Author Archives: Dustin

About Dustin

I write science fiction, boring technical statistical stuff, and dramatized non-fiction on my blog. Come and visit! http://www.dustinfife.net

The fight for freedom

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be the change you wish to see in the world

I don’t normally do this. Like, ever.

I’m a religious fellow. God believer and all that. But this blog is home to religious and non-religious alike, so I try not to allow my faith to alienate those who believe otherwise.

I’m also an American. A large chunk of my audience is non-American.

And yet today is my nation’s Independence Day. How can I not be American today?

And since I’m being proudly American, can I not be proudly religious?

But stay with me, non-Christians, Buddhists, Atheists, and Muslims. Stick around Australians, French, and Polynesians.

I’m hoping there’s a message for everyone here. Read more »

The re-emergence of racism

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the re-emergence of racism. Photo courtesy of pixabay.com

May 2003

Foreign. Alien. Must adapt. Can’t adapt.

The most impossible adjustment ever. Within a week, I’d gone from ultimate freedom to this.

I was a missionary. I sat in my apartment, unclipping and re-clipping my name-tag. A constant mold stench permeated the building. The brown laminate of the kitchen looked like a bad remodeling job from the 1960s. The air was hot, cooled by nothing but a circular fan that coughed when you plugged it in.

“Let’s go,” my missionary companion said. I’d never met the guy before yesterday. Blond hair. Short. From Utah.

A stranger. Yet this stranger would become my only companion for the next three months. 24 hours a day. 7 days a week.

My only privacy was my trips to the bathroom. And even then, I could sometimes hear his breath through the paper-thin walls.

I hated it. This wasn’t home. Read more »

Nine ways I saved $5K in 2 Months

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So this post may be a bit different from what I normally do. Typically, I share a story and some “Lesson Learned,” or other moral on living the good life. Well, today’s a bit different because I’m sharing a bunch of stories.

Like, ten for the price of one. We are talking about saving money, after all.

Neat, eh?

I suppose this is a continuation, of sorts, of a previous blog post. In it, I said I’d had enough. I was sick of being decades from my dream of owning my own Walden. I was sick of watching my kids grow wondering whether they’d move out of the house just as I’d finally earned enough cash to invest in my cabin home.

And I made a promise.

I will spend no money except on the essentials. No going out to eat. No play money. No money for the movies. No trips to the fair or the museum.

Don’t think you can do it? Neither did I. Read more »

A storyteller’s guide to livin’

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I’ve decided to take my blog another direction. Or, actually, I’ve already been going this direction, but finally put it into words.

A storyteller’s guide to living.

Life is hard.

And, I suspect, life is hardest for those who are happiest.

Why? Because it takes a great deal of effort to be content. Or, in other words, living the good life requires work.

Sometimes, I’m afraid, I’m too lazy to be happy.

And other times, I wonder why it took me so long to invest in my own satisfaction.

So, let me introduce you to the principals of good living. Read more »

My sins are better than yours

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My sins are better than yours

Amber gave me cash to buy groceries, cuz that’s how we roll now-a-days (Dave Ramsey style). Said cash was to pay for groceries for a father/son camp-out. Bacon. Eggs. Hot dogs. Buns. But not a ketchup bottle. That’d be a waste. No, we’d source the ketchup from elsewhere.

I put said cash in the pockets of my basketball shorts.

Or did I?

I walk inside Walmart and reach inside my pocket to hand the cashier the money. No cash in my pockets. I must have left the money in the van. I instead pull cash from my personal fund with the intention of reimbursing myself later. Read more »