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February 2007 - Posts
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I don't usually pay too much attention to what goes on in the stock market. It's usually one of those things that my father tries to tell me about, and that I tend to turn off my ears to until he's finished talking. There are just too many ifs, ands, buts, and maybes for a very grounded and practical person like me. It doesn't matter how much money I happen to have...as long as it's safe in my own bank account, I feel just fine about it. I don't need to put it in the hands of some seemingly capable stock broker and watch him loose it slowly in the madness that is the stock market. In thinking back about the stock market, the closest exposure I had to it (and actually the greatest interest since it was fake money) was when I was in the seventh grade in talented and gifted class. Our teacher was famous for introducing some pretty neat things into the class, since it was our last year of middle school...and in my particular year, she decided to spend a month with us participating in a virtual stock market game sponsored by one of our local banks. It was a pretty neat idea, but the way that we approached it was pretty haphazard. My teacher approached our 'assignment' as if we already had a pretty decent understanding of the process, and that, if we didn't, we would learn along the way. That's all well and good I suppose, but in a month's time, it really didn't do us much good. The testament to that is me sitting here and telling you that I know very little about the stock market and how it works. Anyways, enough about me and my lack of stock market know-how...what happened to the stock market this week? It's just as if someone pulled a plug and everything started to go downhill. My usual exposure to stock market related things is whatever headlines happens to be featured on either cnn dot com or msnbc dot come, or whatever world news site I happen to be looking through. I recall that a lot of what I've heard over the past long while have been very positive things about records being set and the like. All of the sudden, the stock market has a few bad days and people are literally freaking out. It seems like everyone and their grandmother is pulling out their "i told you so"'s and their "i knew that it wasn't going to last"s. What's the deal with that? I understand that the drop over the week has been the biggest in a long time, and it's one that has been mirrored in other worldwide markets besides the NASDAQ, NYSE, and BlueChips...but still...let's not jump the gun. I guess that it's not a good thing, but a lot worse has happened. I've read headlines expressing sentiments that this vast departure from the successes of the past several months may indicate errors during that time or it may signal a long-coming recession in America. The latter sounds like it's a little drastic for my tastes. One thing I do know about the stock market is that it fluctuates every time Alan Greenspan sneezes, so maybe we need to ride this one out. Sure, I'll bet a lot of you out there are shaking your heads and me and calling me a naive linguist...and maybe you're right. However, I would wager that there are a lot of other Americans out there who feel similarly apathetic about whatever happened this week in the stock market. Very few Americans actually understand what these types of changes in the stock market, let alone the daily up and down fluctuations that we see, really mean for the economy or for America as a whole. Therefore, I don't feel so bad expressing my naivety to all of you about the situation, because I'm imagining that the majority of you are in the same boat as I am. Of course, maybe I'm wrong, and if I am tell me about it. Maybe this could be your opportunity to say a little something to me. I'd love to learn about why I might be wrong or why I should pay better attention to what is going on. I just haven't been motivated to learn, since I don't see how this is directly affecting me.
