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Browsing tag: blogging

  • November 17, 2012

    Link love (Powered by sugar cookies and new faces)

    It’s slightly strange being on the opposite side of the fence from everyone in the northern hemisphere. You’ve all just switched your clocks around – we changed ours over a month ago (while we were on our road trip, actually. I wasn’t sure when it was all happening, but when we arrived in Queenstown and walked into the centre, the town clock displayed one time on side and another time on the other, so we figured it was all on from that night forward).

    I have to say, I’m loving the long daylight hours. I went for a post-work run the other day for the first time in months (it’s dark by the time I get home through winter). I’ve blogged before about running being the one thing I do. Getting back to it was painful, but it always is.

    And in another boost to my exercise/fitness routine, I’m finally back in the game. T only recently went back to work – a story for another post – and was off for weeks after returning from our trip. Weekday mornings, therefore, were for long lazy cuddles, rather than stretches and situps. Now, he’s gone by the time I wake up.

    This week’s links:

    Ashley has turned A Story of Debt into an e-book. Hurrah!

    Budget and the Beach guest posts at Making Sense of Cents about how being in a rush costs you money.

    The Joy of Caking has some ideas on making gifts to give.

    Athena writes about what it’s really like working for a nonprofit.

    A sappy but excellent post about blogging by Stephany.

    Musings of an Inappropriate Woman sums up things I didn’t even know I felt about writing in the first person professionally, vs writing in the first person on my blog.

    Finally, thanks to Marissa for hosting the latest carnival of personal finance and including my post on dealing with the rising cost of living.

    Happy weekends!

  • November 10, 2012

    Link love (Powered by mochachinos and Coldplay)

    • It must be bloody near impossible to study when you have a kid. Infinitely more so as a single parent.
    • It must be incredibly hard, and lonely, to study in a new country where the main language is not your mother tongue.
    • Foreign students often seem to want companionship just as much as the tutoring.
    • In helping to edit/proof their work, am I doing them a long-term disservice? If they can’t write coherent reports now, how will they manage out in the real world?

    In other news, I was offered free passes to Coldplay tonight – so that’s where I’ll be spending my Saturday! A free show is hard to say no to, and I imagine there’ll be enough songs to sing along to at this particular concert to make it worth the while.

    Blast from the past:

    One year ago, we moved house.

    Two years ago, I talked about why running is the only form of exercise that I get along with, what it’s like being a woman in publishing, our car history, and the evergreen NZ vs Australia debate.

    Three years ago, I broke down what my degree cost me and my most frugal/splurgey habits.

    This week’s links:

    Berrak has a rather lovely post on friendship in your 20s.

    Amy reflects on how she’s often surprised when other people actually like her. Me too. Me too.

    Linda details the savings to be had with a Prius.

    Paula explains why she’s a fan of knocking out big financial goals one at a time, rather than chipping away at them incrementally.

    Leslie wonders whether goals are really necessary in order to succeed.

    Carol Tice makes the case for raising your rates right now.

    Alison Green (aka Ask A Manager) lists six things to think about before a job interview.

    Alexis Grant explains how to use Facebook groups as part of your social media strategy.

    Finally, thanks to Femme Frugality, who hosted the latest Lifestyle Carnival, including my review of The Conservatory at Wynyard Quarter, and new carnival The Money Mail, complete with my ramblings on online shopping in New Zealand.

    Happy weekends, all!

     

  • November 3, 2012

    Link love (Powered by custard pies and strawberry milk)

    I remember taping songs off the radio. I remember scouring the early internet for codecs to get Windows Media Player to play MP3s, and struggling to bend RealPlayer to my whims. I remember when my phone had Bluetooth and infrared and both seemed so foreign and cutting edge.

    That was 10 years ago.

    This week, we plugged our hard drive into a PS3 to transfer files. We also played movies on a laptop, movies stored on an external hard drive. And we played the sound through a separate audio dock wirelessly using Bluetooth.

    Technology is a wondrous thing.

    This week’s links:

    Suburban Sweetheart’s raw and honest post about her college experience is incredibly moving.

    Amanda Lee, who lost her mother to cancer, explains her beef with  breast cancer awareness campaigns.

    Loved this Brazen Careerist post: Things you should never say to someone who works from home.

    I can vouch for Tripit, but now thanks to Yes and Yes I have all these other travel apps and sites I need to bookmark.

    Here are some handy tools to make you more efficient with social media, via Grow.

    I recently toyed with the idea of starting a Tumblr devoted to the terrible press releases and pitches I get, but decided I didn’t want to devote any more of my time to those, even for entertainment. Here, Grace Boyle shares some of the doozies she’s received.

    Lastly, I’m also in this week’s carnival of financial camaraderie talking about hybrid cars.

    Happy weekends, all!

  • November 2, 2012

    Five advice columns you need in your life

    5 advice columns you should be reading

    I love me a good advice column. Even more so when it’s penned by a sharp woman who is ONTO it. Here are my regular must-reads.

    Ask A Manager

    Alison Green is one of the most prolific bloggers in my Google Reader, posting multiple times a day with answers to a multitude of reader questions spanning the gamut from job-hunting to job-leaving and everything in between, like dealing with icky bosses and sucky colleagues. Your one-stop shop for everything workplace advice.

    Pink Slipped

    Susannah Breslin’s Forbes column is not strictly advice. But it is a no-BS column that often offers food for thought for writers and entrepreneurs, some of it actionable, some more thought-provoking and some just plain entertaining, like her frequent journalistic pieces about the porn industry (her beat).

    Bullish

    Jen Dziura is the kind of intelligent, successful woman I could only ever dream of being. The smartest, most thoughtful agony aunt for professional dilemmas (the Cheryl Strayed for the workplace, perhaps), she is an idol among the other Gen Y females at my workplace.

    Penelope Trunk

    This lady needs no introduction. Love her or hate her, agree with her or not, she calls it like she sees it and often gets it right. Brutally honest (sometimes too open, some might say) and always provocative.

    Smart, Pretty, Awkward

    Molly Ford has built a successful blog off a very simple formula: three short snippets every day to help you be smarter, prettier and (less) awkward. Fun but practical bite-sized tips you can implement right there and then.

    What are your favourite advice blogs?

  • October 27, 2012

    Link love (Powered by tiramisu and the Muppets)

    Hey, Auckland Transport? It’s pretty douchebaggy to send out a traffic ticket six months after an alleged offence.

    Quite frankly, even if we thought we had a shot at contesting this ticket, how in hell are we supposed to figure out what the hell happened at 5.13pm on April 30?

    I’m not kidding. Last week a ticket arrived in the mail pinging us for driving in a bus lane on Great North Rd in Grey Lynn in APRIL. That’s six months ago, for those feeling too lazy to count.

    Odds are it was T, as I hardly ever drive. Or possibly a friend or family member who borrowed the car. But more importantly, how did it happen? We’re both familiar with buslanes and how they work, and we both know to stay the hell out of them. Quite possibly it was a case of driving in a bus lane in order to turn left at a corner, because that’s how the roads work here, and you’re allowed to do that within a certain number of metres of the corner (and a misjudgement on the driver’s part). There’s a minute chance it was me pulling over to do a U-turn, as I recall doing many months ago, just shy of the start of a bus lane on Great North Rd, though I don’t know if that was in our car or a work car, and I don’t think it was that late in the afternoon.

    I’m trying not to waste any more time analysing this, because six months on there is just no point. Gotta suck it up and cough up.

    This week’s links:

    Thanks to Prairie Eco-Thrifter for including me in this week’s carnival of personal finance (in case you missed it, we had a new Civic IMA for a week and were inducted into the wonderful world of hybrids) and also to TB Blue Collar Workman for including me in the lifestyle carnival (check out my post on how we planned our most recent holiday, a campervan trip around the South Island).

    I am a planner. Yet underneath it all I am horribly disorganised. I’m also a voyeur. So I was all over this post by Mochi and Macarons outlining how she organises her life.

