We can’t wait to move into the new place, so it is killing us to sit here all packed up with nowhere to go.  And, trust me, setting up and cancelling the 5 billion things that need to be done with a move is not fun either.  Ashley and I ended up going to a movie grill tonight to zone out for a couple hours and to not think about it.  So far, so good with our new neighbors though, they all have seemed very friendly (the ones on both sides we have met so far).  And, Bridget is definitely read to tear up the trails.  But, its sad leaving this place, too.  I really liked this house, but I think we will like the new neighborhood with lakes and trails.

Doesn’t add up to as much, as it would have, in say, Seattle But, we had a really good realtor up there that sold it very fast (4 days maybe) and handled all the hassles for us. The one tough thing with this listing is that we have to get our dog out of the house before anyone shows it.  I’m not sure how people avoid this normally?  So, that might become a big inconvenience for me.

Hopefully, all goes very well, and its only a short inconvenience, but I know we have to be ready for the long haul.

With the RCO tool says Ward, “we were able to offer PSG a new metric that hadn’t been considered before: what we called ‘coverage.’ Coverage accounts for the importance of products that generate revenue on their own, as well as those that enable the sales of other products.”

Figuring coverage into the equation allowed one division of PSG to establish that roughly 20% of its products, if optimally selected, could completely fulfill 80-85% of all customer orders. As a result, the group was able to significantly decrease the time it took to serve their customers, as well as make order fulfillment times reliably consistent.

PSG now runs the RCO tool as a part of its regular planning cycle, says PSG special project manager Holger Mishal. “We call it the Recommended Offering Program,” he says, “It’s really helped us create predictable and therefore very competitive order cycle times.”

RCO is also integrated into a second program at PSG, called the Global Product Offering Program, which offers HP’s global customers a set of products that they can buy in every country in which they do business.

“We’ve used the tool to analyze all orders from enterprise customers worldwide,” says Mishal. “It allows us to accurately determine which 20 to 30 percent of the features and configurations we offer satisfy 80 percent of the orders.”

The result, he says, is a global product set much better attuned to customer needs. Before RCO was applied to the process, Mishal notes, “only around 20% of customers used the process. Now, the adoption rate stands at 83%.”

Three articles have been published on it which explain it in more detail:

H.P. Labs Pulls Out the Measuring Stick - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com (NY Times)

http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/2009/apr-jun/RCO_tool.html (HP Labs)

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2009/090428d.html (HP Press Release)

Award acceptance video:

So far, it looks like this might be the best rated: http://orcawhalewatch.com/whale_watching_tour.html

Its $75 for a 3-3.5 hr trip.

Seems like a great way for kids to engage their creativity, as well as adults.  A family member could setup a trail of GPS points to commemorate a certain event in their family and you could retrace the route or anyone else could later, as well.  Even road trip-wise, someone taking a road trip could mark points, as they went and leave a pretty cool way for someone to follow their trip to the detail.  They could then share that on sites like Tripadvisor.com, etc.

http://h30430.www3.hp.com/index.jsp?auto_band=x&rf=sv&fr_story=d2a8e282b700a97a913c763aa26645d7520f8c10

http://www.createascape.org.uk/home.html

Anyways, Ash wanted me to get her the song Wake Up on some music device and the only one I can find is the creative Zen nano, but I can’t find the album Funeral in my music collection.  I even have the cd somewhere, but must not have copied it over back then.  I’ll have to find it and while I’m at it back up our whole physical media collection to digital.  That will be a short task, I’m sure:) In the midst of all this, I did stumble across a cool YouTube video of David Bowie & Arcade Fire back in 2005 (Bowie and others were fans), so enjoy:

- http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx?country=us :

The Snowball Calculator - "Snowballing is all about paying your debts in the correct order. Generally speaking you should attempt to pay off the debts with the highest interest rate first. Some people, such as Dave Ramsey suggest you pay the card with the smallest balance first, that’s fine, and can help you feel you’re getting rid of the debt quicker, but it’s not the most efficient way. This calculator allows you to enter up to 20 different debts with their associated APRs, and the total amount you want to spend per month servicing your debts, and it’ll work out the order in which you should pay them together with the monthly payments. For more information on snowballing follow the Motley Fool link to the right of this page. If you’re considering a consolidation loan, think carefully about it. It’s almost always cheaper to snowball your debts, and often people who consolidate their debts end up in more debt because they haven’t addressed the main issue: They spend too much."

