Monthly Archives: August 2008

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  Juggling the finances: Why I love Mint

  Posted on August 30, 2008 by Kat French in managing attention

  This week, online financial management tool Mint.com saved my bacon, yet again.   Financial guru Dave Ramsey says every married couple has one “free spirit” and one “money nerd.”  Our household is, sadly, the exception to that rule.  We are effectively nerdless.  Hence, managing our money has been a challenge over our 17 years (as of [...]

  Post Tagged with financial software, money management, organization
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  Question everything.

  Posted on August 28, 2008 by Kat French in real life

  My son was doing his English homework the other night, and he asked me “What does ‘context’ mean? I’ve never understood that.”

  I explained to him that context meant the other words, phrases and sentences around a particular word, phrase or sentence that provide clues to make it easier to understand what it means.

  Since a basic understanding of “context” was essential to completing any part of the assignment, I told him, “That’s really a question you should ask your teacher when he gives the assignment. You don’t really understand how to complete it if you don’t know what that word means.”

  “I hate asking questions. It makes me feel dumb.” …

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  Setting Up Google Reader: the No-Brainer Edition

  Posted on August 25, 2008 by Kat French in managing attention

  This post is the next in an ongoing series, “Geek Decoder Ring.” If you’re not a geek, have no desire to become a geek, but would like to understand what the heck the geeks in your life are talking about, this series is for you. Okay, so in our last post in the series, we [...]

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  Protecting Your Voice

  Posted on August 20, 2008 by Kat French in story & craft

  Last week, I had a little real-life communication mix-up.  I was trying to say something very straightforward and direct, but because our contemporary American communication style is so steeped in irony and sarcasm, irony and sarcasm are inferred even when they’re not intended. It got me thinking that if I have difficulty being understood clearly [...]

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  What is RSS, and Why Should I Care?

  Posted on August 13, 2008 by Kat French in managing attention

  This post is the first in an ongoing series, “Geek Decoder Ring.” If you’re not a geek, have no desire to become a geek, but would like to understand what the heck the geeks in your life are talking about, this series is for you. We’re going to start out with the decoding basis of [...]

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  Would you rather be Scarlet O’Hara, or Melanie Wilkes?

  Posted on August 1, 2008 by Kat French in relationships

  Gone with the Wind was one of my favorite movies growing up.  I liked the movie so much, I actually waded through all of Margaret Mitchell’s novel as well (and the sequel by Alexandra Ripley, which in my opinion, was better than most people gave it credit for.) A thought struck me out of the [...]

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