Don't Be a Miserable Squatter: Essential Tips for Your Astoria Trip

I feel like Astoria should be one of those places I only need to visit once. And really, did I actually need to go at all? Yet, despite the terrible weather and the unpleasant fishy smell and the undesirable hiking, there's a pull on me to go back again in the future. I wouldn't want to live there, to be sure, but maybe a ten year anniversary trip to commemorate my book, or something, would be fun. Regardless, I thought I'd document my learnings for future travelers to Astoria, myself included. 

Before You Go

Learn the history before you go. Of course I'd be remiss if I didn't promote my book, "The Miserable Squatter’s Guide to Manifest Destiny." Other good ones depending on what part of the history you want to read about include "Astoria: An Oregon History" by Karen L. Leedom, "Kanaka" by Tom Koppel, and "Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty" by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe. For good visuals, I recommend the Postcard History book "Astoria" by  Andrea Larson Perez, and "Astoria: An Adventure in History" by John Goodenberger which is hilariously illustrated by Roger McKay. 

The Grotto (and Labyrinth)

If flying into Portland, I highly recommend the stop here, exactly as I did. Would not change a thing. The Labyrinth was so unexpectedly experiential, I'd be interested in hearing what others feel and experience on their own journeys. 

First Stop: The Column

I would definitely recommend starting at the Astoria Column (drive, don't walk like I did), especially if the sky is blue and visibility is clear. I suggest this mainly because you get the free passes to all the other museums with your parking fee, so it’s a money saver in that regard, but also because it's a quick drive up and the parking pass is good for days, so you can keep returning as I did for different views (day/night, gloomy/clear). 

If the weather is good and you're up for a hike, do the Cathedral Tree Trail just off the parking lot. The forest is gorgeous and the views on a clear day could be really cool. 

If you think you'd like to sit and enjoy the views, bring a towel with you to wipe off the chairs (even on a clear day, it is a generally moist environment, so better to have the towel and not need it…). 

You can buy a little glider at the gift shop. If you're up for a climb, go up the windy stairs to the top, I'm sure the view from up there is amazing and probably unobstructed. You'll be able to see the ocean on a clear day. 

Other Recommended Places

Definitely visit The Heritage Museum and Flavel House Museum. I am not a museum person and I thoroughly enjoyed both of these, especially knowing the stories behind the artifacts I was seeing. 

Your visit to Astoria is not complete without stopping at the Fort Astoria / Fort George park. There's no admission, and there's really not much to do there, so just go on your way to something else, it'll take five minutes, twenty if you really push it. 

I didn't visit the Film Museum but if you are a film fan or Goonies fan, it is undoubtedly a good place to stop. There are also a couple shops / businesses that are Goonies themed if you're interested as well. 

Grab a tea, a loaf of sour dough, and/or lunch at the Blue Scorcher Bakery and Café. It was so good, I went twice for the grilled cheese. The chai tea was "all spice, no sweet" as the barista told me, and it delivered! 

Fort George Brewery had great pizza, great beer and a great atmosphere. Definitely a good stop. I didn't make it to the Astoria Brewery, but it would be on my list if I went back. 

Where to Stay

I noticed a place called the Cannery Pier & Spa when looking at a map or something, and it seemed like a cool place to stay potentially. 

That being said, I cannot say enough about where I stayed. The historic Captain Johnson house hosted by John on Airbnb was absolutely perfect. It was cozy inside, the bathroom was perfectly operable (and I'm very judgey about bathrooms), the toiletries were lovely, the bed was comfortable, there was furniture for sitting, eating and working, a kitchenette for preparing and storing food, TVs with streaming, board games and notably Goonies-themed games which might have been fun to play with others, especially fans. It was walkable to food, shops, sites and museums, and parking was no problem (unless your parallel parking is rusty - an opportunity to practice!).

General Recommendations

As far as solo trips like this goes, I should have brought my portable tripod because there were a few times I wished I could have someone take a picture of me instead of my usual selfie, and there wasn't always someone around (and I don't really like to ask people - lol). Especially at the Astoria Column, it would have been nice to capture different angles. 

As with walking most places, I would definitely recommend varying your routes when you can, go up one street and back down on another, and also varying which side of the street you walk on. I noticed more historic markers this way, and more details like lovely flowers and different scenic views. 

As a bonus, Pokemon Go actually helped me identify a headstone I hadn't realized was there, so it pays off to play Pokemon Go as one way of exploring a new place. 

Arcosanti for Today

Just about an hour north of Phoenix, Arizona, is a little aspirational community known as Arcosanti.  The self-proclaimed urban experiment is, among people who do know of it, generally a bucket list item, something to do at some point in time.  Having lived in the Phoenix area for over 14 years, and knowing I'd be moving to the east coast in June, my visit to the place was long overdue.  Jaiman and I stayed overnight in the modest accommodations, where frugality is not only the name of the game, it's a point of pride.  The community, made up of about 100 residents and seminar students at any given point in time, survives on the sale of their products, namely the Soleil Bells, as well as tours, experiences and donations.  Having broken ground in 1970 in the hopes of building a community of 5000, their own film admitted that the experiment had barely scratched the surface of its original intent.  A proof of concept it is not, but that doesn't mean we can't learn from it. 

To give you an idea of how the community works, I'd like to share our experience.  I booked our stay via phone; I was hoping for the Sky Suite but that had already been booked for the date I wanted, so I settled for a small room with a shared bathroom.  The turn off the freeway was clearly marked, and soon we were on a dirt road headed to Arcosanti.  Being the Pokemon Go players we are, our phones were grabbing for signal and showing us what Pokemon sites awaited us - a gym at the fork in the dirt road, and a one Pokestop.  We checked in at about 4:30, just before the Visitor's Center closed at 5.  Since we missed the tours for the day, we didn't know much about the place, but the resident welcoming us at the Visitor's Center was warm and welcoming, and told us everything we needed to know for our stay.  Our room was a whopping $40, and she took my payment via credit card.  We were directed to drive further down the dirt road to the guest rooms, a road that my low-clearance Chevy Volt did not love, but ultimately handled sufficiently.  Our key was clearly marked with "E" for our room, and once we parked, we faced a

large auditorium-style structure cascading down from the rooms, each level having different things like plants, water features, etc.  An easier staircase was on the side, but we initially walked straight up the structure to our room.  Before even opening the door, Jaiman noticed a wasp on the inside of the window.  We managed to shoo the first one, but there were actually three more.  While trying to figure out what to do, I took stock of the room.  A small bed took up the majority of the space, with a small desk, a small wardrobe, and a small sink taking up most of the rest.  The door to the bathroom was open, so I initially didn't think it was a shared bathroom as I had thought, but then noticed another door going into the bathroom.  The bathroom was tiny as well, with just a curtain separating the shower from the toilet, and just soap in the shower.  There were towels on the bed for us.  I looked for a fly swatter, or a decent analog, but nothing suitable was to be found.  I decided that there wasn't much for us to do about the wasps, so we got ready to go to dinner.  As I was locking up, a resident/staff member came by and asked if everything was okay.  I pointed out our unwanted visitors, and he jumped into action, grabbing toilet paper from the bathroom and snatching the little buggers like nothing.  We learned that he was the head chef, which was a great example of how people at Arcosanti take on multiple tasks. 

