Froodee

Living.Blogging

To Glide or to Stroke

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Sometimes you just really have to choose how you will end your race.  Whatever race that is… will you choose to stroke hardest to the finish or will you glide?  The choice for Michael Phelps was all but normal. He was a born champion since his first swimming lessons at 8 years of age.  He knew that every stroke counted as his last.  And during the Beijing Olympics, that last stroke dashed him ahead by .01 millions of a second before his closest rival.  

The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task.

“My will to live completely overcame my desire to win.” Olympic swimming has come a long way, to temperature-controlled 50-metre pools, wave-killing gutters, lane markers designed to reduce turbulence, and status as one of the Games’ glamour events. It is far removed from those early days. American swimmer Michael Phelps set the all-time single Olympics gold-medal record by passing Mark Spitz’s 36-year-old record of seven. Phelps won his eighth gold medal at the Beijing Games, swimming the third leg for the Americans in the winning four-by-100-meter medley relay. It was also his 14th career gold medal, another record. He also won gold at 200 freestyle, 200 butterfly, 4-by-200 freestyle relay, 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly.

Desire, dedication, determination, concentration and the will to win.

How Do You Budget For $0?

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You’re getting your paycheck today, but soon you realize that everything is spoken for and you’re actually left with $0 in your pocket.  You’re living from paycheck to paycheck, the first one pays for the mortgage then the next pays the bills.  What are you left with?  How will you survive?

My experience tells me that it is in these times that a budget plan is really important.  Sure you’ve got $0 in the pocket, but that’s better than having like say $-5,000 in loan!  Ha!  There are hundreds of thousands of people walking in the city that have an average of  -5,000+ dollars in their bank account.  Yeah it’s terrible than $0.

I won’t try to sweeten how you feel now, but squarely I’d say that life is tough.  You need to put your hard-chin up and face the music.  Even at $0 you can take control.  From here on make sure you you grip every penny.  List every expense, even if you feel it’s useless to do so… you gotta monitor every penny!

You’d finally see how money is coming in and out once everything’s written down.  It may just surprise you too that it reveals hope.  When you monitor how money comes in and out you’d be aware of spending patterns, you’d get to know where you can adjust a little tighter to pinch out a penny more into savings.

Believe you me… it is hard… but really worth it!

Have a Cupcake

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Ah, this was quite a surprise when I came home today. My wife baked a dozen chocolate cupcakes! So, fresh out of the oven one was offered to me and how could I resist. It was all so fluffy and just perfect! Ha (!) I hope she’s reading my blog, I could use a warm back rub tonight.

Anyway, let me pull out of that wonderful scene to say “don’t you think the world needs a cupcake”? I think it’s high time for a “world smile”. Across the globe, recession has been biting bitterly to people of all classes. Even the rich aren’t immune to it! Case in point several hundreds of higher level management folks in danger of losing their jobs.

In Canada, some companies are cutting back on employee benefits to avoid the mass lay-offs. I was just speaking with a friend yesterday and she said the that their employee union agreed to cutting back on benefits only to safeguard their jobs.

Tough, tough world we live in… we all need a cupcake!

What are your budget busters?

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waste-of-money
 

While we try our very best to stick to the budget rules we’ve set, there’s ALWAYS that single thing that busts a small hole in our pockets.  Soon enough, that small hole expands to a greater flush of the ‘ole buckeroos down the drain. 

I’ll list down some of my personal budget busters as a self-excersise in identifying them.  I hope these would also help you with yours.  Identifying them is the first step to freedom folks! :)  And a great way to make a list of what to avoid when you hit the malls or the groceries.

  1. Chocolates – I always, always, always have a bar of Hershey’s or a Kisses bag when I go out the grocery.
  2. Starbucks – if there is a branch nearby, I’d be in it in no time ordering a mochaccino or a sliver of cake.
  3. Ice cream cone – when I take a stroll and I see an ice cream parlor, expect to see me with a double scoop fudge.
  4. USB drives – I just gotta have that bigger, cuter, more colorful… ah, I’d always grab a US$10-15 USB drive… and I always tell myself I’d be giving it to someone as a gift.
  5. Computer magazines – I know I could easily access most of what I want online, but the glossy magazines are just way too tempting to resist

TreeHugger.com

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I remember a group in the early 90’s when all these environment-save-the-earth movements were taking shape.  The Tree Huggers of America, was and still is a cornerstone movement championing the preservation of forests, of nature.  Oh those warm feelings when I heard about this movement.  Made me hug a tree too! 🙂

Anyway, I’ve recently come across what seems to be a branch of the tree-hugging concept.  TreeHugger.com is fast becoming a central resource of everything about saving the natural resources of the planet.  I was a little impressed at how the site is active with posts and participation from around the world.  It seems so riddled with advertisements though.  If you can wade yourself through the ad gunk, the site may have something really important to say to you.  It somehow feels like the commercial version of the Tree Huggers of America website. 🙂

Check out the Un-Tree Hugger section. That’s original and really very interesting.