–> My comments: I like this a lot, gets you to sort of figure out how much you are committing to loans right now (including credit cards) and how much you would save if you focused money on each of your debts and how you see your money made available to you again, as you are paying off your debt.  It also helps you see the big picture about how long it will take you to pay everything off.  For example, I’ve got 3 main debts right now: car, Home Loan, and Student Loan.  Now, they are all at the same % (6), so I pay the normal monthly for the first two and then I’ve decided to spend a given extra amount on the Student Loan that automatically gets paid, so I can pay it off by September or so. If the car paid off sooner, I’d probably pay extra on it instead, b/c its just nice to be able to pay off a debt.  But, it wouldn’t matter if for example, the car rate was higher, b/c i’d focus on the car payment first.  Now, when your house is your highest rate, I think it does become tricky.  I mean, its still better interest-wise to pay it off first, but you have to weigh that with the fact that you may not have access to that house money until you sell your house.  So, to me, it sometimes still makes sense to pay the other loans off first, if you don’t think you are selling your house anytime soon, b/c if you pay the smaller loans off, then you have that monthly payment back to focus on something else.  All this, also shows you how much interest you are paying, which I like to see, b/c if you can pay off the loans, then that interest money every month that you pay, can go straight to savings or paying off another debt.  The way I see it, paying off a debt at 6%, is the same as getting a 6% savings return on your money, which ain’t bad (because thats what you are paying someone else, so why not …not pay that and save that 6%, it starts accumulating quickly!)

- Finance tracking-wise: there are sites like mint.com, which can help, but I like the basic Excel tracking where I list out every bill I have in my Expenses section row by row, then either include your savings amt in there or put it in its own section below that, then put an income section below that.  And, have a final Total = Income - Expenses - (Savings).  Or, if you just have the Income - Expenses, it tells you how much you could save.  I also like to list the amount I would have to save for something (goals) and figure out how many months it will take me by looking at my savings amount. 

-  Recommendation-wise: I think its a good idea to avoid using a credit card, if anyone can help it.  With me, I thought about changing to just using my checking account, but I get points through my credit card that are good.  If I were starting out with my Finances though, I’d only get a credit card as an every once in the while use.  For building credit, by having the card, but only using it when you need to, and anytime you use it, you know for sure you will have the money at the end of the month.  C.C. interest is just too expensive to pay.  Main thing is, if you can figure out finances, when you are young, it becomes second nature and natural to you when you are old. 

- A site about Automating your money, which is interesting, although I don’t really use all these concepts, I do use some though and it is nice to visualize where your money goes:

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/03/26/the-psychology-of-automation-building-a-bulletproof-personal-finance-system/

From http://blogs.chron.com/fanblogtexans/2009/04/scouting_the_running_backs_par.html:

Gartrell Johnson 5-10 220 pound Colorado State.

Johnson is the classic one cut back that fits the Denver system mold. He has exceptional cuting ability and can make adjustements in the hole. He has the body lean to get though arm tackles and the balence to absorb hits and gain extra yardage. He wont clock fast, but on the field plays fast.

Ran in the 4.7 range at the combine and that didnt help dispell the notion he was slow.

Looking forward to the draft.

Also, the Astros disappointed with a loss to start of the season, with Roy O. giving up two lead off homers in back to back innings, but they came back with a 10th inning win over the Cubbies.  Hopefully, tonight they can even win the series.  That’d be a nice way to start the season.  With the walk-off hit from the new guy we traded for, Keppinger, there might be some hope to this season.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2009/04/dayintech_0407

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signature repealed the Volstead Act, legalizing 3.2 percent beer. It also paved the way for the December ratification of the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment and deep-sixed Prohibition altogether.

So, I celebrate FDR today.