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I seem to remember that sometime, several
months ago, I had mentioned that looking around for internships in
various fields that might interest you might be a really great
opportunity. Actually, I think that I focused a lot of what I was
talking about on young Christian students looking for internships and
other summertime employment to keep themselves busy and earn a little
bit of spending money. Although I still wholeheartedly advocate
students looking around for such opportunities, whether they are
between grades in high school or they're living up their last summer at
home before heading off to college or university, I had more or less
placed the thoughts of summer work far from my mind. Today, I learned
that the program that I had hoped to be attending over the summer at my
university was no longer going to be offered, and therefore that I
would have to find some summer work somewhere. It's really no big deal
to find somewhere to work for the summer months, but I immediately
thought ahead about the possibilities of being able to work somewhere
that would actually benefit my future, rather than just getting a job
at the mall or at a restaurant just to make ends meet. God must
have been listening in on my thoughts, because the very same day a good
friend of mine mentioned some well-paid summer internship jobs that are
available in our field. She told me about how she had worked with the
particular group that is offering the internships and that they are a
great opportunity to get a lot of work done, get paid, and make some
great connections in the field. Since I just found out about this
today, I haven't really gone ahead and done any digging and research on
my own to find out more about the possibilities for these summer
internships, but the idea alone is very promising to me. It's going to
be a very strange summer for me anyways. I can hardly remember the
last time I had a summer where I wasn't working on something academic
related or going to class. I think that it was after my first two
semesters of college that I actually went home for a summer. I ended
up working at Old Navy, where I had during the time I was in high
school, just to keep myself occupied. After that, the next several
summers were spent taking classes, in order to get out of college with
my two degrees in a decent amount of time. After I graduated, as you
all know, I worked for two years in biology laboratories before heading
back to graduate schol...and here I am. I would really like to do
something worthwhile to occupy my time and also to put something decent
on my curriculum vitae. I've heard of some other opportunities
available through various professors in my department for summer
research, but I imagine that they are pretty competitive positions to
get. I don't think that I'm quite up for teaching a class of my own,
and that takes up the majority of the student positions that the
university offers here. I'm hoping to keep things going and work more
in the lab that I am currently employed in over the summer. It's an
amazing lab with an amazing professor. But anyways, if you
know of any summer internships or employment, particularly the kind
that involve Christian types of things...please feel free to post them
as comments on my Christian finance blog. It will really help to be
able to spread the word to others, since I've learned that over one
hundred people each day ready this blog. Hooray for that! Posting
such things on here is also a great way to network with one another and
the rest of the Christian community!
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I'm almost positive that the vast majority of you out there who are keen enough on your use of the internet to show up here and find my Christian business blog probably use the Google search engine on a pretty regular basis. Most of us tend to just go to Google dot com, type in the keyword that we're seeking, and then hit search and wait for a long list of several pages to come up with the closest matches to our keyword. Many of you probably haven't even noticed that little button that has its home next to the search button called "I'm feeling lucky". Am I right? Well, if you haven't taken the opportunity to use this particular button, you should try it out sometime, although I'm not quite sure the purpose that it serves for most. The function of this little button is to provide you with the number one ranked site for whatever search term, or keyword(s), that you have typed in. I suppose that it's ok if you're looking for something in a pinch, but most of the time, with all the hundreds of thousands of webpages that are out there, you can never really know if the site that just happens to rank number one is going to do you any good anyway. Most of the times that I've attempted to use the "i'm feeling lucky" button, just for fun, I've ended up with some page on wikipedia...which we all know doesn't do us a lot of good when it comes to well-researched or certified factual information. Today, I decided to give the button a chance and typed in my search keyword of "Christian business", and I thought since God was on my side, I would hit "i'm feeling lucky". I wasn't exactly surprised to find that I didn't end up with some kind wikipdia entry, because as you'll remember, there aren't any entries for Christian business on their site. I actually ended up finding the website portal for a group called CBMC, which apparently is a site for Christian businessmen. I decided to check it out. Although I've searched around the site in the about us section and elsewhere, I still have not been able to figure out what their acronym stands for. I would imagine that it's something like "Christian Business Men's something"...but don't quote me of course. Besides not being able to figure out what their name means, I was pretty impressed by the information that was provided in the about me section about what the group is attempting to do. They must be a pretty new internet presence, because I have surely not come across information about them before. A lot of times, such groups pay a lot of money for inbound links from high ranking sites which allows them to boost to the top of the search engines. (That's a little bit of web development info for you) Anyways, I was really impressed with their very noble-sounding mission, which in paraphrase...is to bring the presence of Jesus Christ into the actions and thoughts of businessmen. They also mention something about carrying out the Great Commission...but that's something else that I'm not quite sure about. I'm all about have strong goals, but if you're going to mention them on your website for the whole world to see...one might have better luck explaining them. That's just my opinion though...not that I'm trained in web development or anything....oh wait, yes I am. Anyways, now that's I've read through a little bit more of the website while writing this post, I've learned that the CBMC has actually been around for a long time (though, like I said, their web presence may be a recent thing). They established their group in Chicago (maybe that's the final 'C' in the acronym) back in the 1930s. From their meager beginnings in Chicago, CBMC has spread their ideas and teachings (I don't know if that's the correct thing to say) all over the world to at least sixty other nations (as listed on their site). I think that it would be worthwhile for all of you out there who have interest in Christian business to at least search for their website and check them out. They seem to have an interesting though difficult to describe message and outlook. As I mention, the language that they use to talk about their goals is very vivid and quite inspiring, which leads me to believe that they have taken a great about of time to develop their ideology and plans for their establishment. Check out what they have to say, and give me a yell back to let me know what you think.
