I never did spend much time on Facebook. I liked that I was able to connect with some old friends through Facebook. Why leave? In the end, Facebook is a virtual world that I don’t want to be a part of on a personal basis. Yes, I do want to be involved with my friends and family. but not through the public vehicle of Facebook. I will still keep my LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. Letters? Emails? Phone calls? Visits? Yes, those I will like very much!
Last month, I closed all my credit card accounts. I sent the following email to a friend of mine.
I’M COMPLETELY FREE OF CREDIT CARDS!
I have not a one to my name or business.
It was fun calling them all and closing the accounts. They all wanted to know why. My reasons, when I shared them, totally baffled them!
He replied with the following:
THIS IS FANTASTIC!!!! You are now in the 15% of households with no credit cards. Ironically, as recently as 1970 only 15% of households had a credit card. What a run it has been for the banks but a disaster for most families. Keep up the good work!!
I used to think that having credit cards and paying them off each month was OK. My friend tried to convince me that having credit cards would increase my spending and limit my ability to control my spending. At the time, I didn’t agree with him. However, when I decided to leave my corporate job, I needed to cut my spending in half. That was when it really hit me.
It always surprised me when my credit card bill arrived, how it was always bigger than I expected. I was always able to pay it off, but it was a disappointment to do so and have to miss some other goal I had set with my money. Now that my credit cards are gone and all the bills paid off, it is a wonderful feeling to not receive those bills every month.
I will admit that it has been an adjustment to not just put it on my credit card when I needed or wanted to buy something. It takes more planning and discipline to manage the budget this way. But, isn’t that what I am trying to do? I will also say that I am getting pretty close to cutting my spending in half from what I used to spend. Pretty amazing, huh? Maybe it is true what I have heard, that you will spend 40% more with credit cards than without.
My wife was doing laundry with our children and started writing down where the clothing was made. Not much was made in the U.S.A.
Czech Republic
Singapore
Honduras
Bahrain
Jamaica
Mexico
Taiwan
Jordan
Guatamala
Haiti
Brunei
Nicaragua
China
Dominican Republic
India
Darussalam
Canada
Costa Rica
Yes, there was an item Made in the U.S.A., but it was about 25 years old!
The people of the United States have lost the capability to produce their own clothing and many other necessities. What will we do if war comes to the world? I can answer this for you. We will suffer. Our nation used to be able to produce anything we needed from the natural resources within our borders. Sadly, that knowledge and infrastructure has been lost.
I remember, back in the 80′s, when Wal-Mart tried to spur American manufacturing. Sam Walton penned this letter to spur a change in the United State’s ever-widening trade deficit. The following quote is underlined for emphasis in the letter.
Our Wal-Mart Company is firmly committed to the philosophy of buying everything possible from suppliers who manufacture their products in the United States.
U.S. manufacturers could compete if there was a corporate will to do so. Sadly, the next quarter’s bottom line and the laws of our country almost mandate that our manufacturing capability be moved outside of the country.
I believe that hard times are on the horizon, perhaps even war. Anyone have a good loom for sale?
And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; – I Thessalonians 4:11 (KJV)
Ten years ago I first got online when I signed up for a Yahoo email address. I’m not sure why I did it, other than I wanted to have my own email address. I remember several years earlier having to justify getting an email address at work. (I needed to work on problems with IBM support!) At the time, it cost $1.25 per email to send them through the mainframe.
Then in January of 2002 I setup the first version of mikesmind.com. You can see the page in the Wayback Machine. (The images and background are missing now.) I think I was blogging before blogging was so popular! In 2004 I moved this site to XOOPS and in November of 2004 I moved this site to WordPress.
Over the years I have setup several websites, participated on others, joined forums, and enjoyed the internet. It just seems that I have been online for more than 10 years! During that time, I also made the switch from Windows to Linux. So much has been made possible because of the access to information that the internet provides. I would say that the best internet inventions have been Google, RSS feeds, and WordPress.
I received a flier with my bank statement. In it was an article announcing “Payday Freedom, The Alternative to Payday Loans.” I have noticed these payday loan operations popping up all over during the last five years or so. I have even seen them in fairly affluent neighborhoods. What started as a somewhat-shady, at the very least opportunistic, business is now legitimized by a credit union. Here are the “benefits” this “service” provides for the credit union’s members:
No Credit Check
LOW Fee – Only $12 per $100 Borrowed
LOW Rate – Only 18% APR
30 Day Payment Period
Have we not learned from the recent financial trouble our nation is going through? It is hard for me to imagine how this can be a good deal for anyone!
No Credit Check – The folks who need a payday loan are probably poor credit risks. Do you want that for you credit union?
LOW Fee – Only $12 per $100 Borrowed – That’s 144% annually when compounded monthly!
LOW Rate – Only 18% APR – Yes, this might be a low rate when compared to credit cards and payday loan outfits. I like 0% better when you don’t take out a loan.
30 Day Payment Period – I wonder what happens after 30 days?
This doesn’t seem to be a good idea for banks to promote. What about teaching people to be financially responsible? I guess you can’t get that from this credit union! I suggest Dave Ramsey.
A few weeks ago, I upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10 – Intrepid Ibex. One thing that I had problems with, and according to my searching many others did too, was playing flash videos like those on You Tube. It took me some time to resolve it, but the following two guides did the trick. Not only are they easy to follow, but they did solve my problems with both sound and flash video.
One thing I find when searching forums is that there is a lot of “try this” and “try that.” That approach can lead to more problems. It is real useful when the “try this” and “try that” threads get summarized into a tutorial that really works.
Yesterday, I did a rather painless upgrade of Linux on my PC from Ubuntu 7.10 to 8.10. My PC is setup to dual boot, with the other OS being Windows XP Professional. I keep that around for Citrix, Quickbooks, and testing webpages on Internet Explorer and Opera. One of the last things to finish for this upgrade was to get Citrix working.
I use Citrix to work remotely for my employer. I was never able to get Citrix working in Ubuntu 7.10, although it worked just fine in Ubuntu 6.06. (Something about library incompatabilities.) As usual, I Googled for help. This time I found a great tutorial called Running Citrix ICA client on Linux – Ubuntu 8.10. Unlike many tutorials, this one was straight-forward, to the point, simple, and it worked! My thanks to Cary Brown.
Now for the big suprise. Running Citrix on Linux is twice as fast as it was for me on Windows XP! What a nice surprise.
I have made some progress since I started thinking about raw. As I mentioned before, I am drinking fresh milk. I am also eating raw cheese and raw, unheated, honey. This morning, I ate two raw eggs! I have been reading We Want to Live by Aajonus Vonderplanitz. Once I finish the book, I will write a review. For now, I am getting close to trying some more raw food in my diet.
I never did spend much time on Facebook. I liked that I was able to connect with some old friends through Facebook. Why leave? In the end, Facebook is a virtual world that I don’t want to be a part of on a personal basis. Yes, I do want to be involved with my friends and family. but not through the public vehicle of Facebook. I will still keep my LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. Letters? Emails? Phone calls? Visits? Yes, those I will like very much!