Frugally Using The Library As Part Of My Mobile Office

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Today, I decided to give everybody an oral peak in my business settings, and in particular how I us a mobile office instead of a set location.

First off, I don’t have an official office, or at least one dedicated to my side businesses.  I guess you could call my “laptop and laptop case” my official office, because wherever I go with it, I can do work and be productive!  To be honest though, I probably spend at least 60% of my time in a spare bedroom that has a desktop computer in it as my “unofficial” office!  While I don’t use the desktop as much as I use my laptop while I’m in the room, sometimes I do have both up doing work.  When a guest stays the night, I go down into our media/library room and work there instead (I really do love having a laptop!).

At work I’m limited, my employer has a proxy server than limits me from going to sites such as gmail.com, etc…  So instead I use the local library (which is about 2 miles away) as a critical part of my mobile “side business” office!  Using the library as a mobile office has served me well for years.  I go at lunch so the crowd is minimal (maybe 10 people come and go the entire hour that I’m there), and it’s naturally quiet.  Internet access is provided, the air is perfect with heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, and there is even a small pond outside if I want to escape for a second and take nature in.  In may ways it’s like a Corporate Park area!

Lately, I’ve been using my time at the library to do research and learn more.  Why pay someone to teach you when you have a wireless connection at the library, not to mention all the books I could pickup and read…  The library is something that we all pay taxes to run and a lot of us just let it go to waste?  Why not take advantage of the potential to use it as a mobile office?  Plus, when you are traveling, most cities have their own library, just sitting there, neglected, waiting from someone to come in and use the great free services!

It I were retired or had enough money to stop living my life in a cubicle, I would take advantage of the great mobile office like environment that libraries provide!  I would then travel more, using the mobile office setting that is available in almost every city (and most of them provide internet access at their library too).

If your on vacation, the local Library’s mobile office is just sitting there like a  faithful dog, waiting for you to pay it some attention!

Even if you don’t like the library, perhaps go to one and try it out for an hour.  Try to think of it as a mobile office instead of a place to borrow books, you might surprise yourself and find that you can do a lot of work there!  For instance, this entire article was written at the library that is less than 2 miles away from where I work…

It’s free!!!  Try it, you may find that it beats paying big bucks to rent office space!

Bests,

Don

Frugal Weight Loss Update 210

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Weight Loss Update

Since my last update in the article: weight loss update on August 16th, I’m down 5 more pounds to 210.

After getting home from the financial conference called FinCon12, I weighted myself and low and behold, I was dead even at 210 pounds!  I knew when I weighted myself before the conference, I was at 211 pounds.  This is surprising since at the conference I went off of my diet a bit and enjoyed all the great free food that was provided by the conference!  My goal was to be 210 for the conference, and I’m thinking that while I was there I must have hit that goal (perhaps while on the flight, I didn’t eat much that day at all).

The weight loss milestone 210 is an important one for me…  It means that I’m now at Active Weight!  By “Active Weight“, I mean that instead of just going a few basic pushups and situps, I can incorporate more action based activities into my exercise routine (like lifting weights, jogging, tennis, etc).

Optimal Lifestyle Goal

My philosophy towards weight loss and health is a bit different than what is popular in the mainstream today.  Unlike other more intense programs, I don’t want to work out so hard that I feel like throwing up!  I also don’t want to be in intense pain (from sore muscles) for the next few days or even weeks.  To me feeling miserable isn’t my optimal lifestyle nor healthy!

My goal is to both “slowly” and “quickly” morph into optimal shape!  My “slowly“, I mean gain over the long haul, to not do a program for 90 days then take time off and do it again.  That’s too much yoyo-ing for me, and not stable.  What I want is something that I enjoy doing and actually look forward to doing, which optimizes my lifestyle.  Why do something that you don’t enjoy when there are enjoyable alternative that you can do instead?

By “quickly“, I mean that I don’t want to take half the day or even a few hours every day working out!  Ideally I want a program that I can do in about 20 to 30 minutes every other day (if that).

Superman's Cape

Exceptions to the “quickly” rule!

My first exception to the “quickly” rule is if the activity is something I enjoy doing and would even pay to do it!  I enjoy water sports, so wave-running (jet skis), water skiing, swimming, etc… is something that I don’t mind doing, even if it takes me a few hours!

The second exception to the “quickly” rule is if I’m getting paid for doing it.  I describe this phenomenon in this article: “Getting Paid To Lose Weight“.

