There's a deeper message here

My 2009 Award

This actually means much more to me than you'd think from the picture.
There's a story behind this.

Switching to Mint.com

I've been using quicken for more than 10 years to do a so-so job of managing our finances.  I've moved over to Quicken.com a couple of years ago, but thought it was a bit weak for what I needed, since I couldn't break out transactions or do much with budgets.  On either the thick client or quicken.com, I never really used their investment capabilities.  I'd tried mint.com, but just wasn't that trusting at the time of mint as a startup, giving it all of this personal data.

A few months a go, Quicken (Intuit) bought mint.com.  It's basically quicken.com, but done well.   It will connect to all of your accounts (mortgages, car loans, bank accounts, credit cards) and pull all of the information together in one place.  It categorizes your transactions based on how you want them categorized, but also looks at how others categorize the data.  It will look at your spending and track it against a budget and offer savings areas, for instance a cheaper movie rental deal for blockbuster if you're a netflix customer. 

Even more, it will take all of your investment information real-time and put it into one place.  Between stock options, IRAs and 401ks, I've got investment stuff sitting all over the place and it's tough to track, other than using google finance to give me a rough feel.  Mint gives me the ability to look at one place and see everything real time.

It also has an iPhone app and can do all sorts of SMS notifications based on budget or account thresholds.  So far, I like it.  Anyone else using this?

My ninja child

Maddie and the Rats

Latest Tech Stuff I like at the moment

Plantronics Voyager ProBluetooth Headset  - After way too much searching, between Jawbone's and a few other earpieces, I'm finally content with my headset.  It fits well, it's got great volume and controls, and the noise canceling is second to none.
ClearContext - Clearcontext is an outlook plug-in that allows you to tag conversation threads and automatically archive them into a related folder. It keeps your local mailbox from filling up and helps you deal with and find e-mail much more efficiently. Once you tag a conversation, it will remember the assignment and file all future conversations in the thread in the same way.
YouVersion - YouVersion is an iPhone Bible app and a web site. You can read all sorts of versions of the bible, but they've also integrated in reading plans. I started the one of the Bible-in-a-Year plans, which you can track and read from your iPhone.
Amazon Kindle -I've had my kindle for a while, but after using it for a while, I moved away from it.  I loved reading from it and the ability to sync content with my iPhone, but I wasn't a big fan of paying $9.99/book when I could get them from the library for free.  The Sony eBook Reader and the new Border's reader allowed you to use library eBooks seamlessly.  Will pointed me to some scripts that allow me to use the same eBooks that I can check out from the library, so I'm back to reading on my kindle and loving it.

Stuff that gets in my way for changing in 2010

I was reflecting on my goals for 2010.  As I was thinking about what could get in the way, I came across this from the book The Holy Longing, talking about what gets in the way of the faith that many of us want, but have a tough time achieving in reality.  I don't know about you, but the stuff that gets in the way for me aren't the colossal, immovable road-blocks.  For me it ends up being a combination of a bunch of small stones - little mundane things.  Rolheiser refers to them as the "anti-faith fores"

What are these anti-faith forces? They are not the product of some conscious conspiracy by godlessness. They are, instead, all of those things, good and bad, within us and around us that tempt us away from prayer, from self-sacrifice, from being more communal, from being willing to sweat blood in a garden in order to keep our integrity and commitments, and from mustering up the time and courage to enter deeply into our own souls. Hence they are not abstract, foreign forces. They live in the house with us and are as comfortable to us as a well-worn shoe.

 This part hit me like a ton of bricks:

What blocks faith is that myriad of innocent things within our ordinary, normal lives which precisely make our lives comfortable: our laziness, our self-indulgence, our ambition, our restlessness, our envy, our refusal to live in tension, our consumerism, our greed for things and experience, our need to have a certain lifestyle, our busyness and over-extension, our perpetual tiredness, and our obsession with celebrities, and our perpetual distraction with sports, sit-coms and talk shows. These are the anti-mystical forces of our time.

I've hanged my approach a bit over the past couple of years, in a good way, I think at least. In the past, I would move forward with sheer will-power and try and change every element of my life, while trying to connect with God at a deep level. I was trying to do it all on my own, and failed miserably, beating myself up for not being disciplined enough and tough enough.  Jesus words here made no sense to me:

 ²⁸"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  - Matthew 11:28-30

I've taken the easier route more in the past couple of years, and I'm starting down the path again in 2010. I've spent time doing small things that I can do right now, right where I'm at. Things like spending a few minutes reading my bible, reflecting on god's word and praying in the morning. I start praying that God would meet me where I'm at, fill me and change me. Something strange happens over time. God starts to change me. I don't have the desires to do the things I was doing before. My brain becomes re-wired to respond differently to people and events in my life. My soul feels full, recharged - in a good way. It takes time, and I'm a guy who likes instant results.  We'll see where I'm at in a month.  Seems like a like time to wait....

My 2010 Goals

I was sitting down and thinking through the kind of person I want to become and focus on in 2010.  I know these are all high level and fly in the face of what achievable goals should be, but it's what's been stewing in my mind.

1. To live my life from a place of fullness
2. To not be such a slave to my desires
   
3. To be more connected to God
4. To be more other centered, less self-centered
5. To be available to be used by God
6. To be quiet more often
7. To find times in my world to disconnect from technology and media
   
8. To be a light in my world
9. To offer more grace and less truth to people
10. To be more intentional about my friendships
11. To sing even worse and off-key than I do now