Feeling relieved of our wasp problem, we headed towards dinner, and wandered around a bit since we got to the cafe early.  Dinner was an "honor code" $10 per person, so I placed a $20 in the honor box as we took our place in line at the

buffet.  Dinner was potroast tacos with rice, beans and lettuce.  It wasn't terrible, but I've definitely had better $10 meals.  There wasn't much in the way of drinks, but the water was fine and hydration is a good thing, especially since we had spent some time earlier in the day in the scorching sun.  There was wifi in the whole community, but it was definitely strongest in the cafe.  I noticed several people on laptops and phones, differentiating Arcosanti from the Amish-style perspective I had in at least this one way.  

One of the girls on a longer-term stay with a large group was celebrating a birthday, so the staff brought out "lemon lemony brownies" and we sang Happy Birthday to her.  As we cleared our plates, there was relatively clear directions to put napkins and food in the compost bucket, and then separate dishes and silverware into their own buckets for expeditious collecting and cleaning.  Very little actual "garbage" was generated, because the napkins are compostable.  Pretty cool!  But, while we were clearing our plates, Jaiman was questioned about paying, and he said that we had already paid.  So much for the honor system; there were definitely times when I felt like this place is just asking for money because it's clearly not getting enough to sustain itself. 

After dinner, we caught a few rare Pokemon and then went back to our room for a little down time.  No wasps this time around, but there was a spider and a few small gnats, as well as rolly pollies in the bathroom.  Ah well, "better than

camping" I always say, even if just marginally so.  While laying on the bed, I could better examine the custom roof pattern produced by painting the sand prior to laying the concrete, or something like that.  We walked around a bit more, and attempted some stargazing, although the moon was actually too bright to get a good view of stars.  I was struck by something I couldn't quite put my finger on, but my tour guide the next day described aptly: "You get a sense of both ancient ruins and space-age architecture."  Indeed, while the giant circular and spherical structures are so unique and modern-esque, there is something very sexy and inspiring about them, parts of Arcosanti seem to be crumbling and decaying. 

As we walked around, we encountered an animal noise that wasn't immediately familiar, and soon found the source: small frogs were singing noisily to one another.  I think that was Jaiman's favorite part.  We caught a few more Pokemon, then went back to our spider- and bug-infested room, where Jaiman, uncomfortable, never really settled in. 

A rough night of sleep past, and we got up to go to breakfast.  Though it was just a short hike up the hill to the cafe, I was a bit winded, which I blame on the high altitude combined with my allergies.  The food was minimal: toast, cereal, bagels, and OJ.  Jaiman noted that there was a fee and asked if we needed to pay or show our room key.  I figure, unless someone questions us, I'm not going to offer, because breakfast was included with our stay and I shouldn't have to justify getting breakfast.  Luckily, nobody questioned us this time.  We went back to our room, and opted out of showering in that awful little bathroom, but instead got ready and packed up.  Jaiman drove us back up the long, nasty dirt road to the Visitor's Center.  Handing my key to the gentleman at the front desk, I checked us out and inquired about the tour.  Now, again, I was pretty sure that the tour was included with a stay, but he emphasized that there's a "suggested donation" of $10 per person for the tour, which pretty much seemed like a requirement. 
The tour started with a 13-minute video about the architect, the theologies and the construction of Arcosanti.  Then we met our tour guide, Coleen, who works in ceramics and has lived there for 9 years, raising her 6 year-old-son and home schooling him here at Arcosanti.  Throughout the tour, it was clear that she was passionate about the philosophy and lifestyle embedded in Arcosanti, and was excited that "things are happening" - improvements are being made and new life is being breathed into the place.  There wasn't a lot on the tour that I didn't already know, but I did find some funny contradictions.  Having just raved about the great way the architecture cools itself during the summer and warms itself during the winter, she pointed out that the archived room did have an air conditioner because it was necessary to keep it at a temperature that could not be achieved with the Arcosanti ways.  She showed us the multi-use areas, where there would be store-fronts on the base floor, residential on the second floor, all around the ampitheater, but pointed out that the store-fronts were not completed.  The iconic apse, a quarter-sphere hollowed out to create a self-regulating climate, was actually much less effective than the vaults, so much so that temporary shade was added to the iron apse because it must just get too hot in that workspace otherwise.  I loved her passion, but she kept emphasizing frugality, and it just made me think that they were living like they were poor for the sake of being novel in their minimalism, rather than proving a practical, successful lifestyle. 

I was surprised to learn that employees / residents are required to work 40 hours towards Arcosanti, and then can spend their spare time on their own creative projects.  I realize that, with the lack of a commute, these people do, in theory, have more time, but the work here is generally much harder work, and it is a small hike to and from your residence, workplace and the cafe, so I would think it would be a pretty exhausting lifestyle.  I guess I was thinking that this place should be more efficient and have a higher quality of life, so work would be less than a typical daily grind in the city, but alas, it seems pretty brutal.  I've been moderately obsessed with the idea of using technology efficiencies to reduce the workweek, both in number of hours per day and in workdays. 

After the tour completed, we were pretty much over this place, and headed to our next destination: Rock Springs Cafe for amazing pie! 

I had several observations while staying and on the tour.  Our tourguide emphasized frugality in their lifestyles, but I don't think of urban life as a frugal

life.  In fact, urban life in my mind is quite the opposite: it's eating out at fancy places, going to the theater, taking taxis, and living in expensive properties.  At Arcosanti, they focused on recycling, composting, farming, using gray water, collecting rain water, and using solar techniques to warm and cool living spaces, in addition to using solar panels for electricity.  While most of those things aren't mutually exclusive from typical urban living, I don't think they exemplify the goal of the urban experiment.  Alternatively, I would propose that you use these things to subsidize a luxury life to make luxury living affordable to more people.  For example, if our city buildings could heat and cool themselves using techniques similar to those deployed at Arcosanti, with zero or minimal use of electricity, gas and firewood, then your high-end downtown apartment becomes that much more affordable.  Growing a few things at home could help subsidize groceries or meals out on the town.  You don't have to have goats, chickens and large agricultural fields to survive in an urban environment.  In fact, I'm motivated to grow herbs, lettuce and peppers at home mainly because when I buy those things at the grocery store, most of it goes bad before I use it.  That doesn't mean I'm going to settle for 40-year-old sofas and chairs that have been sliced up. 

