Blog changes

After my vacation mentioned a few days ago, I decided to open up my blog to all comments (previously, you had to sign in). My hope is to encourage more comments from all people, even people who want to remain anonymous. However, I've enabled moderation in order to filter out the garbage.

Well, it seems to have worked, I've received three anonymous comments in three days. Trouble was, they were all spam. The last one bothered me a little. The comment praised my general idea (gotta love that), but criticized my lack of specifics. As I read the note trying to decide whether to approve or disapprove, I chucked about the criticism, the comment itself lacked specifics.

What made me decide NOT to post the comment was the hot-links at the bottom for various websites. But it did make me think and decide to explain my reasoning for moderation and my approval process.

If I see a comment that is on subject (or even off subject somewhat), has no profanity and no advertising, I will publish it, whether I agree with it or not and whether it's praise, criticism or something else. I will allow a link to your blog if you include one, but I will check it out first (to protect my readers).

Readers - I encourage you to click on the "comments" in each blog post and add comments to the stream. A comment in the stream does not mean I agree with or endorse the ideas, but it does mean I've read the comment and feel it's clear of profanity and advertising spam. If the comment includes a hot-link, click on it at your risk, but I will typically comment on whether or not I checked it out.

Thanks again for your readership.

Vacation - a time of rejevenation

Last week, I went to the beach (Myrtle) on a family vacation. We've done this before, but it's been a couple of years. With my wife, our five children, four children-in-laws, 5 year old grandson, four 2year old granddaughters, one 3week old granddaughter, close friends, their 5 year old daughter, 13 year old niece, sister, son's friends (age 21) and daughter-in-law's mother, we had a house full (for the record, not everyone was there all week).

The 2 year olds  behaved like you'd think 2year olds would behave, immeasurably cute one minute, complete melt-down when they were told no. Grandma and grandpa don't say no very often, so I suspect parents will have to readjust some this week.

As we did on our last big family vacation, we let our kids cook for us. Each one chose a night. This time, we also specified that they had to clean also (lesson learned 2 years ago). This worked well, with even the 21year old and his friends cooking (burgers, infused with bacon and cheese - my cholesterol is up).

One family member twisted my arm and asked for a photo shoot - posed pictures of their two year old. My goal is to do these photo shoots regularly for all of the grand-kids.

The family largely obeyed my censorship demand - no facebook or tweets about vacation until it was over (thank you very much). I felt it better if 99% of the US didn't know that we left our house unattended. Yes, we had a neighbor watching the house and we had two different people who came by while we were gone (for two very different reasons), but I still felt better not having the social network communities broadcasting my vacation plans.

As a result of a relaxing week at the beach, I plan to restart my blog - or reboot (a new use for a word I've known a long time from a description of the new movie Planet of the Apes - see here)

Over the next few weeks, expect to see posts on family, the economy, education (courtesy vacation discussion), politics and personal finance. As usual, I won't stick to a single topic. And your comments are always welcome.

Where have all the bloggers gone?

Seems a lot of the blogs I follow have gone silent with one blog even completely being deleted. Some of these had started and never followed through (or are using Facebook/Twitter to share), others are out doing things like the Nutcracker Ballet (I think).

My schedule has made it more difficult to follow a regular schedule, although I think that's changing as we near the end of 2010. But it made me think of this song.

Ok, I don't like the political commentary she added in, but the song is from a different era, a different time.

The Simple Dollar - eBook Review

About a month ago, I told you how to get a free book (see here). Well, if you didn't act then, you're too late to get it free, but you can still follow the directions I listed and get the book for just $9.99. And I'd say it's worth it.

I want to do a review of Kindle, but I'll save those comments for another day. Today, I want to tell you about the book The Simple Dollar, by Trent Hamm. The author has a blog, conveniently titled The Simple Dollar, that focuses on day-to-day financial  management. I strongly recommend his site.

But the book is more than  just "How I got rid of credit cards and made my life easier." Trent starts by telling you his story, of being in a "prison made of plastic." But he goes on and talks about life in general, looking at "What's missing?"

Hamm interleaves stories from his personal life along with stories for your personal life. He helps understand the power of goals and the simple fact that life really is more random than you think. He looks at the sense of community in this Facebook/Myspace social networking world. He goes beyond how to get out of debt and discusses how to stay out of debt. It's not just beans-and-rice and rice-and-beans, he discusses alternatives. If you like rice-and-beans, that's fine, but most of us don't. He acknowledges that and shows how to live frugally, while still enjoying life.

