the contemporary shopping lifestyle

There’s an incredible amount being written about the credit crunch and if you believe the constant media hype the result is going to be the end of civilization as we know it. While certain sectors such as aviation and banking are feeling the pinch it’s worth remembering we’re still looking at a period of high employment.

But it’s still wise keeping an eye on the horizon and planning for the future. Here’s five ways to beat the credit crunch.

Start or boost your cash cushion

Imagine the worst happens and your employer decides to lay off staff. You’re going to need money to live off while you search for your next job. The standard advice is to keep at least three months on standby, even more if you’ve got other commitments or big bills like auto insurance coming up.

What happens if you don’t have three months savings? Start today. Even the smallest amount will help should your employer lay off staff. Decide on an amount and make sure you save it straight after you get your pay check. Head to www.bankrate.com now and find a savings account.

Find a way to beat gas prices

We got to get to work right? But with gas prices hitting $4.50 a gallon in some areas getting to work has never been more expensive. With that in mind more and more people are looking for cheaper ways to get to work and as a result cycle and scooter sales are rocketing. [1]

Or check out these places where the average commute is ten minutes. [2] Think how much longer you could stay in bed each day.

Keep an ear out

There’s still a lot of recruitment going on despite what you hear from the media certain roles and industries are still recruiting as crazy as ever. If you’re having doubts about your employers ability to weather the storm then have a look around. Which companies do seem to be doing well? Which are recruiting? Chat with friends and associates and see what they think their prospects are.

Update your resume

We all get comfortable when we’re settled in a place but if the worst comes to the worst you’re going to need an up to date resume to start that job search. Take some to get your resume up to date now. Then it’s also up to date if you hear about an ideal opportunity.

When times get time it’s important to talk about value. Focus on money you’ve saved your current employer, efficiencies you’ve made or value you’ve added to the business.

Go start your retirement plan

I’m hoping to retire next week but the reality is that I’m going to be stuck working for at a good few years to come. If you’re not planning on retiring soon then why should you think about a retirement plan?

Nearly half of us are going to be stuck working longer than we’d like due to poor retirement planning. The sooner you start saving for your retirement the sooner you can do it.

And with the many retirement plans investing in stocks which are dirt cheap you can play the long game when it comes to investing. With all this doom and gloom stocks are cheap so whenever the market recovers those stocks will rise in value and as a result so will your retirement fund. Maybe we’re not talking sipping cocktails on a yacht somewhere exotic but the sooner you start saving the bigger the outcome.

About the Author

Greig Harper is the founder and owner of Work Rewired - at Work Rewired you’ll find reviews of the best places to work. Why not write a review about your place of work?

[1]
http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/monday/news/ny-bzbike075755457jul07,0,4375828.story

[2]
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2008/top25s/qualitylife/

Brett Favre is ‘un-retiring’ after 4 months of being retired. This video is of an interview Brett conducted with Fox News. My take is simple. Retire. Stay retired. Host a charity golf tournament. Because this whole business of ‘flip-flopping’ does no one good. The Packers were one game away from the Super Bowl. They have a good team. Favre had a good season. No doubt. But it’s unfair to the Packers, the League, and most importantly, Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers, the supposed heir apparent to Favre’s throne, has been waiting in the wings for 4 years. And when Favre always contemplates retiring, it’s Rodgers who’s in limbo. My message is simple, Brett: Do what’s best. Do the Right thing. I don’t think money is an issue. I can understand you want to play. But don’t go back to Green Bay. You’ve caused more problems in 4 months than you did your whole career. Move on. You can go to another team if you want. That’s fine. People might say that the Packers owe it to Brett to allow him to return. I disagree. Brett, you owe it to the Packers to move, to let them move, start the post-Brett life. Favre is a great QB. Hall-of-Famer. But right now, he’s being selfish. Haven’t you done enough? Isn’t it time? Why even retire in the first place? Go to Washington, go to Carolina. Go to the Jets, go to the Bucs. Finish your career the way you want to. Just make a decision, make it quick, and move on.

About the Author

Your favorite writer from The Blog of Champions, is also writing for Tastefully Driven. He brings his sports expertise and knowledge to Tastefully Driven, and will continue to provide the insight and opinions you’ve grown to know and love. Any questions, comments, suggestions? You can contact him here.

If you look closely there are life lessons in everything, from music, to movies, to life experiences, to the internet. The trick with anything like this is to know what to look for and where to look.  Once you know what to keep your eyes open for, life lessons can appear all the time, all over the place. One of my favourite places to find life lessons is in movies. I’m a big sci-fi fan and thought that I could use one of my favourite sci-fi trilogies to help show how you can find life lessons in anything if you just know where to look.

