Looks like I've been putting my money in the right place to date...

So I just signed up with Mint.com. It's a pretty sweet site that lets you manage all your money accounts & credit cards, does spending trending, helps you track your investments, generates cool graphics automatically, etc -- all with minimal work on your end.

Here's a pretty interesting infographic that it made for me...



So I've been (relatively) smart so far with where I've put my money. Now all I have to do is figure out where it should go when the economy reverses itself.

And save more. That's a concept our generation is going to have to put their heads around. They haven't thus far.

Everything Minus 1 is still Everything.

Life is something that you can't control.

When you try to hold on to it, it makes you let go.

A thought....

Judge yourself by how you treat those with whom you do not identify.

My First DNF

So I took a ride out to cycling heaven the other day. The ride was from Prescott to Maiden Rock & back.

Half great, half horrible.

Cold on the way out -- I couldn't feel my fingers when we started, but I was feeling really good when I warmed up, enjoying the views of river mist shrouding autumnal color. I let up all the big climbs, still feeling like a BAMF on my Cervelo. One of the girls had a powertap, so she was telling me that we were knocking out 280+ watts on a couple climbs. We stopped a few times to enjoy the scenery and let everyone catch up, and had great pie at the Smiling Pelican in Maiden Rock.

On the way back, I sprinted right out and had a fun descent back to Bay city at about 43mph for a minute or two. Around 20 miles out from Prescott, everyone rode right past me. I was wondering "what's going on?" until I realized my rear tire was flat. I had to sprint for a mile to catch up with everyone--they couldn't hear me since I we had a headwind. I got it changed, and about 2 miles down the road, I flatted out the front tire and used my last tube to get that going. 3 more miles and I flatted the rear again. Frustration was at a peak (car & motorcycle traffic was ridiculous, loud, and not courteous, and really wore on all our nerves), and as I was about to borrow a tube, a member of our group who earlier threw in the towel and got a ride showed up in a car and offered me her rear bike wheel, which didn't fit my cervelo cutout, but then drove off to get a car that would fit me and my bike. After she left, I was able to play with the dropout setscrews enough to get it her wheel to work, and we took off yet again. I made it up a couple of the last big climbs and she showed up in the IMJenny's suv, and I decided to call it a day, since her tire was beginning to rub on my cutout, and my legs were toasted.

Terrorist Obama

Lately on the news, we've seen John McCain and Sarah Palin asking crowds who "the true Barack Obama" is while tying him to a man who did some pretty nasty things when Barack was 8 years old. Barack knew this guy while he was serving the community -- this guy just happened to be serving the community too.

Sounds like the man was pretty well reformed to me -- they were both working in an anti-poverty group in Chicago. Quite the terrorist this Ayers guy has become.

---------------------

Hey Republicans.

NEWSFLASH!

You can't say that Barack is both a Terrorist and a Liberal simultaneously.

Guess what?! Terrorists are against:

Legal abortion.
Legal same sex marriage (and homosexuals being allowed to live, actually)
Gun regulation.
Ending wars.
Removing Crony Government.
Social Welfare/Fair Taxation (Check out Saudi Arabia if you don't know what I'm talking about)
Separation of Church & state.


Coincidentally, so are Republicans. wwwwwwwho's the terrorist again?

If he's a liberal, he's not a terrorist.
If he's a terrorist, conservative America should be voting for him.

McCain, Palin, and other assorted rightwingers are doing their best to stir people into a frenzy of hate -- so much for bringing people together. Christ would simply not approve of what you are doing. (in fact, in all fairness, God was sending hurricanes at the US during the RNC in St. Paul)

Maybe you didn't know that, but hey...that's what I'm here for.

Best Fark Thread EVAR

Everyone should check this out.

Wildly slanted liberal, mostly true.

A sample:

:(

I am losing sleep over it.

McCain cuts & runs.

John McCain just mavericked his campaign out of Michigan, a battleground state he's apparently decided that he couldn't win. The going must be tough there, considering the home of America's automotive industry just experienced a ~35% decrease in auto sales this quarter. And John heard a crowd cheering "Obama" to his face a month or two ago while touring an auto plant.

It seems intuitive that someone would allocate their resources where they would be most effective, but I really question the logic McCain & his advisers used when coming to this decision. Why pull out of a battleground state where you might have a 40-45% chance of winning than a state with next to 0% chance? Like New York or California.

Surely advertising in New York and California is more expensive than Michigan, and Obama has a 99.999% chance of winning in those places. By pulling the campaign from those states, he could redistribute to states where he has more votes riding.

On top of that, pulling out of Oklahoma and Wyoming wouldn't have a negative consequence either, where McCain is expected to wildly dominate...those electoral votes are in the bag....why are you spending money there?

Pulling out of any state is also an inherent admittance that you have a limited amount of resources.

This is all evidence to me that not only is McCain out of money, again, but that he also has poor decision-making skills.

The pull from Michigan should have conservatives going WTF? just like they did on:
a)the announcement that he was suspending his campaign to solve the wall street crisis
b)the announcement of Sarah Palin as his VP.

I have $50......

...for anyone who puts this on their car.


Edit:

Well, as I imagined this did elicit quite a response, and no -- nobody's even asked for $50 from me. I suppose I should defend myself, but really -- I about crapped my pants when I saw this and posting this up was a bit knee-jerk.

I should also say that the comment made by me below is a stab at playing devil's advocate. I agree with the assessments of my friends below. Please read them.