But as said earlier, it's not just finances. Hamm talks about family relationships (ok, as they relate to finances) and retirement. I especially liked his discussion of a partial crossover point, a time when you can let go of your current career and start working on something new, something more exciting.

Chapter 15 of Hamm's book talks about Setting Your Child Apart. I've not read any financial planning books that discuss child rearing. He helps parents help their kids. Then he talks about giving. Not just in dollars and cents, but in giving to the community and why you should give (don't expect to be preached at - just reasons to give).

I highly recommend Hamm's book, even if you have to spend a few bucks.

Sort-of Facebook and blog policy

A little over a week ago, my blog-friend Neil posted his "sort-of Facebook policy" (see it here). I mostly agreed with it and then this morning I violated it. I felt bad afterwards, so as a reminder to myself, I thought I'd specify my facebook policy and my blog policy. Or my sort-of policies. I'll probably deviate from time to time. If you catch me, please point it out.

Like Neil, I keep the Facebook comments generally light and leave the politics and heavier stuff for my blog. A lot of my family eschews these heavy topics and Facebook just doesn't seem to lend itself to in depth discussions. I have found that many times, I can keep up with my family better on Facebook than with the phone. I've also re-established some relationships from when I lived in Charlotte and even a few relationships from school. I don't play games on Facebook and try to hide updates from the games because I really don't care how many jewels you have or need for your crown.


I have a friend who doesn't use Facebook. He worries about the evil that goes on there, the relationships that get started there (he's thinking the extra-marital relationships). He worries about the wasted time (can anyone say Farmville?). He's right to worry. Facebook can be abused just like anything. And if he doesn't want to post, I think it's best he doesn't do it. He's never told me I shouldn't. That's tolerance for both of us.

For my blog, just about anything is open. I will post on any topic, from politics, to cooking, from the books I read to the movies I see. I'll post about the kids and their kids or just something I see that sparks my interest. I'll put together posts on aspects of finances and once did a three-part analysis of payday lending.

In both my blog and Facebook, I'm careful what I post. My theory is that if I don't want my mother or my kids to read it, I shouldn't post it (my mom now uses Facebook and watches my blog). I haven't posted very many of my pictures - not that it's against my policy - it's just too time consuming.

I also take requests on my blog and try to honor those. (For Emily's sake, I often insert how I feel about a subject). If you have something you want me to post about, notify me here, on Facebook or any other way.

And if you catch me going off my policy, let me know. Throw something if you're close enough.

Free Book - Yes, free!

I've been reading a lot of personal finance blogs like Freeby50 and The Simple Dollar. I recommend both of these. Well, it turns out that The Simple Dollar has a book titled (amazingly) The Simple Dollar. And for a limited time, you can get the book for free.

You can download the book for your Amazon Kindle at this site: The Simple Dollar Book. But wait, you say you don't have a Kindle? (I don't). Not to worry, you can download the Kindle app for your iphones, ipads, android, PC or Mac. I did and it was very simple. You start at this site. It took under 5 minutes.

blogging for bucks

About a year ago, I created a blogpost with a contest (see here). It worked pretty well, I generated more comments than usual and picked up a few new regular readers. One of the readers won a prize, a $10 gift certificate at Amazon (congratulations again Glenn!).

Seems I'm not the only one (and I'll admit I stole the idea) who does give-aways on their blog. One of my favorite blogs is ChristianPF. It deals with day-to-day finance problems from a Christian viewpoint. Even if you don't follow this belief system, it has some pretty pragmatic ideas.

Today, the blogger announced an iTouch giveaway. So, I'm promoting his blog in a chance to win the iTouch. If you get a chance, go read http://christianpf.com/ipod-touch-giveaway-new/.

I don't recommend that you enter this contest, as I'm afraid it will decrease my chances of winning :)

I'm baa.aa.aa.aack

I couldn't stay away too long. I needed a break from every day blogging. I also stopped reading (as many) blogs.

Over the last year, I've changed my blog reading habits. I read less political blogs (it's better for my blood pressure) and more financial blogs (picked a few good tips too). I also read more "personal" blogs, just regular people commenting on life.

