Comparing increased broadband use in households today to the normalization of electricity in households of the previous century, The Federal Communications Commission presented The National Broadband Plan.

Just beginning my exploration of this plan, I found it surprising that only 65% of Americans have broadband. This left me wondering about the remaining 35%. Are these families using dial-up or do they not have internet at all? I haven’t used a dial-up connection in well over a decade, but I remember the way it would unexpectedly cut out and how very slowly sites would load. Hard to imagine how frustrating that would be for someone attempting to job search or to upload a resumé.

The FCC identified six goals for broadband use in America. Goal six may be of interest to anyone that is careful with their money. It states that “every American should be able to use broadband to track and manage their real time energy consumption.”

Any thoughts on this?

As a runner, I’ve taken both first place and dead last. While it’s nice to get a ribbon, or a trophy, what’s most gratifying is running faster than I have ever before.

Runners call this a PR or Personal Record. But PRs are not just for running. This concept can be applied to many areas of life. With the key principle being that: You are always trying to beat You. Following this philosophy is both freeing and at the same time overwhelming. On the positive side, you will never again have to worry about what other people think of you. You can get last in a race. You can stutter through a speech. You can get up on stage and sing Karaoke. As long as you feel that what you’ve done is an honest effort, then it was good enough (and in the true spirit of PRs it is an effort that can be improved). The converse is that it’s hard to tell what your best actually is. Unlike running, which can be measured by a clock, other efforts are difficult to gauge. How can you tell if you are a good person? A patient listener? Contributing enough to your community?

There aren’t any easy answers to these types of questions, but it seems that truly successful people ride the line. The line that falls in-between too much and too little. For runners, this means pushing until it hurts but resting before getting injured.

Preparations have been intense, we want everything to be perfect for our new addition.

Reassuring iPhone that we will still love him once the little one gets here has been a full time job. We’ve been giving him lots of extra attention, looking at old photos from when he first arrived at Splasm, even telling him stories about how we stayed up all night admiring his touch screen and making calls to everyone we knew. Still, he is nervous and more than a little jealous that we are so eagerly expecting iPad. It doesn’t help that iPod has already been through this and is throughly enjoying torturing little iPhone.

In the middle of painting the nursery, iPhone came in crying, “iPod told me that,” sob, “when iPad gets here you won’t develop for me anymore! iPod says that you’ll be so busy creating games for iPad that you won’t even care about me at all!”
Setting down my paint brush, I pulled iPhone close and explained that iPod was just being mean,
“We’ll still have time for you,” I started, then considered the best way to proceed, “iPad won’t even be able to do much at first, but we’ll work with him, give him lots of love, and one day he’ll be just as useful as you.”

iPhone appeared visibly calmer and agreed to be kind to iPad when he gets here… on the condition that we get him that Checkbook application he’s been asking about.

Need a good audiobook to listen to on your commute? Tuesdays with Morrie will remind you to savor, rather than just get through, your day.

I stumbled upon this gem while working at a school in Florida. Tutoring students in a low income area coupled with the humidity, and not owning a vehicle soured my attitude more than a little. Each day, I’d walk the half mile from my apartment to the school. By the time I arrived, my face was all red and sweat soaked my back. Just remembering it makes me want to go take a shower. Anyway. Tuesdays with Morrie is about a sports writer who goes to visit his old professor.

Morrie presents  his former student with some great insights into how to live a happy life. My favorite part is when Morrie explains what he calls the tension of opposites, “Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do another. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn’t. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted.” What a wise observation

I am not an expert on money, but I am a relatively frugal person. Not owning a credit card during college meant eating my weight in ramen noodles, but I am glad that I was able to make it through without a mountain of debt.

Watching the news lately, I’ve been (lightly, too much news can be a bit nerve racking) following the new credit card laws.

Credit Card companies are now required by law to tell you when they plan to increase your rate or other fees, how long it will take to pay off your balance, and will no longer be able to “double-cycle”–interest can only be applied to balances in the current billing cycle. More changes can be found at
What You Need to Know