Patrick, of Cash Money Life fame long ago tagged me to give my best financial move in college. I posted this long ago, but it’s worth reposting. How I came to become a Russophile is an interesting story – I think. (me, in St. Petersburg, circa 1997) Learning an “exotic” foreign language, and how it [...] Read more »
aluminum boats
Here’s a quick and simple game for kids. Give them some aluminum foil – an equal amount for each kid. Tell them to design a boat, and then take the boats outside and float them in tubs of water. Start adding pennies to each boat, and see which boat can hold the most pennies before [...] Read more »
always embrace life
I posted this before, because from time to time I like to put a video up that’s unrelated to finance, etc. This one is touching and relates to health, if nothing else. Call me a sucker for sentimental safety reminders, but I imagine that the number one health tip – in terms of extending your [...] Read more »
rapid early acquisition of tech adaptability
What is “rapid early acquisition of tech adaptability”? It’s a term I made up. I haven’t yet Googled it to see if I’m ripping something else off, so for the time being I’ll keep it as my own term. I’ll call it REATA because I’m not going to type that unwieldy phrase more than once. [...] Read more »
go out and brip it
I have to admit that I’m puzzled by the internet from time to time. I’m no novice – I’ve been online since the headset-inserted-into-the-modem-receiver-with-the-screechy-noise days, but sometimes the craziness of it all amazes me. I started getting some hits for ‘brip’ and found out that brip is a reference to a snowboard move: brip 1. [...] Read more »
just start
I don’t often blog about the business of blogging, but a conversation with a friend of mine and the reading of a blog post covering the same topic prompted me to share my opinion on building a successful blog. More specifically, the first step that is universal to all successful blogs: the author chose to [...] Read more »
9.11.11
As we near 9-11′s 10th anniversary… After you read this post (or before, it’s up to you) read the first article I wrote about 9-11 here… dark day. The two most recent articles I’ve written: dark days behind us, brighter days ahead and once again, forced to reflect on that day Last year I didn’t [...] Read more »
was it easier to be simple in the past?
Minimalism and frugality* have been hot topics since the financial crisis of 2008 dropped the US into a deep recession, a shallow recovery and now apparently the beginnings of a second recession. As I’ve read about the minimalist, frugal lifestyle and thought about my own childhood, I’ve wondered about whether the ability to achieve a [...] Read more »
a letter from Russia, 1996
This is a letter I wrote to my parents, via fax, in 1996. I thought it might be interesting to see what life was like mid-90s as an American expatriate in Russia…. First of all, let me apologize if the quality of this fax isn’t very good…the fax machine we’re using is pretty [...] Read more »
How to Determine Needs vs. Wants
One of the biggest things you should do as an adult is to learn to distinguish between your needs and your wants. A mark of childhood is the inability to do just this. Most children don’t understand that there is even a difference between what they need and what they want, which is why grocery-store-fits [...] Read more »
what your trash says about you
I’ve noticed that I can make a few snap judgments about my family’s life based on our trash output. We are not a particularly “green” family, although I am passionate about environmental issues. Trash output is one are where I definitely talk the talk but walking…not so much. If you take a close look at [...] Read more »
emotional finance
The following post originally appeared as a guest post on Mrs. Micah: Finance for a Freelance Life waaay back in 2007. How can emotions help (or hurt) your finances? Take a simple example: let’s assume there are two kinds of moods, good and bad, and two kinds of financial situations, good and bad. Remember: simplistic. If [...] Read more »