Coloring Book of Life

Men who never get carried away should be.
-- Malcolm Forbes

I think this speaks to the thought that great progress cannot occur without a little over-the-top attitude from time to time. One of my friends has a great saying himself: If it's worth doing, it's worth over-doing. Every once in a while, you need to color outside the lines and see what happens. Living a live entirely within your boundaries will provide a rather mundane existence.

Diversify Your Life

In all recorded history there has not been one economist who has had to worry about where the next meal would come from.
-- Peter Drucker

People love to be sold hope. They'll also be sold fear. An economist sells both, seemingly on a whim. Financial advisers, stock brokers, portfolio managers -- they all have the same thing in common: trying to convert other people's money into their hopes or dreams. Alternately, they try to diminish the fears of investors by giving advice on how to prevent disaster.

When all goes well, it's their cunning brilliance that brings in the paycheck. When it all falls apart, then "it wasn't supposed to happen this way", "no one could have predicted this", and "well, that's just the market-based economy for you". It seems to be a win-win game for people involved in projecting the economy. They have turned an already inexact science (at best) into a masqueraded-oft-confusing guessing game, all the while planning their next meal.

Plastics!

Spice of Conversation

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.
-- George Bernard Shaw

How true. People love to talk about themselves, especially when it can get them things. People like to think that they're funny and witty, even when they're not. Some people are simply amazed that they had the gall to write or speak something, so when they realize this, they take every opportunity to make others aware of their bold declaration.

As with most things, moderation is key. It's productive to highlight the good, and bad, things we say because we have the ability and responsibility to learn from our actions. But when it goes beyond our own self-advancement and steps into obnoxious self-righteousness, that's when the "spice of conversation" turns into a repellent.

Quoth the Raven

In another valiant attempt to jump-start my blog habits, I'm trying a new idea: I've subscribed to a quotations mailing list and each morning, I will be emailed four quotes from various sources: pop culture, literature, great thinkers, etc. I'll choose one, re-quote it for your pleasure, and attempt to reflect on the quote in whatever way I see fit. I only envision it as a one-to-two paragraph response -- and sometimes maybe less -- but it may be something fun to do.

My first email should arrive in the wee hours tomorrow morning with, hopefully, my reflection to follow a few hours later.

There is Water at the Bottom of the Ocean

The Talking Heads are the perfect Sunday morning band. Some songs make you think, some make no sense whatsoever. Some are light and airy, some are deep and heavy. All have some degree of infectious melody that sets a good tone for the day.

31 Days to Fix Your Finances, Day 1

As I posted over on $ man blog, I'm going to be trying out the 31 Days to Fix Your Finances program from Trent at The Simple Dollar.

Tonight, I started with the task for Day 1: list your five main values. I generally have problems with lists like this because they make me feel like I have to define myself in only a few short ideas. Obviously I understand the point of the exercise, but it's not as easy as I thought it would be. I imagine some could list only four or five values and be done in five minutes without any second thoughts. I can't. I thought about it for 20 minutes or so and came up with this. All I can say is that it accurately represents my values at this point in time, in no particular order. Of course, I list six.

- creativity
- family
- flexibility
- financial security
- automation
- happiness

Narrowing it down and combining similar values into one "theme" took the most time. Some of the items may make sense to you, others may make you scratch your heads. Thus the reason why they're my values. ;)

There is a list 1A to the above list that could have easily been the list I chose. On a different day at a different time, maybe it would have made the cut.

Tomorrow should be interesting as I delve into Day 2: defining goals from your values.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I've got most of a blog entry in my head, but it's not yet congealed into a complete piece yet. The title is complete, though, and it will be called "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back".

I know you're just quivering in anticipation.