Entries Tagged 'Writing' ↓

Well, it’s another milestone at The Baglady!  This is the 200th post, and all of you kind readers have made over 1100 comments!  In my 2008 goals post I briefly mentioned that I would like over 1000 visitors to this blog daily by the end of the year, and now I am up to 300 to 400 per day so it seems highly likely I could reach my goal.  Since then,   I also  joined a great community blog named Wise Bread and started a new blog about San Mateo Home Sellers in Trouble.  Between the three blogs now my writing gets over 2000 views per day.  That’s a huge improvement from just 100 to 200 visitors daily 5 months ago!

In terms of blog income, I have gone from  $161 in January to nearly $600 this month.  All of the money I collect from blogging is currently donated to various charities.  It makes me happy when I see my articles earning money every day now, even when I am not writing.

With the growth of my blogs, I finally wrote  a Press page to showcase all the mentions my writing have gotten on top blogs and other press.  Check it out for some of the most amusing and useful articles I’ve written.

I want to say thank you all for reading my writing.  It really makes my day when I hear that my random thoughts have helped you or made you laugh.  I know that I piss people off, too, but getting any kind of reaction means that I made someone read and think a little bit and that is also rewarding.

The more I write the more I think that my writing could be the best legacy I could leave.  I would love for my future descendants to read my stories and my parents’ stories to get a glimpse of how we lived.  I know I love to hear my mom’s stories about  my grandmother’s family. So hopefully I will can preserve this blog for those that come after me.  I also think it is amazing that the internet allows this rapid sharing of ideas and lives.

With that, I leave you with some great Blog Carnivals in the recent weeks:

Carnival of Debt Reduction at Debt Free Revolution

Carnival of Personal Finance  at Alpha Consumer - I didn’t really submit to this carnival but they included my article under Four Pillar’s name.  Sorry Mike, I don’t know what happened there.

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Today I saw a headline in Boston.com that listed 8 reasons why those under 30 belong to the dumbest generation. I read on, and apparently it’s a gallery based on a new book by Emory English professor Mark Bauerlein titled The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future. Here is a blow by blow of his points with my comments.

1. They make excellent “Jaywalking” targets - Here Bauerlein makes an argument that young people do not know anything beyond friends, work, and Facebook. Well, I know many people older than 30 that do not know anything beyond money, cars, and sports. Basically, I don’t think it’s unique to our generation to focus on things that are narrowly important to ourselves. Jaywalking is a TV show segment that picks out the most hilariously dumb people on the streets, and I have seen Jay find dumb people of all sizes and ages.

2. They don’t read books — and don’t want to, either - I don’t think this generalization could be blanketed onto an entire generation. Some people love to read and some don’t. I am one of those people who used to read almost a book a week, but these days I just don’t have the time to dig through the thousands of books that are written everyday. I do read a lot of news, and I don’t believe that young people don’t want to read books. If we didn’t read books then how do giant bookstores like Amazon sell so many books that are interesting and targeted to our generation?

3. They can’t spell - In this point Bauerlein states that young people’s vocabulary and spelling have been defiled by IMs and text messages. Well, I do a considerable amount of instant messaging every day, and I do use shortcuts sometimes because they are easier to type. Bauerlein seems to miss the point that texting and IMing are forms of communication equivalent to speaking. When you talk to your friends it is completely acceptable to use slang and colloquialisms that are not applicable to formal writing. I think most people I know are aware of this fact and are completely capable of spelling correctly in formal papers and reports even though they IM things like “LOL” and “luv u”.

4. They get ridiculed for original thought, good writing - This is one of the dumbest points I have read. Basically the author states that when a young person actually formally composes something original on MySpace they are ridiculed for their spark of intelligence. Well, guess what, MySpace is not a place for literary greatness, and buddies are ALWAYS making fun of each other on sites like that. My husband writes an extremely intelligent blog about games, and I have never seen him ridiculed on his blog. There is a place for everything, and Bauerlein shouldn’t be scouring MySpace for intelligent discourse.

5. Grand Theft Auto IV, etc.- Ah, here is another required bashing of games and other digital entertainment for the dumbing down of my generation. My husband could probably write a ten page rant about this since he is a video game developer and he gets a bit riled up whenever the media blames video games for the downfall of modern society. Whenever I hear people bashing video games, I wonder if they have ever played a great video game. Yes, there are a lot of dumb games, but there are a lot of dumb books and movies, too. Any piece of entertainment reflects the skill and art of its creators, and I’m sure not all of the trashy pieces of entertainment we see are created by 20 somethings. Anyway, I am pretty sure that the author of this book doesn’t have 1/100th the ingenuity and creativity that goes behind creating a great game.