As I restart my blog, I've banned anonymous comments. Seems I was getting a lot of these, so it just made sense. If you're being kept from posting, please email me. You can click on "view my profile" (scroll down, on the right, under "about me") and get my email address. I'd love to hear from you.

Real blogging starts tomorrow!

Moderation is for monks....

A few weeks ago, I received some comments on my blog for very old blog posts. I don't mind, but these were obviously spam. So I turned on moderation for old posts.

However, I didn't realize that I had to actively look for comments held in moderation. This morning I found I had 15 comments held, all but one were spam.

I look at this as a good news/bad news situation, I had 14 spam comments held and you, my loyal reader, won't have to bother with those. Unfortunately, one valid comment was held by my ignorance. My sincere apologies.

As it is, anyone (including anonymous readers) can comment on recent blog posts. If the post is over 14 days old, I will moderate. I will ONLY reject comments that seem to be spam - ads for medical sales or other sales. If you feel I have rejected your comment unfairly, either email me (my email address is in my profile) or comment on a more recent post.

I will not reject posts that simply disagree with me (that would get rid of most of my comments).

Thanks to all who comment.

P.S. Anyone know the rest of the quote in the subject line?

Comments, comments

Recently, I've gotten some comments that are less than stellar. These have mostly been on old blog posts and I found out I can moderate posts older than 14 days. This seemed a reasonable compromise to me, as I really don't want to moderate. I spend too many hours away from the computer and wouldn't be able to moderate in a timely fashion.

Just today I got a post on a recent blog entry that seems a little racy. I can't guarantee that the link that was posted is to a porn site, but it sure sounds that way and I'm not going to test it.

So what to do? Do I turn on moderation and only allow legitimate posts? Or do I just accept this as part of the cost? It actually shows that my blog is hitting higher on some search engine somewhere, so I guess that's a good thing.

(Note, I posted this entry twice. In the process of some other clean up, I deleted the first entry).

Roundup

I'm going to steal an idea from my blog-friend Neil and post a list of other blogs I've seen this week. Maybe I can be Neil's padawan blogger.

Don't forget my contest. You can win a big prize ($5), just for making up a story. Post it in the comments or send me an email. Today's the deadline. The judges will vote tomorrow and the winning story published.

I confess I stole the idea from the contest from (or was inspired by) the Lazy Man and Money. Lazy is one of the blogs I've been reading about practical money management. He received two copies of a book, 10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget, and is giving one away. Be sure to read the comments, some are funny, some are sad. See his post here.

Another practical money management blog I've been reading is The Simple Dollar. A recent post focused on Quantity Surcharge. You always thought that the bigger bottle of ketchup was cheaper, right?

Probably my favorite blog of late is Free by 50. It's not as much day-to-day practical information, but probes deep on some subjects. Home ownership, foreclosure, subprime lending, etc. Be sure to read several posts to get a feel for the blog.

I first heard Gerri Detweiller on the radio, she focuses on consumer alerts of all types. She's the credit advisor for credit.com. She doesn't blog every day, but her posts are good.

Blog reading diversity

I try to be somewhat diverse in my blog reading. Certainly most of what I read is stuff written by Christians who are politically conservative. But I read blogs about politics, religion, life in general and even a daily blog by a Miata lover (Brian almost makes me covet his red Miata).

But lately I've been looking for some greater diversity in what I read. My posts on contrary evidence, Super-heroes needing an antagonist and even on diversity itself were basically disguised attempts to look for another blog or two that I could read.

So if you know of a good blog from another view, especially a political or religious blog, let me know.

when do you blog?

I blog at various times. Sometimes, I blog during slow time at work, when I'm waiting on someone to call me back (see yesterday's blog for an example). Sometimes I blog in the morning, when I'm going through my list of daily blogs.

Usually, I'm listening to the radio (via the internet), so blogs with music on them mess me up. I'm putting those on a special list, which I will view when I can.

Other times, I review blogs and create a new entry on my own when I'm listening to a boring conference call. Those seems to come up a lot this time of the year. Everyone is closing out for last year and starting fresh.

When do you blog? When do you read other blogs?

Oh diversity, where art thou?