Next Weight Loss Milestone sub-200!

My next “Big” milestone is to break though (actually more slip through) is the 200 pounds barrier!  Once I get under 200, I would consider myself to be pretty successful with my weight loss program, especially if I’m lifting weights, enjoying my activities, and doing some very quick cardio (maybe 30 minutes on some days).

Thanks for reading my progress!

Don

Saving Money Repairing Your Own Dryer

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Repairing Your Own Dryer.

After a great vacation at Hilton Head Island, I came back home to find out the dryer wouldn’t heat anymore!  It seems like there it’s becoming more common that after a vacation, I come back home to find out that something is broken and I need to put in some time to fix it.  Last year it was a leaky plumbing, this year its wet clothes…

Now my dryer is well over 10 years old, and at first I thought that perhaps it’s time pitch it and the washer to the curb and dig in deep into my pockets and buy a new washer and dryer… until I realized that each are around $700, and that’s for lower end  models.

I know, the new dryers will make your toasted cheese sandwiches (kidding), but a dryer’s main function is to dry clothes, so I don’t need the newest most aesthetically designed washer and dryer… I’m more of a function kind of guy.  If it does its job, I’m happy!  And other than the heat not working, I’m more than happy to keep our old, cheap dryer (and washer too)!

After googling with the following keywords “dryer stops heating after a while”, I read and watch a few videos that lead me to believe that the problem was probably a worn out coil (solenoid coil actually).  So after googling with the key words “Frigidaire dryer gas coil”, I found the following awesome video!  This explained the entire process!

Next I googled the correct part number and found the replacements for the coils, but they ran over $30, so instead I tried ebay!  I found the part for $9 including shipping!  Nine bucks?  For that price, I considered it worth the risk…  So I bought the coils without hesitation since they were so cheap!

DIY Savings

I estimate that I saved myself at least $150 to $250 depending on the repairman doing the job!  Not to shabby for a little bit of Googling and elbow greese!

And there you have it!  My story of fixing my dyer for a very low ($9) price.

Bests,

Don

Fincon12 – A Unique Perspective – Part 1

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I decided to take the leap and go to the Fincon12 which was in Denver this year.

At first I wasn’t very excited to go.  I knew a few of my online friends that were bloggers, stopped blogging or slowed down.  So it was a sad start for me personally.  That said, I was actually surprised to learn that the number of those attending the conference doubled from last year, so it was great meeting some of the new folks!

I was so bummed, that on Friday morning I decided to go on a special “personal” Denver exploration trip.  First I walked down to 16th street.  This street is special because they call it an “16th Street Mall”, where the streets aren’t drivable by normal cars (although buses and rickshaws do) and it’s interesting to say the least!  The street is lined with shops like a normal mall would be, but it’s outdoors.  There are people playing pianos and other entertaining things for money.  If you are a people watcher, you would love it, there are tons of interesting and diverse people all around.

denver 16th street mall

The following Saturday, I walked down to the Library for an hour and 1/2, thinking that since I really enjoy the libraries in the state that I live in (Ohio), then the Denver libraries must be spectacular!  Boy was I wrong!  First the library is across the street from the park where a high number of homeless live, not to mention the large number of groups of teenagers.  Next once inside it wasn’t visually appealing for me, and in fact it kind of reminded me of rundown multi-floor gymnasium.  Needless to say, I’ve come to the realization that librarys aren’t all golden like the ones where I live, and may be a negative or even dangerous place to visit (There was a police officer in the vestibule of the library that looked seasoned and tough).

That said, the streets where fairly clean (no trash lying around), and the architecture was very elegant and diverse, the aesthetics of the city alone (17th and Welton St.) made the trip worth it from my perspective, especially this is the first trip to Denver where I got to actually see the city!

While this little trip might not seem like much, it let me pretend for a small moment that I was a traveling blogger, and that I was away from home exploring a new city (which it was for me)!  I was taking it all in like a sponge!  The clean but gum encrusted sidewalks, the fashion that the people out there worn, not to mentioned their hair styles, the typical shape of the city dwellers where, the incredible but not overdone architecture, the homeless, the quality of the air (the mile high city didn’t phase me from a lack of air perspective, and this pleased me greatly) and the basic overall community.

So from a non-conference standpoint, getting a feel for the incredible city of Denver was worth the cost of attending the financial conference alone!  I can’t wait to hear where it will be next year!  I hope it’s still within my budget to go!

I’ll post more about the experience and the people I met later!

Bests,

Don