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January 28 2012
January 25 2012
New Pic: Despite a very calm winter in these parts, really itching for Spring to roll around!
October 19 2011
Another Day Year Older
and deeper in debt. Hmmm, actually, no. Turned 41 this Tuesday without a financial debt in the world… 
Oh, sure, we’ve still got our monthly bills and all, but everything we own, we own free and clear. I can’t suggest it highly enough to anyone. If you’re struggling with the money thing, Dave has some good ideas to get you on that path.
Anyway, now that I’m officially a year older, any words of advice to you young ‘uns? Sure:
- Unless taking a risk is likely to physically harm you or others, lean towards taking it. My personal ratio of regrets for things undone versus those done is heavily tilted towards the undone side of the ledger. Someone feel free to remind me of this every time you see me!
- What gets measured, gets improved. Have something you’re coming short on? Measure it. In early June, despite half efforts to counter my expansion, I tipped the scales at just shy of 230 pounds. I started an online Weight Watchers membership June 15th, just used their handy dandy mobile app – in other words, no meetings or cardboard tasting food – and weighed myself yesterday at 202 and change. Missed my goal of sub-200 by my birthday, but not by much…
- Play a little every day. I don’t care if you’re 8 or 88. Life is too short, no matter how much time you have left…
- Oh, and as always, wear sunscreen…
March 25 2011
Forgetting The Most Important Rule
Every night, when I tuck my little boy in bed, we go over the rules for the next day. Things like ‘raise your hand before you ask a question…‘ Or ‘during recess, sticks belong on the ground…‘ That sort o’ thing.
The last rule I give him, the one I rightfully call The Most Important Rule, is ‘Have some fun, every day!‘ I get the impression that he thinks Dad’s a little weird with that one, but it still brings a smile to his face almost every time. Plus, I believe it’s one that many people seem to forget about.
Including, apparently, his dad. I’m not having fun every day. In fact, I’ve got a couple things in my life that suck the fun right out of it. That has got to be changing very soon…
March 22 2011
RIP Grandpa Jim
Earlier this month, my 95-year-old Grandpa Jim drew his last breath, and in the days following the funeral, I planted the task in my mind to come up with a defining memory I had of the grand ol’ man, and I believe it’s finally come to me. While catching a bit of Pulp Fiction, of all things…
I’m not sure of my age, but I’ll hazard a guess I was somewhere in the 8 to 10 range. In those days, thanks to time spent with both of my grandpas, I had a particular, well, infatuation for all things fishing. My tackle box was absolutely stuffed with every lure I could get me hands on. The entry for the term for fishing in our encyclopedia at home was tattered. I knew far too many details on every piece of fishing gear at our local hardware store. That sort of infatuation.
During one of our many trips back to my parents’ home range, Grandpa Jim thought feeding my infatuation was the order of the day, and off we went to some local fishing hole for the afternoon. Excited to catch as many fish as I could, I grabbed my aforementioned tacklebox, borrowed one of grandpa’s rods out of his garage, and loaded up what little gear one needs for such a trip into the back of his old pipe tobacco scented station wagon.
For whatever reason, that day the fish just weren’t being agreeable. A couple hours in, and with many a lure change gone by, not even a nibble. Sensing my growing frustrations, grandpa reeled in my rod, cut off whatever monstrosity I had attached to my line, put on a simple bobber, sinker, and a worm-threaded hook, and handed me back my rod along with an orange soda. And said to me,
‘Son, the point of fishing isn’t really to catch the fish…’
The rest of the afternoon was spent quietly watching a bobber bob, drinking orange soda, eating bologna sandwiches, with but a few words spoken in between.
I couldn’t tell you whether the actual catching of fish got any better that day. But, it was my best day fishing.
‘That’s when you know you’ve found somebody really special: you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably share silence.’
– from Mia in Pulp Fiction
RIP Grandpa… I’ll miss you!
March 01 2011
Mortgage Balance: $0
Just returned from the post office where I dropped off a bill containing our final mortgage payment, a full week in front of the date stated on our payoff statement. Even spent a few extra bucks, sent it Priority Mail with Signature Confirmation, ’cause I don’t want to see a bill claiming we still owe 42¢ in interest or some such nonsense next month.
Once I see that signature confirmation clear, the little yellow house in the country turns into our little house in the country. And with that, we become wholly and entirely Debt Free!
February 24 2011
Kindle Saves Long Content
Like many internet addicts, I’ve gotten very good at merely scanning anything I run across rather than, say, actually reading the thing. A little tip to get you to actually start reading again, especially those longer articles:
Instapaper + their Read Later button + their Kindle integration + your Kindle = Simply a Better Way to Read Long Online Articles
February 08 2011
The Kindle? Great! The Case? Not So Much…
As a followup to my post concerning issues I had with my new kindle, random commentator John pointed me in the right direction and solved my problem. His suggestion to look into the Kindle cover as being a potential source of the problem was dead on.