    This one’s aimed at journalists but there’s plenty of advice for anyone involved in running an event. Steve Buttry discusses using Twitter to promote your gig, and how to incorporate it throughout the actual event.

    Jeepers. I’ve probably had less than 10 jobs in my life, but J Money does have a few years on me. In this post, he runs through all 30-odd jobs he’s held to date.

    Kyla Roma talks about how to zero on your passions, plus a list of resources.

    Here’s Nicole with a reminder that sometimes even the things you love are “fucking hard work”.

    Do you ever feel like you’re doing it (money/life) wrong? Via Tales from the Trenches.

    At Life Without Pants, a nice take on focusing on your path and setting your own pace: Never compare the beginning of your story to someone else’s middle.

    Ramit’s handy script for how to tell people you’re raising your rates.

    Jess Lively realises that overarching happiness does not mean constant joy and stability on a daily basis.

    Finally, there were so many insights packed into Reid Hoffman’s latest LinkedIn piece. Here are my favourites:

    • If you can’t find someone who wants to employ you to pursue your dream job, or if you can’t financially sustain yourself—that is, earn a salary that allows you to live the lifestyle you prefer while doing it—then trying to turn your passion into a career doesn’t really get you very far.
    • The unfortunate truth is that in today’s career landscape, your parachute–no matter its color–may be punctured full of holes. And if it isn’t that way already, it could get that way at any time.
    • Deciding where you want to be in ten years and then formulating a plan for getting there might work if our environments were unchanging. It might work if getting from point A to point B in your career were like crossing a lake in a boat on a calm summer’s day. But you’re not in a calm lake. You’re in a chaotic ocean
    • Winning careers, like winning start-ups, are in permanent beta: always a work in progress.

    Happy weekends, all!

  • October 13, 2012

    Link love (Powered by mini pies and full days)

    Things that happen out of the blue, when you’ve had your Hotmail account for 10-odd years (Jesus, I’m getting old):

    • Emails from Lycos. How is Lycos still even in business?
    • Emails from the online songwriting group you used to belong to. Wow, that was a long time ago.

    Talk about a blast from the past.

    Speaking of which, it’s time for a wee review…

    One year ago, I talked about how taking the first step toward anything is always the hardest; about knowing when to quit; about worthy friendships and personalising weddings.

    Two years ago I wrote about being a one-car household and living a carless life; the cost of my hobbies; and foods I love but hate to cook.

    Can’t wait to see where I’ll be next year.

    To the links!

    MONEY

    Evolving PF on topdown vs bottom line budgeting and when they clash

    Frugal Traveler lists 10 frugal travel sites you should bookmark

    Graduated Learning on not sweating the small financial stuff

    Little Miss Moneybags perfectly sums up the number one reason to be on top of your finances

    FOOD

    The Asian Pear shares some of her fave foodie blogs with us

    Why cook at home? So you can better experience the seasons, says Cathy Erway

    A bunch of awesome marinade ideas, from Dinner: A Love Story

    These chocolate cookies from the Joy of Caking are on my to-try list this weekend

    LIFE

    Go Gillard! Australia should be proud. Here’s the New Yorker’s take on the Aussie PM’s take-no-prisoners speech hitting back at the sexism and misogyny she’s encountered of late.  Here’s the video in full

    Bridget asks if you think you’re entitled to chasing your dream no matter what the cost

    Congratulations, it’s a dud! There is SO much truth in this post by Jordann on the reality of 20-something milestones

    Along similar lines, Mo Money Mo Houses on how the recession inspired her to get up and kick ass at life

    And another Canadian, Cassie, is also talking economic transition and the changing landscape, from the perspective that things aren’t really all that bad

    Andrea ponders whether freelancing and life balance can happily co-exist

    Sweet Caroline shares the results of a photography project – finding all 26 letters of the alphabet out in the world. Amazing.

