I'm working on new ideas and I may blog specifically about them as they're developed -- or not. When I get it all figured out, I'll be back.

Thanks for reading and participating. It's been a most enjoyable experience -- to say the least. I'm glad for all the new friendships I've made here and I'll let you all know what's coming next as soon as I can.

Happy New Year to everyone!

I'm writing this post for a different reason, though. On that trip, I ran into someone I haven't seen for about 16 years -- a good friend from college. Unfortunately I didn't realize who she was until much later (16 years have really slowed down my brain). In any case I feel bad that I didn't say hi. I know it's about a billion to one chance that she'll ever read this blog post, but I'm going to say hi now anyway.

Today, though, I'm experiencing Apple Envy. Have you heard about the new Apple OS called Leopard? You should watch this video. There's a lot of eye candy in the demonstration but from my perspective, what's truly amazing is how well integrated everything is. The good news for me is that today the Apple OS runs on an an Intel chip. That means that I can get a Mac, use Leopard for most of my work (it's almost all online now anyway) and if I need Windows, I can install MS Virtual PC and run Windows XP with its applications in a separate window.

I know what I'll be asking Santa for this year.

I'm not a stock picker -- in fact, my past experience is pretty lousy. I took a different approach this time. First of all, I decided to diversify (yeah, that's obvious, I know) and I decided to lean toward the Warren Buffett approach to holding. He's quoted as saying, "Our favorite holding period is forever."

So back in May I started investing $25 per week in stocks using Sharebuilder. The nice thing about Sharebuilder is that you can buy stocks for $4 or less based on the investment program you choose. There are no account minimums (I started with $25) and you can buy fractional shares of stocks. My first stocks were Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL) and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG).

Back in May, a share of Apple cost $103. I bought 0.0482 shares. I also bought 0.0107 shares of Google at $466 and 0.0655 shares of Chipotle at $76. Today Apple is at $186, Google is currently $695 and Chipotle is $133. Overall I've had a 25% gain on my investment in just under six months.

Realistically I don't expect to see those kinds of gains, but I'm excited that I'm finally doing something and it's such a small amount ($25 per week) that we haven't even noticed it in our budget. I'm planning on holding for the very long term and look forward to increasing my investment amount over time. I'll pick different stocks as it makes sense, but I'm not day trading or moving in and out of stocks quickly. Slow and steady with a little bit going in every month.

Thoughts?

What about you?

However, today things are looking up. The project seems to finally be wrapping up and it's quiet around work again. Lots of things are changing for the better at home. The weather is getting so nice and we've just planted our winter grass and our garden. The kids have been out of school for fall break and both of their birthdays are within the next four days.

Sometimes the longest, toughest days are the ones that just precede change. These have been those days, but now it's really starting to feel like life is turning normal again. Whatever normal is.

I finished reading it long ago (and I've read a few other books since then, but I've been working on something to simplify my reviews, so I haven't said much). I loved the book, so I was happy to see that New Regency has already picked up the rights to the book. I've heard rumors that the Fablehaven series also has some movie workings in progress, but this is the first official Brandon Mull-to-movie news I can report.

Congratulations to Brandon on this!

I've been thinking about saving for a long time and I've come to the simplistic conclusion that we're too complacent. We have an economy that's great, plentiful credit and even in recent bad times, nobody seems to have a long-term memory. I've heard the following quote many times in my life (incorrectly attributed to various influentials):

Those who understand interest collect it; those who don't, pay it.

It's only been recently, however, that the phrase has had much personal interest to me. For me the honest reason that I've never saved much is that I've been looking for a faster investment -- not appreciating the value of compounding interest, I recognize. I've had the mindset that if I could find the right investment that would double or triple in a year or two (yeah, right) I'd put all my eggs in that basket, then diversify after that.