6. They don’t store the information - Here the author’s point is that young people have access to a lot of information at their fingertips so they don’t make an effort to retain the knowledge they obtain. Instead, they look it up and move on. I don’t think there is anything wrong with this. For example, I am a software engineer by trade, and I don’t make an effort to memorize every defined function in a computer language because things are changing all the time. So when I need to write something I am unfamiliar with I search for functions I need and read documentation. I know pretty much all of my colleagues young and old work the same way. Some of the older people may have stored more in their heads just because they have programmed in a language for a longer period of time, but that doesn’t make them smarter. We don’t store information because there is just so much information we need to know these days. Life isn’t as simple as knowing your multiplication table and this behavior of research instead of memorization is not stupidity. I would argue that it’s actually better than memorization because we constantly obtain updated information.

7. Because their teachers don’t tell them so - Well, this point actually says to me that the teachers are dumb. I have had teachers I needed to correct. The last time this happened was in college in Physics class. There were three problems on a midterm and two of them had wrong answers on the answer key. I had to email the professor and tell him he was wrong. I just want to say that just because there are teachers that do not do their jobs well it doesn’t mean that my generation isn’t learning and thinking.

8. Because they’re young - I made a comment on Can I Get Rich on a Salary saying that it is probably unfair to judge the money habits of generation Y right now because when we are in our 20s we are in a grand stage of transition. Life is confusing and abruptly changing for any generation of people at this age range. Anyway, this is an extremely retarded reason to call an entire generation stupid. It is almost as absurd as calling my friends’ children’s generation dumb just because they are all babies that can’t do anything but poop and eat. I really wonder if Bauerlein admitted how stupid he was when he was young in his book to support this point.

Anyway, I personally know more brilliant 20 somethings than smart older people just because most of my friends are about the same age as me. I researched this Mark Bauerlein a bit and it seems that his students think he is a very condescending guy. I am not surprised, and I am pretty sure he wrote this book to stir up controversy, and also make a bit of money so he is a little less angry about dumb twenty-somethings like me being paid more than a highly educated English professor like him.

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Hello everyone, welcome to the Carnival of Twenty Something Finances for the week of April 7th, 2008. In this edition we have more than forty articles on a variety of financial subjects that twenty somethings could learn about. Read on for some financial enlightenment!

Editor’s Picks

Investing Man presents 10 Tips On How To Negotiate posted at Wealth Building Lessons. This reminds of my post where I said everyone should haggle. Investing Man’s article expands the idea to all types of negotiation.

Finance Girl presents Childhood Money Memories, Part I posted at Finance Gets Personal. Finance Girl followed my post and wrote about her childhood money memories. There are some great stories here!.

Monevator presents Four ways to stop a financial crisis derailing your money goals posted at Monevator.com. Monevator gives great advice about not panicking in this economic environment. This is a very detailed and well written article.

Tip Diva presents Tip Diva | Top Ten Tips - Going Dumpster Diving posted at Tip Diva. This is a pretty interesting list of tips. I haven’t gone dumpster diving, but in the past I have gotten clothes, furniture, and books that were discarded on the side of the street. I am wearing a pair of my neighbor’s unwanted jeans right now.

Sarah presents The cost of graduating where she discusses how expensive a diploma really is! I never got my diploma because I was too lazy to order it. I think it’s still in Sproul Hall somewhere and employers verify everything online these days so I never needed my physical paper diploma.

Budgeting & Saving

Heather Johnson presents 8 Ways Women Can Save the Whole Family Money posted at wpersonalfinance.

GBlogger gives us Silly Rabbit, Budgets Are For Kids—How We Do Use Budgets posted at Can We Get Rich on a Salary?

zork presents 15 Ways to Exercise Your Budget during Recession posted at It’s the Recession, Stupid!.

Dividend Growth Investor presents Back test Results of one Rule of Thumb posted at Dividend Growth Investor.

Livingalmostlarge presents Budget backwards with priorities posted at LivingAlmostLarge.

Faron Benoit presents Establish Financial Goals posted at Financial Learn.

Seb presents Five things you should buy used posted at Pinching Copper.

Credit and Debt

Michael Bass presents What You Should Know About Credit Cards posted at Debt Prison.

Steve Faber presents - How to Get Out of Debt Fast posted at Debt Free.

FIRE Finance presents Three Quick Steps To Get Out of Debt! posted at FIRE Finance.

Shuchong presents I Thought it was Supposed to be Good Debt! posted at But WHY Doesn’t it Grow on Trees?.

Ray presents How To Avoid A 0% Balance Transfer Mistake posted at Money Blue Book.

Michael Bass presents What You Should Know About Credit Cards posted at Debt Prison.

College

Ted presents Cheapest Textbooks Online posted at CampusGrotto College News.

Patrick A. Sizemore presents 10 Guilt-Free Splurges for Students posted at College Information for Smart Students.

Realm of Prosperity presents Great Financial Aid Advice For College Students!!! posted at Realm of Prosperity.

Career and Income

Shanti presents WWSD #3: How Can I Work at Home Successfully? posted at Antishay Ventenne.

Tracy Kiss presents Conscious Flex: How to Find Your Passion and Make It Your Career: by Nicholas Powiull posted at Conscious Flex.

