ikea hacker

http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/

I LOVE ikea - this site has some pretty good ideas - some of them are a little silly - but there’s some good ideas…

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I’m noticing a slight increase in energy as the week gets closer to Friday… anyone know what that’s all about?

I’m thinking this weekend will be pretty cool - got my sis-in-law here with her kiddos, and my aunt and uncle are coming to visit - AND the house is on the market - should make for great times since we are smoking ribs on Saturday - and I bet people will start coming to look at the house - maybe the ribbage will entice them to offer more than the asking price! :)

The throat thing is still going on - not sure what’s causing it, though my wife told me she caught me snoring the crazy throat snore last night - so maybe that’s the cause? Who knows, but i’m sick of the burning feeling. It does seem to be getting a little better now, slowly but surely?

Here’s to having a great Thursday, selling the house, and hopefully finding out some info about some major moves I’ve got going…

House Diary (entry #2)

Ok, so we’ve finally finished most everything we needed to do on the house, the papers are signed, and we’re just awaiting a buyer. I think the official start is tomorrow or Friday - so we’ll see what happens.

It’s a big relief to actually be able to sit down after work and not worry about working or worrying about something that needs to get done. So now we have the worry of keeping the house clean/clutter free - which is quite the task considering 3 kids, 2 of which are younger than school age…

We’re excited and exhausted - ready for the payoff, that’s for sure - now if only a few other chips will fall in the right place - we’ll be off and running, and i mean running.

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Finally - our hay garden - you can also see my photo set on flickr here:

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The REAL Truth about PC vs MAC!

via ralree.com

Every show an infomercial? TiVo, Amazon ink purchase pact

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080722-every-show-an-infomercial-tivo-...

now, this is going to get really weird as far as watching TV goes… wonder how much it will interfere with normal watching?

House Diary (entry #1)

As we get closer and closer to the actual “putting on the market” day, I have started to realize how much work I’ve actually done on this house. From 2 years ago (and some months) when we first broke ground on this thing - it’s been an amazing experience experiement. I’ve learned so much about how it all goes together and the best way to accomplish alot of things.

Most of all, I’ve had a blast doing it. I’ve complained alot about all the work we’ve had to do - but that will go out the window when I realize the amount of money I’ve saved because of the choices my wife and I have made. I can’t tell you how many late nights we’ve had because of the work we needed to get done, nor can I tell how many conflicts I’ve dealt with because of contractor no shows or ineffeciencies… There’s been alot, and alot of time juggling doing it - but it’s taught me some valuable lessons about management and people. Lessons I’ll take with me from now on.

My family and I have made alot of memories during this whole “building a house” phase and I cherish them all - they’ve brought us closer together and have provided alot of teaching opportunities for us to teach our kids. I always say I am not married to a house, and would sell any one of them to make a profit (and I have, as this is the 5th living space we’re going to be selling in an 8 year marriage). But I will miss this house a little more than the other - mainly because so much of me is in this house - from the blood, sweat and tears we’ve put in it, to the negotiating deals on major costs, to the laughter and fun we’ve had while doing it all… I think about all these things and almost think about not selling it after all - then I get a friggin mortgage bill and forget about all that…

Hehe - anyway, I love the house that Tim & Jess built - but not enough to not get the profit we can make to help set us up for a great retirement and huge opportunities for our children.

This is the first post of a series I will be posting as we go through the housing process.

101 Self Improvement Resources

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/101-self-improvement-resources/

(via zenhabits)

Google Docs Templates

http://docs.google.com/templates

I am a huge fan of Google Docs, and here’s a long list of templates for use with google docs - all free ;P

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The American Dream

A buddy I work out with always says something to the effect of “That’s right, I’m just living the dream”… I always laugh because this guy is one of those funny types - always a comedian. Good guy really…

But in all honesty, he’s young. He’s recently married, just put an offer on a house and just rolled up in his wife’s brand new Toyota Urban Highlander for about $30k. Now, I’m not claiming to know how much the kid makes or what his wife makes but in decisions they’ve made over the past 2 months, they are now roughly $250k in debt. And as of late, I would have to agree that they are living the “American Dream”.

My wife and I are fighting tooth and nail to get out of debt completely and not have all the black heavy clouds floating over us every paycheck as we write away all of our hard earned income… It is my dream to be debt free as fast as possible - my uncle always says that you’ll never be rich while paying interest on anything. I couldn’t agree more.

So it seems that the current American dream has turned away from being free and just living carefree, and is now get the biggest, most expensive anything, keep up with the Jones’ and lower your retirement savings contributions to almost nothing so that you can work longer, harder, and have the least amount of enjoyment possible while you claw through the last 30 years of debt you’ve accumulated.