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Sometimes when you devote yourself to an evening of charitable work, you can get some great benefits in return besides the great feeling that you get knowing that you just gave of your time for a special cause. You may be wondering what I'm talking about, and I'm here to fill you in. Most people around the country know that the month of February is actually Black History Month. That means that throughout the month, many Americans, African Americans in particular, celebrate the successes of the civil rights movement. Celebrations throughout this month range from parties, to museum exhibits, to lectures, to parades. On my particular campus, which happens to boast one of the largest Black Culture Centers in the nation, we're celebrating the great accomplishments of civil rights and other Africans by a day long Africana festival. Being an Africanist myself, and a member of several groups on campus connected to the African Studies department, I've volunteered to work at the festival along with a group of my university colleagues. When I heard about the Africana festival, I jumped at the opportunity to work at it, not only because it's a great opportunity to help celebrate Black History Month, but also because it's a perfect chance to gain some exposure for our African Languages Club. One of the main goals for our group is to send members out to local schools, from elementary through high school, to raise awareness about Africa and the languages that are spoken there. Many of the Who's Who of the city will be attending the festival, so you can see where we're going with that. In addition to all this great exposure that we're going to get and all the great connections that we can potentially make, the generous festival organizers have provided us with free tickets to enjoy the many authentic African dishes that will be served for the sit down dinner during the evening. There will also be awards, presentations, a lecture, and lots of great entertainment. Just by offering to stand by our booth and promote the learning of African languages, we get an opportunity to have free exposure to all these extras, as well as partake in a delicious meal. It doesn't get much better than that! If you're having a difficult time coming to terms with the fact that, when you volunteer, you really have to budget your time and other activities so that you can devote yourself to the charity or group that you're going to help, then finding a way to donate your time like the way that I just mentioned might be the best idea for you. These are the best types of events for people who are new to charity work or making the transition into more time-consuming or difficult work. I had mentioned previously that a lot of cities (and even some smaller towns) have websites that advertise the various festivals and activities that happen within the city limits from month to month. There is usually a particular group that is chairing the organization and implementation of the event, and they often end up looking for volunteers to help out with any number of things pertaining to the happenings of the day. A lot of times, these types of festivals offer little extras to the volunteers like the things I mentioned above. Often, they offer dinner, entertainment, or even complementary tickets for others in your family or your friends to come and enjoy the event (and visit you while you're volunteering). I urge you to search for your local chamber of commerce or parks and recreation website and see what you can find. It can be a great activity for church groups, school groups, or even a group of your closest friends.
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Sometimes the commercials that you see on television really get you thinking. It's not that I get a lot of time to sit down and watch tv, but when I do, it's hard to miss all the crazy commercials, especially the ones with the catchy phrases and jingles that marketing experts design to stick in people's heads. Some of the most interesting commercials lately have been those that focus on either insurance or the internet. In today's post, I'm going to focus on those commercials that talk about the internet that advertise how the prices continue to fall while the opportunities that you have with your service continue to increase.
I remember way back when, when average middle-class people just started having internet access on a regular basis. Sure, it wasn't all that long ago when everyone had America Online and Prodigy, and we used the good ole dialup modem to connect to the world wide web. When you consider how far the technology has come and how widespread internet use has become, it seems like it's been decades. Things have progressed from single phone lines, to having a second phone line for the modem, to DSL, to cable internet, to wireless canopies starting to blanket many large cities around the country.