One of the great benefits of this little community is that, because travel by car is discouraged by the infrastructure, we ended up walking a lot, up and down inclines and stair cases.  This is a great way to essentially force ourselves to increase our activity level without the need for FitBit competitions.  Indeed, I got more steps before breakfast than during a typical work day if I'm not intentionally getting up to walk.  By creating an environment that is accessible by foot, we naturally walked more, which is generally a very good thing. 
Another aspect that I liked about Arcosanti was the mixed-use buildings.  I think the best example was the ceramics apse, where obviously ceramics is the primary use, but the pit could be covered up and it could instantly transform into an ampitheater for performances.  The rooms immediately surrounding the ceramics studio were related to the ceramic making process, but the next level up was living quarters.  I would love to live where I could look down unto a theater and/or workshop of some sort, not to mention the great landscape beyond the immediate foreground. 

As life has it, there was a moment the day of our Arcosanti stay that was unrelated to Arcosanti - we were leaving the Aloha Festival at Tempe Town Lake, where my sunblocked skin was burning under the piercing sun (and it's only March!!).  As we were leaving, a lady behind us was commenting positively on the festival, with the caveat of that, "I'm convinced that the whole state of Arizona needs to invest in a giant sunshade over the state."  Obviously, it's an impractical recommendation, but the idea behind it is fair.  Here I was, having slathered on sunblock not two hours ago, and feeling my skin burning so bad that I needed aloe later that night.  The setting of the Aloha Festival just had too little shade, making it incredibly uncomfortable for thousands of people who

would have probably otherwise stayed longer, spent more money, enjoyed themselves more fully, etc.  What was probably the most novel aspect of Arcosanti were the vaults, which shaded the open-air, concrete-floored area in the summer and allowed sun light to penetrate the concrete and warm the space in the winter.  In fact, the lines on the ground showed where the sun reaches during the winter, summer, spring and fall solstices.  The advantage was immediately clear - we could get out of the sun when we need to, and soak up its warmth when we'd be chilly otherwise.  Tempe Town Lake could definitely use a structure like this, or at least, a massive shade to emulate it's effects.
Given that Arcosanti funds its construction primarily through its sales, and this obviously is not a prosperous means of funding given the lack of progress that has been made since 1970, it's easy to think of the experiment as a failed one.  But many of the ideas, primarily the fight against urban sprawl, are picking up steam in other places.  Fittingly, I had just watched this TedTalk about how to make our cities more walkable the day before our visit to Arcosanti.  This doesn't show signs of the frugality and hippie-esque culture of Arcosanti, but it does make for a better, more livable, safer and happier type of urban living. 

All of these ideas are giving me great inspiration for our move to Connecticut, where I am considering a car-less commute and day-to-day lifestyle, either taking the train to work or biking/walking (Jaiman will keep his car for his commute and/or road trips).  In this way, I plan to make my own, far less extreme, Arcosanti for Today, my own little utopia approximation. 

Sustainability for Everyone

I'm a big believer in sustainability and reducing our requirements for oil and polluting processes.  Driving a primarily electric vehicle is just one aspect of my sustainable activities, and while it tends to be the most visible (and so awesome that I talk about it a lot), it's definitely not the only way to live a sustainable life.  Of course, it's not always easy to balance living comfortably with being green, and I'm not about to go live completely off the grid in a self-sustaining farmhouse; good for the people who do, but that just seems like a lot of work.  Instead, I look at all the little things that cause waste - waste in materials, waste in electricity, wasted water - and minimize my waste in those ways.  The best part about these sustainability-driven habits and practices is that they usually end up saving money in the long run, so even if you're not concerned about sustaining the earth, if you care about your budget, these little things make a difference there, too.  These are just some small, subtle changes that can make a super difference in your electric bill, water bill and your grocery bill. 

Reusable Water Bottles

This may be the point that I am most passionate about.  I am a commercially bottled water convert - yes, I, at one time, consumed dozens and dozens of Dasani and Aquafina every week, tossing the bottle in the recycling when I was done with it.  What's worse is I felt good about recycling these bottles and I felt like I was drinking better water for myself.  Not only does the cost stack up, but buying bottled water is kind of a pain.  Literally, in my case, because I have scoliosis so bending and lifting heavy objects, like a pack of water, tends to hurt.  So I tended to bring a stronger friend with me to the store to lift and move the water for me, which sometimes meant waiting until a friend was available.  The truth was harder to swallow than regular tap water.  Commercially bottled water may not be any better than tap water, and is a huge source of waste.  Water is needed to make bottled water, and then there's the gas and emissions to transport the water, and oil is used to make the plastic bottles.  When you're done consuming your bottled water, a recycling truck has to come and pick up all your recycled bottles, and the more recycling your neighborhood has, the more stops that truck has to make, adding up more emissions.  Don't get me wrong, recycling is good, but reusing is better. 

The main reason I drank commercially bottled water was because my local tap water tasted bad, and I had done some research and found that there were high levels of carcinogens in my local tap water.  While the commercially bottled water I drank did for sure taste better, there was no guarantee that the carcinogens weren't present, since bottled water is not regulated.  So I found a multi-stage reverse osmosis filtration system, and installed it in my home.  It admittedly does produce some wasted water, but because it is in my home, I am avoiding many of the other wastes associated with commercially bottled water.  The water tastes better than my normal tap water, and I feel better about drinking it.  What's more, the filter replacement costs are far less than the cost of constantly buying commercially bottled water, and the water is always available. 

Many workplaces also have filtered water available, including my own workplace, so I don't see much need for commercially bottled water at work.  I also go dancing, where commercially bottled water is available, but I'd rather bring my own.  The benefit of this is that I can guarantee my water is cold, whereas sometimes the water at dance venues is sometimes room temperature. 

One complaint I've heard about having your own reusable water bottle is that you have to take it with you everywhere, whereas disposables can be tossed when you're done with them.  I get it, but here's a simple way I overcome this issue: I have one at work and several for home, and I rotate them only periodically.  Usually I make a protein shake for breakfast, so I drink that on the way to work.  I rinse it out at work, and then pour a little filtered water in it and stick in the freezer.  During my workday, I use my "work" water bottle to refill and drink from.  At the end of the day, I grab my other water bottle out of the freezer and fill it the rest of the way up with filtered water - now I have cold water for the trip home or for dance practice or for the gym.  A funny beneficial consequence of this practice is that, because I use those little shaker balls to mix up my protein shake, I keep them in there when I freeze the water, and the metal of the shaker balls keeps the ice cold much longer. 

