I checked out my credit card balance today and found out that I had enough rewards points for a $50 check. So, I pushed some buttons, and now I have a $50 check coming my way, all because I bought a bunch of stuff that I needed to buy anyway.

I think it works out to be something like getting a 1% discount on everything I put on my credit card.

I just started reading "Loving What Is" by Byron Katie (Katie is actually her middle name).

Basically, the whole idea behind the book is that it is not the events of your life that cause suffering, it is how you think about the events of your life that cause suffering. So, if you can change your thinking about things, you'll feel much better.

Early in the book is an exercise which is meant to help you examine how you think about people in your life who make you angry, confused, saddened, or disappointed. Step number 5 is as follows:

"What do you think of this person? Make a list. Remember, be petty and judgmental."

I like a book that allows me to entertain my petty and judgmental thoughts.

Although the author of this article is probably insane, I think he has some good advice there:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2010/02/how-you-give-your-power-away/

I had always preferred bar soap to liquid soap, because it felt like liquid soap was impossible to fully wash off. There would always be this soapy film there that I hated. So, I had always bought bar soap to avoid this phenomenon. However, after I moved to this apartment, I found out my sink didn't provide enough room for bar soap. It turned out to be too messy, too much of a hassle to clean and I kept knocking my soap dish onto the floor. I figured it would be better to put up with liquid soap instead, so I switched.

It wasn't until yesterday that it occurred to me that perhaps I was using too much liquid soap. I was annoyed with how frequently I had to refill the dispenser and wished that it lasted longer. So, I tried using just a drop and was amazed to find that it was still effective while rinsing off much better.

Genius.

I feel silly for not having thought of this much sooner.

I bought this Dell laptop in the spring of 2002 (the one I'm using to write this). It's a Pentium III 1.0 GHz with 384 MB of RAM (because I didn't realize that one of the RAM slots was buried and wasn't user upgradable after purchase) and a meager 20 GB hard disk.

I'm often surprised how well it actually runs. I think it actually loads Windows XP faster than my MacBook Pro loads Windows 7. It actually is able to handle websites like Facebook, and programs like Google Earth. (Though, sadly, the CPU isn't fast enough to handle HD video or Netflix video on demand.)

I spent a lot of time optimizing the computer to get it running this well. I disabled a lot of the standard Windows XP nonsense and I run the computer without virus protection in order to save RAM and CPU resources.

Since it is so old, I don't worry so much about it getting stolen, because it wouldn't be a terrible loss. It isn't really worth anything, yet it has a lot of utility because of the wireless card and the DVD drive.

It turns out you don't need much of a computer at all to do lots of practical things.

I was hoping that this test would tell me what job would be best for me, but instead it told me some things about myself that are important to know when looking for a career. Some of the results were a little surprising at first, but I think it is fairly accurate.

One surprise for me was that the test said I was more people-focused than I thought I would be. I thought I was more of a task-focused person (and I can be very task-focused) but I am very conscious of people and I am often concerned with their needs.

---

You are energized by things associated with the Yellow quadrant. You are interested in things that allow you to:

• Organize things
• Use a system
• Track events, activities
• Create fair policies, procedures
• Work toward a "smooth running machine"
• Build a strong infrastructure
• Work behind the scenes
• Appreciate historical data
• Measure, evaluate what's going on
• Look for trends, patterns in data, numbers and behavior
• Be fair and efficient

You have the types of interests listed above and the way you approach these interests is by using your strengths, which are in the Blue quadrant. You will likely be: [I hadn't really thought of myself this way before, but I think this is true, especially the part about being thoughtful and considerate.]

• Thoughtful, reflective
• Dramatic
• Caring
• Using a personal touch
• Creative, innovative
• Approaching things in a new way
• Apt to think things through
• Considerate of how people could be impacted
• Able to look at things from other's perspective
• Selectively sociable yet personable

The thing that allows you to leverage your strengths is when you are in the right environment. In your case, you need an environment where: [This one basically outlines why I had to quit my last job.]

• People care about you
• You have plenty of time to make decisions
• You have possibilities and options, not rules
• You can be heard
• The group is not afraid to try new things
• The team considers that how and what is done affects others

When you are not in your best environment, you may react in the following ways which are counter-productive to your strengths:

• Sad and depressed
• Overly sensitive and take things too personally
• Anxious and create worst case scenarios
• Withdrawn
• Isolated by choice
• Indecisive

Back when I used to go to a meditation group regularly, we often did this meditation called the loving kindness meditation. The short version is that during the meditation, you imagine yourself sending love to people whom you admire, people you know personally, people you don't know, and finally to people you don't like.

The first few times I had done this meditation with the group, the effect on my mood was dramatic. I felt quite happy for a few days after the meditation. It was very nice.

Recently, I was driving around town and I found myself sending love to the other drivers on the road. I had been doing it for a few minutes before I realized what I was doing, then I started doing it consciously.

It felt nice, it felt calming and relaxing.

I often have a habit of creating an adversarial relationship between myself and the other drivers on the road. I often imagine that they would hit me, cut me off, prevent me from being able to merge, fail to turn even though they have their turning signal on, etc. It needlessly creates stress and causes me to view other drivers in a negative light. In short, it isn't healthy for me to be doing that.

I want to get into the habit of "sending love" while I am driving as I'm sure it will help reduce stress and make the experience of driving much more pleasant.

I can't say that I enjoy networking. It kinda feels like I'm trying to use people for my own personal gain. Of course, I'd like for my relationships with other people to be mutually beneficial but, I'm not sure what I can offer right now.

Perhaps I would be able to repay people by connecting them to new people also. I might enjoy that, actually. Just like David Rockefeller.

I hate sounding like a commercial, but I was pretty amazed by this:

I, along with my sister and parents, chipped in to get my brother a Playstation 3 (PS3) for Christmas. Oddly, none of us realized until the gift was actually opened that it came with two well-reviewed PS3 games ("Infamous" and "Batman: Arkham Asylum") and "The Dark Knight" on Blu-ray.

If you had bought these bonus items separately from Amazon.com, it would cost you $104.97. The PS3 is already a great deal at $299 even without over $100 worth of free discs since it does pretty much everything (except PS2 games, which is unfortunate).

What I like so much about the PS3 is everything that it does besides video games. I use it for watching Blu-ray movies, regular DVDs, NetFlix video on demand, Hulu, watching movies and TV shows downloaded from the Internet and on-demand movie rentals.

I'd probably pay $300 for a device that did all those things even if it didn't do video games.