With the advent of all these new technologies and the continuing decrease in prices for better and better service, it's not difficult to see how a growing number of households in America (and probably around the world) have constant LAN, cable, or DSL internet connections so that having access to the web is as easy as clicking a button. Gone are the days when you had to sit down, and hope that the modem was going to connect you through those one or two access numbers that internet service providers used to offer their customers. With static IP addresses, such waits are no longer necessary. My guess is that all these commercials that offer such low monthly prices for internet service have the old school providers like America Online seeing red. Most of the people who I recall used to have America Online no longer have to use the service but have still been able to keep their email addresses and screen names due to the widespread use of instant messaging programs. AOL executives would have been fools to have forbidden former customers from keeping these things. Many cities now even have internet providers who work along with electricity, phone, and cable companies to provide internet service as a part of a monthly media package. This is the case back home, as most people in my family and in my hometown are all members of a city network. Even apartment complexes (including my own) have started to include cable internet (both wireless and LAN) as part of the monthly rent. Even some people who aren't fortunate enough to have internet access of their own can jump on their laptops and feed wireless internet (though illegally) from other wireless canopies surrounding their home or apartment.
The presence of all these opportunities to have instant access to the internet has perpetuated the habit and mindset that many individuals (myself included as you could tell from my last post) have regarding internet use. The truth is that, whether it's good or bad, the presence of easily accessible internet is only going to grow. Restaurants and cafes continue to attract students and others by offering free wireless internet to patrons so that you can sit, surf the net, do homework, all while enjoying your lunch of coffee. I personally find the system to be a great idea, but then again, I do have the internet habit that I've been talking about. I'm sure that others feel differently, and it's likely that a lot of you fall into that category. Let me know about your personal experiences with the internet revolution and how you feel about the internet being readily available (at least in wirelss form) all over the place these days. I'd love to hear what you think!
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I'm so used to being semi-attached to a computer at most point during the day, every day, that today when a storm moving through the area caused my electricity to go out for about ninety minutes, I nearly went crazy. Due to the fact that it was also very cold and dark outside on account of the storm, all I could really do was to sit on my couch curled up with a blanket and attempt to read some material for my classes by candlelight. Reading by candlelight is no picnic either. I think I spent more time squinting and leaning towards the candle than I actually did reading. By the time that the power had been out for about sixty minutes, I really started to get irritated. I was trying to think about times in the past when I had been without power, but the best things that I could come up with was when hurricanes passed through the Florida panhandle...but then it was still nice and warm (if not too warm) and it stayed light out longer. I kept thinking to myself that I could just turn on the television and check the weather channel or go to my room and pull up weather.com to see when the storm was going to pass. Of course, I quickly stopped those trains of thought since...hello...the power was out. It freaked me out a little bit considering that I apparently had so little control over the force of habit to consult some kind of electronic resource to find out what I needed. I decided to walk to the front of my apartment building and check out how things looked out towards our campus...but it was so rainy and slushy out that I really couldn't figure anything out, besides that I wanted it to be warmer and not storming. I then remembered some game books that a friend of mine had brought to me when I was in the hospital in January getting my appendix out. I resigned myself to trying to do a couple of the logic problems and word games in the book but again became quickly frustrated at the fact that my little candle was just not doing the trick. Then it happened...the lights flickered and came back on. I had been in the middle of trying to get myself ready to cook dinner, so I quickly ran back to the kitchen to pick up where I had left off. No sooner had I put the olive oil in the sauté pan did the power go out again. Ever so slightly frustrated and worried that my dinner was going to be ruined, I plopped myself back on the couch and did another puzzle...all the while praying that the electricity would come on again. When the power did actually come back on after that ninety minutes, I waited for a few minutes on the couch and just stayed at the clock on my DVD player. I didn't want to get myself up from under my warm blanket and head to the kitchen if the electricity was still in the process of playing tricks on me. After a few moments though, I realized that it was apparently back on for good, and so I got my dinner going. The whole thing bothered me mainly because of that dependance I felt on the electricity and electrical things in general. As creatures of habit, it appears that we just have this automatic process that repeats itself. "well, i'm bored...i'll check my email"..."oh right, no power"....sit down for a few minutes...."well, i'm bored...i'll see what's on tv"..."oh right, no power"...it's a crazy cycle.
