Friday, May 15, 2009

Links ----

Here’s a great website that I’ve discovered recently: www.mint.com. You can connect all of your various checking and savings accounts, including investments like any 401(k)s and IRAs, as well as credit cards into one spot. After doing the initial steps, once you log in, you can see immediately how much cash you have available, how much you’ve overspent for the month, whether you’ve gone over your pre-determined budget, etc. It’s unbelievably fantastic! It will also send you emails when you have unnecessary charges like ATM fees and they give you a bit of a slap on the wrist when you incur such charges. It’s like having a friendly little accountant following you around.

In other news, I’m going to be volunteering at this store very soon: www.tenthousandvillages.com. They have incredibly high-quality products and focus on trade that is fair and sustainable. I gave some gifts this past weekend from there and they were a big hit. Since they are a non-profit, all stores are worked by volunteers and I am hoping to spend one or two Saturday afternoons there. If you haven’t been to a store in person, they’re really lively and fun. Usually there are coffee and chocolate samples and music from around the world playing. I’m excited to help out and do my part!

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Long Live the RSS Happiness

One of the mysteries of life. How did I not know about the glory of RSS feeds until about 2 months ago?!

When my poor Mac (RIP) died in October, I lost all of my favorites. And I had a lot. Remember that I spent 1 year in Japan exploring the internet A – Zed. Even though I don’t cook or bake, I followed the tireless efforts of bloggers who do. I followed celeb trash news. I had shopping sites. I was obsessed with my favorites.

As work has slowed down thanks to the season, I have managed to start the spiderwebbing back to my old haunts (and new favorites). And I have discovered RSS Feeds and how amazing it is to see a lovely large list in my Microsoft Outlook inbox. I get excited when my favorite bloggers post a new entry that I know about IMMEDIATELY. No random visits any more. I know you can do this through gmail too, but I find the Outlook to be the most efficient way for me. It’s one of the little things that I find so thrilling in life.

Yesterday, none of my websites showed any new postings. I was distraught. I even added a new site and read those articles. Then today, still no entries. It was perplexing, but when I added yet another site, BAM! Backlog of entries to amuse me all afternoon. (*Dance time*)