Advisor Blogs

What motivates you? That's the question I'd like to ask in this inaugural blog entry on motivation. Are you motivated by fame, fortune, or fear? Or is it something deeper that fans the flames inside of you? Perhaps you are like Jeanne Louise Calment whose burning desire let her do something that no other human being has done before -- feat so spectacular that it generated headlines around the globe, got her a role in a motion picture, and landed her in the Guinness Book of World Records. A record that has yet to be beaten.

Windows XP is gone, but Windows Vista is not an acceptable replacement. What now? Is Microsoft's forced death of XP also ending the era of useful Windows PCs?

My column in North County Times questioning the ancillary functions of public libraries brought a storm of protest from library lovers. Well, a squall at least.
http://nctimes.com/articles/2008/05/29/opinion/rider/doc483ee3f9b66bd295...

What struck me about the criticism is that many of these supposedly well-educated folks apparently read no further than the headline before firing away in the online comments section. Either that, or their vaunted reading comprehension remains at third-grade level.

Here's an excellent article from an odd source: Karl Rove. Printed in the Wall Street Journal, this piece exposes the economic nonsense of both Obama and McCain when it comes to raising taxes on oil companies. Good stuff.

A small financial tip for these hard times: If you have cable TV service, AT&T is starting to compete in some areas. Not to say they are necessarily better, but the competition itself is indeed beneficial.

I just called my cable company, Time Warner, and told them that I was considering switching to AT&T cable and high speed Internet services. That prompted the sales clerk to suddenly note that I was under an "old" plan (established less than a year earlier), and that now there are better deals.

Much is being made of "reducing our carbon footprint." I'm in favor of that -– to a point. I look for carbon-reducing steps that also save me money and/or make my life more pleasant! As I see it, if a carbon reducing strategy costs more, then often the wisdom of selecting that option is highly suspect.

For instance, I like using energy-saving florescent bulbs. I've used the big florescent lights in my fully equipped, professional office in the home for about 30 years. I also use the newer compact florescent bulbs whenever they fit with the demand, which fortunately is most of the time.

For two years or more, an inflammatory anti-Mexican immigrant (legal and illegal) chain letter email has circulated the Internet. It lists a series of truly disturbing statistics demonstrating that these illegal immigrants (ALL people of Mexican descent are assumed to be illegal immigrants) are the number one problem in America -– raping, pillaging and welfaring their way across the land.