The 100 Best Products of 2005
Check out PC World’s 100 Best Products of 2005, good stuff.
Add comment October 6th, 2006
Our boy is turning Amish
The more and more my son hangs out with our Amish neighbors the more and more he becomes Amish himself as you can see in the photo above.
Add comment August 23rd, 2006
World Cup Fever affects everyone!
Found this photo on Yahoo… 
Hindu ascetics play soccer on the banks of the River Ganges in Allahabad, India, Wednesday, June 21, 2006. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Add comment June 22nd, 2006
Learn to Speed Read
Over the last several months while reading through emails or articles with my wife, I noticed that either I was a really slow reader or she was a really fast reader…
This makes sense with her being an “English” type and me being a “numbers” kind of guy. Well anyway, I know this is an area that I can improve in and found this interesting article on how to get started with teaching yourself to speed read.
Pretty soon I’ll be the one twiddling my thumbs while waiting to flip the page or scroll down the screen
Add comment May 12th, 2006
Do It Now!
I recently listened to an audio book titled:
“DOING IT NOW: How To Cure Procrastination And Achieve Your Goals In Twelve Easy Steps”
I thought it was a good read although some of the skits within it were kind of cheezy (but funny).
It talks about several ways to cure laziness and procrastination, as well as ways to set goals, priorities and improve time management.
Some of the things that I put into practice from this book were:
- If you don’t feel like doing something that needs to get done at the end of the day when you’re tired, try doing it for at least 5 minutes. (A lot of times you will find energy reserves or renewed motivation once you start.)
- Clear CLUTTER from your life.
Get rid of messy desks or unnecessary clutter around your house. This creates an “Action Environment” where things are organized efficiently and everything has its own place. - Write down your goals, review them frequently and share them with significant others so you have some accountability.
- Create a 2 Do list or (Priority List) where you divide your tasks into several different “buckets”.
e.g. My different buckets are: Family/Friends, Work, Self, House and Dreams. - Try to handle documents or mail only once. (Do it, Delegate it or Ditch it)
Add comment March 29th, 2006
Missing Plant!
While “Plant Sitting” for my co-worker I ran into a small problem….
See the company wide email I sent below
Hello All,
This week I was asked to take care of my cube neighbor’s (Dave R’s) plant.
I placed this plant on the window sill in Jon S’s old office (Next to Matt D’s office) in an effort to give it more sunlight and nurse it back to health. I’m assuming that someone thought this plant was up for grabs and took it (hopefully it wasn’t used as a Christmas gift).
No problem…. if you can just return it to it’s original spot so it can get some sunlight this weekend that would be great. In addition I may even get the “Plant Sitter of 2005″ award.
Thx!
ps. It kind of looked like this photo attached (projected growth after 2 days)
2 comments December 30th, 2005
PC-Cillin Internet Security 2006
Several of you asked me about good software for “all around” Internet/Computer security . I just bought and installed PC-Cillin Internet Security 2006 from Amazon and it seems to work really well so far. It will end up costing me $30 after a mail-in rebate.
Not bad for protection against:
- phishing
- spyware
- spam
- hackers
- viruses
Cnet.com rated the 2005 version as excellent… so far I’m liking the 2006 version.
Add comment December 29th, 2005
Chocolate Curry… Yummy!
At the 8th annual Chocolate Show in New York, the traditional truffle made room this year for those containing coriander, curry, cumin, lavender, lime, green tea, black sesame, soy butter and balsamic vinegar.
Add comment November 18th, 2005
Vonage and Beyond! Ditch your local telephone service…
Another phone service that we have been looking into outside of our Virgin Mobile cell phone plan is Vonage.
It is basically making phone calls through your broadband internet connection (DSL/Cable).
(*note: this works better using Cable internet since to use DSL you need to subscribe for a local phone line, which will be a decrease in savings)
Our current setup:
Our traditional basic local phone service comes out to about $25/month (taxes included).
Plus, We have an additional account for long distance, as well as a calling card (this stinks).
The switch:
Vonage has a basic plan of $15/month for 500 minutes (long distance included)! And a $25 unlimited plan as well.
I couldn’t find any negatives yet:
- You keep your existing phone (they send you an adapter to hook up to your DSL or Cable modem)
- You keep your existing phone # (as of now my phone # is unavailable to switch over)
- Lots of enhanced calling features (3 way, caller ID, voicemail etc.)
- NO CONTRACT! and first month free
The savings:
We currently spend about $420/year for local/long distance.
If we stay under 500 minutes/month and use Vonage…. we only pay $180/year for local/long distance calling!
Stay tuned… I’ll let you know how it goes, first we need our calling area to become available so I don’t need to get a new phone #.
Some other companies that offer this type of VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) service are SunRocket and Comcast.
5 comments October 12th, 2005
The BEST “Pay as You Go” cell phone plan?
I was really tired of my Sprint cell phone plan last year. Hated the contract, the really BAD customer service, the constant billing disputes and the budget line item of: “$500/year for cell phone plan”. Luckily our contract came to an end…. Freedom!
Now we are looking for a simple phone to use in case of emergencies and for just random convenience. I’ve priced 3 of the top companies below and found the first one - “Virgin Mobile” to look the best so far.
Most companies charge about 25c /minute…. no contracts/taxes etc etc….
You “pay as you go” by buying “buckets” of minutes at a time.
The thing you have to watch out for is that your minutes expire (usually after 30, 90, 180 days), so you need to keep your account active by re-adding minutes at the end of each quarter (e.g. Must spend $20 every 90 days to keep your account active for the Virgin Mobile plan).
Each of the company’s basic plans below come out to about $130/year per phone (assuming you meet {abide by} their minimum requirements). Doing this, I should now only need to pay approx. $130/year opposed to $500-$600 to have a cell phone for when I really need it.
I’ll let you know how it goes. Let me know if you have any better ideas.
2 comments October 3rd, 2005