Thanks, but no thanks! I don’t want any part of that dream - I love America and I am very much a patriot, but I can’t see where getting that much into debt is a positive thing. I am living the dream, but I guess not the American version - I’m living the Tipton Dream as it were.

I’m not meaning to dogg my buddy or what they’ve done, it just seems overwhelming that we accept going into $250k worth of debt in less than 2 months as the norm. I know they need a house, and there’s some things that you are just going to have to go into debt over, but it just doesn’t seem right. I am not suggesting that I have all the answers, but I know I want out of debt as fast as possible, and I know that it takes YEARS to get out of debt you got into with a 10 second signature. so as for me and mine, I’m selling my house and I’m not purchasing anything near a new vehicle until I can pay cash for it. That said, I’m blessed to be in a position to make enough money on the sale of my house to get out of debt - and get another house - but the fact is that the American Dream is a dream full of debt and dark clouds looming over those who take the bait.

I don’t know how to fix the problem of that Dream, except to say I’m not dreaming that one - I love my freedom, and that includes freedom from all kinda debt. If you are interested, I have several sites linked on the right that will give more ideas about money and how to manage it - And you might also look at the Dave Ramsey plan. I’m trying to learn how to manage my money, and I’m hoping all of you will too… We are going to have to strong arm this new version of the American Dream …

Be Blessed.

Comments

so - apparently my comments aren’t working as expected. I’ll see what I can come up with on that and get back to you. 

In other news, Big Brother 10 started up last night - I love this show, I actually kinda like it more than Survivor these days - at least they try and throw twists and turns in the game to make it a little more less predictable… and I like how it comes on 3 times a week - it really draws you in and makes it a part of your weekly routine.

Speaking of TV - does anyone have HD programming through DishNetwork? Lately, it’s like half my channels don’t work and end up throwing a “transponder” error… That kinda sucks, if you ask me.

So this weekend we got all the doors painted and all of the trim up and caulked - all that’s left to do is hang the door knobs, and touch up paint the baseboards! WOOOHOOOO! Next on the list is all of the media plates, which honestly shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours this week and then it is on to basically pack up the office and start moving some of the stuff out of the house… Once we get to that point, I’ll turn over the “staging” aspect of the house and move my efforts outside - time to make the outside look as good as the inside… ya know?

Have I mentioned how nice it will be to sell the house and get one already done? The pickin’s are slim though… we’ll see where God takes us.

Here’s to selling, finding, buying, and sleeping - have blessed week!

Solving Firefox flash no sound problem in Ubuntu Hardy!!! ?? Technozilla

http://technozilla.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/solving-firefox-flash-no-sound-pr...

Stuff-onomics: Hidden Side of What You Own | ThinkSimpleNow.com

http://thinksimplenow.com/clarity/stuff-onomics-hidden-side-of-what-you-own/

Here comes a flood of links for “lifehacks” and simplicity type stuff - this will be more for my review at a later date than anything, but feel free to check them out - some really great information!

30 Articles that Will Help You Simplify Your Life | Marc and Angel Hack Life

http://www.marcandangel.com/2008/07/03/30-articles-that-will-help-you-simplif...

I’m always looking for ways to simplify » these articles give alot of good ideas.

July 4th - on a lake

with 400 other boats on the dang lake. Man, now I remember why I don’t ever go to the lake on the “lake holidays” (by that I mean those holidays which are during the summer that most folks celebrate by going to the lake). We got to Lake Brownwood State Park on Wednesday morning, and there weren’t a whole lotta people there - it was nice and relaxing; even went out on the boat for a while and ski’ed and tubed… the next day the amount of boats on the water was probably doubled from the Wed. but you could still play around - by Friday and Saturday there were so many boats and so much traffic it was a constant wave of wake. It was like we were down on the coast again… crazy. To the point it was scary to let the kids get out of the boat because of all the boats going around us; and the fact that people out there have no common courtesy to slowdown or stay at least 50 ft away from your boat.

All in all, we had a really fun time and the kids all enjoyed it. I am glad we went - but I can assure you, I won’t be going again on a holiday - I’ll go during the off days/weekends so it won’t be so bad as far as over crowding. The camping was great and we had some good times there. I look forward to doing it again, soon, but not on a holiday.

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This is on Capt’n Frankie’s boat out in the Gulf Coast Bay area - this was the biggest redfish caught that day - man what a fight - it was truly alot of fun. I highly recommend Capt’n Frankie, if you are headed down to Port Aransas - You really need to set up a trip with him as well - LOADS of fun!