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I've just had the startling realization that I am now officially an adult. What gave me the clue, you ask? Well, I got the renewal information for my car insurance in the mail today, and I was shocked to find that my six month premium was going to be increasing by twenty-seven dollars. Sure, that doesn't seem like all that much, but the fact that I stopped, thought about it, and became noticeably irritated at the fact that my insurance was going up even though I have a perfect driving record, etc., makes me feel very grown up. I suppose that in the past I didn't really think much about things like insurance that are just necessities. That ceased to be the case when I started paying for all of my insurance myself when I graduated from college. I then realized that it was all in my hands and that I could search around and find an insurance plan that was a better price and that worked for me, rather than what my parents had thought was a good idea that I have. When I moved from Florida to Indiana, I was amazed at the difference in auto insurance rates between the two places. Someone along the way explained to me that the expensive nature of Florida automobile insurance had to do with the huge demographic gap in age in the state. The state of Florida is quite unusual in that the two largest populations are below the age of thirty and over fifty-five. This apparently has some detrimental effect on auto insurance that I never really bothered to find out about. Anyways, when I moved and switched over my insuracne, I ended up saving a whole heap of money (and no, I did not switch to Geico). So, I've been pretty happy with the fact that I saved all that money, but now, six months later, as I'm renewing for the next six months, I find out that my rate is going to go up. Talk about bothersome. Of course, the insurance company writes a little note in the renewal paperwork saying that it's not my fault, that I did nothing wrong, but it's just how it goes sometimes...basically, the rates fluctuate. Well, I guess this time they just didn't fluctuate in a happy direction. Having the instinct to think like an adult about these types of things kinda scares me. I mean, of course I want to act like an adult, be treated like an adult, and have adult opportunities, but still it's scary. It's one of my first doses of the fact that I really am growing up. I guess that dealing with insurance is a good way to get your feet wet, since it's something that we don't always have to use but that we need to have. I've also found myself monitoring little month to month changes in the electricity bill and cursing those people who send me text messages on my cell phone as it racks up all those little ten cent charges at the end of the month. Please tell me that I'm not turning into my father...the penny counter. OK, I know I'm not turning into him, but still it's both scary and exciting that I am concerned about all these financial things. I mean, after all, I do write about finances, and I have worked in business finance for quite some time, so it's only natural that I'm catching up on my own stuff. I suppose that it's just the fact that money-related things have always just come easy to me, stemming from the fact that I'm very good with numbers and calculations. What about "all ya'll" out there? When was it that you discovered that you were becoming an adult? I'm sure that all of you have had some kind of situation back in the day where you went to do something financial related and you realized that you were thinking like a real grownup. Looking back on it, it's actually pretty amusing...especially since as the thought was crossing my mind, I stopped myself in my tracks and had an interesting little internal conversation with myself. Gosh, we humans do some funny stuff don't we? OK, come on, I want to hear these stories. I haven't gotten too many comments lately, so I don't know if all you Christian finance blog readers out there have just got the winter blues, but give me a yell and let me know what's new and exciting in your financial lives.
