Let’s Hit the Links: Week #7

February 19, 2012 Leave a Comment

Mmm...cookies

Many years ago, I led my daughter’s Girl Scout troop during cookie sale season. These girls were ruthless. They met their sales goal and earned a camping trip to the now-defunct Peppermill Hotel and Casino in Mesquite, NV.  What? You thought they were going to sleep on the ground, pee in a hole in the ground and subsist on campfire rations?

Selling cookies taught the girls how to: 1) set and achieve a goal; 2) convince someone to buy something unnecessary; and 3) manipulate their parents into helping them succeed.  It prepared each girl for the life of an entrepreneur. Next time you’re at the grocery store, pick up a box of Thin Mints and help a girl succeed.

This crazy article about finding your cat-loving soul mate is from PetPlace.com

If there is a lack of cat talk, that is not a good sign. Somebody who doesn’t make cats part of your initial chat may not want to be part of you (sic) or your cat’s real life later on.

Is this site funny? I can’t decide.

The advice in this Huffington Post piece entitled 15 Gay Reasons to Watch the Super Bowl (Not Counting Madonna) is timeless:

Tom Brady is very, very handsome. Remember all those pics from VMan a few years back? And Eli Manning, though not as Bruce-Weber-ly handsome as Brady, possesses his own dorky cuteness. (They tried to dress him up for Men’s Vogue a few years back. An adorable effort.)

Here are dueling trash Trent Hamm posts from Control Your Cash:

Trent Hamm is a 30-something American who claims to function in the modern world. People actually read this dunderhead. By the way, his stratagem about taking showers (and using underarm deodorant) comes from the same invaluable post in which he tells us to brush our teeth.

and Financial Uproar:

Trent goes on to explain that you could save $10 per year by just adjusting the temperature. He doesn’t actually bother to do the math or anything (this isn’t such a bad thing) he just pulls the number out of his ass.

Because I’m not done with football yet, here’s a fascinating article from NFL.com’s new Football Freakanomics blog:

Our latest Football Freakonomics episode — the last one this season — argues that the draft is much more of a crapshoot than most of its practitioners would have us think. The evidence is everywhere. Consider the research of research of Cade Massey and Richard Thaler, who find top draft picks to be seriously overvalued.

 

What did you do last weekend?

Yep, that's a moat

 

From Wikipedia:

The Dry Tortugas, [Commodore John Rodgers] reported, consisted of 11 small keys and surrounding reefs and banks, over which the sea broke. There was an outer and an inner harbor. The former afforded a safe anchorage at all seasons, and was large enough to let a large number of ships ride at anchor. Of more importance, the inner harbor combined a sufficient depth of water for ships-of-the-line, with a narrow entrance of not more than 120 yards. Rogers said that if a hostile power should occupy the Dry Tortugas, United States shipping in the Gulf would be in deadly peril, and “nothing but absolute naval superiority” could prevail. However, if occupied and fortified by the U.S., the Dry Tortugas would constitute the “advance post” for a defense of the Gulf Coast.

The fort, which takes up almost all of Garden Key, was never finished. It’s now a ghost town 67 miles west of Key West, FL, and comprises most of Dry Tortugas National Park. Access to Garden Key is via seaplane or daily scheduled ferry. There’s a cadre of National Park staff and a small vistor center/bookstore, but no other public facilities.  There’s great snorkeling, tours of the fort* (ranger- or self-guided) and a moat. The tour’s highlight is the cell where Dr. Samuel Mudd was incarcerated after he was convicted for conspiracy in the assasination of Abraham Lincoln. In 2010 just 53,890 people visited Dry Tortugas.

Carnivals and Links:

No carnivals this week but Dr. Dean of the Millionaire Nurse threw me some link love.

Product Placement:

The Business of Your Business: Formula, Financials, Function and Freedom

I wrote this class for the Women’s Council of REALTORS® but the information and tactics work for anyone who wants to start or improve their business.

By the end of the online video course, you’ll be able to:

  • Evaluate your net income and ensure increased profits by planning growth.
  • Position your personal production by leveraging your assets.
  • Manage your activities to create more money and personal freedom.
  • Organize your business, freeing up your time to concentrate on your personal investments.
Get more information here.

What’s on my Kindle:

Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy By Caroline Kennedy and Michael Beschloss

Outliers: The Story of Success By Malcolm Gladwell

Notes from the Cracked Ceiling: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and What It Will Take for a Woman to Win By Anne E. Kornblut

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West By Stephen Ambrose

Filed Under: Fun, Link Love Tagged With: , , , , ,

6 Reasons You’re Still Poor

February 16, 2012 1 Comment

 

 

Why aren’t you rich? Probably because you fall into one or all of these categories:

You don’t have an education

To succeed in America, you must have a high school diploma and either a college degree or trade skills. You don’t have to spend have a lot of money on your education, you just have to know enough to get a job. Spending too much on your degree defeats the purpose of your schooling. Go to school to get a job.

