, gasoline burned up in order to aid in their production is a luxury, not a necessity. Tires worn out for the same purpose are also luxuries. So are the cars that take people to work to do those jobs, in fact.

Now, as you can imagine a lot more gas is burned up in the manufacturing of luxuries than of necessities. A lot more tires are worn out and a lot more cars manufactured for luxury. Of course, this fuels itself. You see, the guy that makes gas sells a little of it to farmers. Then he buys food with the money he makes. Plus he wants a car with tires on it so he doesn't have to live at a fuel distillery. So, he buys a car and tires for himself. The guy that makes tires buys food, gas and a car. I'm sure you get the idea.

The point is that even in such a limited example three fourths of the labor goes into producing luxuries, not necessities. Consider your own job (or the job you retired from), how much of it produces (or produced) the necessities of life? For my part I'm a computer repair man, network engineer, and game designer. Believe it or not most of the computer work I've done was for luxury items. My Dad worked at a company that made vending machines for almost twenty years. A vast majority of his efforts went into getting people cold soda where and when they wanted it.

All this may seem pointless, but it's not. The fact is that it's good to look at just how unnecessary most wealth really is. The reason being that it helps you spot places where wealth can be generated. And it helps you see where things that might be considered luxuries (like gasoline) may become considered necessities in time.

For instance, a lot of my thoughts are currently centered around Dominica. It's a country with a lot of people and a lot of natural resources (for it's size). However, there's a general feeling of “just making ends meet” all over the island. I certainly wouldn't call the people poor, but they could unquestionably generate more wealth than they do. So, what's the problem? In my opinion, it's mainly just a lack of knowledge. (I mean no insult Josian, this is just how I see it, lol). The general populace doesn't know what they can do to generate wealth.

That's why it's so important to reflect on just what wealth is. Once you know that you can look around and see opportunities. For instance, if you go to the Save-A-Lot in Roseau you can buy bags of frozen chicken... from Florida... So, on an tropical island almost 1,500 miles from Miami, that is COVERED in chickens, they import chicken.... No really, I want you to reflect on that for a moment. Dominica is an independent country with it's own president, legal system, foreign policy, etc, and yet they have frozen chicken shipped in when many, many people raise their own chickens.

Now, at first, one might think that the local farmers meet demand so well that there's no need for a local chicken industry. Of course, that argument looses weight when you think about the fact that they ship in frozen chicken from Florida. That underlines the fact that frozen chicken is a luxury that the Dominicans want. The want it bad enough to have it shipped in and pay extra for it. However, they don't produce it locally. That raises one simple question: Why not?

Well, it's not because chickens are hard to raise in Dominica. Nope. They're not. They have almost no natural enemies and can forage enough to survive in many places on the island. As a matter of fact Rachel and I got a dozen chickens just because a hen decided to lay and hatch a clutch of eggs under a house we were renting. They lived off bread scraps we threw out and whatever they could find. In all the places in the world where you could raise chickens, Dominica rates amongst the best.

In fact, in order to supply chicken for Save-A-Lot you wouldn't even need to raise chickens. There are more than enough small time farmers raising chickens on the island already. Someone could buy them in bulk from the locals, kill, clean, bag, and freeze them. Once that was done Save-A-Lot could sell Dominican chicken to Dominicans. This would keep more money in Dominica. The farmer, the butcher, and the market would all be Dominican. They would go from importing a luxury item to producing one.

And really that's just the beginning. And I don't mean “the beginning of what you can do in Dominica”, but “the beginning of what you could do just with chickens in Dominica”. In fact, there's enough to talk about that I'll save it for my next post. I'll just title it “Dominican Chicken” or “The Chicken That Could Be In Dominica” or “The Dominican Chicken Barons” or something...

Either way, this post has run long enough. I'll try to flesh this concept out for you next week. For now, however, goodnight from South Carolina!

Wealth

So, this past week was fairly interesting and I even remembered to bring my camera along a couple of times. I need to just get in the habit of taking the camera with me when I go and getting it out when people come over. That way I'll catch anything “different” on “film”. In truth, we're mainly creatures of habit. Wherever we end up we crawl into a habit as quickly as we can. Once we've done that we travel very happily in the same little circles day after day. So, although there's often something to talk about there's not always all that much to see. I can't wait until we get property of our own. Then I'll be able to get back in the habit of walking and I can take the camera with me when I go.

Either way, all that has little to do with what we did this week. We started off by going over to Mom and Dad Yates to do a little yard cleanup. There is still a lot of tree work to be done around here. The ice storm really did a lot of tree damage. Here are a few photos:


My work on Worlds of Magic went very well this week. Space Sector (a big gaming website) did an interview with Leszek and I. They liked our answers so much that they decided to break it into two parts. That will probably mean more media attention, which is a good thing for us.