So far that hasn't happened. So this year I decided to start saving the way it's supposed to work. That is, I've taken a little money each week and put it away. I have diversified in three places:

• ING Direct
  I've mentioned ING Direct a number of times in the past (see here). ING Direct is so simple. Just set up direct deposit from your employer or transfer money from your bank account (ING Direct allows you to automate this) and earn at a much better interest rate than your bank offers. ING Direct even has interest-bearing checking accounts!
• Prosper
  I've also mentioned Prosper before (see here). Prosper is a person-to-person lending and borrowing service where you can literally set your own interest rate. I've been an active lender at Prosper for a couple of months now and I've helped fund a few loans. My commitment to each loan is about $50, so my exposure (the chance of losing money) is lower than if I had lent the total amount to a single loan. Prosper provides detailed information on each loan being offered including the borrower's credit grade, current liabilities, debt load and other risk factors. You can fund loans with as much or as little risk as you prefer. One very cool thing is that until the end of the year, if you sign up at Prosper (using one of my links) we both get $25. You get $25 after your first loan is funded -- same for me. If you're at all interested in Prosper, take advantage of the free $25. That's an infinte return on investment.
• Sharebuilder.com
  Sharebuilder.com is a traditional stock trading account, but with minimal investment levels and fees. Sharebuilder.com allows you to start for next to nothing and make small, gradual investments over time. Right now, I invest about $100 per month and I have selected a plan that costs about $12 per month and provides 6 free trades. I then have Sharebuilder.com automatically purchase six stocks that I have selected on the first Tuesday of each month. At $100 per month, I'm not buying whole shares of stocks (for example, I own about 1/5 share of Google right now), but Sharebuilder.com pools the actual stock purchases allowing individuals to buy into the stock market a little at a time. Sharebuilder.com also has a referral program (click any of the links in this article) that pays $25. If you join, you'll get your $25 four weeks after your first trade goes through. I get trading credits if you join, just FYI.

I hope that the writers can keep the energy and mystery of Heroes up to last season. I think they can. I have a few personal issues with some of the things I've seen in the previews for this season already, but I know that with this series, nothing you see is necessarily the way it is.

So, I look forward to the first episode airing tonight at eight. I'm sure this is just the first of many posts about Heroes this year.

That is all.

Here's the overview from Amazon:

What if there were a place where you could get magical candy? Moon rocks that made you feel weightless. Jawbreakers that made you unbreakable. Or candy that gave animals temporary human intelligence and communication skills. (Imagine what your pet would say!) Four young friends, Nate, Summer, Trevor, and Pigeon, are befriended by Belinda White, the owner of a new candy shop on Main Street. However, the gray-haired, grandmotherly Mrs. White is not an ordinary candy maker. Her confections have magical side effects. Purposefully, she invites the kids on a special mission to retrieve a hidden talisman under Mt. Diablo Elementary School. However, Mrs. White is not the only magician in town in search of the ancient artifact rumored to be a fountain of youth. She is aware that Mr. Stott, the not-so-ordinary ice cream truck driver, has a few tricks of his own.

The Candy Shop War is not in the Fablehaven series, but I have heard from several reliable sources that it's just as fun to read. I'll be ordering my copy from Amazon tonight and I'll let you know what I think when I'm finished.

Wow. This flyer has to me listed among the worst ever created and distributed. Let's analyze.

First, the cardinal rule of printing, emailing, texting, blogging, et cetera is to never use ALL CAPS. Whatever you think you might be accomplishing by using all caps, you're wrong. It's nearly impossible to read and it's just plain annoying.

Second, there's no information about who is providing the service on this flyer anywhere -- no company name, no contact phone, no address. So, just for the sake of argument, let's say I'm interested. Who do I make out the check to? Who do I call if there's a mistake made? What if I'd like to talk to them about the painting before I agree to the work? I infer from the fact that there's no contact information that the people who are doing this would rather not have me call and complain about leaving junk flyers taped to my home. I infer further that they therefore believe that what they're doing won't make most people happy. If that's my first impression of your business, do you think I'm going to let you do anything to my property?

Third, don't try to scare me into using your service. The statement, "homes that are not adequately numbered may possibly cost lives" is completely ludicrous. The emergency services in my area work better than that and I know it. To tell me that painting my house number on my curb will improve emergency services at my house insults my intelligence and frustrates me even more than simply finding poorly crafted junk left on my home.

I'm sure the person who developed this flyer isn't reading my blog, but if you are marketing and advertising I recommend you spend a little time reading Seth and Brian. If you learn something from them, you won't offend me with your advertisements.

I really do have a lot of things happening ... I just haven't made time to write about them. Gotta fix that.

Just another reason to enjoy Chipotle.

Didn't she do a great job? Thanks Holly! And good luck Donna!