Passive Income Investor presents How I Generated $2,667 In Passive Income Last Month posted at LIVING OFF DIVIDENDS & PASSIVE INCOME.

Karin Verbeek presents From Nine-to-Five - That?s All You Need posted at Time Management Blog.

Economy

Wenchypoo presents Inflation—Here We Go Again posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket.

Free Stuff

Sally Thompson presents The Freeloader?s Toolbelt: 50 Tools to Help You Get Anything Free Online posted at Free Geekery.

Investing

Rio presents The Easiest Way to a Start a Roth IRA [del.icio.us] posted at Get Financially Fit!.

Charles H. Green presents Great Moments in Self-Regulation: Financial Planners and CFP Board posted at Trust Matters.

David Carter presents Why I Invested in Gold posted at David Makes Cents .com.

Richard M. Rothschild presents Bond Market Index Funds posted at Bond Market Index Funds.

Jorge H. presents Have We Hit the Bottom? posted at My Adventures into The Street.

Moneywise presents Largest mutual funds and their expenses posted at The Real Returns.

Real Estate

Ana presents Foreclosure Crisis Means A Buyers Market posted at DebtFREE-Revolution.

Dorian Wales presents The Personal Financier: How to Make Sure this is your Dream Home: 7 Practical Tips posted at Personal Financier.

Roshawn Watson presents Is Home Ownership A Good Investment? posted at Watson Inc.

Other

David presents $10 Bus Fares: Frugal or Frightening? — Money Under 30 posted at Money Under 30.

KCLau presents Financial Security: How you feel it? posted at KCLau’s Money Tips.

That is all for this edition. Thank you all for submitting your wonderful articles and make sure to link back and promote the carnival via social bookmarks! If you want to participate in the next carnival it will happen in two weeks and you can submit your articles here.

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An account receivable it might be, is not the answer to debt consolidation situation. The solution is learning to spend wisely. This means resisting borrowing a loan of any sort on your credit card. Even if you have a cheap travel insurance, retaining it is the best measure.

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I have been tinkering with a few new programs to promote my site and generate more revenue. Here are my trials and experiences:

1. Entrecard - I just joined this program last night. It is basically a link exchange program between bloggers, but it is ridiculously addictive. You can see it in my left sidebar under the heading Entrecard. You earn a credit for dropping your card into the widget of other bloggers and also receive a credit for getting drops in your widget. Then the credits can be used to buy advertising on other sites. Some of the great personal finance sites you can advertise on are ridiculously cheap because they just joined Entrecard recently. Some of the less popular sites are also ridiculously expensive to advertise on. I haven’t perfected my advertising strategy yet, but I did read a ton of blogs today and got quite a bit of visitors as a result.

2. Adsdaq - Since Google ad revenues are dropping lately all across the web I researched where I could get some pay per impression ads. After looking around for an entire night I found Adsdaq and signed up. It is run by the reputable ContextWeb and accepts small publishers like me. With it I could set my own CPM for my ads. Right now it is performing better than BlogherAds and the ads are all very professional looking. I set the Google ad tags as the backup tag for Adsdaq and my Google earnings have not dropped. So far after using Adsdaq for a week I got $12, and this is really good because they pay when you reach $50.

3. Mixx - I usually hate social bookmarking sites (especially Digg), but I am discovering really good links at Mixx. I have been submitting one or two things I find interesting there, and it seems that they don’t penalize for submitting your own stuff.

4. WidgetBucks - This was a failure since I don’t have a product centric site. After 2000 impressions I earned nothing, so I took it off.

Additionally, I am still writing for Wise Bread and here are a few more of my favorite articles:

1. For the Love of Ramen: An Interview with Ed from RamenRamenRamen.net
2. Why is Gasoline So Cheap? A Cost Comparison of 40 Common Household Liquids
3. Chinese Money Habits - How My Culture Influences My Attitudes Toward Money

I think I am getting more serious about blogging lately, and I may be spending too much time on it.  I still had time to go out with the hubby and watch TV, though.  I think I have all this extra time because I don’t have a game to play currently.  It is a good thing.

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Yup, I finally got picked to host The Carnival of Personal Finance by Flexo! The current carnival is going on at Broke Grad Student and includes my article on sweepstaking. The two carnivals I have hosted in the past are Carnival of Money Stories and Carnival of Debt Reduction. However, The Carnival of Personal Finance would be the largest carnival I will ever host! I hope I don’t disappoint all of you. Anyway, if you want to be included, send over your best post here. I will be reading the new posts soon enough.

In other blog related news, my article about horrible financial products on Wise Bread was picked up by Lifehacker! I actually really liked this article so I am glad a lot of others liked it too. Additionally, my article about not loaning people money has 95 diggs right now! Though, I’m not sure if it will make it to the front page. Digg is pretty weird these days because I saw a lame picture with 44 diggs making it to the front page while a good article about foods took 260+ diggs. It’s pretty unjust in many cases.

Hope you are having a nice Monday, I am thinking of translating more of my Dad’s epic story later.

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