Archive for the 'Amalgam of Me' Category

Toddler-Proof Your Computer

Saturday, December 15th, 2007

My three-year-old, like all other children his age, is fond of mimicking his parents. Monkey see, monkey do, right? Unfortunately, we spend a good deal of our free time on the computer, which makes him want to play with it as well, particularly when we aren’t looking. He hasn’t managed to do anything catastrophic yet, [...]

Buy Glasses… Online!?

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007

I’m smart, frugal, and internet savvy, so you’d think this concept would have occurred to me before now. After all, you can buy nearly anything online nowadays, usually for much less than you’d pay at a store. Until very recently, though, I had it in my head that you simply couldn’t buy glasses online, that [...]

To Lasik, or Not to Lasik?

Sunday, November 25th, 2007

That is the question. Ever since my wife and I put our finances in order, we’ve been looking forward to pursuing larger goals like becoming debt free, paying our son’s way through college, or the ever-popular buying a house. More immediately, though, I’ve been entertaining the idea of getting laser eye surgery. I’ve had poor [...]

Better Parenting through Exercise

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

If you’re anything like me, you want to be a good parent and you want to be healthier. Very recently, I came across a good way to help achieve these seemingly disparate goals at the same time by using a health incentive program. It’s one of those oft-overlooked benefits of health insurance. My provider offers [...]

7 Things We Did to Improve Our Finances

Monday, November 5th, 2007

If every year of my life had an ostentatious title, this year would have been the “Year of Personal Finance.” I’ve always had a good head for math, so you’d have thought that I’d already know tons about finance. It wasn’t until just a few months ago, though, that I started really learning my stuff. [...]

Keeping an Online Family Christmas List

Friday, October 26th, 2007

Like most families, mine has long used the “hint passing” method of knowing what to buy each other for Christmas. You know how it works; one of us will casually hint to another how we would like something and that information will work its way around the rest of the family until someone decides to [...]

Diet and Fitness: Survival Skills

Tuesday, October 16th, 2007

I was fortunate/wise enough to take some nutrition- and fitness-related classes while I was in college. Much of what I learned really opened my eyes to the realities of health. For example, did you know that the vast majority of people will suffer some sort of lower back problem in their adult life? Neither did [...]

Getting Married Young

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

When my wife and I got married, I was 20 and she was 18. According to popular opinion, we were “too young,” and I’ll be the first to admit that we were toward the lower end of most marital age statistics. The median age at first marriage nowadays is around the mid-twenties (25ish for women [...]

Better Than The Alternative…

Monday, August 20th, 2007

Imagine that you’re in my shoes for a moment. Your job requires you to work at one of the company’s conferences. It’s a four-day-long event that wholly consumes a weekend, during which you’ll be working about 15 hours a day. On top of that, you’re expected to work a normal week both before and after. [...]

In Defense of Blogging

Friday, August 10th, 2007

Let’s face it; blogging is a new medium. There are people out there who’ve never even heard the term and many more who don’t understand how it works. Most of the time, the best we bloggers can do is try to educate and wait until blogging achieves a modicum of respect with the general public. [...]