You don’t have a job

Get a job. Any job. Worry about the salary later.

Work hard. Learn stuff.  Solve problems. You’ll soon be rewarded with opportunities to earn more money.

You’re single

2 incomes are better than 1.

A few caveats: 1) Don’t go into debt getting married; 2) You and your spouse must each have an income; 3) Don’t marry someone with debt. Single with no debt is better than married with debt and a spouse who doesn’t work.

You have kids (and aren’t married)

Single-parent households are more likely than 2-parent households to live in poverty. Same goes for the children when they reach adulthood. Ladies, here’s the easiest way to create wealth: keep your legs together until you’re married to someone with a job, have a job yourself, and are debt-free.

You have an addiction

Alcohol, drugs (legal or otherwise), gambling, smoking or shopping. I’m sure I missed one or two. Rule of thumb: If it costs money, makes you unemployable, damages your health or otherwise interferes in your ability to control the first 4 items on this list, stop doing it.

You love to play the victim

You can never catch a break. You blame others for your problems. You expect society to take care of you and yours. Until you change your mindset, you’ll never be successful, wealthy or happy.

Adam Carolla profanely and succinctly cuts to the chase:

Pull out, get a fucking job  and stop counting on the government. We’re Americans. We don’t hope for shit, we do shit.

Walter Williams sums it up a little more genteelly:

Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior.

Now you know the secret to getting rich.  It’s time to take control and build your perfect life.

Filed Under: Strategist Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Rabbi’s Gift

February 16, 2012 Leave a Comment

 

 

A famous monastery had fallen on hard times. Formerly its many buildings were filled with young monks, but now it was all but deserted. People no longer came there to be nourished by prayer, and only a handful of old monks shuffled through the cloisters serving God with heavy hearts. On the edge of the monastery woods, an old rabbi had built a little hut. He would come there, from time to time, to fast and pray. No one ever spoke with him, but whenever he appeared, the word would be passed from monk to monk: ‘The rabbi walks in the woods.’ And, for as long as he was there, the monks would feel sustained by his prayerful presence.

One day the abbot decided to visit the rabbi and open his heavy heart to him. So, after the morning Eucharist, he set out through the woods. As he approached the hut, the abbot saw the rabbi standing in the doorway, as if he had been awaiting the abbot’s arrival, his arms outstretched in welcome. They embraced like long-lost brothers. The two entered the hut where, in the middle of the room, stood a wooden table with the scriptures open on it. They sat for a moment in the presence of the Book.

Then the rabbi began to weep. The abbot could not contain himself. He covered his face with his hands and began to cry too. For the first time in his life, he cried his heart out. The two men sat there like lost children, filling the hut with their shared pain and tears. But soon the tears ceased and all was quiet. The rabbi lifted his head. ‘You and your brothers are serving God with heavy hearts,’ he said. ‘You have come to ask a teaching of me. I will give you a teaching, but you can repeat it only once. After that, no one must ever say it aloud again.’

The rabbi looked straight at the abbot and said, ‘The Messiah is among you.’ For a while, all was silent. The rabbi said, ‘Now you must go.’ The abbot left without a word and without ever looking back. The next morning, the abbot called his monks together in the chapter room. He told them he had received a teaching from the ‘rabbi who walks in the woods’ and that the teaching was never again to be spoken aloud. Then he looked at the group of assembled brothers and said, ‘The rabbi said that one of us is the Messiah.’ The monks were startled by this saying.

‘What could it mean?’ they asked themselves. ‘Is Brother John the Messiah? Or Brother Matthew or Brother Thomas? Am I the Messiah? What could all this mean?’ They were all deeply puzzled by the rabbi’s teaching, but no one ever mentioned it again. As time went by, the monks began to treat one another with a new and very special reverence. A gentle, warm-hearted, concern began to grow among them which was hard to describe but easy to notice. They began to live with each other as people who had finally found the special something they were looking for, yet they prayer the Scriptures together as people who were always looking for something else.

When visitors came to the monastery they found themselves deeply moved by the life of these monks. Word spread, and before long people were coming from far and wide to be nourished by the prayer life of the monks and to experience the loving reverence in which they held each other. Soon, other young men were asking, once again, to become a part of the community, and the community grew and prospered. In those days, the rabbi no longer walked in the woods. His hut had fallen into ruins. Yet somehow, the old monks who had taken his teaching to heart still felt sustained by his wise and prayerful presence.

A story by Fr. Francis Dorff, O. Praem from the book A World of Stories for Preachers and Teachers: And All Who Love Stories That Move and Challenge by William J. Bausch.

Filed Under: Spirituality Tagged With: