You know something? This is likely to be my last Link Love post for awhile. Next weekend will be full to the brim wedding stuff, and we’ll be hitting the road after that.

Speaking of blogging, I haven’t been getting pingbacks through comments since January. Therefore if you’ve linked to me since then, I may or may not be aware of it.

I think my theme might be blocking them somehow – or else maybe Dreamhost is doing something weird? Any ideas? Is anybody else experiencing a similar problem?

(I know, I know. Not really the best time to start stressing about this. Priorities.)

And so, to the links…

Cait reckons this is the only motivational post she’ll ever write – but it’s a cracker.

Nicole and Maggie’s post about their fantasy libraries is BEYOND. Fellow bibliophiles, click over there right now.

This post on the 9 traits of underearners at Get Rich Slowly is a thought provoking one. As some of the commenters point out, some of us choose certain career paths with the knowledge they won’t make us rich.

Little Miss Moneybags breaks it down: is it THAT much more expensive in NYC than the midwest?

And finally, Ms Career Girl lists some gems of work wisdom from four famous women.

Happy weekends, all!

It’s funny how things happen sometimes. I’ve had Chicago mentioned to me multiple times in recent weeks in conjunction with our upcoming trip. Is this a sign?

I didn’t think we’d have time to visit the midwest, but I’ve been thinking…

Maybe we could take a couple of days out from our week in NYC to do an overnighter in DC. That would free us up to skip DC on the way back down – we could head to Chicago after Canada, then straight down to New Orleans, which would be the next major stop.

This would probably mean skipping Philadelphia, but is cheese steak really all that great? (The answer to your question: yes, i would visit somewhere purely for its food.)

Blast from the past

A year ago I survived a week without a smartphone, recounted all the crazy places I’ve lived, asked whether you find meaning in your work, and applied a few journalism lessons to life in general.

Two years ago I broke down my Myers-Briggs personality type and ran my first 10k.

Three years ago I got to experience living alone, very briefly, and asked what you cheap out on at the supermarket (ha, bread is so much more expensive now!)

And now, to the links! A fairly short roundup this week:

Fascinating: how women are invoking Sheryl Sandberg when asking for more money. I can totally see myself doing this in an attempt to negate any awkwardness I felt, though I imagine in certain situations it might not be appropriate?

Financial Samurai recounts three craptastic jobs that changed his life

Nicole and Maggie’s post in praise of their respective partners is rather lovely

A guide to cooking with vinegar, from Stonesoup

Save, Spend, Splurge explains how she’s made cold hard cash from virtual goods

Makeup and Mirtazapine shares some excellent dating advice for the diffident

And last but not least, I enjoyed Frugal Rules’ down to earth post on taking the plunge into self-employment

Happy weekends, all!

I seriously don’t understand people who go tramping/hiking for fun. Back in high school, my friends and I’d go roaming around the bush/creeks/cliffs/beaches just out the back of our suburb for hours in our downtime. Today, doing the same kind of thing is really not all that enjoyable, but at least it’s a good workout.

Last weekend we made the journey out to Kitekite Falls at Piha, which looks a heckuva lot like Karekare falls, but is much harder to get to.

It was way too icy to swim by my standards – wading around int he shallows for a bit completely numbed me from ankles to toes – but worth the trek anyway.

Along the way, we saw St John Ambulance staff helping out someone to the side of the trail – we’re still not sure what happened – and heard a rather loud alarm go off at one point … again, not quite sure what that might have been for (shark sighting? tsunami warning?) but there were no emergency vehicles or any sort of commotion when we left, so it can’t have been TOO bad.

To the links!

SO true. The best and worst things about getting older, by Obsessions of a Workaholic

And another hilarious piece by The Frugal Model: Friends don’t let friends…

Thinking it’s time to quit your job? Examine your reasons – remember, there is potential to be unhappy anywhere. Via Dumb Little Man

I can relate, very much, to Donna Freedman’s post today on family and forgiveness

Both Krystal and The Asian Pear just wrapped up their pescatarian challenges and have some insights to share

It is okay to be (relatively) unremarkable. We can’t all be rockstars, and that’s okay, via Grow. (Related: my ramblings on how my dreams have changed over time)

A cautionary tale from Social Diary for anyone who’s ever been filmed for TV broadcast in any capacity. Be aware of your rights…

Ashley totally killed it this week with all her posts. Here’s a quote from one that really resounded:

“I have known about myself for a long time that I am kind, but not particularly generous. I am especially selfish with my time. Most introverts can probably be accused of this, since we need so much time to ourselves, but even my introvert friends are more generous with their time than I am.  I hoard time and protect my freedom like the world is out to collect.”