Thermostats, Settings and Airflow

Today's technology is amazing, and one great example of this is how far thermostats have come.  If you still have an old school static thermostat that you have to remember to change before leaving the house, this may be the easiest sustainable move to save you the biggest amount of money.  There are some very cool thermostats on the market now.  After some research, I elected to go with the ecobee thermostat for three main reasons:  (1) It is programmable; (2) It connects via wifi to my phone and computer; and (3) I didn't want a "learning" thermostat because my schedule varies so much.  The Nest may be one of the most popular smart thermostats, but its based on this learning concept which is supposed to make it easier to program, but for someone who has such a varied schedule, I assumed that it would always be confused and probably not help in my quest for reducing the electric bill.  I am sure it is a great product for people whose lives are a little more regular.  Ecobee was also relatively inexpensive for the app-enabled connectivity, so that was an additional plus for me.  I figured that it paid for itself within a few months in which I was living alone and wasn't home most of the time.  I basically set it to assume I was away until later at night, after peak hours were over, so that the temperature in house was warmer than comfortable in the summer and cooler than comfortable in the winter (I limited how hot or cold it could get because I still have a dog to worry about at home; if I didn't have a pet I may have gone to even more extremes while I was away).  Then, if I was headed home prior to when it would kick on, I would simply use my phone to adjust the temperature to a more comfortable one, so that by the time I got home, it was already heating or cooling to my liking.  Having roommates complicates this a bit, but I still think its worth it because we are all usually away during the day, so the program kicks in even if we forget to adjust the thermostat, and allows the house to get warm or cool down based on the outside temperature until someone comes home and adjusts it again.  The device also comes in handy when we go on vacations, because even if I forget to set it to vacation mode prior to leaving, I can jump on the app and adjust it remotely.  I can also see what my roommate has it adjusted to while away, and sneakily adjust it up or down a bit if I think the temperature is excessive.  Lastly, I cannot tell you how many times I've adjusted the thermostat from my phone even at home; it allows me to be a little bit lazier, but this also means I'm better able to manage my usage based on my current needs with great ease, even if I'm being lazy.  Technology, man! 

In addition to managing the thermostat settings, I also manage the air flow in my house for significant savings.  I have one to two rooms that aren't used regularly, so I have their doors shut and their vents closed.  In addition, there are these nice little magnetic vent covers you can buy for pretty cheap at a home improvement store, and I just slap those over the vents when I'm not using the rooms, to prevent as much leakage as possible (short of permanently closing up the vent with a hardening foam or something crazy like that).  Then when I have a guest coming for the guest room or I want to use my project room, I simply remove the magnetic vent covers, open the vents and doors and let the air flow to cool or warm the room as needed to match the rest of the house.  One other trick for external doors that are not used often (I have one leading to the back yard, for example), there are little pillow-like draft stoppers that can be placed at the base of the doors to prevent unwanted drafts in and and out of the house. 

Invest in CFLs and LEDs

Almost every lighting fixture in my house has CFLs in it, and a select few have LEDs.  I only have one regular lightbulb, and its because its a "Bar is Open" sign with spinning action that is only activated with the heat of the bulb, so it kind of necessitates it, but that fixture is rarely on.  We play cards at my parents' house a lot, and the chandelier over the table tended to generate a lot of heat, but we knew that we needed good lighting.  I found some great LED bulbs that are brighter than what we had and produce no heat, and are also more efficient, and gifted the bulbs to my parents for Christmas one year.  They've worked great ever since.  CFLs are definitely the mainstream "green" choice of bulb, but don't overlook LEDs for specific applications, especially chandeliers.  Dimmable LEDs (with corresponding dimmer switches) allow you to set the mood with varying levels of light, in an efficient manner. 

Turn It Off, Close the Door

This is a simple principle that helps reduce electricity waste and water waste.  Everyone has probably heard the principles about turning the water off while you brush your teeth, and turning the lights off when you leave a room.  My challenge to you is to question if and when you need lights on, use natural light instead of electrical lights whenever possible, and use minimal and efficient lighting when you don't need a ton of light.  My main living areas have multiple light sources: less lighting is produced by one switch, which either powers CFLs or LEDs, and bright lighting is produced by another switch.  So usually we use the low lighting options, and only use the bright lighting when needed like for cooking at night or doing detailed work. 

Similarly, the refrigerator door is a source of waste when left open.  When putting groceries away, I try to grab as many freezer items as I can at one time, open the freezer door, place them in there, and close the door.  Then I grab refrigerator stuff, and do the same.  It pains me to see refrigerator doors stay open while a person is sorting through heir groceries, and I strongly discourage this in my household.  Drinking out of a carton with the door open, or opening packages with the door open, are also wasteful activities.  So my principle is simple: close the door.  Open it to get what you need or put something away, and close it.  Just close it.  Close the door.

The Three Things Everyone Should Learn: Numero Dos

Finance

I never wanted to be a programmer, and I MOST DEFINITELY never wanted to be a financial accountant.  Borrrrr-ing!  But this blog series isn't about things that I hate, it's about things that I think everyone should learn.  And guess what, finance is numero dos!  No matter what you do to make money, or if all you do is spend it, there are a few monumental aspects that invariably penetrate your lives: (1) budgets and cash flow, (2) interest rates, (3) and (4) taxes.  Because these things have a way of creeping into our lives, I think it is imperative that everyone understand how they work, instead of turning away from them because they are not well understood.  In fact, the less you understand these things, the more you should study them.  It is scary to me that some people just ignore them when they don't understand.  That's like laying in bed when a serial murderer walks into your room, and because you don't understand her motives, you just roll over and go to sleep.  Maybe I've been watching too many episodes of The Following lately, but finance can be devastating if you don't address it. 

Unfortunately, it seems that personal finance classes are not required to graduate high school or college, unless you happen to be a business major in college.  What this means is that we are not often presented with requirements to really learn and understand finance.  My first finance class wasn't until I was doing an MBA at the age of 23, and if I hadn't known better prior, I could have gotten myself into a bad situation financially well before that.  Finance should not be one of many topics in school that can be selected for study; it should be a core requirement to become an adult.  I do not understand how people don't understand interest rates.  And to be honest, I'm probably not the right person to actually put on a full introductory course to personal finance.  But I will do my best to provide some tips and tools so that there are at least some actionable things coming out of this post. 
First topic is budgeting and cash flow.  If you want to get control of your finances, or save up for a specific goal, or need to pay off some debt, a great place to start is Mint.com.  This tool is free, and especially useful if you pay your bills and make most of your purchases through online or with credit or debit cards.  In other words, if you use cash for a majority of your transactions,

Mint.com will not really help much, but if you do not use cash for most of your transactions, it will.  To get started, you create an account and connect your bank accounts, credit card accounts, loan accounts, etc., to Mint and it will gather your transactions and put them into buckets.  This will give you a starting point to understanding how much money you spend on, say, food, for a month, and where all your other money is going.  It will show you a net picture of if you're spending more than you're bringing in.  Once you get a feel for where your money is going and how much you need to cut out, you can create a budget for yourself right on Mint.  Once your budgets are all set up, Mint will track your monthly activities and show you how you're tracking against your budget.  Mint can even alert you when a large bill is coming up, or when you've spent over your budgeted allowance in a certain area.  I also use it to track expenses that I will report on my taxes at the end of the year; more on that to come later. 
The one thing I think Mint.com lacks is a cash flow feature.  I do this on my own in an Excel worksheet, and I've created a dummy worksheet for you to download and use.  The basis is that my money is better employed not sitting in my checking account; either paying off debt or going towards investments that will return something greater than the puny .00001% interest rate earned in most checking accounts.  Thus, I do not keep a large balance in my checking account, so I need to manage the daily in's and out's in order to not overdraft the day before I get paid, for example.  This is called cash flow.  Cash flow can burn you even if on a net level, you make more money than you spend, so it's important to watch the daily transactions. 

