Commuting is a drag. There was a point in time that I had a 5 minute commute to work, then I decided to move and my company said I could just work from home. When it came time to switch jobs my walk down the stairs turned into a 45 minute (one-way) commute – and that was on a good day. So for the past two years I’ve found myself in the car for a minimum if an hour and a half each day. It seems insane at first thought, but I am a bit surprised how I have gotten used to it.

How do I pass the time? There are two main things I do that keep me sane: 1) Eat Sunflower seeds – this is mainly to keep me awake. I find I don’t get drowsy if I am constantly eating something and Spitz BBQ sunflower seeds are my addiction. 2) Listen to audio books.

Why audio books? A few reasons. First, I’m not much of a music person. I never have been. I will listen to music on occasion, but it gets old fast to me. I know, I’m strange in this regard. Second, I like learning new things. I don’t really get that from music. Third, there are lots of books I would like to read, but I just don’t have the time. My average weekday looks something like this:

4:00 AM – 6:30 AM: Freelance or independent work
6:30 AM – 7:15 AM: Shower & get dressed
7:15 AM – 8:00 AM: Commute to work
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM: Work my butt off!
5:00 PM – 5:45 PM: Commute home
5:45 PM – 8:00 PM: Family time (dinner, play with kids, etc)
8:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Time with my wife (watch TV, talk, eat ice-cream)
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM: Ready for bed, read, pray

So that is an average day, I wouldn’t say I stick to this schedule religiously, but it is somewhat predictable if nothing is on the schedule. So you can see I don’t really take the time to read. Dave Ramsey often says that the average millionaire reads one non-fiction book per month. So the best way for me to get in all the books I would like to read, is by listening to audio books.

Here are some of my favorite sources for audio books:

1. Audible.com: this like the Amazon of audio books. (In fact, they are now owned by Amazon). I have a monthly subscription that I pay $14.95 per month for. This gives me 1 credit per month. Each audio book is 1 credit. Also, as a subscription member, you get discounted pricing on all books. If a discounted price of a book is less than $14.95 I will likely purchase it without using a credit and save my credits for more expensive books. I’ve learned that credits will expire if you don’t use them, so this encourages me to continue to find new interesting books to read. I do find that my favorite are self-help type books like Zig Ziglar stuff. It energizes me. I look at the membership price as an investment in me.
2. BooksShouldBeFree.com: This is a very easy to navigate site with all kinds of audio books created from public domain sources. Check out the top 100 to see some of the great classics available. Sometime is is nice to step away from non-fiction books and just be entertained.
3. LibriVox.org: This may be a duplicate listing because it seems to me that all the listings in BooksShouldBeFree.com are essentially taken from LibriVox. It appears LibriVox is build on top of WordPress, so I mention them mainly because they are the source we can all thank for these free audio books, but their user interface will not be as nice as the custom interface of BooksShouldBeFree.com.
4. iTunes: While this integrates well with my iPhone, there are a few reasons I don’t use iTunes much. I have purchased AudioBooks on iTunes in the past and after switching computers and iPhones, I don’t have those books available and I can’t find them in my account history. I’m sure this has improved since the invention of iCloud. Second, they tend to be more expensive. Generally a book selling for $29.95 on iTunes I’ll just find on Audible.com and use 1 ($14.95) credit.
5. Podcasts: So I know they are not audio books per say, but if you run out of books you want to listen to, check out some podcasts that are in your interest area. The best place to find these are on iTunes, and most of them are free.

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I been a Vonage customer for a long time. Just to give you an idea, when we first ordered it, someone from Qwest tried to call my wife to get us to use their long distance plan at 7 cents per minute. My wife told them we had had unlimited long distance to the US and Canada for $25 per month. That started an argument where the salesperson called my wife a liar and said he/she had never heard of Vonage and no companies were offering unlimited long distance. My how things have changed! I must admit, initially it was rocky and I felt like a VOIP pioneer at the time. Now it seems crazy not to use VOIP if you are paying for high speed internet. I know many competitors have cropped up over the years. I’ve tried a couple and cancelled quickly because of various issues. Well, I finally found something I feel may be worthy enough to get me to drop Vonage. It’s ooma.

Basically with ooma you pay a little more up-front for the hardware, but then you get free phone service for life – or as long as they happen to stay in business. And that is the question isn’t it? How are they going to stay in business by only making money on hardware?

After doing some research it seem the hardware used to be $400. Now it is listed at $249 on their website, but can be found even cheaper on Amazon or NewEgg. Many predicted the company to fail, but they have not. Instead they have changed their model just a bit and offer ooma premier for $12.99 per month or $99.99 per year.

Again, critics will say, who is going to pay for premier when they have the choice of free? Well, I’m the type of person that will pay for premier. It’s a no brainer for me!

For a while I had two phone lines with Vonage. I was basically pulling full price for each line – even though I was using the same hardware and there was nothing extra they had to do other than give the second line and activate it. I was paying close to $70 per month for that second line. With ooma premier I get 2 lines for $12.99 per month (or $8.34/mo. if I pay yearly). See, no brainer!

Plus there are a number of additional features that are just worth paying for with premier. For example, a feature I often use with Vonage is simul-ring with allows me to forward my home phone to my cell phone, or my wife’s cell phone when we are expecting a call and need to go out. This is available only with ooma premier. Also, there is voicemail forwarding. I get all my voicemails in my email inbox. Again, this is a nice feature to have that is only available with premier. So, for me, the switch is obvious, and the cost for the hardware and premier package are definitely worthy of the price. I’m essentially getting twice as much for a quarter of the price!

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UPDATE: Since writing this post, Amazon has increased their price to $169.99, but the coupon below still works so you can get it shipped for $149.99.

So I have a small business. After meeting with my accountant last night I determined I really could make my life easier by using Quickbooks. I’ve tried the free version and it’s crap. So I figured I’d bite the bullet and shell out $200 for the pro version. Yeah, my business is growing, I guess it makes sense.

But being the budget conscious guy that I am, I figured I’d search the net for a better deal. I was nearly ready to head over to Costco to buy it for $150 plus tax, but after some further research I found a way to get it for $129.99 – no tax, no shipping. Better yet, it’s from Amazon so you know its the real deal.

It’s simple really. Amazon has it listed for $149.99. After adding it to your cart, and before you checkout, add coupon code UPINR5SC

Click Here To Order QuickBooks Pro 2008

Caution: Don’t delay if want this deal. The coupon expires Feb 15th.

Note: It works. I’ve done it. See screen shots below.

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At Buy.com they are offering a Kingston 1GB microSD Secure Digital Card for only $10 and free shipping. That’s a sweet enough offer in and of itself, but there is a way to get it free.

If you have never bought anything from Buy.com using Google Checkout, they offer $10 your order for doing so. So that’s basically all there is to it. Buy the card with Google Checkout and its free.

So what are you waiting for. This deals going to be gone by the end of the day!

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I recently built my own computer and I know from experience it can be a pain in the butt finding and fixing issues. (In my case it was the bios not giving my RAM enough voltage.)

I am the family tech support guy. It makes sense that every family has one of these, otherwise, you may be left to the wolves trying to find an honest computer repair store…

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