Welcome to Chez Cliff!

The Problem

I’m paying 18 cents/minute on my cell phone plan.  Isn’t that something.

Let me state something for the record:  I hate cell phones.  Having the table next to me at a restaurant erupt in cell phone chatter makes me want to dump hot coffee on those people’s heads.

Also why can’t a cellphone just be a cellphone?  Why MUST I choose between the 1, 2, or 3 mega-pixel camera?  So I can take a photo of my inner ear while chatting away?

My Verizon plan is charging $60 for 900 minutes.  This would probably be a good deal if I used all 900 minutes.  To be honest, I can’t think of that much to say.  Analyzing my usage, I’m just under 300 minutes per month.  For some reason I can’t help but to feel that Verizon is getting the better end of this deal.

The Solution

As an experiment I’m switching fulltime to Skype.  For the past year Skype has been my primary form of communication across the pond.  The video/sound quality is quite good.  This use to require the other party to have Skype as well.  

A few months back Skype released a few new packages which allows unlimited calls to landlines and cell phones.  For a whopping $3/month a customer can now chat endlessly.  OK so technically it’s not an unlimited number of minutes.  The ceiling is 10,000 minutes.  Or 165 hours.  The French have a saying for someone who talks that much: “Shut the heck up!”

I know what you’re thinking.  ”Yeah but Clifford what happens if you’re driving in the middle of Antartica and the Chupacabra jumps in front of your car?”

Virgin Mobile has got a great “pay as you go” plan which got top reviews from Consumer Reports.  For $20/month, 200 minutes drops into my account and what isn’t used is rolled over to the next month.  Total of 5,000 minutes can be banked.

The Analysis

Verizon requires a 2 year contract to avoid the $300 for a new cell phone.  $60 per month over 24 months brings us to $1440.

Virgin Mobile and Skype is $23/month for a gabillion minutes.  Over 24 months, the costs is $550.  That’s around $890 which remains in my pocket.  No contracts.

The real benefit is the ability to make phone calls, anywhere in the world with an internet connection.  If in Papua New Guinea*, dialing my parents would be just as easy as if I was still in California.  The difference is the medicine man of the Kombia tribe won’t kill me because my cell phone camera stole his soul.

* - Home to my favorite coffee

In a publicity stunt which would make even Sir Richard Branson blush, the CEO of LifeLock plastered his social security number on the side of a giant truck. If you didn’t see it, turn on your television and watch along with millions of others.

“I dare you to try and steal my identity!” he screams!

Someone did.

Certainly I hope no one reading this bought into the LifeLock model. The only real service LifeLock provides is contacting the credit agencies once every three months and asks for a free fraud alert service to be placed on your account. Something you can easily do for free.

But they claim that they will do it correctly. You are obviously incompetent and can’t do it yourself.

Credit Agency: Thanks for calling. How may I help you?
Moron: Yes, I’d like to have the fraud alert placed on my credit.
Credit Agency: Yes sir.

Kind of hard to screw that up.

What kind of advanced, PhD training do the employees at LifeLock receive in order to do it correctly? Tapping the phone number into the phone is too challenging? Even Koko the talking guerilla could perform this function.

Some could argue that this is akin to having a mechanical problem with a car.  Sure, you could do it yourself.  But you pay a mechanic to do it for you.  The difference is the mechanic has all kinds of training, hopefully years of experience doing complicated procedures on something which your life depends.

LifeLock makes a phone call on your behalf.  Wow.  This break-through is right up there with invention of the bow and arrow, the automobile and the auto-flush toilet.  Truly revolutionary in changing the evolution of man forever.

Much like the pet rock, I’m hoping this goes the way of the dodo.  If they offered some new, remarkable service then maybe they would be something worth considering.

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This weekend was definitely a great weekend to relax.

Unfortunately nothing was prepared for today.  I’ll be back tomorrow.

I did see the new Indiana Jones film this last weekend.  As a hard-core fan, disappointment wouldn’t be a strong enough word to describe the sensation upon leaving the theatre.

This article really pleased me.

In the article, our man Bob starts off his illustrious career as a homeless, drug-addicted bum.  After he squeezed into a position, putting labels on paint cans, he financed his business idea with $1000 on his Visa card.

Yes, he risked.  And he was rewarded for that risk.

When starting out, people will oftentimes ask themselves “What’s the worst that can possibly happen?”  Understandably the question brings to light the risk, the down-side of any idea.  Working on mitigating those risks and learning to manage them is the secret.

Dare I put forth the hypothesis that his response to the question “What’s the worst that can happen?” wasn’t “Fear of failure”.  From my chairt, his life had already hit its lowest possible point by being homeless and addicted to drugs.  The only other position I can think of that is lower than that is being a food taster for Roachael Ray.

If you don’t have anything to lose, it can’t get any worse.  More importantly if something is gained, then promptly lost, then the individual already knows how to cope with having nothing.

Perhaps this explains why history is replete with people who become great entrepreneurs, business owners, public leaders, authors, scholars . . . because starting out, they literally had nothing.  And when they knew they had nothing to lose and everything to gain that triggered their drive to succeed even more.

Interesting.

Thanks to all these wonderful write-offs, the IRS believes I’m poor.  My rebate came  and my question:  What to do with this?

A plethora of ideas came to mind.

• Send it back and say “Keep it”
• Pay off some credit card debt
• Get a pedicure
• Buy Amazing Spider Man #1

All really good ideas.  But some money needed to spent to improve my current situation.  That includes a new 22″ LCD monitor.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my MacBook.  But 13 inches of screen is not very good for hours on end.  Size does matter.  And my Mac handled the new monitor like a charm.  Automatically setup my desk in dual-monitor mode, with the proper resolution.  Absolutely too cool.

Since this is being used for (1) real estate (2) online business, then the entire thing can be depreciated on my taxes.  Nice.

Yes, I understand the spirit of the “Economic Stimulus Package” rebate.  It’s suppose to be spent in order to stimulate the economy.  Now mortgage foreclosures will stop, sub-prime loans will be all better, unemployment will go to zero . . .  thanks to my rebate check.

Where was I?

Fortunately a chunk of my rebate is still in my pocket.  The rest is being sunk into the business.