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There’s a really good little clip on youtube by Tom Peters about the importance of Thank You notes.

I would add one thing that I don’t think Tom calls out in this video. That’s to hand write the Thank You note.  Why?

It’s the same reason that I hate getting Thank You emails.  A “thank you” is meant to show appreciation right? I get Thank You emails all the time and most are just a waste of time and don’t really make me feel appreciated.  I know that person is grateful but I already knew that in 99.9% of the cases.  There are a few small exceptions to my “no thank you email” rule.

Last week our entire department received a thank you email from our boss (the VP of marketing) where he called out specific actions and milestones that our team had accomplished.  Not only had we just launched the new corporate site but we had launched a plethora of smaller but still  hugely important sites.  And then he took it a step further, he copied all the C-level executives in the company to make sure they knew how well his department is doing.

I have also received a few in the past that detail why a colleague or client is so thankful.  They don’t just say “thanks”, they explain why it was so critical that you did what you did.  Those are good emails to get.

There have been 2 or 3 occasions when I have met with a potential vendor, client, partner, employee and received a hand written thank you note.  Let me tell you, that can make the most unattractive interviewee a potential hire.  Than can make the difference in choosing a vendor in close competition situations. Someone even overnighted me homemade cookies once to apologize when they had called me Todd by mistake. Even though that vendor wasn’t really a contender it was really had to say no to them afterward.

When the Thank You note is hand written you know that they really mean it. ” Who writes anything by hand these days?  I mean wow, they hand wrote this?  And look at this penmanship, he must be a really sharp guy.” Hand writing is the text equivalent of body language.  You can learn so much about a person from their hand writing.

Putting the thank you note on letterhead or a really nice stationary is important too.  If you are doing this in the name of a business this is one of the best things you can do to build your brand.

Related articles

• How To Write a Thoughtful Thank You Note (apartmenttherapy.com)
• Taking pen in hand (dispatch.com)
• PaperTemplates.net

So I have had my iPhone for a little over 3 years now.  I’m sold.  Not a fanboy by any means but I don’t see my self moving to another phone in the foreseeable future.  Not until someone knocks the iPhone from it’s throne of awesomeness.

AT&T on the other hand… Let me say the positive things first.

Rollover. Rollover was great when I was in a plan that was close to my usage.  I had to upgrade from the 400 minute plan and I was looking for a 600 or 800 but no. The next level up was 1400. Well it was cheaper than the overage charges. Barely.Umm what else?  Yeah, I can’t think of any other positives.

I have never felt like I was getting a good deal with AT&T.  But this post isn’t meant to be a rant on AT&T’s crappy service and lame billing.  Really it’s not.

So here we go.

Verizon just announced that they will be selling me an iPhone selling iPhones.  I’ve got a month to decide where I’ll be getting my iPhone4.  If it were today it would be Verizon.  No contest.  But I hold no animosity towards AT&T even though I want to.  It was just a business decision. A legalized monopoly if you will.  I can’t really blame them for that, if I had the chance I would have probably done something pretty similar.

But I was thinking about it, what would AT&T have to do to convince me to stay.  Here goes.

To keep me as a customer AT&T would have to offer me:

• a 500-900 minute range plan for under $60
• Keep my huge mass of rollover minutes that I’ll never use on my current plan.
• UNLIMITED texting
• current data plans are fine but I want tethering without an extra charge
• family plan for as many iPhones as I want
• Basically I want my total bill for 2 iPhones and one other phone to be under $150.  Right now I’m paying more than that for 1 iPhone and 2 regular phones.

If AT&T won’t give me that I’ll take whatever Verizon is selling because I’m just sick of feeling screwed every time I look at my bill.

Related articles

• Should I Get an AT&T iPhone or a Verizon iPhone? (icemanbaldy.com)
• Will the iPhone Crush Verizon’s Network? [IPhone] (gizmodo.com)
• COMPARISON: Verizon Vs. AT&T iPhone (AAPL, T, VZ) (businessinsider.com)
• What’s the Difference Between the Verizon and AT&T iPhone? (pcworld.com)

So what’s your take? What would it take to convince you to get in iPhone on AT&T?

1 year ago I started my own made up diet/weight control program.  Basically it was just this: No eating after 6:00 PM.

That worked well for about 3 months. I slowly lost about 10 pounds.  Then I plateaued. Until August I didn’t lose any more weight.  Not until I tried a handy little iPhone app called LoseIt.

LoseIt helps you set goals and track calories intake and burn.  In the next 3 months I lost an additional 12 pounds.

