People say there’s no such thing as fate. The future is uncertain and a product of circumstance and action. However it seems life presents you options, turning points if you wish, as if you were meant (or not meant) to pursue a particular path in life.

This week was filled with opportunities for new beginnings. It’s a good thing, too, because it’s long overdue.

According to this story from Autoblog, Governor Arnold signed a bill last week making it against the law to drive on CA roadways while using a mobile phone. The fine structure doesn’t seem to value safety. Why?

Look at the penalties: “[$20] fine for the first offense and a $50 penalty for subsequent infractions, with no adverse affects on the driver’s insurance.”

That’s hardly a deterrent and we’d run out of CHP officers and clog the freeways in the process. Like LA’s expensive parking tickets ($40 in some areas), this is about easy revenue.

Fortunately headset users are exempt.

TUAW ran a story entitled “Forget the faster Mac, get a bigger monitor.” The rationale is most Macs are plenty fast for their users unless you’re a film/video or graphics person. Instead, take your dough and buy a big monitor with lots of screen real estate.

I agree, however, it depends what you’re intending to upgrade from/to. I’ve found my 20″ Dell LCD ($400) to be more than adequate at 1600×1050. Instead of dropping twice that on a 23 or 24 inch display, think about spending $150 to increase your system’s RAM to 1 GB.

My trusty old 800 MHz PowerBook G4 runs like a champ since I bumped from 512 MB to 1 GB a few days ago. Running DEVONthink, Safari, Mail, iCal, Address Book, Excel, BBEdit, and iTunes concurrently is a breeze. Finder windows update faster as well, making a right-click on Documents less torturous.

I don’t like clutter because it demotivates me in every way. It’s the paperwork which gets me first. The seemingly endless pieces of mail, some of which have needs just particular enough where they languish on my desk forever. It took awhile but I plowed through most of it and the last remnants are in a small pile to be read, filed, and shredded.

Even though my desktop was clear of extraneous paper, something still wasn’t right. Then it hit me while I was browsing Rig of the Day at TUAW: equipment clutter. As shown in the photo consumer electronics take up a lot of real estate. Here’s what I have:

• Windows box
• Firewire drive
• Logitech speakers
• Monitor with riser and assorted knick-knacks
• Two cell phones
• PowerBook
• KVM, keyboard, mouse
• Phone
• Post-It notes and stapler

This doesn’t account for the clutter under the desk by way of cables and power strips. The stuff on top takes up nearly half of the space. The other half is my work area comprised of Levenger letter organizer (a recent addtion) and photos of Junior.

I’m not sure what changes I’ll make but it’s time to reclaim space and streamline the gear. I’ll post a follow-up when I’ve made some progress.

It all started with Gizmodo. My realization that blogs are more than a place to rant about this or that. They are a platform for spreading the word about a topic in less than 200 words instead of three newspaper columns. The content comes fast and furious, even titalating at times when it’s so new you can smell the ink drying.

I quickly learned there is more than just Gizmodo…much more. Why did these bloggers pound out so much content? What else besides the subject matter was driving them? Were they some sadistic group of volunteers with too much time to kill?

Then I found Divester, a blog dedicated to scuba diving. More than just trip reviews - a mix of everything from the environment to accident prevention to animal trivia to interviews. Right up my alley so I started reading stories and posting comments. I rose to the top of the comment chart and figured it was time to ask my questions.

I’ll leave the answers for another time, but it comes to this: write about your passions and be passionate about writing. Did I mention you also get paid for it?

September 4th marks my official entree into that world. It’s the first (real) step in my pursuit of a creative career with my words. Much thanks to Willy and the WIN team for giving me the chance.