You probably hear a lot of advice about how it is important to save.  But, what is hidden in that advice is that simply saving is not actually helpful - you want to put money into an account that will provide interest.  Most checking accounts, as I mentioned earlier, have puny little interest rates.  It is the equivalent to stuffing money into your mattress these days.  They are not meant to be the vehicle for saving, they are meant to help you pay bills and receive your paycheck.  There's this big bad wold called inflation, so if you were to save money in your checking account, not only are you not getting any real interest off of that savings, you are actually losing money.  Over the last ten years, the US inflation rate has bounced around between 0 and 4%, and averaged right around 1.9%.  The rule of thumb that I learned is to expect about 3% inflation.  What this means is that if you have $100 today, and inflation stays around 3% for 10 years, that $100 will only be worth about $73.74 10 years from now.  If your back pays you .01% interest, then it will be worth only 8 cents more. 

To combat inflation, then, you need an account that will at least match inflation, and preferably beat it at least slightly in order for your money to grow.  So if you're assuming inflation of 3%, look for an account that can get you 3.5% or 4% to save in.  This is the interest rate you are looking for.  At 3.5% interest rate with 3% inflation, $100 will be worth $105.11 in 10 years.  There's no major growth, but at least you don't lose money.  At 4% interest with 3% inflation, $100 will be worth $110.46 in 10 years.  The trick to saving is not to put a small bundle in and wait for it to grow, though.  The trick to saving is to put a little in every period, like every month.  So let's say you put $100 in every month for 10 years, at 4% interest with 3% inflation.  You will have put in an actual amount of $12,000 over the course of those 10 years, but you will end up with the equivalent of $12,725.50, a gain of about $725.50, even in the face of 3% inflation.  Take that, big bad wolf! 

Now that you know you can't usually trust your checking account to combat inflation, and that you need to combat inflation, you need to know where to find these accounts that can beat inflation with their interest rates.  In college, I was referred to a Money Market Mutual Fund, and while I am not in a position to make any official financial recommendations, it may be a good place to start.  The MMMF I participated in had around 3.75% interest, and I paid into it every month for a few years.  When I graduated college, I had enough money for a small down payment on my house and to cover the fees of buying the house.  I saw it as a great way to "pay yourself first", put money towards a future goal, and it was as simple as writing a check to get the money back out when I was ready to buy my house.  But again, I am not in a position to make an official recommendation, so all I can officially say is that it is probably worth it to sit down with a financial adviser and discuss options for saving. 

While saving money is the upside to interest rates, we also pay interest whenever we carry loans or debt.  If you have a credit card and don't pay the full balance every month, you are spending money on interest.  So if you are trying to get out of debt, you need to pay very close attention to those interest rates, and pay down or get out of the highest ones first.  Some credit cards can have astronomically high rates, in the 20 - 30% range, while others my be single digits.  If you can move your high interest debt to a lower interest debt account, even if it costs a little bit of money to transfer it, that may make sense in the long run in order to not continue paying a high interest rate. 

Some debt may be at such a low interest rate, it is not financially worth it to pay it down right away.  For example, PayPal credit and appliance stores can often do 0% interest rates for 6 months on large purchases.  So if you have your savings account at 3.5% or 4%, you are better off putting money into your savings account until the 6 months is up on the PayPal credit, then you can pay it off with your accumulated savings before the interest rate gets jacked up.  This takes close monitoring to manage, but if you stay on top of it, these 0% interest rates are a great way to finance something even if you have the money to buy it outright, because you can earn with the money that you would have otherwise spent. 

When considering financing for a car, many dealers try to sell you on the "low monthly payment", drawing your attention away from the total price of the car, the interest rate, and the length of the loan.  It is nice to know that you can afford the low monthly payment, but it is CRUCIAL you understand the deal you are getting, in order to compare it to other offers.  Always do your homework before signing a financing deal: get offers from your bank, any credit unions you have access to, as well as the dealerships you are considering working with.  A quick google search can get you to various calculators that can help you compare different offers.  I like this one: http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/managing-debt/annual-percentage-rate-calculator.aspx  Remember that the loan amount is the difference between the price of the vehicle and your down payment; the larger your down payment, the less principal you have to pay interest on. 

Finally, a pet peeve of mine is how people get so excited when they get a huge tax refund in April.  Listen, I get that everyone likes to get money, but this is not free money like you may think.  This is money that you paid into the government throughout the year, meaning you had less money to do things like save or pay down your debt, and now the government is graciously giving some of it back to you.  What's worse, the government doesn't pay you interest.  Think about it: while you're trying to pay down your debt at 5% and 8% interest maybe, you're also giving Uncle Sam some of your precious income at 0% interest for months and months and MONTHS!  From a purely economical sense, it would be better to pay minimal taxes throughout the year, meanwhile saving the additional money that you would otherwise have been paying to Uncle Sam in a high interest account, and then to owe at the end of the year.  The awesome part is that even though you technically may owe as of Jan 1, Uncle Sam gives you until Apr 15 to actually pay it.  That's more free money, if you owe.  Put the money in an investment and grow it, instead of paying it on Jan 1.  Conversely, if you wait until Apr to do your taxes, and you're due a refund, you've let the government keep your money for an additional 4 months interest free. 

Now, I don't particularly like writing checks to the government, either, so my goal is to have a small net tax refund.  This usually works out for me with a large tax refund from state, and owing the federal government a not-so-large amount, so I can file state right away, get my refund, use that money for a little while, and then in April, I use some of the refund from state to pay what I owe to Federal.  I rejoice when I get this right, because I think it's the sweet spot.  I don't have to worry about how much to save to pay for what I owe, but I also get more money throughout the year and let the government have less money interest free from me. 