To me every film no matter what it is about holds a potential wealth of thinking and if you open your eyes and your ears you can usually find them. Some film makers intentionally try to put symbolism and philosophical ideas into their movies in order to get the viewer to think and some would rather just have their audience enjoy their time watching their work, The Matrix is one of those films which is simply stuffed full of great thinking that has been intentionally put there just for you.

Lesson 1: Have self belief.

Don’t think you are, know you are. - Morpheus

How many of us have self belief in our abilities? I’m not talking about arrogance because that is a different thing entirely, what I’m talking about is the faith that you need to have in yourself sometimes to attempt things you have never tried before or those things that you fear. This kind of belief in yourself is built on over time and in that respect is like trust, developed gradually not suddenly.

In this scene in The Matrix, Morpheus is trying to get Neo to stop thinking about how good he should be and start to be as good as he thinks he is. We can all be guilty of this at times, we start to be consumed with thinking about how good we are or how good we want to be and never actually live up to that expectation because we’re consumed with thought rather than action. Thinking you are something or someone is what most people spend their lives doing. Knowing that you are something or someone is something many of us seldom do. Stop dreaming the dream and start living it.

There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. - Morpheus

TheNewHorizonsProject.co.uk on Self Belief: “I Can” The Can do Attitude

Lesson 2: Life is Impermanent.

Everything that has a beginning has an end. - The Oracle

Dictionary.com defines Impermanent as: Not lasting or durable; not permanent.

Many people believe that things are forever and become attached to them. Then, when as with everything in life these things are lost, or destroyed or simply disappear they are shocked and devastated, unable to deal with the grief of loosing that thing that they have come to love. The Oracle’s use of this statement, “Everything that has a beginning, has an end” is used to try and get Neo to see that life (The Matrix) in impermanent, it is not long lasting or permanent. As in the life, The Matrix (being designed that way) will not last and will eventually come to an end.

The important lesson to be learnt here is simple. Begin to accept that everything in life will eventually come to an end. You will not be a child forever, eventually you will pay off your mortgage, your boss won’t be mean to you forever, friends and loved ones will move away, you will eventually win through in your endeavors if you stick at them. The trick to living with impermanence is to minimise your attachments to things because when you are not emotionally attached to things you do not suffer and mourn when they are gone.

TheNewHorizonsProject.co.uk on Impermanence: The Pre-Occupation with you – A Different View Point

Lesson 3: Denial is not honesty, no matter how you dress it up.

Denial is the most predictable of all human responses. - The Architect

Denial is something we can all relate with. We either deny our involvement in situations or we refuse to accept the truth when it’s staring us right in the face, whatever your preferred type of denial we are all guilty of too much denial in our lives. By failing to accept our responsibilities or by not accepting our faults and failures we not only hurt others but we hurt ourselves because we are not being honest in our lives. The Architect, in this scene, is showing his contempt for humans and pointing out their most useless and destructive response to life.

Maybe there is something in your life that you have being failing to accept the truth about. Maybe you’ve been telling yourself false truths because the reality is far too hard to deal with; either way you’re suffering from denial. The best way to over come this is to focus on the positive things in life and also to try and be more honest with yourself.

About the Author
My name is Ben and you can find more posts like this at my blog www.thenewhorizonsproject.co.uk. The New Horizons Project is a blog that focuses on positive thinking, success, and motivation with a sprinkling of unusual influences, including films, martial arts, eastern philosophies, and Buddhism. It will challenge you to see the world differently.

It wasn’t very long ago that sports fans only looked to third party websites like ESPN, CBS SportsLine, or Yahoo Sports for their sports fix. Official league sites were hard to navigate, infrequently updated, and overly biased. Over the past year each of the three US major sports has significantly upgraded their websites. Leveraging their exclusive access to information, audio, video, and more, MLB.com, NFL.com, and NBA.com now offer unique content that isn’t available anywhere else on the web – making them must-visit destinations for their respective fans. Who did the best job? Who is still lagging behind the competition and leaving their fans wanting more? Let’s find out:

The Criteria

We will evaluate each of the sites based upon ten criteria:

