On Life and Love

Whatever is making or breaking my day.

  • On Life and Love

    Weekly Linkage: The Personal Finance Edition

    The notables in this week’s internet cruising were mostly in personal finance. Surprise, surprise. I picked up a couple of books from the library yesterday: Generation Earn by Kimberly Palmer. I’m neck deep in this one already, and really liking her approach. Less conservative than Dave Ramsey, less passionate as well, but it’s not geared at those struggling and drowning, it’s geared at those of us able to look a little longer term. The Bogleheads’ Guide to Retirement Planning (by a ton of folks). I’ve read a fair amount of their stuff on their wiki, but want to get a feel for their approach in a more sequential fashion. The…

  • On Life and Love

    A Financial Advisor: What Am I Even Looking For?

    I spoke with a financial advisor last week. I really don’t trust other people with the future of my money. I especially don’t trust most people’s advice when they offer it broadly. Most big-name finance people seem to either hand out advice that’s uselessly bland for someone geeking on the topic (that’s me!), or so tailored to a particular world-view, product, or life situation that there’s barely even a gem worth digging out of the morass. Plenty of simple things don’t get accounted for in books and writings on the topic: What if I don’t have employer matching in my 401(k) and have lousy investing choices there? What if I’m…

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    Weekly Linkage: Kickin’ It 1995 Style

    This week’s internet cruising: 1995 – I loved me some JNCOs. Playing the ‘playing the racism card’ card – "Most of us don't have to bend over backwards not to be seen as racist because we don't go around saying racist things." Pigeonnier – Bee-yoo-tiful. Jim & Sid’s Tiny Houses – Some of these are so cute! Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results – "Google has run a sting operation that it says proves Bing has been watching what people search for on Google, the sites they select from Google’s results, then uses that information to improve Bing’s own search listings. Bing doesn’t deny this." Define Gender Gap?…

  • On Life and Love

    Excuses for Not Learning My Car

    There are times when I’m secretly tempted to argue that computer users should get off their asses and learn about computers, so as to spare specialists the need to explain the intricacies of first-tier Outlook 2007 settings and to be willing to break things to learn themselves. …And then I need work done on my car.

  • On Life and Love

    Weekly Linkage: Passports, Robots, and Monopoly

    This week’s internet cruising: No Moods, Ads or Cutesy Fucking Icons (Re-reloaded) » Extraordinary Claims – Dust off your scientific hats for this one. Watts does an interesting analysis of the responses to a paper showing statistically significant evidence of precognition. Other folks apparently jumped all over the precog article with some borderline dishonest critiques, which Watts chews on. The “…the fuck…” exercise. « intangible.ca – Hear, hear. "Think of the last time you had to write an About Us page. Or a FAQ. Or craft an elevator pitch. The big challenge is coming up with a clear, engaging, and succinct description of your project." Change in passport language is…