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2009 Internet Goals

I read this post the other day on Daily Blog Tips on 2009 Internet goals.  It’s a group writing project they’re sponsoring.  I haven’t participated in one of these in quite a while, but this one is pretty poignant.  Goal setting is usually something that I do in my head, but of course it’s a good idea to write these things down so that we can go back later and check them, right?  Right.

I think I came pretty far in 2008, and I hit most of the goals that I’d loosly set for myself, but there’s a pretty good chance I’ve just forgotten about the ones I didn’t hit, so I think writing them down is the way to go.

1)  Get at least two friends to start blogging.  This means you!!!  Even if you keep your blog private (that’s easy to do) or accessible only to your friends and family, it’s just too easy to have a nice site these days.  I have a whole different post coming about managing your online reputation.  Having your own site is the first step.  Grab a domain name for a few bucks a year, and talk to me about hosting.  I’m running a friend special right now.  😉

2)  Get over 100 subscribers to this blog (finally).  I’ve been hovering at around 85 for quite a while now.  I’m not really sure how to make it over the hump, but I have a year to figure out, right?  I think one of the problems may be that I bounce around a lot of different topics and get pretty streaky on things.  But that’s the way my mind works, and this is supposed to reflect what I’m thinking, right?  Oh wait, there is one thing I can do…BEG!!!  Please subscribe if you haven’t yet.  If you aren’t sure what I mean by “subscribe”, here’s a quick tutorial.

3)  Launch three new sites.  I actually know what two of these sites will be centered around–more on that next year.  That leaves me with the task of coming up with one other idea.  This shouldn’t be too tough to do–I’ve got a million ideas I haven’t even thought yet.  But then, there’s the implementation–there’s the rub.

4)  Money.  Financial goals are always fun.  With all of my efforts combine, I’d like to make it to $600/month by the end of 2009.  Right now I’m at about $225 per month, and it’s increasing at a pretty steady rate.  I think this goal can be attained by June or July, but I think it’s prudent to give myself some wiggle room just in case I don’t get a bailout.

5)  Empower a bunch of people.  This one is tough to measure, but I know a bunch when I see a bunch, and I hope some of the projects I’m working on will help a bunch express themselves and share information.

6)  Complete two WordPress plugins.  I’m almost finished with one sizeable plugin, and there’s another I’d like to write as well.  They both tie in with goal #5.  I think they will go a long way in making things easier for people to accomplish some tasks with their WordPress blogs.

7)  Get two links from A-list bloggers.  I’m not as concerned with which of my site(s) get these links as I am that I get them.  And I’m not picky about who these A-listers are.  Why would I be?  I think this is definitely doable–I got one last year.  Then again, that was in January and I didn’t get another one all year.

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$100,000 Cars–Everybody Got ‘Em

For a limited time only, you can buy Barack Obama’s 2005 Chrysler 300 Series C on eBay. Current bid is just under $120k.

Apparently Mr. Obama gave in to pressure a while back and switched to a Ford Escape hybrid. Isn’t it ironic that his gas guzzler is still out on the road? I mean, the carbon footprint remains, so I don’t see what was actually accomplished.  At least his conscious is clear I guess.  Now if he could just find a hybrid jet.

If you can’t afford Obama’s Series C, maybe you can get Jon Voigt’s LaBaron instead.

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Stupid Lending Coming Full Circle

I have to credit a buddy of mine in Chicago for bringing this one to my attention.

You’ve probably heard about the workers in Chicago staging a sit in at the Republic Windows and Doors plant. Their beef is that the company is not paying the workers enough notice before closing, which is a violation of their contract. That sucks for them, but somehow the government places blame with…

Bank of America?

Earlier Monday, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, several alderman and Cook County officials offered their support for the workers’ protest and threatened to suspend business with Bank of America if a resolution was not reached.

How is it Bank of America’s fault that this company can’t run profitably?  Are they actually trying to coerce Bank of America to lend out money to a company that can’t repay it?

Uh, correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t most of this financial mess started when government forced financial institutions to lend money to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back?

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The Black Friday Post

 

Black Friday Hottie Jaclyn Smith
Black Friday Hottie Jaclyn Smith

I saw a K-Mart ad for their Black Friday specials last night featuring Jaclyn Smith.  I have no intention of going to K-Mart any time in the next 365 days.  That is, unless Jaclyn Smith is going to be there.  This woman was hot when I was in kindergarten.   Now I’m old, and she’s still hot.  Not fair.

Anyway, there are actually some great deals out there from the emails I got this morning from Buy.com and Amazon.  Here are a couple of the best ones:

From Amazon

From Buy.com
This badass espresso machine for $90
2Gb Memory Card for $60

7″ Digital Photo Frame for $40

I’ll post some more stuff as I find it!

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Best Thanksgiving List Ever

I’m not going to even begin to bore anyone with the old cliche’d things I’m thankful for. Family, health, friends, etc.–anyone can think of those. Besides, I wrote a nice Thanksgiving post last year. Nope, I’m going to get real. I’m thankful for a lot of things most people probably aren’t, so why not list those and make my Thanksgiving post a little different? Ok then, I will.

  • Nice ladies with coffee–I like nice ladies, and I like coffee, but when you put the two together you get magic!  Nice ladies with coffee just give it away sometimes (I’m still talking about coffee). Other times, they will break the rule that says “you can’t get $.59 refills in styrofoam cups” and let you do it anyway. This is especially helpful if you are driving to the ATL and are stopping for your 2nd or 3rd cup of the day.
  • Muscle memory–It’s frustrating to get older and not be able to the things you used to do as well or as fast as you could when you were younger. On the other hand, it’s nice to still be able to do them period.
  • La Gallina Turuleca and Zoboomafoo—La Gallina Turuleca has been viewed 11.5 million times. I think I’m responsible for about 9 million of those.  It stops the screaming.  Zoboomafoo, while popular with the kid is actually a pretty decent show.  I was just saying last night while flipping through channels that Zoboomafoo is better than most of the other stuff on TV.  Which brings me to…
  • Rock of Love Charm School–I’m thankful for this show because it makes me thankful for so many other things. First, it makes me thankful for Rock of Love, without which this show would not be possible. Secondly, it makes me thankful for every ex-girlfriend ever. Yeah, even “that one” wasn’t anything like these chicks. And all those ex-girlfiends make me thankful for my current girlfriend. Sure, technically we’re married, but since we still like each other so much it’s more like dating, which I’m very thankful for.
  • WordPress–Not just WordPress (which is free), but all the free WordPress plugins and WordPress themes as well. What a great, easily extendible platform! I’m thankful more people are catching on to how flexible and easy it is for people to get things done on the web with WordPress. The more people are empowered, the easier it is for them to get information out, and we all win.
  • Free speech–I’m really greatful that we’re able to sit behind our keyboards and cry “Socialism!” when we see it closing in on us. I’m really not sure why we’re still allowed to do so. It’s probably because big government isn’t efficient enough to stop us yet–they’ll have to spend a few years doing a study, creating a department, hiring a huge staff, and creating some regulation first. Oh, and taxing the shit out of us to pay for it all. Of course, it’s entirely possible that they really don’t know that all this stuff they’re doing is socialism. I never considered that possibility until this week.
  • Space…Fight!–This is quite possibly the greatest Facebook app ever produced. It’s a game that has no apparent purpose and cannot be won. What’s the point? I believe the point is to see how long you can stand to play this game. Can you stand to play it longer than your friends? Out of spite, I believe I can. However, I’m getting some stiff competition from one Space…Fight!er who just won’t give up.
  • “Change”–This word has given me so many opportunities to laugh this year, and the hits just keep on coming.  Only in America can more of the same be marketed as change and be bought by so many. It reminds me of Mick Foley rasslin as Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and Mankind. He wore different costumes as each character, but once the bell rung you just had a crazy sumbitch dishing out pain, no matter the gettup. That’s change I can believe in.
Have a great, safe, and happy Thanksgiving!
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Green, Get the Money, Dolla Dolla Bill Yo

 

It looks a lot like the Target Logo
It looks a lot like the Target Logo

Are you still waiting on your next check from the gov’ment?  Has it been almost a year already?  A lot of good that did, huh?

Instead of waiting on the people who cause most problems to solve them, you’d be better off heading over to KTownLowDown for some great tips on coupon clipping and maximizing at places like Target and Walgreens. It must be hard to keep a guy like SVD in groceries, but his wife seems to have a good system going. This trip to Walgreens alone makes the whole post worth reading:

She grabbed a toothbrush, two cans of chicken broth, and the pudding for a dessert she was going to make…and went to the checkout. The gal rang the items up, The Wife gave the gal at the register her coupons. the Wife paid $0.57 and the gal at the register gave her a Walgreens coupon worth $5 dollars. Somehow we got stuff we needed and Walgreens paid us to get it.

I need to find someone to pay me to shop, preferably for big ticket items like triathlon bikes, digital cameras, and homes.

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I Don’t Get Out Much

 

Uggsly
Uggsly

At least not anymore.  But I was out for most of the day today, at least if you consider the mall and grocery store as “out”.  When I say I don’t get out much, I’m talking about the house and my pajamas.  I mean that I literally don’t get out of my pajamas much.  Here are some random thoughts I had throughout the day…

The mall was insanely crowded.  I’m sure the cold had something to do with it.  That’s the only reason we didn’t go to the park for a walk instead (kid with a cold).  Maybe everybody was just window shopping–dunno–but somebody needs to tell these folks that we’re in severe economic straits.  Isn’t that why we have a media.  Oh wait–the media is saying that.  Maybe it’s just that people don’t trust what they say so much.  Could all of the Fox News Alerts and CNN Breaking News flashes turned them into The Boy Who Cried Wolf?

The Apple Store.  Honestly, I don’t get it.  I think Apple has great computers, mosly because of the OS.  But the price…seriously?  As far as iPods go, I own a first generation Nano that I received as a gift and like. But I couldn’t justify spending that much on a player when all I want to do with it is run, especially when you can get one of these, which are bad ass, so much cheaper.  I think form follows function.  Actually, I think form follows price, which follows function in this case.  I just want something small and light that plays music while I run.  I’m too slow to impress to impress anyone, no matter what kind of player I’m using.

On top of that, Apple store can do all it wants to make me feel like I’m in Times Square while I browse their 900 square foot commercial, but I know where I really am.  Even if i didn’t, I’m quickly reminded of it when I walk out of the store and see this.

Next up, girls with tight, short shorts on and Uggs.  It was 40-something degrees today.  I wear shorts all the time when it’s too cold for most people, but usually out of necessity, not as a fashion statement.  It was too cold for me to wear shorts today.  I hope you don’t wake up in 15 years embarrassed about this.  Don’t worry, there’s a decent chance you won’t.  I have a pair of Skidz shorts I bought in 1990 that weren’t even cool then.  Even worse, I still wear them. But I may not be the fashion example you want to follow.

And to end on a positive note, several people were really nice to me at the Kroger on Middlebrook.  Although I was an ace at it a couple of years ago, grocery shopping is not easy for me any more.  I’m grocery stupid now–back and forth across the store several times to get everything most of the things a few of the things on my list.  I was waiting in line to check out and a guy came and told me that they could check me out in a different line.  He could see that I was struggling to hang on to a tasmanian devil, so he took my cart for me and even unloaded it before bagging my groceries.  Then, just as I was finishing up loading up the car, a nice lady grabbed my cart so that I wouldn’t have to take it to the return.  She didn’t even work there.

I plan on going out again for the next round of early voting or to stock up on yeast and copper line.

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Joe Six-Pack Going Galt

I’ve heard a lot of talk lately about people “going John Galt” if the changes we’ve been threatened with promised are enacted. What’s interesting to me is that, unlike the situation described in Atlas Shrugged, the captains of industry are not among them. Isn’t it interesting that the people who seem to be most concerned and agitated are small business people? It’s not the mega-rich who are worried, it’s the “Joe Six-Pack” entrepreneurs who employ 5 people instead of five thousand.