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Today is the perfect day to talk about entrepreneurial vision after just having come from one of the neatest places I've ever been. I was minding my own business having dinner with a friend at a local semi-organic-ish sandwich and wrap place. Afterwards, we decided to take a peek at what other shops were in the little plaza where the sandwich shop is located. Well, am I ever glad that I did, because I came across the coolest little bakery. I really didn't know what it was all about before I stepped in the door and asked, and I only really knew that it was a bakery from the delicious smell of cookies wafting outdoors. I was still pretty confused when I got inside, but I was greeted by some very friendly people from behind the counter who walked me through the basics. As it turns out, this bakery that I had walked into was a build your own cookie type of place. If that sounds a little bit strange to you, think about an ice cream parlor type theme...but with cookies. They literally have instructions up on the wall...you choose your dough, your mix-ins, and your toppings. Choose three cookies, six cookies, or a bakers dozen and just sit and wait. Twelve to fourteen minutes later, you've got hot, fresh, delicious cookies made just how you want them. As if that isn't enough, the bakery offers pints of various types of milk for you to take along with you. Now, maybe you're not so excited about my finding, and that's just fine. Why am I so excited, you ask? Well, I'm not such a big fan of snack-y foods. I don't like chips, ice cream, cake, or anything like that. My one weakness however is cookies. I could eat cookies any day of the week and never get sick of them. I am so very thankful that someone realized that there are people like me out in the world (especially the part of the world I live in) and decided to build a cool little bakery and make some money off of it. I was so excited about this guy's idea and his entrepreneurial spirit that I called my aunt, who is a pastry chef, and told her all about it. I was really very impressed mainly because it was such a great idea, but also because this shop appears to be making quite a good bit of money with this speciality business. The walls of the shop were lined with letters of commendation and thank yous from charity organizations all along our area beaming and boasting about how great these cookies and this business are. On the way home, with a box of fresh cookies filling my car with chocolately baked goodness smell, I started thinking about entrepreneurs. Sure, they don't have to be interested in a food business, but it really is a smart idea. Everyone loves food...heck, everyone has to eat, right? This particular shop reminded me of one of my favorite places in the entire world to eat. Down near SOHO in New York City is one of the neatest placest (and one of the best ideas) that I've ever seen. Going along the same lines as my little bakery here in town is a place called Rice to Riches. Along, it's a la ice cream parlor, but this time it's rice pudding! Oh my gosh, I love rice pudding too...now you're going to stop believing me that I don't do snacks...but seriously, cookies and rice pudding are amazing. Everytime I visit Manhattan, I head down to Rice to Riches for a tasty treat. My friends even learned how much I loved the place, and for my birthday one year, they ordered some rice pudding from there for me and had it shipped down to Florida when I still lived down there. It was an amazing treat and a great idea! Such little food speciality places seem to pop up all around the country when entrepreneurs develop a particular product that appeals to the people in their area. If you've seen the new show on the Food TV Network, Road Tasted, with Bobby and Jamie Dean, you know what I'm talking about. These two guys (Paula Dean's sons) travel around the country and visit these food entrepreneurs. They learn about their business, how they make their specialized product, and then they tell you how you can order it. It's a food lover's dream come true!
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I've talked to you all quite a bit about all the recent activities that I've been involved in regarding school. I remember mentioning the fact that I am now an officer of three different groups on my campus, and as a result of this, I am a busy bee all the time. With one of my clubs, the one in which I actually have the most involvement already, it appears that several of my colleagues who thought that they were going to have the time to devote to the club moreso than at our monthly meetings, no longer have the will or the energy to show up on a regular basis. This has resulted in my plate becoming a lot fuller, as I have ended up helping the president of the club dealing with all the day to day things that need to get accomplished. My newest chore involves being the de facto treasurer for the group. Of course, I'm not technically supposed to be the treasurer, but when there is money coming in the door for membership and publications, it has just ended up sitting around with no one to take care of it but me. In the grand scheme of things, it's not all that much money that comes in on any given day, usually less than one hundred dollars, but that's not the point. Being a small student-run club, any money coming in the door is important money. It's not like that money can just sit around for weeks or even months on end without it getting deposited into our bank account. Today I decided, after looking at the envelope of money sitting on my desk at our office for the last month...brimming with cash and checks, I figured that it was high time that someone take care of it. As I looked around at the empty office, I had the all-too-familiar realization that that "someone" was going to be me. No big deal, right?...just one more thing to worry about. So, I packaged the envelope off and set off to take care of things at the bank. End of story...but is it... As I was on my way to the bank, I began thinking to myself about financial responsibility. I wondered why it always ends up being up to me (and the president of the club in this particular situation) who has to take care of all these extras...especially things like money that are (hello!) very important. I also began to wonder why it is that intelligent people always end up biting off more than they can chew. I supposed it's to build good face and a good reputation, but seriously, they just end up fooling themselves and making the task more difficult for those of us who won't let things fall unattended to. I shook my head and heaved a sign and knew that it was no use getting myself upset about the situation, because it wasn't going to do anyone any good in the long run. After all, it's just going to look all the better for me in the long run when the higher-ups ask who has been taking care of jobs x, y, and z. When the people who were supposed to be helping out by doing said jobs aren't able to raise their hands and truthfully say that they have been taking care of their lot and I have been, AND I'm still managing to keep everything else together, life will likely look pretty sweet for me. Huzzah to that! So anyways, I made it to the bank, did the deposit, and turned myself back around to head back to the office to take care of MY things. I still got everything done and was even early for class. It was pretty amazing, I have to say. I hope that I can keep this all up and take care of all these things without falling behind myself. Knowing me and the fact that I NEED to be busy, I don't think that it's going to be difficult of a problem to keep it going.