1. Scores and Gamecasts - the number one reason fans visit the official site. How easy is it to find scores? Are they updated live without requiring a browser refresh? How much information is provided during a gamecast?
2. Reporting - are transactions and other news reported quick and accurately? Do they offer RSS feeds?  Do they have feature articles? If so, is the analysis solid and relatively unbiased?
3. User Interaction - how can users get involved? Can they comment on stories and videos? Can they participate in fantasy sports?
4. Video - can users easily find highlights? How quickly are they available?
5. Archives - can you find historical stats, video, and articles?
6. Stats - can you browse and search player and team stats quickly and effectively?
7. Update Frequency - are stats, rosters, and news accurate?
8. Live Audio and Video - what options do fans have who cannot watch the game live? Each has a gamecast, but how to they supplement the gamecast with additional audio and video? Do they offer mobile services?
9. Design and Navigation - is it easy to find what you’re looking for? Do ads clutter the page and ruin the experience?
10. Shop - is it easy to find team specific memorabilia? Are prices reasonable compared to purchasing the same item in stores or elsewhere online? Do they have a broad selection of items available?

MLB.com

Thoughts & observations:

• Gamecasts are light years ahead of other sports. Watch pitches as they actually come in, change “views” from behind the batter or behind the pitcher, and watch highlights as they happen. They even offer video previews for games.
• The MLB Blog network has blogs by players, writers, front office executives, and fans. Yup, that’s right, you can start your own blog and have the content aggregated on their blog network. Regardless of the blog, it’s very simple to comment and get into a conversation with the author. Very cool.
• If you subscribe to MLB.tv ($50/year for the premium package), you can stream games live over your PC, watch any game after it’s over (including condensed games), watch up to six games at once, and have the system track players and automatically switch to them during their at bats (great for fantasy players). Wow.
• In depth, sortable stats are available going back to 1871, but they’re missing important modern stats such as OPS+.
• For $1.99 you can download full DRM-free classic games going back to the 1950s.
• Mobile audio, gamecasts, and text alerts are readily available.

NFL.com

Thoughts & observations:

• The NFL is the king of exclusive contracts, the most popular of which being that Direct TV is the only way to watch out of town games. They also exclusively offer their NFL mobile service through Sprint and radio coverage of out of town games through SIRIUS satellite radio. These relationships might make the NFL a ton of money, but they hurt the casual fan that doesn’t already utilize the services necessary to take advantage of the content.
• NFL GamePass allows you to watch games online…but isn’t available in the US due to the aforementioned Direct TV deal. Lame. Even lamer is the fact that the NFL Sunday Ticket is available on NINE providers in freaking Canada. Of course, the only fans that truly love the NFL – the US fans – get screwed.
• Other than by playing fantasy football, there doesn’t appear to be any way for users to easily interact on NFL.com. No forum, and no blogs, articles, or videos that allow user comments. Like everything else, the NFL seems overly obsessed with their ability to control every little bit of content on their site.
• Stats are available for every season in history, with video highlights of every game available back to 2003. Impressive.
• Gamecasts are solid. They’re updated almost immediately and offer audio alerts for key plays. Unfortunately they still lack some of the advanced features of MLB.com…at least as of the end of the 2007-2008 season.

NBA.com

Thoughts & observations:

• They do a fantastic job of integrating international basketball news in with NBA. With the China Olympics only weeks away, they understand that they basketball world is focused on the Olympics and not the upcoming NBA season.
• Much like MLB.com, forums and blogs are readily available and easy to comment on.
• The NBA might have more sponsorships than even the NFL, but they don’t let it get in the way of their offerings. Fans can sign up for NBA League Pass through almost every cable and satellite provider in the US. NBA League Pass allows fans to watch out of town games on TV, but for free they can also watch games streaming online. Audio is available to fans for free online.
• Video is readily available, but I found it a bit difficult to navigate to older game highlights. I had to look at the team schedules to find links to game results, which included links to the game highlights. Not super hard, but a bit more difficult than the other sites. Highlights are also only available for games going back two years. Many older highlights also play only in Windows Media Player, which is a bit outdated compared to the inline Flash video available on other sites.
• Stats are available going back to 1946-1947, but aren’t as in-depth or sortable like the other sports.

Final Scoring

On a scale of 1-10, 10 being perfect and 1 being horrible, here are how I scored each site in the categories listed:

MLB.com is the Winner!

After spending some time on all three sites, it becomes clear that MLB.com is a notch above the rest. Their really is no reasonable criticism of their offerings – you can get all of the information you want regardless of how much money you’re willing to pay or the medium that you are using. Put simply, Major League Baseball makes it as easy as possible for fans to find what they are looking for.

Of course, the real winner is the user. With great news, stats, and video available from each site, fans finally have a reason to visit the official league sites.