Then came the holidays.  November was hard but I managed to only put on 1 pound with Thanksgiving.  Then came Christmas and the New Year.  I managed to put on all 12 of those pounds in just under 2 weeks.  I didn’t even have to try.  They just magically appeared.

So. Now the resolve. I work at MonaVie during the day (fantastic place to work by the way) and MonaVie just launched (today) a new weight management product. And I have a 1 month’s supply. So I’m working really hard and avoiding all those things I’ve pigged out on during the holiday.  I’m only 2 days in and I’ve already lost back 3 of those regained pounds. So if you happen to see me wavering in my resolve please give me a little encouragement.  I’m really Jonesin for an EMV right now.

So I wanted to try out a gallery for my posts.  This one here looks like a decent gallery. I have tested it out and it works fine.  So now the challenge is to create a post where it’s appropriate to use an image gallery.  That’ll come next I suppose.

I also don’t want to have to go look up the options somewhere online.  Maybe I’ll just post them here…

SmoothGallery options

Here are the most common options for SmoothGallery. If you need more: have a look at the top of the file utils.php that comes with this plugin.

I added some more options that aren’t part of SmoothGallery. They help you to customize the dimensions and other CSS related parameters.

Shoes without laces don’t have that problem of the laces getting stuck in the wheels on your office chair.

Every Penny Counts

My wife and I have been struggling to recover from the debt we incurred when we closed down a business venture a few years ago.  We were starting to think we weren’t going to be able to make it.

Then about 3 months and 6 days ago were were given a tough choice to make.  We could either settle our single largest account or let it go to a legal firm for collections which could only mean one option at that point.  I have always been against that option and so has my wife.  So against all odds we accepted the settlement offer.  We had 3 months to come up with more than we would have normally paid in almost 2 years on that account.  It was a great offer considering it was less than a third of what was owed on the account but still, it seemed impossible.

“How can we do this when we can’t even make the minimum payment?” I wondered  several times out loud.  “We’re really just buying a few more months until we have to do the unthinkable.”

But we sat down and made a list of every possible option we could think of for generating some additional income.  Sell the car, sell old school books, cut out this expense, cut out that expense, skip a payment or two on this thing and that thing, get extra student loans, apply for as many grants as we could think of, do some small design jobs, find some larger design jobs, make some crafty things to sell to neighbors and friends, etc, etc, etc.  Our list of what we could see as possible income was a little more than what we would need but the odds of those things panning out was still a long shot.  Ok, long shot is a little mild. It was downright impossible without some major influence from Heaven.

Immediately we cut all our spending on anything that wasn’t essential to live.  Then we started working on the additional income.  Well one miracle after another they started to pan out.  One old client from said failed business venture even called out of the blue asking for some work that could only be done by myself and my former partner.  I definitely didn’t see that one coming.

Well the deadline was last Thursday. And we made it, barely but we made it.

The most amazing part of it all is to see how the impossible can be possible when you think about money a little different. And when you get a little divine help.

So there are a number of things that I have always thought about money and our society but I think I finally know them now.

1. In our society we are taught to think about money and jobs to make us part of the system. We contribute by putting in our time and consuming every bit that we can. We have been taught to purchase things  on credit that cost more than what we bring home in a single paycheck.  We focus on our credit rating because we are taught that without good credit, we can’t do anything or go anywhere in life.
2. Well, it’s all lies.  Consumption doesn’t help build the economy.  Especially consumption that uses credit to exist.  It doesn’t create happiness.  It doesn’t create stability or security. It creates dependence and slavery. It’s the opposite of freedom.
3. Buying into the whole “go to school, get a degree, get a good job, retire when you are 62.5″ that’s just ludicrous.  It just doesn’t make sense.
4. Credit is stupid.  Buying on credit is stupid. Thinking you need a good credit score is stupid.  Did you know that people will still accept cash?
5. Here’s the way I see it now:  Make a list of needs. Make a list of wants. Save for each.  Save a large amount for emergencies (at least 10% of income).  A budget isn’t about tracking where the money has gone. It’s about planning and not buying until you have the money budgeted or set aside for that purchase.

So here’s my challenge.  Now that this painful experience is over I am going to live by my budget and only buy things with money that is sitting in my bank account.  I don’t really care what my credit rating is because honestly, I don’t plan on ever needing it again.  I’ve proven to myself that when you create a goal and honestly strive to reach that goal, you can accomplish what you have previously thought impossible.

Related articles

• Stop Being a Slave to Debt (and Banks) (frugaldad.com)
• 10 Reasons to Have Multiple Income Streams (money.usnews.com)
• Budgeting For Mistakes (getrichslowly.org)
• MICHELLE SINGLETARY: Rainy Day Planning (kitsapsun.com)