Posts from ‘July, 2008’

In a quest for ever more passive income streams, I submitted a batch of 10 of my favorite photos for inclusion on ShutterStock.com.  Unfortunately, I got a rejection message this morning from them saying I didn’t make the cut.  New submitters must submit exactly 10 photos, 7 of which must be improved for inclusion.  It [...]

There is an interesting post over at Seeking Alpha today about the average date you would have had to have purchased a home in any of 20 metro areas around the country to have made money given the recent setback in home prices.
I’m sure its not terribly accurate, its all about average home prices afterall, but [...]

So… today was “Phone Book Day” - the day they drop off piles of bagged telephone directories on doorsteps in my neighborhood, whether anyone actually lives there or not.  Now, back in the day these things were pretty handy.  Now I don’t even want to bother bending over to pick  up that ten ton piece [...]

Do you know your neighbors?   Would they notice if something happened to you?  Is the lack of community creating a serious safety concern in our neighborhoods? 
I went to a Green building workshop two weeks ago sponsored by Seattle area’s Reach Returns and a hot topic in green building is constructing “cottage neighborhoods”.  These little neighborhoods are usually [...]

Today brought the news of Cuil’s launch and I’m excited.
Cuil doesn’t have to be awesome, it just needs to be decent and disruptive. Google has been on top for a long time now and there is a need for some fresh change.  The group of ex-Googlers that started Cuil are getting a ton of press [...]

I watched a couple episodes of The Soprano’s over the weekend.  I’m only on season three, but I’m making progress.  Episode 29, “Fortunate Son”, features Christopher getting a little behind on his payments to Paulie and having to find a creative way to come up with $4000 in a week.  While I don’t advocate taking [...]

Well, I finally managed to track down an iPhone in the Seattle area, no thanks to apple or at&t’s web sites. I’ve only had it for a few hours now, the verdict? Neat device but, so far, painfully slow to type on.
They were out of the 8gb models so I had to get a 16gig. [...]

I made the mental leap to buy an iPhone over the weekend.  My current Motorola flip phone is starting to get worn out and the new phone has a couple nice features such as a faster internet connection than the prior iPhone and GPS capabilities.  My contract with Verizon is up and, since they haven’t gone out [...]

From a personal finance perspective, I try to avoid any unnecessary recurring expenses.  I figure I’m stuck with a cell phone, high speed internet and utility bills for the most part, but things like NetFlix, Premium Cable and Car Payments are things I can live without.
Software as a Service (SaaS) has been talked about for quite [...]