ThoughtfulConsideration.com

Checking In After My Sabbatical

I apologize for taking so much time off. Originally I hadn’t expected to even break for the holidays, but things got really crazy. We ended up all trying this year’s version of the 24-hour bug, my mother-in-law visited (which I genuinely enjoyed), and my son had to be taken to the ER Christmas evening with a high temperature. Combine that excitement with returning to work full time and pulling some long days for physical inventory, and you have a recipe for no time for family, let alone ThoughtfulConsideration.com!

Please continue to read and I’ll do my best to keep the interesting posts coming, even if they’re at a slightly slower pace than in the past several months.

Funny Christmas Tradition

My family is atypical in many ways, and what I’m about to share is one more reason to believe that claim. We exchange gifts like most people who celebrate Christmas, but there’s always at least one gift that shows up for each person from a local (to my parents) thrift store.

There’s a wide variety of silly stuff available at the thrift store and usually the gifts are fairly random: bowling balls with monogrammed bags, an aebleskiver pan (which I received even though it was supposed to go to my sister), a nappy old electric neck massager, etc.

This year my gift was an old book entitled “Maybe You Should Write A Book” by Ralph Daigh. I’m not very far into it since my time is very limited, but I’m hoping to churn through it rather quickly. It has input from a range of authors who were popular back in the 1970s on how they got started and what they wish they’d known back when they were just getting started. Mom and Dad picked out that one because they know I’m interested in writing an e-book. Pretty thoughtful, eh?

I’ll share any insights I come across, and anything I might learn as I slowly write a couple of e-books.

Question(s) of the day:

Have you written an e-book? If so, what advice can you offer to those of us who are just getting into it?

Merry (belated) Christmas!

I wish a very merry (albeit belated) Christmas to you and yours! If you don’t celebrate Christmas, simply take it as I receive other’s holiday greetings: as a sincere and respectful well wishing.

This holiday season has been an eventful one for us complete with 24-hour bugs (that left us in bed or on the toilet), a trip to the emergency room (for a child’s high fever), and a visit from my mother-in-law (who is here for a week).

Please don’t think I’ve abandoned ThoughtfulConsideration.com! I will try to get a few posts out here and there during this busy season.

The Carnival of Thoughtful Consideration #2

Thank you all for your wonderful contributions! There are some great articles again this week even though there were fewer submissions. Last week I did an e-mail blast which gave us the great turnout. I don’t want people to feel that I’m spamming them so I didn’t send another one. If you’d like me to shoot you a reminder each week to submit an article, please let me know in the comments section on this page.

I’m very sorry if I inconvenienced you with the premature publishing of this carnival on Monday. Even with the trouble, it was worth the wait!

First the financial-related submissions:

Budgets and Saving

Jason presents Don’t laugh at my car posted at tiredbuthappy saying, “Tiredbuthappy reminds us that our budget is more important that automobile envy! Debt Fighters“

Credit, Debt, and ID Theft

Halli presents A Word to the Wise posted at TrishAndHalli.com saying, “This situation actually occurred. Think – and protect yourself.”

Education

Allan Wallace presents School Choice and Alternative Education posted at BFU – self directed learning for visionaries saying, “request for comments about alternative education.”

Jobs, Employment, and Income

(none this week)

Misc. Investing

H.S. Ayoub presents Weak U.S. Dollar Good for Biotechs! posted at BioHealth Investor.
derrich presents SmartMoney Magazine: Where To Invest In 2007 posted at derrich.com saying, “This yearâ€™s sectors to watch are Investment Banking, whose deal-making is now global; Chemicals, boosted by cheaper energy; Internet, where ads and retail are here to stay; Insurers, which thrive amid disaster; and Beverages, since alcohol is recession-proof. In Emerging Markets, you can profit from the new global middle class.”

Net Worth

Big Cajun Man presents The rich are richer, but the poor are poorer too posted at Canadian Financial Rants saying, “In Canada the rich folks are getting much richer, but the poor folks are much poorer and the gap is only getting larger.”

Personal Finance

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Stuck In This Housing Market Slump posted at The Digerati Life.
F. D. Bryant III presents Are Gift Certificates Inappropiate Gifts? posted at FDBryant3′s Newsvine saying, “This article discusses situation where Gift Certificates are a good gift.”

Retirement

(none this week)

And the non-financial related:

Blogging

(none this week)

Digital Photography

(none this week)

Language

(none this week)

Math and Science

(none this week)

Misc. Humor

Mr Juggles presents Hedge Funds and Love posted at Long or Short Capital.

Organization

(none this week)

Personal Development

Laura Young presents Adventures of an Unlikely Super Hero (Part One): Ambition â€” For a Woman?! posted at Dragon Slayer’s Guide to Life saying, “Epic story of how one woman got a handle on power and became a rockin’ dragon slayer.”
D.A.N. presents Curbing the Spread of Fanaticism posted at Sights & Sounds from the Fifth Column.

Relationships and Parenting

(none this week)

Technology and Software

(none this week)

Book Reviews

(none this week)

Please be sure to participate in the future editions of The Carnival of Thoughtful Consideration through BlogCarnival.com by submitting your posts with the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.

Early Christmas Present

After several years of “making do” with our HP Photosmart 735, we decided to upgrade to the Canon Powershot S3. Every reviewer loved it, and so far we like it too. I read as much as I could about it online, and decided that it was a fairly worthy tightwad alternative to a digital SLR. My favorite review was this one over at imaging-resource.com.

They also had some great recommendations on rechargeable batteries and chargers. We picked those up at Thomas Distributing, and a 2 GB SD card and USB SD card reader at the venerable NewEgg.com. I can’t share any opinions with you on the batteries yet because they’re due to arrive tomorrow, and the card and reader will arrive on Friday – just in time!

Technically this is a Christmas present, but as the dad I have a solemn responsibility to have the camera fully functional for the big day. Tonight after pulling the camera out of the box I actually broke down and started reading the manual. Before too long I was taking macro shots of any marginally interesting object in the house because the cold dark evening didn’t permit me to try out the other features outside. I can tell you that we were very pleased with how well the redeye reduction feature worked in our first eight pictures (that’s all the pitiful 16 MB SD card – that came with the camera – would hold).

Here are a few sample shots that I took tonight of random objects around the condo. Enjoy them and don’t forget about The Carnival of Thoughtful Consideration #2 tomorrow!