There are few certainties in life, but along with death and taxes you can be sure that problems will also play a key role. They will be the cause of your greatest pain and your crowning achievements. How you deal with them defines your worldview, and how other people perceive you. People who excel at problem solving tend to see the world as rational and (ultimately) understandable. They may view their lives as goal driven and self-directed and are often seen by others as proactive, dependable and able to get things done. People who are not so good at problem solving tend to think the world is irrational, mysterious and may often view their lives as a product of capricious fate, or chance. It’s tempting to make the right and left-brain distinction here, however this is mistaken as good problem solving often involves both analytical and synthetic approaches that make use of both sides of the brain. It is also important to note that no-one is completely devoid of either characteristics and that many people are good at solving some kinds of problems but not so good at solving others. However, there are always things we can do to improve our ability to solve problems and below are 10 general tips that will help anyone hone this ability within themselves.

1. The Truth is out there. Perhaps the first and most important thing you can do to improve your problem solving skills is to come to the understanding that problems can be solved - by you! One of the most inspiring (and perhaps astonishing) aspects of this universe we live in is that it appears to be understandable by us. It needn’t have been this way! We could have been born into a chaotic and inexplicable universe, where anything can happen and where reasons and explanations have no utility. But as our long journey has a species on this planet has shown, we have the ability to examine the world and figure out what’s going on. Things cause other things to happen and we are able to gain access to those causes. It’s a truly amazing aspect of ourselves and our universe, but it’s a fact that given time and focus we are able to understand the world we find ourselves in.

2. The Devil is in the Details. Once you have the solid conviction that the problems you find yourself facing are amenable to conscious investigation, the next step is to get your hands dirty and deal with the intricacies of the issue. Just because we can solve problems, doesn’t mean it is easy! Our world might be understandable in the broad sense, but it sure isn’t simple to do so. Having a willingness to delve into the details of your problem is crucial and is often what separates the great from the average.

3. Cherche La Femme. This old saying from the detective novels of Raymond Chandler translates to ‘Follow the Woman’. It represents the understanding that many crimes are committed by men under the influence of lust, jealousy or love. Despite its sexist overtones it reflects the need in problem solving (as well as detective work) to focus in on key areas of the problem. Before you delve into the details you need to know where to start looking. Taking a broad, high-level overview of where you should start to focus your energies is key to good problem solving.

4. One Man’s Rubbish. Just because others have already examined something doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be re-examined. A willingness to cover old ground for that one key insight that others may have missed is the sign of a good problem solver. Get in the habit of testing out other people’s experience and conclusions. Verifying other people’s data, traditional knowledge and accepted wisdom is crucial if you are going to solve new and difficult problems.

5. Tried and Tested. You’re not the first to solve problems. Others have trodden this path before you. Along the way have been developed and documented many methodologies for formally approaching problem solving. Adopting one of these systems can give you a coherent and high-leverage toe hold in areas where you don’t have much experience.

6. The Answer is in The Network. Similar to adopting tried and tested methodologies, often someone somewhere has solved the exact same kind of problem you are dealing with now and your quickest route to success is to find them and ask then how they did it. Don’t forget to develop and exploit your network. All true seasoned problem solvers have extensive contacts in their field of expertise they can draw on. Develop and use yours to avoid re-inventing the wheel.

7. The Frame Problem. Don’t be afraid to step back from the problem when you feel you are getting nowhere. Re-examining your initial assumptions and exploring other areas of your high-level map of the problem can often yield insights that get you going again. Maybe it’s not cherche la Femme, but Cherche le Money!

8. It’s Over Here, Stupid. Similarly, don’t get too attached to your hypotheses about the problem. Your teacher is how things really are, and it’s easy to overlay your own expectations onto your problem and lose sight of what the problem is trying to tell you. Be prepared to drop your assumptions and start again. Pay close attention unexpected results and use them to question your position.

9. It’s Like… We are primarily visual creatures, and our mind works wonderfully with metaphors and images. Try to analogise the problem to something you already know a lot about. See if where the analogy works and where it breaks down. This can often give you insights into the problem and where your blind spots are.

10. Give it a Rest. If you get really stuck and don’t know what to do next, drop the problem! Do something completely unrelated and let your subconscious mind reboot and relax. It’s surprising how many of our best insights come when we are doing something completely different.

About the Author

Steve Munroe works as a technology consultant at IBM, He lives in the UK, runs, plays guitar and once, long ago did a PhD in computer science.

Steve is the author of the Blog: Work-Life Innovation, which explores ways of working smarter and living fuller. The blog focuses on working creatively in order to find the space both temporally and psychologically to be able to enjoy the really important things in life, which for Steve are: family, learning, travel, excitement, health and creativity.