A lovely day off

I've been working a lot this week, but it's been fun. I have a three-month contracting gig in Atlanta, and I'm still working 6 - 8 hours every day developing my business. The contract gig is pretty fun - everyone I work with is very nice and equally talented. My business is exciting, but has yet to take off - I have two customers in the works and a third that I'm just starting on, so I'm close but not quite there.

Today, however, I'm not focusing on any of that. I'm taking the day off to do some laundry, pay bills, and organize my MP3 collection. Later today, Kimber and I will be heading to my mom's house with Liz and David's dog Ginger (we're babysitting). It should be fun.

Now if only I could find my iPodcable. I have this awesome Mp3 collection and I can't upload it! Grrr...

Motivation to save

Today I came across Feedthepig.com, a web site dedicated to helping people save money. What I really liked was the Lunch Savings Calculator which shows you how much you can save by packing your own lunch instead of eating out.

Here's a quick example:

Average eating-out lunch price:	$6.50
Average "bagged" lunch price:	$4.00
Bagged Lunches per Month:	20
Savings Interest Rate:	4%
Savings per Month:	$50.00
Savings over five years:	$3,320.00

Not too shabby! Plus everyone knows that packing your own lunch is generally healthier.

Free Cliff's Notes

Check out LitSum.com. The site provides free book summaries, study guides, and other stuff that can help you sound smart.

Also check out Cliff's Notes. I discovered today provide literature notes for free online! Of course, they offer the opportunity to buy the printed version as well.

The Passion of the Christ

After meaning to watch it for over a year, I finally watched The Passion of the Christ last night. After all the hype, I found it to be pretty disappointing. The movie is too long and too little happens. It's just beating after bloody beating and it gets to be boring after a while. There are a few non-violent scenes inserted between the beatings, but they aren't especially interesting either.

One thing that especially irritated me was the combination of slow-motion and dramatic music that seems to pander way too much to the target audience, leaving the rest of us to yawn and role our eyes. It's just far too hokey.

How to read all those blogs

Check out Google Reader. It is what I use to read all the blogs I read. It also integrates well with the Google Homepage and the Google Toolbar.

Can you tell I'm a Google fan?

Health Care

I stayed up until 2:00AM last night talking with Dave about fixing health care in the US. What do we know about it? Well, nothing really, but we still like to talk.

We came up with the idea that malpractice insurance should be purchased by the patients, rather than the doctors, on an incident by incident basis. So, for example, if you're having a regular checkup you can wave the insurance altogether or pay a dollar just in case she overlooks your high cholesterol. On the other hand, if you are about to have major surgery, you pay more because the chances of something going wrong is higher.

This could keep the cost of providing health care down by offsetting one of the most expensive and least productive medical overhead expenses. It also reduces the overall cost by allowing patients to choose the level(s) of coverage, which will likely be lower in many cases than the doctor would otherwise be paying for. It could also make malpractice claims easier on the court systems by specifying that an arbitrator, not a jury, decides the outcome (unless the purchaser wants to pay extra, of course).

A similar option would be to build malpractice insurance into health insurance, especially for situations in which the purchaser may be unable to purchase the insurance up front (e.g. in an emergency), but we didn't discuss that idea very much.

Of course, this doesn't "fix" health care but it could help. Any thoughts?

Campaigns Wikia

Today I came across Jimmy Wales's blog (the Wikipedia guy) and read/skimmed the articles. One post I found especially interesting was for the Campaigns Wikia. This seems like a pretty interesting project. Here's the mission statement:

It's time for politics to become more intelligent, and for democracy to really involve the people. Broadcast media tells you what to think and doesn't let you get involved. It's time to focus on what you need, what you care about, and the messages you want to get out.

The site is obviously in its infancy. For example: there is a small article on Jeb Bush but not George. On the other hand, there are some very long articles such as the one on health care.

I'll be keeping a watch on the site to see what happens. I hope it goes well.

One more video for the night

I can't sleep because I've been staying up watching all the great videos on the TED Blog. The video below is a great mini-course on skepticism, and it had me in stitches I was laughing so hard at one point.