Getting into the details of taxes, I recommend at least trying to do your own, even if you are going to go to a tax advisor eventually.  Doing your own helps get you prepared, and helps you estimate what you owe or will get back, and then your tax advisor can potentially find more for you.  Also, when you try it on your own, try doing the full deductions instead of taking the standard deduction.  This is where Mint.com is very helpful, because you can tag transactions throughout the year as tax deductions and tax credits.  Use Mint.com to track all your charitable contributions, your medical payments and pharmacy expenses, purchases for a home office and purchases for work, professional dues, etc.  If you keep your notes updated in Mint.com, it is easy to then download the transactions and sum the tax deductions and tax credits using Excel. 

There are a lot more topics within personal finance, but I think these three are the most critical for everyday life and non-finance and non-investment-savvy people.  If you want to learn more about investing, for example in the stock market, there are plenty of resources, but one thing I would recommend is to try a stock market game app to get a feel for it before you dive in with real money. And if something I said above is confusing or you didn't quite get it, I highly recommend that you do more research on your own to learn and understand these concepts more thoroughly. 



In addition to personal finance, I think it's also important when you work at a company to understand corporate finance.  Not every job is easily directly tied to the bottom line, but understanding how you can influence it, either by reducing costs with improvements and efficiency, or by increasing the revenue or margins, can help you shine above your peers.  The higher up in the corporate ladder you go, the more important it is to be able to quantify activities in terms of dollars.  Managers, Directors, and Vice Presidents speak in financial terms, so if you want to impress them, it is always good to tie back whatever you are talking about to dollars. 

The Tools of an Anal Retentive Organization Freak

It's been a while, admittedly, since someone has asked me, "How do you do it all?", but I think that's probably because I haven't entered any new circles recently, and the people in my life have just gotten used to me.  I am also not quite so go-go-go right now, because I actually like where I work so I'm not quite as driven to get away from it (what a difference!!).  Regardless, I still have some obsessive organizational qualities about me that I need to manage, and I was inspired to catalog a number of them for you today in hopes of helping others who either need such tools to balance their anal retentive style, or who need such tools because they lack motivation to stay organized.  I will qualify this post with the fact that this is not nearly an exhaustive list of all awesome tools, nor do these tools reflect the best or only tool in their category.  There may be other ways of achieving these functions, and perhaps even better ways of doing so; in short, these are simply the tools that I have experience with and like. 

EverNote
I am a convert from previously using Microsoft's OneNote, but both are very solid tools for writing, keeping and organizing notes.  I think where these tools lose people is that they associate note-taking with school, and if they're not in school, they assume they don't take notes.  So what is a note?  A note can be a to-do list, a journal entry or blog draft, a means of tracking performance qualitatively, a visual that you need to refer to only once every so often, and so much more.  But before I dive into all the many kinds of notes, I want to talk briefly about why I like EverNote.  EverNote (as does OneNote) allows me to group my notes into "Notebooks", so I know where to look for a specific note that I'm looking for later on.  It also magically Syncs between computers and even my SmartPhone.  The syncing was the initial differentiator for me; at the time of my conversion to Evernote, OneNote didn't sync with everything else just yet, although I believe that has changed now.  So this means that I can write a note at work, and without emailing or saving to a flash drive or anything like that, my note is magically on my phone and on my laptop at home.  This seems simple and straightforward enough, but its a very powerful thing to not have to think or worry about saving or sending this kind of data.  For example, I keep a checklist in Evernote of work tasks, and sometimes I'll remember something I need to do at 3 am.  Rather than getting up and going to my computer to send an email to myself, or taking the risk of forgetting it, I can open up my list on my phone next to me in bed, add that item to my list, and go back to sleep. 

So, what is a note?  I will differentiate lists with visual elements to them and lists with more textual information here, and put forth that To Do Lists, Shopping Lists (especially for something broad like Christmas shopping), and Favorite Quotes lists are all ideal candidates to be put into a note.  I have a dedicated Notebook called Lists, and each note is a separate list.  OneNote and Evernote have a checkbox capability, which is especially nice for those of who like to feel the victory of checking a box after accomplishing something (hey, it's the little things that count)!  I also have lists of goals, notes for house guests (on numerous occassions I have offered up my home to visitors and this list helps me make them feel welcome and ensures they understand the nuances of my poor old house), interview questions and good examples to use in response (great for job seekers to review right before an interview) and a Watch/Read/Listen to list. 

Another kind of note is a reference.  Perhaps the best way to explain this is with some examples.  When I first moved into my (fixer-upper, old, ugly, broken) house, I spent a good deal of time mapping out the electrical network: for each circuit, what light switches, which fixtures, which outlets are on each circuit.  I used some generic architecture software to draw a floorplan of my house and label each fixture and outlet so that I could visually see where each circuit goes.  Now, I certainly don't need this every day, so if it had been a simple file (which I suppose it was at some point), I probably would have lost it with a new computer or just in the shuffle of moving files around.  But because its in a note under my Home Notebook, I can quickly pull it up on my phone or computer whenever I need to shut off the electricity to a certain appliance or outlet.  Another example of a reference I used a lot during my job search was job descriptions.  I was applying to about 5 jobs per week, which doesn't sound like too much to keep track of, except when you consider that it might take four to eight weeks to get a call back.  Suddenly, I would get a call from a recruiter wanting to ask me more about my experience as it relates to job x, and I would have to either make something up, admit that I don't know which job they were referring to, or fumble about trying to find what the hell job I applied to.  And it's such an easy fix!  I simply created a new dedicated Notebook called Job Descriptions (duh), and everytime I applied to a job, I would just copy the entire job description and paste it into the note.  Usually, the title of the job is the first thing on the page, and Evernote adopts the first line of a note as the title unless you specify a title, so I literally didn't have to type in anything!  Just copy, paste. 

I like to write my blog posts in my Evernote, rather than drafting them in the blog site itself.  I'm wary of writing inside websites because there are 100 things that could go wrong and cause you to lose all your work.  With a note application like Evernote, the work is saved automatically from time to time, and not just to the machine I'm on, but to my very own little cloud.  That's a nice feature when you are constantly at risk of a phone dying or computer crashing.  Plus, it does a better job of spell checking than most websites.  An added benefit to the always-on-the-go person is the fact that you can dictate into your smartphone, so that if you have a brilliant idea but you're an hour away from home, you don't have to wait until you get home to get your idea down on (virtual) paper.  Also, by keeping journal entries and blog posts in my notebook, I can easily search them if I'm looking for a specific reference. 

Brilliant Ideas and Gift Ideas are two other notebooks I maintain.  I am terrible at buying gifts for people as Christmas and birthdays approach, but throughout the year I tend to think of great ideas for gifts (usually when I least need ideas).  So keeping a record of gift ideas helps me when I actually need them.  Likewise, I have dozens of (what I consider) brilliant ideas to make the world a better place, but I don't have the means, position or resources to pursue all of them.  So I feel better having at least documented them for reference later, if I happen to be in a position or have the means of accomplishing them.  I also come back to them when I need inspiration; they help recharge my mojo so to speak. 