Finally, I’m late to this one, but still wanted to highlight it anyway: true confessions of a mean girl. I wonder if this is true universally? Can one be popular without being mean and without the cliquey infighting? Thanks to one of my close friends in my younger years, I occasionally had reason to interact with THE single most popular girl (the most awkward point culminating in my dad driving us both to school one morning, without my actual friend there to act as a buffer – she stayed home sick that day, I think). And in about 8 years total of being at the same school as her, I really never got any of those impressions; she seemed above it all.

It was a bit of a ranty pants week here on the blog. In case you missed it, I covered arranged marriages and name changing (in both cases, the comment threads are great and most definitely worth reading – some have even helped me further clarify my views, which is always appreciated. Oh, and I managed to learn something about my own culture to boot).

Off the blog, my friends and I were trounced at a music pub quiz (they’re always skewed toward the oldies – who the heck are the Boomtown Rats and have you ever heard of them?!) on Monday; I watched the entire Godfather trilogy for the first time and dug it; and I’ve been trying out the ring I bought off Etsy for the wedding, on a finger that it does fit. Result: I no longer know if I even want a wedding ring. I do like this ring and think I’d like to keep it for special occasions but I don’t like that it’s double the size of my engagement ring (and thus feels unbalanced) and still needs sizing. I’ve yet to find anything else I remotely like, and I really don’t care enough about jewellery to spend any more time on this.

To the links!

I was in the carnival of personal finance this week and last week

I think this is fascinating: one writer on why she keeps a Single Girl’s Starter Kit around, and what that entails

I like Donna Freedman’s take on buying quality stuff: “buy once, cry once”

Jess Lively reminds us that copying someone else’s formula for success may not work for you.

A powerful and inspiring read from Stephany about changing her life story, and thus, trajectory

Little Miss Moneybags talks ‘leaning in’

Over at So Many Places, some hard talk on seeing – and dealing with – beggars. I know to expect to see some in KL, as I have on previous occasions there – but I imagine it will be much worse in other countries we visit, and I don’t know how well equipped I am to deal with that

Are things really more expensive today than they were for our parents? Funny About Money crunches the numbers

How people really get rich (vs how we think they do). Via American Debt Project

Fully behind Meg of LandingStanding; sometimes being able to say you’re pregnant would be a great reason to explain some of your preferences without being judged for them

Hope your Easter weekends are going swell! If you have a five day weekend, I’m jealous. With any luck, I’ll be going for a bush trek today and visiting a waterfall.

So, the big news this week was that Google Reader is being killed off. I’m not exaggerating when I say this poses the biggest single upheaval to my online habits of all time.

I’ve used Google Reader ever since I started reading blogs about five years ago. It infuriates me when Flipboard, for example, is touted as an alternative. IT’S NOT.

I use Google Reader primarily to keep up with personal blogs, where I don’t want to miss any posts, as well as a few feeds for work purposes. I use Flipboard to catch up on things at the end of the day from sites like Slate, Salon, The Atlantic, The Awl, and others. I use Twitter throughout the day to keep up on news, plus blogs that I don’t want to subscribe to but occasionally post good stuff, which I see via links on Twitter.

Google Reader is for subscriptions. Twitter and Flipboard are for discovery. These are two very different things.

The two Google Reader alternatives I’m currently testing out are Feedly (which is a bit media rich and bogs my browser down) and The Old Reader, which is nice and clean, resembling GR probably as much as possible without getting sued. I’m not sure yet which will be my eventual replacement.

Aside from that, it’s been a spendy weekend so far. After a bit of a heart to heart about how bored he is with our quiet weekend routines, this week we ended up dropping a bit of cash on food and alcohol and actually going out on both Friday and Saturday.

How are your weekends going?

Blast from the past:

One year ago, I tore into three personal finance topics I’m so over (one of my most popular posts ever), the hard side of cohabiting and compromising in relationships, did a wardrobe audit, explained how we manage being a one car household and gave you all an inspirational pep talk.

Two years ago, I paid tribute to my favourite New Zealand landscapes, some jobs that I could never do in a million years and shared a few confessions – another of my top posts ever.

Three years ago, I discussed surviving on an irregular income and pondered what kind of genes I’ll pass on to my kids.

Four years ago, I gave myself a bit of a kick up the bum about walking the talk.

And now, this week’s links:

Is your dream worth it? A thought provoking post at Life After College

There are three ways to cut your budget, according to Mochi and Macarons: Trim, chop, or shave

On contributing to society and building a life of value, via Get Rich Slowly

A timely read for me: Married with Luggage on how your habits impact your relationship (and what to do about them)

Punch Debt bemoans the bad timing that’s chased him since graduation

Finally, Leslie made an epic inside out Rubik’s Cube cake for us all to marvel at. All this in a New York kitchen.