The Developing World

The details can be oh-so important! This presentation, given by Hans Rosling, corrects a few misconceptions regarding the developing world. It's an excellent presentation, complete with good graphics.

Check it out:



You should also read Hans's blog.

MySpace Spam Blocker?

I'm starting to get sick of MySpace spam. Every time I log on, I get bombarded with messages, invites, and friend requests from people with names like EZGrrrl and PinkFun.

I wonder: Do a lot of guys on MySpace get this junk? And why doesn't MySpace do something about it? Today I got around 50 of these bogus messages. I'm about ready to cancel my account. In the mean time, I will turn off email alerts so that my gmail account doesn't also get flooded.

Does anyone out there have any tips for preventing all the spam on MySpace? I Googled for answers, but found none.

I wonder if there is a market for a MySpace spam blocker. If anyone thinks it's a good idea and would like to help create one, email me with your ideas. I can provide some serious development muscle if someone else out there can provide some infrastructure and/or capital.

Get rich... slowly

In my continued quest to conserve money as I start my new business, I came across another great web site: Get Rich Slowly. This site has a lot of little tips on saving money; such as an article on Healthy food for an Unhealthy Budget (something I am especially interested in) and another one on Handy Personal Finance Spreadsheets (one of which I will be downloading shortly).

Of course, without any income I'm simply trying to go poor slowly. Yesterday my mom helped me organize my file folders and receipts. Today I'm going to attempt to set up QuickBooks and QuickBooks Customer Manager. On Monday I will have some business cards printed up and, at that point, I should finally be ready to begin actively drumming up business.

Help Developing Countries

Today I found Kiva.org. Kiva is a non-profit organization that provides micro-loans to small businesses in developing countries. From the web site:

"Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back."

This is a great concept and, in my opinion, a much more effective use of money to improve the world than a classic charity because you can do some good and, in most cases, get your money back to do more good. When you get your money back you can either re-invest it or cash it out; thus effectively improving the world at an extremely low cost.

How to Start a Business

I have spent the last three weeks starting my own business, Art of Progress LLP. Most of this time has been spent doing market research, with a few breaks in between to keep the paperwork moving along. Because the paper-work is such a pain, I thought I'd provide a quick guide to starting your own limited liability company (LLC) in Georgia, since I've already been through most of the process...

Disclaimer: I have absolutely no qualifications to give advice on the material below. However, like most people, I'm not going to let that stop me. If you have any questions or doubts (and you should) about what you are doing, you should ask an attorney or accountant as the circumstances dictate.

Step one - Make a Decision

Decide on what business to start, make sure you are picking the right structure, and do some research to make sure you can actually make money at what you're doing. More on this in a separate blog; if I feel like writing it.

Now on to the boring stuff.

Step 2 - Give $100 to the Georgia Secretary of State

Go to the Georgia Secretary of State web site, and fill in the appropriate Business Filing.

This process was a breeze. After I completed the forms, I was "official" in only about two hours!

Step 3 - Get a Tax ID

Now that you have formed an LLC, you should get a Tax ID. This way you don't have to give out your social security number to banks, creditors, and so forth which limits the damage that can be done to you personally in the case of identity theft, among other things. To get a tax id, all you have to do is fill out IRS Form SS-4. You can do it online or call 1-866-816-2065. Once that's done, you get your Tax ID immediately.

Filling in the form for an LLC can be a little tricky because on line 8a, type of entity, there is no option for LLC. For this, select "Other" and put in "Disregarded Entity" in the blank.

That is the only line that I can remember tricking me up.

Step 4 - Cover Your Ass

If you are starting the business all by yourself - meaning you have no partners and no employees - there is a chance that if you get sued, your LLC status won't be worth the $100 you paid for it. One way to protect yourself is to create an Operating Agreement. It simply shows that you mean business and aren't trying to dupe the government into protecting you more than you deserve. I paid $15 to have a generic one drawn up on some website. Sorry, I don't remember the URL - but I'm sure you can Google for it like I did. Just print it up, sign it, and file it away somewhere safe.


Step 5 - There is no Step 5

That's it! You now own an LLC and have protected yourself against liability.