Several years ago, I purchased a video tape (pre-DVD days) that was the original pilot for the original Star Trek series. You see, the original pilot was never shown on TV in it's entirety. When the "big shots" at NBC saw it, they asked for another pilot, one with a more western style. So Roddenberry went off and created a new one. The original pilot came back in pieces as a two part episode.

For the initial showing of the tape, I invited a lot of co-workers from my then new job. The tape had an introduction from Gene Roddenberry that explained (among other things) that the show practiced wide diversity at a time when television was not very diverse. Indeed, the show included males and females in roles of authority, blacks, Asians, and even aliens. One of my college friends told me that the show featured TV's first inter-racial kiss (Uhura and Kirk). In the last few years, we've learned that one of the stars (Lt. Sulu) was even homosexual, although he wasn't open about it at the time.

During the show, I realized that my group of friends lacked a lot of diversity. All were white males. However, we were somewhat diverse, one co-worker asked where he could go to smoke a cigarette.

So my question is, what is the value in diversity? Should there be diversity in everything? If your company is looking to be diverse, does that mean they will be recruiting smokers and alcoholics or is diversity restricted to skin color and sexual orientation/

It's come to my attention that my blog readers are not very diverse. I did have one self-described liberal reader (David, are you still out there?), but most are politically conservative. Most are Christian. I do have a mix of male/female.

If you have some liberal and/or non-Christian friends, I'd appreciate it if you sent them my way. My message hits a diverse set of topics and hopefully there is something for everyone.

Comments on comments

I have to admit, I love it when someone comments on my blog. Whether they agree with me or disagree or maybe they just love my pictures (which I don't use often). Occasionally, I'll get someone who is astroturfing* (neat sounding word, isn't it?). And I've gotten a few spam attacks. A couple of people have asked me to advertise their product (I won't do that, I do this for fun, not money).

But what amazes me is when someone finds an old post and comments on it. Yesterday, Lisa found one of my old posts and agreed with it. (see here). Sure, she posted a link to her site, so maybe she's trying to increase her site traffic. She also mentioned her husband is a Nationwide Insurance agent (the post was about that), so maybe she's trying to earn him more business. Or maybe she's hoping that when people visit her site (seen here) they will take advantage of her ministry opportunities (I've seen her site, looks like she's doing good work). Who knows why she took the time out of her day to comment.

All I know is that it makes me feel good when people comment. Thanks Lisa!


* For those who don't know, astroturfing means that someone is trying to give the impression that there is a grassroots campaign for or against something. For example, when I posted about PayDay Loans, I had some comments from people paid by the industry.

Painting the lines

When I graduated from high school, I took a summer job working in a manufacturing environment. If you've ever seen a textile mill with cloth running from one machine to another, you've seen some of the large rollers. The company I worked for would take these rollers (after they had worn considerably) and strip all the rubber off of them, then apply new rubber. The new rubber was then sanded smooth, to the exact specifications the customer demanded. Typically, this was within a few thousandths of an inch.

The machine I worked on had the ability to put a "crown" onto a roll. That is, the diameter of the roll was more in the center than on the ends. So, it may have a "crown" of 0.025 inches. The ends had to match each other, the crown had to be in the center and the crown had to be the exact specified amount.

Business was very good in the summer, because textiles took time off. During their lulls, they would send us the work. I start out working 55 hours a week (10 hours/day, 5 hours on Sunday) and kept that up for most of the summer. Top that off with an above-minimum wage pay and I was living! (and spending it all too).



Occasionally, work would get slack. No new orders coming in, so overtime was cut quickly. When the workload dropped even more, we painted lines. The lines were required by OSHA for safety. it showed where forklifts could go, where other equipment could go, etc. When times were very slow, we painted our machines.

So why am I posting this, thirty years later? The company I worked for no longer exists and other than a few scars on my two small fingers of my left hand and some memories, there's nothing left.

Well, here's my point. There are times in your life when things are slow. When this happens, you need to paint lines. If life is slow, your job is boring and things aren't going your way, paint the lines. Study a new topic. Stay in school (or go back). Complete a few projects that you didn't complete when life was hectic. Focus on the essentials. Maybe even (gasp) read a book.

Or if live gets very boring, post a blog entry.

Why blog?

A few months ago, my friend Neil posted this question on his blog. I recently posted some comments on a liberal blog and was asked the question, why I would post there, when it was primarily liberals who visited there. The comments were later clarified, I don't mean to imply I was made non-welcome or anything. In fact, I had a nice dialog via email after the initial banter.