For anyone who is employed in a rigorous professional job, I have a recommendation for you that I've only recently implemented myself in the last couple years: Performance and Potential notes, sometimes called Praise Piles.  I keep track of every email that gives me an earnest recognition of a job well done at work.  In addition, I keep notes on activities that demonstrate the skills and attributes set forth in the goals and performance evaluations of my company.  So when it comes time to for my performance evaluation, I can back my ratings up, or make a case for my manager to increase my ratings, with concrete examples from the previous year.  I cannot say this actually won me anything in my last job, but there's a reason I left that job that may or may not be related to that.  I am optimistic it will help in my new job. 

Alright, I think this blog is already getting a bit long, so I'll wrap this section up with a list of other "notes" I keep, and by saying that pretty much anything wordy that you'd want to track may qualify as a "note" that you'd want to enter and store in a notebook program like Evernote for future reference. 

Other notes:

• Shared notebooks for start-ups or teams to load research, draft copy, updates, etc.
• My favorite massage therapists (and my least favorite ones) so I hopefully know what I'm getting into when I book a massage
• Packing checklist for upcoming trips (i.e. bring sand castle mold to Hawaii)
• Places to go / activities to do for upcoming or unscheduled (dream) trips
• Taxes - to document mileage to/from doctors, charitable donations (non-monetary), etc.
• Measurements of windows and other physical attributes of my house for shopping purposes
• Reimbursable expenses (with pictures of receipts)
• Drug prescriptions (with pictures)
• Restaurant orders for my honey (in case I'm surprising him with something like donuts or Chipotle)

Pinterest

If you don't know what Pinterest is, they describe themselves as a virtual pinboard.  It's a very broad, loose definition and I don't think the world has grasped its novelty and usefulness just yet.  In fact, I wrote a whole post about the various uses (and sins) of Pinterest (and thus, do not feel the need to exhaust every opportunity I see again here).  I mention it after Evernote because they can be used for some of the same things.  For example, before I started using Pinterest, I maintained a Watch/Read/Listen to list in Evernote.  But most such items can be graphically represented, and thus, look a lot more exciting as virtual pins on a Pinterest board.  So the differentiation is whether the "list" you are starting or keeping is more textual or more graphical - that should determine whether Pinterest is better or Evernote.  Also, if most items on your list can be associated with links, Pinterest is a better option, because they will preserve the links for you as well as the graphical imagery and your specific text.  Other boards I recommend people create / maintain in Pinterest include:
local places to try (i.e. restaurants, museums, etc.)
Things to do in ______ (i.e. Vegas, so that you have it ready for your next Vegas trip)
Wish List (this is the best way to keep a public wish list that I've found)
Gift Ideas (keep this board secret so nobody knows what you're getting them)


Hootsuite

I've probably raved about Hootsuite in half a dozen posts all over the web, but I think its worthwhile to reiterate here.  Hootsuite is a great way to manage your social media presence, whether we're talking a company, volunteer organization, part of a softball league, or just you (and even better when you're dealing with a combination or all of the above)! 

For example, I might be traveling or business on Father's Day, having celebrated with my father on an earlier occasion, but still want to post something to thank my father and all fathers.  So I can use Hootsuite to load up my message (and associated photo), schedule it for Father's Day morning, and have it post without having to remember to log in or try to find internet service while I'm on the go.  This ability to schedule posts is awesome when I have something I think is hilarious to share at 3 am, because I can jot it down in Hootsuite, schedule it, and rake in all the likes and favorites and retweets once it gets posted at a time when more people are awake.  "Autoschedule" allows me to space out my posts if I am browsing and finding lots of interesting articles, videos, and tidbits, rather than bombarding my followers with a bunch of posts in rapid succession.  Last spring I converted a lot of my old VHS tapes of various high school performances to digital video clips, and rather than throwing them all up on the web at the same time, I spaced them out to weekly intervals.  So all summer my followers would be surprised and delighted (as was I) when some random old video popped up.  I scheduled my favorite to post on my birthday.  Slightly more sinister, if you're at work and you don't want your co-worker friends to know you were browsing the internet at work, you can schedule your post for whatever time you should be getting home so that it looks like you just saw it and shared it at that time. 

Besides the scheduling feature, Hootsuite has a very functional (albeit not as pretty) dashboard type of feel that allows you to view multiple "streams" of your choosing, which can be searches on specific topics or events going on as well as certain users' posts, etc.  Thus, in one screen, I can see who is talking about #NASA, what is going on at #PhxCC (Phoenix ComiCon), and what the tweeters I follow are posting.  Unlike in Twitter and facebook themselves, Hootsuite stores these searches so everytime I log in I can see them without having to recreate the searches every time. 


Microsoft Excel

Yes, I am considered an Excel guru, so this should be no surprise to some of you.  Most people will not use Excel nearly as much as I do, but there are a few reasons why most people should use it.  Banks and credit card companies as well as financial software claim to have good budget tools, but I prefer to do it myself in Excel.  I maintain a Cash Flow worksheet that is actually very simply but is the most effective tool I've found to help me identify where I have cash flow issues as well as to budget how much I can pay off student loans and car loan, as well as how much I have that could be invested and how much extra fun money I have.  It starts with the current amount in my bank account and lists all of the upcoming expenditures impacting my bank account for roughly the next 18 months.  I go in there every other week or so and delete the line items that have been taken out of my bank account, and update the current balance and any new expenditures I've learned of.  Then I tweak the payments on loans and credit cards until I'm happy with my cash flow status, and then I go into each of those websites and schedule the payments accordingly.  I also have clever notes about interest rate and how long it will take me to pay down each debt based on the payments, which motivates me to pay down the highest interest rate items more instead of giving myself more fun money.  If you stay on top of this, you should never have a late fee, overdraft issue, trouble making minimum payments, and yet you need to keep a very minimal balance in your bank account.  I  run a very tight ship this way, making the most of my income to get to a debt-free situation asap. 

Excel is inherently good at anything calculation based.  Thus, another application any person might use it for would be planning a vacation.  I recently used Excel to minimize costs for a trip to Cedar Point in Ohio.  I had about five airports we could have flown into, so I listed each of those as an option, and then wrote next to them the cost of each flight.  Then I looked up rental car prices from each airport and listed those, then added in estimated fuel usage and associated cost.  Another option was staying right at the park, flying into the nearest airport and then taking a taxi, so I enumerated and calculated that option.  That helped me determine the best way to get there.  Then there was the matter of deciding upon which hotel to stay at and whether or not to buy the 2-day passes from the hotel.  I listed out all the options with and without the ticket packages, with and without breakfast and added in the tickets to the options with no tickets, and added the estimated cost of breakfast to the deals without breakfast included.  I couldn't imagine doing all this manipulating and calculating in any other tool or by hand.  Excel is it for me! 


onStar

I love technology, and when I got my fancy new Chevrolet Volt a few years ago, it came with five years of onStar.  I didn't think I would use it much, and its true that I haven't called them more than three or four times in the past several years.  But what I didn't realize until I had it was that with the onStar app I can send destinations to my car's navigation system from my phone.  So before I leave for a new place, I send it to my car and then my car picks it up shortly after I turn it on.  This is cool, and also a big time saver.  Likewise, if I'm at a computer, I can use Mapquest to send the destination to my car (although the retrieval takes a few additional steps).  onStar also gives me a somewhat detailed report every month, which the data analyst part of me enjoys dissecting from time to time. 