In other news, my book got rejected by yet another publisher. I wish I could find one that was interested, but the fact is that it's not a big deal. If I can't find a publisher before the end of the year I'll probably just publish it myself. I'm slowly getting my name out there as a game developer. That alone may allow me to sell a thousand books or so. That may not be much, but at least it would give me some “street cred” as a writer, lol.

We wrapped up the week much like we had started it by doing some chainsaw work at Ms. Pat's house. (Ms. Pat is Sam McDowell's mother and practically my second Mom.) She had a big pine tree she needed removed as well as some the other pine limbs cleaned up. Part of it was a result of the ice storm. Sam couldn't make it, but Becky (his wife) and the kids came. After we were done working we got to eat and have a bit of a hangout. It was very nice. I just wish Sam could have been there as well.

Here are some pictures:


One other bit of news: Rachel and I have been married for 17 years as of today (I'm writing this on Sunday). It's amazing how fast time flies when you're having fun, lol. I'm very blessed because if I had to do it all over again I would without question. I'm very happy with my choice :)

So, now we can get to the part of the post where I wax philosophical. Why am I bothering to post all this when I'm almost certain no one's reading it? Well, there are a number of reasons. For one thing, writing out my thoughts helps me organize them. So, putting what I'm thinking about “down on paper” helps me make progress in my train of thought. Also, I figure it will be interesting reading for me in time. And you never know, someone somewhere may read this at some time and think “Hey! That guy's right!” That will make it worth the effort. My Grandmother used to say “It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness!” and I think she was right :)

Anyways, Wealth, what is it? This may seem like a very basic concept that isn't even worth discussing, but such is not the case. A foundation is a very simple thing. It's just a level, solid base on which a building can be built. But simple or not it's essential to the process. When discussing business, financial responsibility, and, above all, wealth creation, it's important to understand just what wealth is. That's why I'm taking the time to post about it.

It's not surprising that wealth starts with necessity. If we don't have the basic things we need for survival there can be no wealth. This concept is easy to understand. If you were lost in the desert (and had any sense) you would rather have four gallons of water than 33.36 pounds of gold (water weighs 8.34 pounds per gallon). No amount of gold will keep you from thirsting to death. Nor will it keep you from starving or freezing or prevent you from dying in any number of other ways. So, gold is only valuable after you have something to drink, something to eat, are warm enough to survive, are safe from marauders, etc, etc, etc. This is important to understand, because most people relate gold to wealth. Well, it's part of it, but it's not were wealth begins.

After our necessities have been met we can begin to pursue higher tiers of wealth. What's the next rung on the ladder? That's an important question that more people need to ask more often. Most people seem to start pursuing wealth before they even know what it is or what qualities it has. For one thing, wealth is personal. Your wealth is what makes you, as an individual, happy. For instance, my wife, our seven children, our almost adopted son (and our nephews), are all part of my personal wealth. I would rather have them than a Corvette for instance. That's easy for me to prove because I could have easily paid for a Corvette with the money I've spent on my children, lol.

This is an area where many people start off on the wrong foot from the very beginning. You'll often see people loaded with worldly possessions who wish they had a spouse, or children, or more time to spend with one or the other or both. Then you'll see people who started having children before they even got out of high-school who seem very unsatisfied with their lives and wish they had money rather than children. (I can't understand that one myself, I just know that it's sometimes the case.) These people set out to get something without considering the ramifications of their actions. In my opinion they should have spent more time considering what they really wanted out of life. They should have decided what wealth was before they went out to get it. Knowing what you want out of life is the first step to getting it.

Rachel and I knew we wanted a lot of children. We wanted a home life where we would able to be together and live together as a family all the time. As a result we worked toward that. Rachel never went out and got a job because we wanted her to be home with the children once we started having them (although she did have a little part time work fall in her lap when we first got married). We didn't get a truck or a bass boat. In stead, she stayed home keeping up with the house and taking care of what little work there was to do. Then we had Ben and she had more work. Then Libby came along and there was even more to do. Child after child arrived. We had more work to do, less money, and a whole lot more wealth. I knew I didn't want a bass boat as much as I wanted a load of children. I set out to get what I wanted. The Lord blessed me and I did.

At the moment we're under a serious financial strain. However, we are still very, very wealthy and we understand that. We are much happier in this situation than we would be in a giant house with seven new cars (one for every day of the week) and no children. We knew where our wealth began and we set out to get it. There are certainly other things we want and we are working to get them, but at the end of the day, real wealth amounts to happiness and that comes from the Lord. If people understood that the world would be a richer place.

Of course, that having been said, we still need to work toward the goals we want to reach. It's not enough to simply say “The Lord will take care of it.” and do nothing. As it says in James 2:18 “Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” I believe that the Lord is taking care of me and is going to lead me to happiness. I prove that by trying to pick the right direction and head toward the right goal. If you want to be wealthy (read happy) you need to decide what wealth is to you.

I plan to talk about other elements (or tiers if you will) of wealth soon, but this has run long enough for the moment. Expect more from me next week. For now, goodnight from South Carolina!