Category Archives: Entertainment

iPod touch As A Birthday Present

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iPod Touch

iPod Touch

Up to the current last few days, I’ve resisted buying an Apple product.  That was then, but now I’ve changed my mind and I bought the iPod touch as a birthday present for my son.

To me, Apple products were just too expensive, especially when compared to comparable products in the marketplace.  When considering MP3 players, I always went with the much cheaper sansa products instead of the much more pricey iPod mp3 players.

When I first heard of the Apple product called iPod touch, it was in an email response from the blogger at CashMoneyLife.com.  I was asking about it and he stated that it was great.  At first, I thought he was crazy…  why would someone want a such expensive mp3 player?  Later, I learned that it was much, much more than just an mp3 player.

Boy was I mistaken!  In fact, I now believe that the iPod touch is the perfect Birthday present.  The iPod touch is really more like the iPhone except without the build-in cellular logic and the expensive service cellular contract.

I especially think the facetime aspect of the iPod touch should be a fun way to communicate over the internet!  Facetime is basically a camera on the front of the camera that allow the iPod touch owner to communicate with other Apple smart devices via both video and sound.

In fact, I think the facetime feature makes the iPod touch appealing to girls and even older women (especially moms)!  It’s so easy to use and the social aspect of facetime makes the device more that just come nerdy smart device that boys traditionally love to play with.  The iPod touch, iPhone and iPad are game changers with respect to these devices just being in the realm of males only!  Very clever Apple, very clever!

Of course my son mainly wants the iPod touch for the games, chatting and mp3 capabilities.  But I think any exposure to the device will give him a heads start on getting comfortable to such technology!  This is why I think that the iPod touch is a great birthday present, especially for kids!

Once you get experience with the iPod touch, perhaps you’ll want to try out the latest Apple device, the iPad?  Read the article called “My Thoughts on the Ipad” written by Kris at Everydaytipsandthoughts.

Cheers,

MR

 

 

 

Backyard Camping At Home On The Cheap

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My son loves the idea of camping!

That said, we have a packed daily schedule that really won’t enable us to go to a real camp site for quite a while, so instead we decided to have a camping experience at home.

While camping in itself isn’t really expensive, camping at home is even cheaper and almost as fun!

We started the evening by firing up a fire using firewood bought from a store in our backyard portable fire pit.  Next we got out our old camp pie makers and created some pizza pies (a favorite at our house), but you could also create other pies such as apple, cherry, etc.  That’s when we encountered a small problem with our fire!

Fire Problem:

I really needed to start the campfire an hour before we started cooking.  To have a great campfire, it’s good to have red glowing embers.  I started the wood burning, and then had the kids try to cook their pizza pies over the new still burning wood.

We were still able to cook the pies, but it took a long time and would have been much better if they embers were glowing.  marshmallows would have been okay at this point, but not pizza pies.  All told, we cooked pizza pies, hotdogs and marshmallows at our at home camp out.  We even sung a few campfire songs (softly since our neighbors live close by).

My son had a friend over, and they put together the tent while the campfires was burning itself out.  It was fun watching them try to put the tent together.  It took them a good bit of time longer than it for me, but it was fun watching them figure out the “putting the tent up” puzzle.

They decided to put the tent up on our deck, so the next step was to get additional blankets to form a cushioned pad so the deck planks weren’t so hard.  Next came the board games, which included “Trouble”, “Battleship and a checkered board that I assume was to be used to play chess or checkers. My wife, daughter and I went inside.  At this point our camping experience was done (my wife hates to camp) since my wife and I had to go to work tomorrow.  We left a screened window open so we could hear if there were any problems though!

All told, the entire experience cost us less than $10 since we had all of the equipment beforehand.  I’m sure my son will be happy now that he has camped out with a friend, and we are still able to maintain our hectic, sports packed schedule.

Happy backyard camping!

MR

Girl Scout Bridging Ceremony and Time

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Girl Scouts

Girl Scouts

We all went to my daughter’s “Girl Scout Bridging Ceremony” last night, but of all the people there, there were only 4 males (including my son and I).

We got there are 6:00pm but the actual Bridging Ceremony would begin until 8:00pm.  I feel pretty comfortable around people anymore but after 15 minutes, my son and I decided to leave the group and walk around a pond that was close by.  To stay with the Girl Scout group felt like we were intruding. 

As we were walking around the nearby pond, we could hear the laughing floating across the pond along with the songs they were singing.  I’m glad my daughter was having a great time!

After our walk, my son and I played around a bit, but started to get bored.  That’s when I remembered my time saving book that I left in the car for such situations.  I was able to finish a entire chapter before the ceremony stated while my son played games on my blackberry.

Once the ceremony started, other males started to arrive for the celebration too.  I enjoyed the event, watching my daughter laugh, giggle, jump around and run around with her friends.  That said I have to admit I enjoyed finishing that chapter in my most recent book too.  It made the wait that much more enjoyable, plus I was out of sight of the pre-ceremony activities. 

All in all, the event was a good one, and my daughter seemed pretty happy!

Cheers,

MR

The Three Little Financial Pigs: Pig #3 Update

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I like to think of the third little pig as myself, but I don’t really know if I”m really qualified to make that claim.  In my last post I stated that I’m really more of a Pig #2 1/2 or even a Pig #2 3/4 than the full pig 3 type.

Pig #3

If you are new to this storyline, the basis of all three little financial pigs are two of my childhood friends and myself.  I blog about each of their stories in the original articles listed below:

So now onto my update, have I made progress?  Yes, my net worth has increased by much more than $10,000 since last year.  Part of that increase was in my investments such as my 401k and my regular brokerage account.  Most of the increase has come from the saving of my paycheck into these investment accounts.  It’s a long rhythmic journey this point forward.  I like to think of it as a long almost straight road with a slight incline.

The Steps that I’m currently taking on my journey are:

  1. Earn money from being employed
  2. Save more than 20% of the earned money
  3. Invest that 20% amount into investments
  4. Repeat until wealthy.

It’s not glorious, but it’s a solid path and plan.

Unfortunately the steps above will never get me to the superrich level though, but I should be able to make it to a lower level of a millionaire next door type.

I think the most important aspect to remember is to start doing it, and the sooner the better.  I’ve been guilty in the past of having slow starts with tasks, but over time I’ve learned (and I’m still learning) that your attempt doesn’t have to be perfect the first time.  It’s much more important to start the task than to worry about getting it perfect or even right.

Hopefully this year my net worth will grow at a quicker rate.

Cheers,

MR