Archive for September, 2012

Blog Feature: I Still Want More Puppies


29 Sep

If you can’t guess what I still Want More Puppies is about then you might have reading comprehension problems. I love her humor, her terrible, usually very geeky, pet names, the multiple links, and, of course, the pictures of her puppies. But this week, it was a guest post that really caught my attention. Keep Calm and Carry a Blanket was written in honor of Senior Pet Health month, and it is a loving tribute to the author’s senior dog.

I only hope we are giving Howie the same kind of love and care that she is giving her Cleo.

Your Money Friday: Money Lessons from Pets


28 Sep

To go along with yesterday’s post about craziness at work, that also means that I have not had time to really read or take part in any threads over on the Your Money message boards this week. Still, I want to maintain the Your Money Friday focus, so I am instead highlighting this article from Liz Weston about Money Lessons from our Pets.

It’s about the simple stuff- discipline, the ability to do nothing, how powerful compounding is (with bunnies and money) and more.

Our pets can teach us a lot, as long as we have the patience to learn.

Living in the Land of Spreadsheets


27 Sep

In case you haven’t guessed by the fact that yesterday and today’s posts have come at night, it’s been a crazy couple of days at work. I left work Tuesday night thinking our department was under budget and arrived Wednesday morning to an email from our VP asking us to cut over $XXXk. As the person with access to all the different budgets in our department, I’ve spent the last two days putting budget documents together and meeting with the members of the management team, in order to help them come up with a plan to meet the budget gap.

The Voice (s3)


26 Sep

For those wondering, yes I am watching The Voice again this season. I am not blogging the blind audition rounds because I don’t find them terribly interesting, and so far, no one has chosen a contestant that really annoys me (unlike last season).

I know the producers want us to wonder whether or not people are getting chosen, but I do get annoyed by watching people for whom no chairs turn around when they are skipping half of the people who are chosen.

My other annoyance is that women who are iffy are getting chosen over men who are good.

Movie Review: The Warrior’s Way


25 Sep

What I liked most about The Warrior’s Way was the fight choreography- especially in the beginning. It felt very true to the many martial arts movies I have seen that weren’t made by Americans. It was shot beautifully, and certainly paid tribute to many films that have gone before it.

From there, we entered the American West. It wasn’t exactly an honest picture of the time period, but this movie wasn’t meant to be a historically accurate depiction of anything.

The ending was emotionally satisfactory, even if the postscript scenes made little sense, even within the context of the movie.

Movie Review: The New Muppet Movie


24 Sep

I know I am probably one of the last people on earth to have seen this movie. And it is extra sad because the roomie owns it on blu-ray, but I do not care. I LOVED the new Muppet Movie. I mean, I was pretty sure I was going to just because it was a muupet movie (I grew up on them), but this was overall really well done and had some absolutely fabulous little moments. Even small roles and cameos were cast perfectly, with great little one liners here and there. It is a treasure trove of a movie.

Blog Feature: @AffordAnything


22 Sep

Paula of Afford Anything gave one of my favorite talks at FinCon12, earning her her spot as this week’s Blog Feature.

Since C really wants us to own rental property someday, I find this post on how the costs of renovating one of her rental units spun out of control really valuable. And also how even a fairly experienced landlord can have a hard time figuring out what to price a unit at.

The place looks great and she has a tenant, which in my mind is a win-win scenario, especially if she can increase the rent in one year.

Your Money Friday: Help an Inventor Out


21 Sep

Everyone knows how much I love the new crowdfunding craze. In fact, I can’t wait until we actually get to really invest in some of these products and ideas instead of just donating for prizes. Because of that fascination, this week’s Your Money thread gives us a different look at the crowdfunding game, that of the inventor (vs the investor). The poster has an invention up on the indiegogo site and is trying to get funding, but so far, no one’s really bitten. By asking the message board their opinions, he is actually crowdsourcing his crowdfunding pitch. I love it.

Mrs. Jesus?


20 Sep

As a follow up to yesterday’s post about a possible wife of Christ, the publicity blitz has unsurprisingly brought a large number of people out against it. Some say it’s a fake or forgery (I’m not certain how many of them have actually seen the fragment or just pictures). Others want to avoid the authenticity question by saying that without a detailed record of where it came from, academics should ignore it, regardless of how interesting a “find” it may be. And the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities simply concludes it can’t be real, as they’ve never heard of it before.

Mrs. Jesus


19 Sep

I find this piece if papyrus in which Jesus begins a statement “My wife…” fascinating. And while I believe this might be the closest to original source material we have, I don’t believe this is the first reference to Jesus having a wife in the historical literature. Why? Because Dan Brown wrote a best seller about it.

Dan Brown didn’t create the theory. He used the research in the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail. But those authors didn’t create the theory, either. They just researched it more fully than anyone previously.

Not a new theory, just a new puzzle piece.

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