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I remember back in the day (and I guess that it wasn't all that long ago) that I said to myself that I would never buy a DVD player. "So stupid", I thought. I had no idea why people were going so crazy over DVD players, ordering new DVDs, etc. when you could do just as well with a regular old VCR. Here I am several years later, and I think that I have seven DVD players in my apartment, between the ones that get hooked up to the television, the portable one, the computers, and my laptop. So much for not ever getting one! I mention this example, because a lot of times people tend to adopt a mindset when someone new comes along that there is no reason to switch since the old 'whatever' does the job just fine. If you're anything like me and you've done this, you've probably kicked yourself afterwards. Come to think of it, my father had the same feeling about the America Online and the internet in general. He vowed that we didn't need a computer and that if we wanted to talk to people we should just call them on the phone. At this point, he never gets up from his computer for more than a few minutes at a time. Anyways, I've continued this trend though to a lesser extent with certain technology things. I remember being so impressed with zip drives came out that when people stopped using them and started burning data cd-roms more often, I just thought it was ridiculous. Burning a cd-rom back in that day (again not too long ago) took a long time if you wanted it done accurately, and those discs were so so so expensive. Nowadays, rather than burning cd-roms, people are using their dvd burners to do the job. So, I'll bet that you're wondering where the "worthwhile investment" part of this post comes into play, right? Well, rest assured, I'm getting there. Along the lines of talking about technology, the wonder invention of the flash drive came along. Flash drives are relatively new on the scene, but they have caught on a lot, especially on university and college campuses lately. I remember thinking to myself that it would be ridiculous to carry about this little mini-harddrive in my pocket, in my bag, or even on my keychain. What could I possibly need it for? The more than I got back into school after the two years I took off after I finished my two bachelors degrees, I learned that the flash drive craze had really kicked into full gear. I didn't realize how convenient they really were until I finally got one for myself. My best friend, who happens to be a computer programmer, had an extra flash drive laying around, and he told me that I could take it. Once I realized how convenient it was to be able to put any file, small program, font, etc. on the flash drive, I knew that I was hooked. The thing is though, flash drives are expensive, especially if you need a relatively large one that you can use for backing up your important files and other documents. Take my word for it that it is a very very worthwhile investment! I ended up putting the 64 megabyte flash drive that my friend had given to me to rest and shelling out a little bit of money to buy a bigger size. I know use that flash drive just about every day for any number of data-related needs. The drive comes in especially handy on the days that I don't want to lug my laptop around on campus all day. I simply need to put what I need on the drive for the day and bring it with me. It can plug into any campus computer for word processing needs, printing, and whathaveyou. Seriously do yourself a favor and go get one. I'm thinking about getting a second one that I can put on my keychain...that way I don't have to worry about losing it. The one that I have now just sits in my bag, and I'm always worried that it's going to disappear. With the amount of things that I've put on it and the way that I've grown to rely on it at this point, losing it would be a tragedy!