    Molly Mahar pens an excellent post on not apologising for loving your life

    Finally, my favourite quote this week comes from Ashley at Writing to Reach You in ‘Experiencing vs Writing’:

    I hit the limits of my introversion all the time.  I think about how I want to be the kind of blogger and person who reaches out to everyone and makes people feel warm, but I can’t.  It’s a physical feeling that I can’t extend myself any further.  I have almost an endless capacity for introspection, but a limited ability to express that outwardly. I try to push myself, and I’m usually happy that I did, but there’s a point where I just can’t anymore.

    I’m pretty sure we are two halves of the same person. Either that, or we share a brain.

  • October 6, 2012

    Link love (Powered by cheesecake and returning to routine)

    You want to know the truth about travel?

    Here it is.

    the truth about travel time

    The strangest part about settling back in: I’m still getting used to riding around in normal cars again (it feels like bowling around in a go-kart for the most part). Also, after spending two weeks down the other end of the country, where the (amazing) weather you get in the morning is the weather you get FOR THE REST OF THE DAY, coming back to Auckland has been a tough adjustment. I sit by a row of windows at work, so I have a close up view of the approximately 15 times that the sky changes from blue to cloudy to ominous to downpour, and all over again.

    You guys can look forward to a week of travel posts next week. Until then, peruse these posts from around the web…

    MONEY

    TeacHer Finance wonders if she’s contributing to the money taboo by blogging anonymously (though as a teacher she doesn’t get a choice…)

    Cassie Boorn lists 40-odd ideas for monetising your blog (can you help her get to 50?)

    Does income inequality matter if there’s social equality? Financial Samurai ponders…

    The NY Times’ Seth Kugel lists some options for travelers with smartphones.

    WORK

    There seems to be a move toward pursuing a lifestyle, not just a career or job, which I can’t say I disagree with. Cal Newport is a huge proponent of this: designing a path by identifying your desired lifestyle then supporting that with a suitable job. And here’s Gen Y Girl’s take.

    You’ve read the Michael Lewis Obama profile for VF, right? SO many people have honed in on how he has a ‘uniform’ (though really, when you wear suits every day, isn’t that a uniform in itself?) and how he appreciates not worrying about the little decisions like that. Nicole taps into that and she reckons routine is the key to productivity.

    Thinking about quitting your job? Do your homework first, via Fabulously Broke.

    Cosmo editor Kate White on managing both your job and your career at the same time.

    Loved this bitchslap of Vicky Vale on Vice. No, you can’t be Batman’s girlfriend. No, your job does not consist of going ‘undercover’ at gala balls.

    First Gen American’s post on networking is awesome, because it shares a story that demonstrates the importance of doing good work, and how word then gets around.

    And on that note, an introvert’s guide to networking is up at Wealth Informatics.

    LIFE

    Ashley at Writing to Reach You talks minimalism.

    New-to-me blog Condiments on a City Life (a Kiwi in the US) reflects on lessons from, yep, Sex and the City.

    Marian hasn’t been back to America for two years and wants to know what she’s been missing.

    The ultimate how-to bridesmaid guide, via Walking in Heels.

    Just because the title says it all: Mick Jagger, pole dancing, and the art of non-verbal communication (via Dumb Little Man).

    Another cracker from APW: Do you ever wonder “what if” about the possible others in your lifetime? How do you deal with this wandering eye/FOMO?

    I’m sad that The Secret Society of List Addicts has closed, but loved Yes and Yes’ take on aspects of modern life she wants no part of.

    It’s so true. Trying to organise get-togethers with people is like herding cats. I’ve given up. Hence, I loved every word in Jen’s latest Gloss post on finding new friends to hang out with, idea friends vs activity friends, and why long gaps between hang-outs can be a good thing.

    My Broken Coin explains how to go about marrying your equal.

    FOOD

    The first thing I want to do when I visit the US is go to Trader Joe’s. But if you live there, here’s some suggestions for maximising your dollar from Poor Girl Eats Well.

    Mmm, potatoes. MMMMM, stuffed potato skins. At $120 Food Challenge.

    Closet Cooking serves up a bacon cheeseburger soup. Seriously.

    Here’s a month’s worth of healthy 15-minute Stonesoup meals!