But it got me to thinking about Neil's post again. Why do you blog and why do you read blogs? I'm going to list several possible answers and some comments to them. Neil, I apologize for stealing your idea.

1) Some people blog in order to inflame like-minded individuals. This is good. You'll likely attract a lot of people who think the same way. Use words like "stupid" and "narrow-minded" to describe those who disagree with you and you'll likely make a lot of points with those on your side. These blogs seem to mostly be about religion or politics.

2) Some people blog to inflame the opposition. Another good reason. See comments above. You're not likely to make friends, but then you're not likely to see these people in person, so who cares.

3) Some people blog for fun. They really don't care if anyone else reads what they have to say or not. This is good too. I confess, I sometimes fall into this category. I've gotten some good comments back on some of the movies/books I've read and added new material to my list of things to read in the future.

4) Some people blog to inform. This is tough. You need to find something that people care about, then present it in an unbiased, un-flamable matter. If you use words like "stupid" and "narrow-minded", you'll never reach those on the other side. And if you only reach those on your side, have you really informed, or were you just preaching to the choir?

5) Some people think they are journalists. This brings to mind the difference between journalism and editorializing. The former expresses facts, the latter expresses opinion. I know, the line can be blurred easily, with statements like "Randy refused to answer questions about his wife-beating habits" (if you asked those kinds of questions of me, I'd refuse, but that doesn't mean I beat her - I'm much too afraid of her).

I confess, I fall into the journalist/editorial categories sometimes. I actually never consider myself a journalist, I know one and that would be an insult to him. But sometimes I do report my findings in an unbiased manner (recent Obama and McCain post are two cases) and then follow up with editorial comments (Obama1 & Obama2, McCain).

Ok, I've probably inflamed some people with these comments. I will say they are not intended for any of my regular readers or the person with whom I recently exchanged emails. But they do reflect an opinion of what I've seen in blogs and in comments on blogs.

The real question is why do you read and/or write blogs?

How old is that manager?

Lunch today was on the road, at McDonald's. Hey it was good enough for our former president, it's good enough for me.

Anyway, the sign says they are hiring managers, crew members, openers and closers. For the openers and closers, it said they had to be 18.

But there was no disclaimer on the managers. Can they be 16? I know a 16 year old can work there. A lot of the managers ACT 16 (or even less).

How would you interpret the sign? How old does the manager look at your local Mickey D's?

Did Drew Peterson kill his wife?

All over the news, you'll see stories like this one about Drew Peterson in Illinois who is accused of killing his fourth wife. Her body hasn't been found, but they have exhumed his third wife's body and at least one investigator believes he killed her too (I found an interview with wife#2, but gave up finding anything on wife#1, the reports are just too sick). Mr. Peterson thinks wife#4 ran off with another man and just doesn't want to be found.

Now, teleport across the pond to merry old England where it's reported that John Darwin who has been gone over five years and presumed dead. The wreckage of his kayak washed on shore in March 2002 and a coroner pronounced him dead. His wife Anne, collected the life insurance money and recently moved to Panama. Now John has turned himself in claiming amnesia.

So what ties these two stories together? Is Anne Darwin's wife, Drew Peterson's next target? Or did Stacy Peterson, run off with John Darwin? No, nothing so sinister, no great conspiracy. I am just fascinated with the idea that people can run away and never be found. It turns out there are even books written about the idea: "Hide Your Assets & Disappear: A Step-By-Step Guide to Vanishing Without a Trace"

Let's see, didn't I say something a few days ago about moving to the mountains and becoming a hermit? (blog post here) If Santa wanted to bring me a book, maybe the above would be a good one...

Hermit

This time of the year is always difficult for me. I know it should be the happiest time of all. I get to see my family more than normal, everyone is in a good mood and I get to do things that please them.

I think it's tough because of the stress. I want to do things just right and they don't always work. Some family gets hurt or offended, someone else doesn't like what's going on. And they all bring their problems to me.

I get the urge to move up to the mountains and tell them that if they want to see me, come on, but leave their gripes and complaints at home.

If my comments these next few days seem a little snippy, I apologize in advance. Don't complain about it though, you'll only make it worse.