Free Education

03 Oct

Erin Shanendoah |  October 3rd,2012 | School |  Comments Off

I have written a lot about Coursera and EdX at other places, but not here. I am currently taking a free course on Operations Management from Coursera, taught by a professor out of the Wharton School of Business at theUniversity ofPennsylvania. It’s free, so I am not getting any kind of credit, but that’s okay, I’m not taking it for credit.

University of Washington also offers classes through Coursera. They are hoping to soon add the option of paying a fee to get actual credit, which, depending on the price point, I think will probably be really popular.

Going Boating on a Moon

02 Oct

Erin Shanendoah |  October 2nd,2012 | Science, Technology |  Comments Off

We have landed multiple rovers on Mars with great success- including the rovers having longer life spans than originally planned for. So what is next? While it does not come out of NASA, there is a group in Europe (Spainmostly) that is currently presenting the idea of landing a boat in one of the large lakes on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.

If we can land cars on a planet, why not a boat on a moon? We know Titan is covered in lakes and rivers (of methane, apparently, not H20), which makes it a possible location for microbial life.

Movie Review: The Avengers

01 Oct

Erin Shanendoah |  October 1st,2012 | Movies |  2 comments

Because we are behind the times at our house, when Avengers was coming out last summer, we had people telling us- Oh, you need to see Captain America before Avengers. Last night, right before we watched it, J asked to make sure we’d seen Thor, as he felt that was the most important prerequisite. We had. We’d also seen the Ed Norton Hulk (I loved Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner), and the firstIronMan.

Honestly, I don’t really think we really needed to see any of them. They added something, but the movie stood on its own just fine.

Blog Feature: I Still Want More Puppies

29 Sep

Erin Shanendoah |  September 29th,2012 | blogging, Dogs, Pets, Writing |  1 Comment »

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

Erin Shanendoah |  September 28th,2012 | Finances, Pets |  Comments Off

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

Erin Shanendoah |  September 27th,2012 | Finances, Work |  Comments Off

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

Erin Shanendoah |  September 26th,2012 | Music, Television |  Comments Off

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

Erin Shanendoah |  September 25th,2012 | Movies |  Comments Off

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

Erin Shanendoah |  September 24th,2012 | Movies |  Comments Off

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

Erin Shanendoah |  September 22nd,2012 | blogging, Finances, Home Ownership, Writing |  Comments Off

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.

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