green pasta
I tend to eat a pasta, and it feels like I always waste a lot of time waiting for the water to boil and for the pasta to cook. Needless to say, Harold McGee’s newest article (from his blog indexed NY Times column Curious Cook), was particularly of interest.
Also, who knew that muddy water leftover from cooking pasta was supposed to taste GOOD?
(via ReNest)
i almost want it
Only two things would complete it.
- Tablet-like annotation (in RED).
- A slide-out keyboard.
i am poor,
but I’d rather not be. I can’t even blame the recession because I didn’t have anything in stocks. I can blame (other than my stipend-based income) my ignorance when it came to budgeting and managing my money. So with the market at (hopefully) its bottom, over the past few weeks I’ve taken the following steps to educated myself properly and prepare myself for the new year.
- Read a lot: I wanted to know exactly what my options were and why any particular action made sense. Also, I wanted to prevent any banker/broker from manhandling me and convincing me to sign a contract that wasn’t to my benefit.
- Open a high-interest online savings account: The interest from the ’savings’ account I’d had from my WaMu Statement Savings all these years is minuscule. For an online bank I chose FNBODirect over others mainly for the balance between its current soundness and high interest (3.25% APY at time of post) as well as the really simple interface. GMAC had a higher interest rate, but I’m just a little wary of a bank tied so closely to GM.
- Open an online checking account: I went with Charles Schwab on this one again for the interest rate (1.25% APY) as well as their ATM fee refund policy. They also seem to have very good reviews with regard to customer service EXCEPT when you ask their brokers for investment advice. Since I’m probably too untrusting (and cheap) to pay for their advice, this works great for me.
- Open investment accounts: As a bonus, the Charles Schwab account came linked to a brokerage account (you don’t have to use it), into which I’ve started to move the assets in the 529 plan my parents started for my college tuition. Fortunately we never had to delve too deep into those, but unfortunately they took a hit along with everything else recently. I also opened up an account with TradeKing, an online discount brokerage, to play around with a bit. The low commissions ($4.95) let me add to my portfolio a couple of stocks I’m particularly enamored with, but given my inexperience, I don’t see myself putting too much of my savings directly into stock.
- Start putting money towards retirement: I’d been procrastinating on this over a year, and thank heavens I did! Whereas everyone seems to have had their retirement funds sliced in half, mine is being started at what I would hope is a low in the market. I set up a Roth IRA account and put the maximum amount into one of Vanguard’s Target Retirement Funds. For my projected retirement date, the fund is heavily loaded in equities and, like most things Vanguard, is matched to market indices, which is great for me because it seems the market is value priced across sectors, and I’d really rather not micromanage here. Over time the composition of the fund will tip from equities to less volatile fixed-income assets.
- Increase awareness of spending: I spend way too much. I’ve always known this, but unless I see the amount relative to how much I make, it’s way too easy to just make another purchase and claim, “no big deal!”. Seeing my spending trends on Mint.com changed my mind. I’m sure my holiday gift shopping exaggerated it a little but when I saw that in three out of the last four months I was operating in the red, and in a single month my expenses were 1/3 “shopping”, well… that’s an eye-opener alright.
Seriously though, this little website is great. It can track a number of bank, investment and credit card accounts and lets you break down your income and expenses month-to-month or by single transactions. All of this data is wrapped in a cute and really simple graphical interface complete with trend graphs and expandable pie charts, and all the classifications are fully customizable. Just today they’ve launched a new iPhone app that let’s you check your spending relative to a budget you’ve defined on the fly (too bad I don’t have an iPhone). - Cut excess costs and remove temptation: I really don’t watch TV much. So why then am I spending $50 per month on cable (besides the fact that Comcast keeps cranking up the price)? I also don’t use a bunch of the electronic appliances that stay plugged into and leech electricity from the wall. And (I think) I cook way better (definitely healthier) food than anything I can buy on campus. Based on my new minty friend, after addressing just these three issues between utilities and food I saved $200 in December relative to November.
Similarly, I don’t need a lot of the stuff I buy. I buy them because after seeing an ad or catalog, I really really WANT to buy them. So it’s better just not to see them right? With that logic, I went on a rampage, taking myself off of every store-related mailing list I could find and unsubscribing from a bunch of consumer-ish type blogs (sorry Uncrate and Engadget!). Sometimes being blind has its benefits. - Check my credit: I’ve never been one to over-abuse usage of credit cards and I like to think I stay on top of paying everything down. Still, when you consider how common identity theft and poor credit reporting practices are these days… well, for a single free annual credit report you can head over to www.annualcreditreport.com, which I recommend everyone do at least once a year.
I am, however, paranoid and wanted to be able to check in more regularly. Therefore, for the last year I’ve been using the MyFICO quarterly monitoring program that for me struck a nice balance between price (~$50/year) and regularity of checks.
So here comes New Year’s Resolution #1: Spend less, save more, beat the recession.
Where will all this get me in 2009? Hopefully with all the money I save I can get me a nice new motorcycle! =)
Some great online references
the redcoats are coming!
or should it be peacoats? or red pea coats? The British Gap, Topman, despite delaying their NYC opening has finally made the jump to online retail stateside.
Now if only the Swedish and Japanese Gaps would do the same…
PS – I was in a hurricane. It was scary. I’m using it as an excuse for not posting.
kanye overexposed?
These days, its hard to tell whether Kanye has more collaborations happening musically or sartorially. Complex is wondering whether some of those rumoured will ever see daylight.
But considering the fashion world seems much more fickle than the entertainment business, doesn’t anyone else think Kanye’s running the risk of being overexposed?
back to the future! seven years early!
Seeing this:
and this:
recently showing up for sale has me drooling at the prospect of being able to get one of these:
Complete with ecofriendly Mr. Fusion powered engine of course.
go! -buntu
About two years ago I started my first foray into Linux operating systems. Ubuntu at the time had a lot of buzz going, so I grabbed an old laptop, slid in the boot disk, and was amazed at the simplicity of installation (my only prior experience was watching a friend’s failed attempt at a Gentoo server). I haven’t looked back since.
A little bit down the road, I can’t help feeling I made the right choice. After being severely disappointed by repeatedly delayed and non-capable “Vista-capable” systems, and frustrated by Apple’s apparent decline in hardware quality, I smiled today looking at this bit from Engadget on Dell putting out a few more systems preloaded with Ubuntu. This along with the price breaks / hardware upgrades you get by opting for linux (e.g. a 66% percent more solid state hard drive capacity on the Asus EEE 900) and Canonical LTD’s big push into developing mobile/netbook optimized systems, really has me believing that the current model of operating system development — doing so by monopoly — can’t last much longer.
inception
HELLO WORLD!
What better way to start off a blog than with a little interwebs history?
July’s issue of Vanity Fair has an “oral history” documenting the creation and milestones behind the internet through quotes from some of the most influential individuals involved. Comments range from Vint Cerf (co-designer of TCP/IP and Google’s current “Chief Internet Evangelist”) to Cindy Margolis (Guinness record book title holder of “most downloaded woman”).
The biggest photo spread? Nope not Al Gore, but three researchers you’ve probably never heard of. The corporate/government/academic trio of Paul Baran, Larry Robert, and Leonard Kleinrock who, in a classic example of how research used to work, completely revamped the concept of how a network could and should function.
The best little sound byte comes from Jeff Bezos on [his/Amazon's] investment in a pre-bubble pets.com:
“I think the only thing I ended up with out of that investment is a sock puppet. An expensive sock puppet.”
Ah.. sock puppets… Check the piece out here.