Removing it from the cover made the problem go away, and so all was good. Except that I liked my cover. A quick note to customer support concerning my discovery as suggested in that troubleshooting thread had an almost instant $60 credit in my Amazon account, and a new even-better-’cause-it-has-a-light replacement cover.
Kudos Amazon for the quick turnaround!
January 28 2011
Does The Universe Want Me To Eat Better?
As a continuation to my comments concerning the food we eat from earlier today, this was today’s randomly chosen podcast that came up for me to listen to on the way home from work: From On Being – Driven By Flavor.
May as well finish the day’s theme out and pull up Food, Inc. on Netflix… 
January 27 2011
Is It Any Wonder We’re Not Sicker?
The ‘ad’ to the left was in our local newspaper this week, which primarily was composed of a large section saluting Nebraska corn growers. Now, I don’t have a thing against our local corn growers. They’re providing what their market — and the government via subsidies — is apparently requesting. But I had to laugh — and cry a little — at the ad, ’cause, well, eating corn certainly doesn’t add any flavor benefit to that hunk o’ meat you’re enjoying. The farmer feeds ‘em corn to get them to the market faster.
Cows, in the natural, don’t particularly care for corn — they much prefer grass.
Corn allows cows to get fatter faster and be ready for slaughter sooner. But there are downsides, including the fact that cows have trouble digesting corn and must be fed antibiotics to prevent them from becoming ill. What’s more, beef from corn-fed cows tends to have more fat.
Apparently, beef is on the mind — the ad brought forth thoughts of the recent brouhaha surrounding Taco Bell and the non-beef beef they use. Is it 35% beef or 40%? Whatever the actual beef content, you can bet that that ‘other’ 60-65% of filler is just wonderful for your health.
Methinks it’s time to spend more on the food we put in our body and less on all the useless crap we fill our lives with…
January 21 2011
New Outlet For My Marketing Efforts
Most of my posts here have focused around my efforts to earn an income online (for example, the whole Weekly Kick In The Ass series). I’ve recently decided to move those discussions to a new horse in my stable, and use this site more as my personal randomosity collection, as befits a website named after, well, an individual. After all, I’m not trying to build a brand around myself, so why expound on my efforts at doing business as myself?
That said, I certainly haven’t given up playing around in that field. If you’d like to continue following my efforts in the online marketing arena, feel free to check out my ramblings on The Year of Passive Income.
As you were…
January 20 2011
Is The Kindle a Fickle Beast?
or is it just mine?
For Christmas this year, my lovely wife bought me a Kindle 3, and I’m lovin’ the little thing. Been spending a bit of time with it almost every evening, and have already plowed my way through a few books along with a large chunk of my ridiculously large backlog of online marketing PDFs.
What’s that, you didn’t know you could send your PDFs to your Kindle? For an info collector like myself, that ability is a godsend. I literally have hundreds of PDFs frittered away in series of well-organized folders waiting to be read that day I have some free time while sitting in front of the computer. In other words, never.
But now that I can casually look through them while kicking back in the recliner or while putting a few miles on the recumbent, I’m actually reading — rather than just storing — the documents. A ton of great info there, just waiting for me to take the time to read it.
Anyway, about the title. As I said, I love this thing, but I worry that I may have a potential dud Kindle on my hands. Either that, or I don’t know how to turn the thing on and off. Almost every day, I find a time where I can’t seem to get the Kindle to turn on, forcing me to do a hard reset to get any sort of response out of it. Once she starts back up, all appears fine — all my books/PDFs are there, all my notes/bookmarks/etc. are in place. But it concerns me that one of these days it won’t start back up, and I’ll be without my latest addiction for a while.
So, the question dear readers, is it just me, or should I harass Amazon support and see about getting a replacement? Oh, and anyone have some cool Kindle tricks they want to share?
October 08 2010
Xmarks Bookmark Sync Lives! Maybe…
Keeping things like important files and bookmarks synced between multiple computers took just a little planning. For instance, the ever-wonderful Dropbox keeps all my important – and not so important but still useful – files available anywhere I am while backing it all up to the cloud for me. Saved my ass more than once!
Bookmark sync is another of those areas I absolutely need a synced backup between my various systems, and have been a long time user of Xmarks, even back when it used to be known as Foxmarks. The recent announcement of their upcoming shuttering left me scrambling for a replacement. Everything I’ve tried has left me frustrated at best or pissed off at worst. (Yes, I’m looking at you Firefox Sync –your inability to do much of anything wasted far too much of my time over the couple days I attempted to get it working!)
But news of Xmarks potential resurrection brought a smile to my face today. I’ve pledged my support for them today. If you ever find someone who provides a great service that just flat out works for you, don’t hesitate to pony up a few bucks to support ‘em!
August 17 2010
Kick in the Ass, Week 31
Last week shows me PPC blasting, attending Practical Profits, finishing my class, and spending too much time in airports:
- First half of the week found me very busy campaign blasting. Haven’t broken through that 100 blast goal quite yet, but made some serious progress towards doing so. Another six days left in this round, so I’ll see if I can find enough focused time to get it done!