Maybe I’m over analyzing, but it seems like the uber-rich are more than happy to pay a little extra.  To them, it’s a way of buying an insurance policy.  The more oppressive the tax system, the less capital up and coming challengers have to compete with them.  Why not hedge your bets?

And, as expected, big corporations are more than happy to be complicit with socialistic economic policies.  They are getting hand outs left and right, literally.  The left wants to reward the unions save people’s jobs, and the right wants to reward their college buddies save people’s jobs.

Right.

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Business Fail Because of Banks and Credit Card Companies? C’mon.

I normally wouldn’t comment on a situation like Cindy Fairless Lay’s.  She is closing her privately owned business here locally, and that’s none of my business.  However, Ms. Lay wrote a guest column for the KNS (related article) today in which she explains why her business is closing.  In doing so, she’s put herself out there, presumably to solicit opinion and reaction.  I happen to have some.

Because the closing of my business is due to (lending) practices of my bank, legal loan-sharking of credit card companies, price gouging by oil companies, two governmental agencies arguing as to whether my cakes with cream cheese frosting can be sold, and a president that suddenly, as if he were innocently surprised, announces our country is headed for the worst economic shakedown since the Great Depression, I cannot remain silent.

Let’s break this down.  Her business is closing for the following reasons:

  • Bank lending practices
  • Loan sharking by credit cards companies
  • Price gouging by oil companies
  • Two government agencies
  • President Bush

What?  The first two reasons lead me to believe this business was highly reliant on debt for operation.  And that leads me to believe this business would have never even gotten off the ground without debt from banks and credit cards.  Did Ms. Lay write an article crediting them for her success when the business was thriving?  Seems fair to me.  Maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe this business was started from a pure cash position.  Maybe.

And I wonder if her business accepted credit cards from customers.  If so, does that make her complicit in their “loan sharking” practices?  Or is it only loan sharking when they charge you high interest rates and punitive fees?  I’m no fan of credit cards–don’t have one.  But to lay the blame for the failure of your business at their feet while failing to recognize that it was you who agreed to the terms they presented is ridiculous.

Could it be that failure to effectively control debt leverage contributed to the closing of this business?  That seems like a management issue to me.

And price gouging by the oil companies?  If oil companies were gouging and getting away with it, why have gas prices dropped so much recently.  They’d have to be fools to drop prices if they were getting away with unfair gouging practices.

No one is more irritated by the idiocy of government agencies than me, so I sympathise with Ms. Lay there, but their decision over whether or not a cream cheese frosting can be sold is a major factor in the business failure?  Really?  This would make sense if the business were “The Cream Cheese Frosting Company”, but this was a restaurant.  Was the whole thing riding on the ability to sell cream cheese frosting?

Lastly, this is (obviously) President Bush’s fault.  I guess that is a given, because everything else seems to be his fault too.  Look, I’m no fan of Dubya, but I’ll give him this–he has to be the hardest working President in history based on what I’ve heard and read.  I mean, to be personally responsible for every single problem of every single person in this country is quite a feat.  Hell, I don’t even have the time to wreak that kind of havok in my own life.

Ms. Lay seems like a nice enough lady.  She enumerates her virtues as a humanitarian in her article, and she sounds like a nice person to work for and with.  Apparently her food is really good too.  But at the end of the day, she has to realize that she took risks and lost.  She was not forced to take these risks.  In fact, she’s quite fortunate to live in a place where the opportunity to take these risks is available to her.  I’m not sure what her purpose was in writing this article.  Maybe she’s looking for a bailout?

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Stock Market Realization

I just realized last night why the ol’ gov’ment is so concerned about the stock market’s behavior over the last couple of weeks–they are afraid of competition.  I’m not talking about competition among business operating in an free market.  I’m talking about the free market’s competition with the gov’ment.

Up until now, the only way to achieve the negative returns people have seen in their 401ks was Social Security.Â