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I may be only twenty-six years old, but I still remember that one of the happiest days of my life was the day that my dad and I went to the car dealership to buy my first new car. It wasn't so much that my dad was going to help me with the down payment that made it exciting, but it was the fact that it was going to be my own brand new car with hardly any miles and no problems whatsoever. I got my first decent car when I started my sophomore year in Florida and it lasted me a long time, but because it was a used car to begin with, it ended up having some problems after a few years. Rather than spending a whole ton of money on fixing it up, my dad suggested that he should come down and help me look into purchasing a new or newer car, since I would be graduating and would have a job to take care of the insurance and payments on my own. I thought that it was a fabulous idea, and I eagerly awaited the day that my dad would arrive. At that point in my life, which was really only just over three years ago, I was pretty dumb when it came to finances. I was just getting ready to graduate from college, and I had never really had to worry about any big financial decisions and had relied on scholarships and my student loans to get me through each year. My dad picked me up from work and within two hours, I was signing my name on the dotted line for my new car. I instantly felt like a grownup, and I was definitely nervous and scared. A new car was my new responsibility...the payments, the upkeep, the oil changes...everything. At that point, I didn't care...I was ecstatic at the fact that I finally had a car that I could rely on. The best part about the whole situation happened to be the great deal that we received from the car dealership because of the day of the month on which we were purchasing the car. The day we went out searching for my car happened to be the last day of the month and the last day of the fiscal quarter, so the car salesmen were trying there best to get those last few sales in for the period. That surely worked in my favor, because I saved about three thousand dollars on the total price of my car and I got some freebies thrown in. Take my advice, if you are in the market for a new car, do yourself a favor and wait until these financial periods are coming to a close. It can really save you a lot of money, and I can almost guarantee that the salesmen will be extra helpful and extra nice owing to the fact that they are really looking to make the sale. I was really glad that I was able to purchase my car directly from a dealership, rather than dealing with a used car sales place, because I like have the peace of mind that I can always bring the car back to the dealership for any problems that might come up. It may cost a little bit extra from time to time to have the dealership work on the car, but in the long run, the dealership isn't there to rip you off...like some garages and maintenance chains typically do. Most importantly, you know that the work is guaranteed and backed by an upstanding company. There is never any mystery behind the business that you conduct at such places. The few extra dollars that you end up spending will come back ten fold in the confidence that you have about the service. I'm sure that I'm not the only person out there who has had a great experience purchasing their first car. Sure, there are probably some of you out there who are shaking your head and cursing the day that you bought your first car, but things can't always be perfect. I've definitely had my fair share of automotive mishaps with my old car, many of which contributed to my extensive nervousness when it came down to getting my first 'new' car. I'd love to hear some of your stories, so feel free to drop me a comment on this post (or any other for that matter) or you can email me at chris@biblekeeper.com if you'd like!
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A lot of the time when I write my "spotlight on" posts, I focus on charities that are often participating in a lot of the same types of activities. Most Christian charities out there are fighting hunger, building churches, raising disease awareness, and doing a host of other things that generally fall under the category of charitable work. I've had the opportunity on a few occasions to come across a some Christian charities that really stand out from the crowd. Such is the case today, as I've found the website for Pura Vida Coffee, a Christian-based group that is helping the fight against poverty by empowering rural coffee growers in central america with the knowledge about how to produce better crops. They also have a face in countries like our own where they teach businesses and other commercial entities about the benefits of buying products such as coffee from Fair-Trade producers. Fairtrade is an idea and a practice that is becoming more and more popular these days, as efforts are being taken to combat business practices that can potentially harm small-time produces of goods. Some people consider Fairtrade to being a growing social movement that hopes to instruct business owners in developed countries on the proper way to get quality products by going through merchants and artisans in lesser-developed countries. The key to the whole ideology is equity in international trading, plain and simple. The Fairtrade idea seems to be catching on, and the cases that I've heard about in particular have to do with businesses that import coffee and tea from various places around the world. An important insertion of the fairtrade ideals that has become apparent to many American businesses is the exercise of fairtrade practices through the number one coffee seller in America, Starbucks. Starbucks has teamed up with a fairtrade-promoting group called TransFair to promote the interaction and partnership of business in the United States directly with coffee growers in developing countries. TransFair, of course, works with fairtrade business outside of the coffee world, but its partnership with Starbucks is one of great weight and importance, due to the presence of Starbucks in the everyday life of many Americans. As you can see, with large corporations, like Starbucks, jumping on the fairtrade boat, it i | |
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