For a short time I attempted borrowing books from the library.  Unfortunately it’s inconvenient for me to get to the library so I was always bringing them back late.

I’ve gone back to buying my books and I generally use Amazon.

Today I went into Borders and wandered around.  I love seeing the books they are promoting, picking them up, reading the back, maybe even reading the first couple of pages to get a feel for the writing.

I found a whole bunch of books that I would like to read so I pulled up my Amazon iPhone application, added them to my wishlist, went home and purchased them on Amazon for far less than the Borders retail price.  Sneaky, but fiscally responsible.

REBLOGGED FROM SHEY.NET:

Tumblr launched one of its first revenue-generating programs today, allowing a select group of blogs (not sure how they’re selected, but the three options it gave me happened to be my three most popular blogs) to feature themselves in the Tumblr directory for a nominal fee — categories range from about $9 to $19 to feature your blog for a week. Here’s the link.

The process is ridiculously easy and fun — I tried it out and featured shey.net in about ten minutes (including Photoshop time) while visiting the Tumblr gang at their office today. The results were almost instant — as soon as the feature went up, I saw new followers start popping up in my timeline (thanks, guys!).

Screen shots of the process below.

1. Enter your info:

2. Get thanked:

3. In your face, Gary and Dens!

HERE’S WHERE I CHIME IN:

This is a great assist for a money-making basket (follow the basketball metaphor please); however, you still have to shoot a three-pointer not a lay-up.

The traffic comes your way, but to pay the rent from your blog you must:

1. Maintain their attention.
2. Manipulate tumblr to facilitate ads.

Neither can be done by a rookie.

Tim Shey, who blogged this entry, is actually a headof the one of the web’s largest video content distributors, NextNewNetworks (that co-produced TMI and LifeExperiment).  That didn’t happen over night.  On a MUCH smaller scale, I came into the blogosphere with a built-in audience and guidance from other leaders in the industry.

Your Tumblr blog can be monetized, it’s just not as easy as a click.  That’s all I’m saying.

UPDATE from Twitter: @Moth (TimShey) The lovely + intelligent @MaryRambin points out why my last post was titled “Make Me Famous” and not “Make Me Rich.”

Doesn’t this look A-MAZING!!! (And you know I don’t like to use that word, but I think this picture qualifies.)

Recipe/post via one of my favorite tumblrs – Tanya.  Enjoy!

Tanya:

For tonight’s dinner I made another recipe from Ina Garten’s cookbook. It was delicious! So easy and so perfect!

Tuna Salad

• 2 pounds very fresh tuna steak, cut 1-inch thick
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for brushing
• 2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling
• 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black, plus extra for sprinkling
• 2 limes, zest grated
• 1 teaspoon wasabi powder
• 6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (3 limes)
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 10 dashes hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco)
• 1 to 2 ripe Hass avocados, medium diced
• 1/4 cup minced scallions, white and green parts (2 scallions)
• 1/4 cup red onion, small diced

Directions

Brush the tuna steaks with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the tuna steaks in a very hot saute pan and cook for only 1 minute on each side. Set aside on a platter.Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the olive oil, salt, pepper, lime zest, wasabi, lime juice, soy sauce and hot sauce. Add the avocados to the vinaigrette.

Cut the tuna in chunks and place it in a large bowl. Add the scallions and red onion and mix well. Pour the vinaigrette mixture over the tuna and carefully mix.

As someone who is single and looking for someone to share my life with…

(Writing that actually has major implications beyond falling in love I haven’t thought about in a long time.)

…this is an interesting note to read, especially during the holidays when singles tend to feel lonely.  But perhaps being independent is something we should celebrate.  We aren’t burdened by a bad relationship or capitulating to someone else’s desires/schedule/family. We are enjoying the season in a way that makes us happy.

Now, there is the flip side, which I would probably argue there are more pro’s to being in a relationship. As I often tell my frustrated friends, not every companion you have has to be “the one.”  You can live, love, enjoy, and learn from a relationtionship with someone who isn’t the one.  It’s not a waste a of time, it’s part of the journey.

Below, Jaclyn and Tatiana offer their insight as to how you know if you’re in “a journey” relationship , or if you’ve found “the one.”

How do you know when you have met “the one?” — By jaclynday

I guess that’s the million dollar question, right? And to complicate matters further: there’s the stories of people remarrying after a spouse died and purporting the fact that you can indeed have more than one soul mate.
I think that a lot of women get trapped into idealizing their future spouse. He must be this tall, this intelligent, this accomplished, this wealthy and so on and so forth. It becomes “I want to meet the one, but only if he has these qualities.”
I think that in order to be truly happy in a relationship, you have to throw preconceived ideas out the window entirely. Yes, physical attraction and an emotional “connection” are important, but so is happiness. So is contentment. So is the next 60-80 years of your life.
Here’s what I think: you’ve met the one when you are happy. Realistically so. When you can look someone else in the face and see their flaws AND what you love about them, you’re off to a strong start. If you’ve met “the one,” you won’t be fooling yourself into thinking that major problems will go away with marriage or with time. You’ll acknowledge that there are things that you need to work on and that he/she needs to work on, but it’s not deal-breaking. It’s encouraging. You can work through these things together! That’s the attitude that signals a good start.
Tanya and I were actually talking about similar stuff to this last night after we had dinner and we both agreed on a very good test to know if you are with the right person and vise versa:
Imagine your loved one has been completely ravaged in some tragic accident. Maybe they are burned beyond recognition. Maybe they can’t feed themselves, walk, work. Would you still stay with them? Is your love deep enough that everything cliched about a relationship can fall away and what still remains is you and him/her? And you’d be satisfied with that? Yes, it would be hard: but would you stay? Would your significant other stay? If your answer is yes, maybe you’ve found the one.