- Last half of the week found me in ridiculously hot Vegas for the Practical Profits conference. Luckily, spent the hottest part of the day inside with some of the smartest internet marketers out there! Made lots o’ notes, met lots of interesting people, drank lots of water… The mind is still reeling, but I’ve got at least another 50 different directions to try out if I’m ever in need of ideas! If you’ve never been to a conference like that, don’t hesitate. The cost was insignificant compared to what I learned. And I can say without a doubt that applying just a little of what was put out there would pay me back a hundred-fold. Give me a bit to tidy up my notes, and I may just pass along a tidbit or ten…
- Between checkout time and when I needed to catch my flight from Vegas, borrowed the hotel’s wifi and finished up the last of my entrepreneurship class. Definitely picked up a few pointers. Along with a renewed hatred for all things PowerPoint. Swear to god, PowerPoint is the death to anything deeper than surface knowledge, and being forced to use it to create something that would be much better conveyed via a few simple paragraphs worth of text just drives me nuts. Nevertheless, the bits of info picked up made the time invested in the course worth it in the end.
Anyway, must get back to blasting! So what did you do last week?
August 10 2010
Kick in the Ass, Week 30
PPC campaign building, list marketing education, and my online class were in order as the wife and son were out of town for half the week. Basically, two less distractions from getting things done, even if they are my two favorite distractions. Took full advantage of the opportunity, loaded up iTunes and cranked it way up, had me a few dozen cups of coffee, and worked far too late into the evening morning almost every day they were away.
- Got in gear on my late start to the latest blast challenge. No completed blasts are live as I type this, but as always, I’m batching the steps of my process, and am well on my way to finish a healthy chunk of my goal. Will I finish up the whole 100 that I set as a goal for myself? Who knows, but I’m certainly going to make a concerted run at at…
- Signed up for Andre Chaperon’s AutoResponder Madness. Still working on the whole list building thang, but have heard good things about this course from more than one source that I trust, so thought it’d make a decent investment. The trickle feed style of providing the information personally drives me a little nuts, but it’s a great example of the type of system he suggests anyway.
- Spent a fair amount of time scrambling to get ahead on the last few weeks of my online class. This weekend has me at the Practical Profits seminar in Vegas, and next weekend has me in KC for the baptism of my niece, so not a lot of free time to devote to it otherwise. Still have a handful of assignments to finish, but I’m essentially done with the class.
About time to decide what I need to take with me to the conference, and see if I can get a few of those PPC campaigns live before I get on board the plane! Wish me luck…
August 02 2010
Kick in the Ass, Week 29
Returned the middle of last week from a great couple of weeks wandering with the family through the Colorado wilderness, with more than a fair share of time spent recouping at the wonderful Cheyenne Mountain Resort between stops. If you ever make a trip to the Colorado Springs area, I have no hesitations recommending the resort — the cost may be a little steep, but the service was amazing. Plus, we got a hell of a deal when we booked through Expedia and ended up paying no more than we would have at a decent national chain hotel anyway.
So the last two weeks’ reports were right — I got absolutely nothing done towards my goal. Exactly as planned. Hell, even though I brought along my netbook, and free wifi is pretty much anywhere people congregate, I didn’t even bother to check my email for a week+. I was on vacation, damn it — we spend far too much time tethered to our tech as is!
Anyway, now that I’ve returned, it was time to get back on the saddle:
- Threw my hat into the ring for the next Blast Challenge. The latest challenge started while I was on vacation, so I missed out on the first week and a half, but I’m shooting for a full 100 blast by the end anyway. Because, as you may or may not know, THE holiday is coming much sooner than you realize, and I fully intend to take maximum advantage of the opportunities around. A ton of preliminary work was completed, but the first official blast of the challenge hasn’t went live as of yet.
- Since I missed out on the last Earn1kADay seminar because of scheduling conflicts, I’ve kept my eyes open for something similar that didn’t absolutely break the bank. I believe I found it with the Practical Profits seminar happening in a couple weeks. Looks like some great presenters, so signed up to attend and just have the hotel room left to finalize. Which I intend to do as soon as I finish this update!
- As I was gone for a couple weeks, I had a couple weeks worth of stats from the various programs I earn from to process. The system I have in place to aggregate it works pretty slick, but there is a little bit of effort involved in bringing all the pieces together. In the end, had some great days and some not so great days. But then, this time of the year has been all over the place earning-wise since I’ve been doing this, so no big surprise there. Plus, even those not so great days were at least profitable ones. You do recall I was on vacation and not even checking email during that time? Sounds like some pretty passive income to me…
- Oops, forgot about some homework for my class. Scrambled to squeak it in under the deadline!
Onward to week 30!
July 26 2010
Kick in the Ass, Week 28
Sean didn’t accomplish a damn thing towards meeting his goal this week!
Feel free to berate him…
July 19 2010
Kick in the Ass, Week 27
Sean didn’t accomplish a damn thing towards meeting his goal this week!
Feel free to berate him…
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