    Whew! That was a bumper one – tons of good stuff posted while I was away. Thanks also to the Traveler’s Show and Tell for including my skydiving story in the latest carnival!

  • September 16, 2012

    Link love (Powered by mascarpone and early nights)

    So I have this Facebook friend. She has, shall we say, modelling aspirations, and frequently posts photos from her shoots.

    There are a few classy ones – think long flowy dresses on the beach – but by and large they’re more of the bikinis, cars and leery guy mag ilk. Topless, even with strategic coverups.

    It’s equal parts mesmerising and gross, but aside from the pictures, I really enjoy the rest of her status updates. Ever had a similar situation on Facebook? Maybe it’s time I hide her posts.

    Links I liked this week:

    Cents and Nonsense shares a few stories of financial fails from younger, foolhardier days

    Even if you are not a writer, read Obsessions of a Workaholic’s piece imagining a life without writing, and substitute another passion of yours

    Warren at Married with Luggage struggles to reconcile his real self and ideal self

    Loved this post on Dinner: A Love Story by Dan Coyle on nurturing your kids’ talent without being a psycho parent

    I’m in love with lentils, and want to try this red lentil and coconut soup via the $120 Food Challenge

    It’s okay to want something different than you did before; it’s okay to change your mind and leave a passion or job you always wanted behind. From revolution.is

    Dollars and Deadlines reminds us of the importance of saying no, especially for freelancers

    I haven’t linked to Bullish for awhile but I’m rectifying that with Jen’s latest on how to recover from a stalled career

    Blast from the past:

    A year ago I asked for your take on the pros and cons of living with friends, and touched on how my dreams have changed over time.

    The year before that I indulged in a very decadent day by my standards and talked about my family history and its effect on my money personality. Apparently I was feeling pretty introspective, also writing that post on having immigrated at a young age and tattoos and heritage (and, er, I’d forgotten all about the resolution at the end of that post).

    And in 2009 I asked what you’d do if money was no object, contemplated the life of an army wife and counted my relationship blessings.

    Hope your weekends are going well!

  • September 8, 2012

    Link love (Powered by dry coughs and underachievement)

    Last weekend T and I went for a morning jaunt to a local beach. Not the white sandy variety; not even the black sand, pounding surf variety. The kind that’s rocky and kind of barren; where joggers frantically chase their dog around in an attempt to get it back on its leash, yelling “Hunter! Hunter!” fruitlessly and smiling at onlookers with a mix of frazzlement, humour and that ‘what can you do?’ expression; where it smells salty and bits of broken bottles lie amongst the mossy pebbles and there are faint whiffs of sewage – in other words, the kind of beach we both grew up close to.

    He found a sole coconut and cracked it open.

    I snapped a million shots of the greened-over rocks, enthralled by the texture.

    It’s the little things, I tell ya.

    Alrighty, to the links!

    So, Michelle Obama, huh? Among my daily reads are Slate, Salon and The Atlantic, and Slate killed it with this piece analysing her stupendous speech and just why it was so powerful. And apparently it was written at a 12th grade level, which is much higher than speechwriters generally aim for. The Obamas give me chills. That is all.

    I also enjoyed this Freshly Pressed post from Bea Magazine about Patricia Heaton (Debra from Everybody Loves Raymond, and also The Middle) and its take on the meaning of feminism (something I also struggle with, although it sounds like Diane and I share identical personal views on the subject).

    This brought me to tears. Here is a beautiful ode to love and taking chances from Hannah Katy.

    I am not sure I would have survived in the pre-internet days, to be honest. Kelly Abroad explains how her iPhone makes life as a traveller easier.

    Some of us quite like working for a company. Julie Clow is one, and at Life After College, explains how to make the most of it.

    Finally, Jonathan Fields argues that success, if guaranteed, is hollow. (How does that saying go – what would you do if you knew you could not fail? But is certain success truly success?) He writes: “The only way for success to be guaranteed in advance is to do something that’s so devoid of meaning and so stripped of creativity and innovation that even though you may be 100% capable of success, it’s not really success any more. It becomes an empty victory. Nobody will care, including you.”

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