Waze

I stumbled upon Waze while stuck in a traffic jam and using Google Maps to figure out what was going on.  Waze is primarily a commuting app that gives you traffic conditions, warns you of police and obstacles in the road, and provides a live ETA to you and whomever you wish to share it with.  The data primarily comes from users sharing their information, tagging where accidents, police or broken down cars are, etc., and automatically transmitting their speed through the app.  Since I am now driving in the carpool lane, I don't usually turn it on because I don't want my data to give an overly optimistic picture of what traffic conditions are like for the poor saps in the regular traffic. But it is incredibly useful for my honey to transmit his ETA to me when we're meeting somewhere or running tight on a schedule.  Once he sends me the link to his data, I can track his progress and see how far he is, which helps the psycho anal retentive person in me to make decisions, and calms the tightly-wound worst-case-scenario beliefs.  I wish I had had this app for previous relationships, it actually might have solved some problems and made life just a little better.  An added perk is that if you are meeting someone at a place that is new/different to you or to them, you can transmit your current location.  So, I parked on the south side of a large complex, and transmitted my location so that my honey could park in the same area as me.  Clever, right?  It's a pretty neat little app, not something I use all the time but helpful when I do use it. 


Retractable charge cord

What would this list be with only virtual tools?  One of the most useful things I carry in my purse is a little USB charger that retracts into a small cylndrical shape and never gets tangled as a result.  Paired with a USB to electrical outlet plug, it allows me to charge with a computer (or other device with USB) or with an electrical outlet anywhere I go.  And its compact enough that its really not a bother to carry with me at all times. 


TripIt

I don't know of an app that is so simple and so helpful as this one.  Of course, it's used for a very specific purpose, so it's not something I'm in all the time, but when I need it, it's awesome.  I first heard about TripIt from LinkedIn a long time ago, before smartphones, and it was basically a website you could create an account with and link with your LinkedIn I guess just to brag about your previous and future trips, and also to see when/where you will be in the same vicinity as someone else.  Both a little cool in their own respects, but TripIt didn't mean much until I had a smartphone with the TripIt app.  Suddenly, I was able to carry my itinerary in a clean, simple form, with me on my phone all time.  Populating the itinerary is super easy, too, because you simply take your confirmation emails from your airline, hotel, rental car, or restaurant reservation and forward them to a generic TripIt email address from your email address that you used to sign up.  Within seconds, your itinerary is populated with dates, times, addresses, confirmation numbers, costs, and any other pertinent information TripIt identifies from the email.  Sharing trips is just as easy, you add a traveler, and that person also gets the itinerary on their phone.  So while we're traveling, I can open my TripIt app to get directions or check the time of our reservation at a specific venue.  Never again will I miss my flight while hanging out on the beach of Cancun because I got the departure time mixed up with the arrival time - (and yes that did happen once) - never again! 


Designated places

Organizing things virtually is one of my favorite things to do, but sometimes we get physical things, like tickets to a game or show, and they are so easy to lose track of!  So there are certain things that I have designated places for, and it requires so habit-forming to remember each of those places.  As an example, I have a board in my hallway where I put "spent" ticket stubs up with tape just for fun, and there's a little clip on the left side, so I slide in any tickets for upcoming events into that clip, thus I always know where to look for them when it's time to go.  Admittedly, I could probably use more of these "designated places" because things like my purse, incoming mail, and my boyfriend's backpack are always landing somewhere different every day. 


Google Alerts

I don't spend a lot of time browsing the internet or looking up the same things over and over again.  So when there is a topic I want to keep track of, or an eminent event that hasn't been scheduled, I will set up a Google Alert about it, so that I am emailed with information about that topic based on the frequency and relevancy that I choose.  For example, I was anticipating the Harmon Hotel in Las Vegas to be imploded, so I started having articles with the words "implode", "Harmon" and "Vegas" sent to me.  My hope was that as soon as a date was set, I would book a room at a nearby hotel overlooking the Harmon so that I could have a great view of the show!  Unfortunately, it looks like the Harmon is going to be peacefully disassembled over a very long period of time.  A more successful example is following the news of the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf when they first came out; I knew before anyone else when there was controversy, potential recalls, and how sales were doing.  I also got to see a lot of information about other electric cars because they articles would reference the Volt or the Leaf. 

I think it's especially important to have Google Alerts about yourself; that is, I have an alert for "Laura Winger" and "Laura Lee Winger" so that I can see what comes up about me on the interwebs.  You might be surprised what comes up about you.  Some of the top hits for me in the past have been my Japanese e-portfolio I did while studying in Hiroshima, the articles I wrote while working for ASU's school newspaper, The State Press, and fabric designs I've created that are really popular.  There is another woman who comes up from time to time by the same name, and she also went to engineering school, so I could see a potential employer getting us confused.  But as long as she doesn't become a drug dealer or open a porn website, I'm okay with her name intertwining with mine. 


Ceiling Studies

Okay, I made that term up, but stick with me because this may be helpful for you.  A while back, I signed up for a trip to China with my kenpo dojo.  We were going to Beijing, Shanghai, and Dengfeng, where the Shaolin Temple is.  Not being very good at geography growing up, I thought it would be a good idea to at least understand where those cities were on a map and in relation to one another.  So I google a map of China, and then googled a simple clipart of China.  Using the map as a guide, I marked the major cities in big, bold lettering, and then printed the graphic on a few sheets of paper.  I took the prints and taped them to the ceiling over my bed.  As the sun started coming up in the morning, I wasn't quite awake enough to get up, and didn't even want to play with my phone yet, but I idly eyed the map of China.  Every morning I'd wake up and see that map, and eventually, it got ingrained in my head, without any real effort to learn it.  After coming back from my second trip to China, the one I took with my MBA class, I had learned of up-and-coming cities in China that were of interest to me, so I added those to my graphic and put that above my bed until I knew them as well.  I did the same thing with India when I started meeting a lot of people from India and wanted to be more knowledgeable when they told me what part of India they were from. 

There are a lot of things that can be made into visuals that can aid our learning.  As adults, we may not be taking classes all the time, but there are certainly things that we want to learn, and if those things can be made into a large visual like I've described here, perhaps they can be learned with minimal effort just by staring at the ceiling each morning.