Consumer Reports has a blog post on a credit card bill that recently passed the U.S. Senate. The bill needs to be reconciled with a slightly-different version that already passed the House, and then it will go to President Obama.

It took me about three minutes to get all het up.
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On my way back to work from lunch today, I was listening to yesterday’s episode of NPR’s Planet Money (my new favorite podcast). They were talking about the announcement that General Motors has filed for bankruptcy.

Congratulations, Americans, you’re on the road to car company ownership. General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection today, in a deal that calls for the U.S. government to own 60 percent of the automaker.

That works out to something like an investment of $192 per taxpayer.

I’m not an economist or an auto industry expert, but as a born-and-raised Detroiter whose entire family still lives in Michigan, I have thoughts. Nothing earth-shattering, but they wanted out.

For starters, I implore all of you to not go into your friendly neighborhood dealer, especially for service, and make jokes about how you own their company. It’s rude. And you know what? Anyone that has a 401(k), IRA, mutual fund, or pretty much any investment vehicle (vehicle! ha!) that is not bonds owns a part of some company. This is not any different. Yeah, having a bad investment foisted upon you is no good. That’s a whole ‘nother issue. But whose investments are actually doing well right now? Leave the people on the ground alone. It’s not their fault. And you’re being an ass.

Next, I’m hardly one to go about spouting off about how the free market will fix this or any problem. But — and this pains me to say it — we need to let the auto industry fail and let Michigan go on with reviving itself.

It pains me to say it because, regardless of whether you or anyone you know is employed directly by an automaker or even a supplier, everyone in Michigan is impacted by the auto industry in one way or another whether it’s as some part of the supply chain, the political/legal/regulatory/tax environment, or just the general health of the economy. My family suffers because of this.

However, even if there are no more GM cars, or even if there are no U.S. automakers, there is no shortage of cars to be had. I go through a quarterly period of lust for a Smart fortwo. I’ll buy a Honda if I have to. Hell, I’d rather not have to have a car at all. I can get my car serviced at a mechanic instead of a dealership. I will not go without in the absence of GM.

I’m really curious to find out what happens to Saturn as one of the divisions GM is going to let fall by the wayside. Yesterday’s facebook status says:

How does all the news today about GM affect Saturn? GM is still actively involved in negotiations for its Saturn brand. Today’s Chapter 11 filing does not immediately affect these negotiations. We hope to have resolution soon and promise to keep you updated throughout this process.

Saturn is like the WNBA or Twitter in that there are a relatively small number of fans but they are fanatical about the product*. I’m on my third car and my second Saturn. I bought a Saturn the first time because it was a reasonable value and it was domestic. I bought a Saturn the second time entirely because of the customer service experience (and its stark contrast to the Toyota dealership I had just exited). As much as I hate to admit to emotional attachments to a brand, I hope Saturn survives for Saturn’s sake.

Insert steel industry and stages of grieving analogies here.

*That’s an impressive implentation of a Ning group.

I have thus far been unwilling to get married in Canada or any of the less-than-handful of U.S. states where it is legal. It felt too token for me. And it’s impractical because my home state of Minnesota doesn’t recognize it, so we wouldn’t realize any actual legal benefit.

But now that the Iowa Supreme Court has unanimously declared their ban on gay marriage to be unconstitutional, heading south for a day is seeming like a good idea.

I have lots more thoughts on this that haven’t quite settled, but I just wanted to put that out there.

My friend Clarence of Do You KNOW Clarence? doing his storytelling thing at Fray Cafe at this year’s South by Southwest Interactive. Somehow hilarious and gripping all at the same time.

Check out his super awesome new comic, Planet Wifey, too.

Now that I’m high on accomplishment, time to voice my intentions for 2009.

• Money. It’s completely unsurprising to me that this is the first topic that popped into my head when I started to write this list. I have three complete years of Pearbudget spreadsheet data, including one full year of data for my current living situation, so I have a pretty good handle on how much I spend and where it goes. I hope and expect that this year will be the year that I go from bad-debt-reduction mode to save-up mode. I’ve been balancing both for a couple years, but I’m more than ready to leave that payoff/paydown stuff behind. This will be a big mental shift for me, as well, because I’ve pretty much never lived outside of debt-reduction mode.

  My goals for 2009 are:

  1. Pay off that last credit card.
  2. Fully fund my Roth IRA for 2008.
  3. Determine how and where it’s prudent to combine finances with Missy and then do that.
  4. Save money as aggressively as I paid down my debt in 2008.

  I expect that accomplishing these goals will be pretty easy.

• Home life. Things on this front are pretty damn good. It continues to amaze me how easy my relationship with Missy is. But I can’t say that there’s nothing I need to work on.

  My goals for 2009 are:

  1. Be more helpful.
  2. Pull my weight around the house and take a more active role in taking care of house business. For example, that room upstairs ain’t gonna paint itself.
  3. Find out what steps Missy and I need to take to legally protect ourselves as much as possible and then do that.

  I expect that accomplishing these goals will require some dedication. There’s lots of upside if I succeed, but not too much downside if I don’t, so I have to provide myself with some impetus and not be lazy about it.

• Business. The more I spend time and money on my various web projects and the more I earn doing it, the more I see a need to separate that from my personal finances.

  My goals for 2009 are:

  1. Meet with an accountant and determine the best way for me to manage my side-project finances.
  2. Keep track of the time I spend on my various web projects. I’m not sure how detailed I want or need this to be. I’m hoping it’ll help me gain some clarity around how much of my life this takes up and how much my time is worth.
  3. Write stuff off!
  4. Take myself seriously, take my projects seriously, have an actual plan for them, and execute on that plan.

  I expect that the parts where I already have a pretty concrete action item will be a piece of cake, though they’ll require some discipline to do it in a timely fashion. I’m not really sure what that last part will look like.

• Social life. Even though I already feel like I’m crazy busy, I just need to get out of the house more. It’s not because I’m not having enough fun. I’ll admit it, I’m kind of a homebody, and I’m totally fine with that. It’s because no matter how awesome the internet is, face time with people can’t be replaced. There are so many people I know on Twitter that I would really like to sit down with.

  My goals for 2009 are:

  1. Make a list of people I want to talk to and talk to them. In person.
  2. Try not to let living in the ‘burbs prevent me from doing stuff just because I think it’s too far to drive.
  3. Try not to let the fact that I don’t drink nearly as much as I used to prevent me from entering into social situations in which there is alcohol involved. This might seem like it’s coming out of the blue. All I know I’ve become increasingly intolerant of listening to people my age talk about getting trashed (as an end, not as a means or a coincidence). I have a hard time sometimes deciding and reconciling how much I want to drink (or not) and — just as important — how much I want to spend (or not).

  I expect that I’ll do a pretty good job with these, until I get exhausted. I’ll have to push myself, but also acknowledge my own limitations as an introvert.

• My body. I said that my diet in 2008 was the healthiest it’s been. You wouldn’t know it from looking at my butt. This sounds so cliche and whatever to even say it, and I hate that I even think it, but I looked at pictures of myself from xmas and thought, “Holy shit! Is that what that looks like?” There are advantages and disadvantages to not having a full-length mirror and scale readily available. At the same time, my weight was very stable throughout the year, so I’ve clearly got a good balance of eating and working out. The psychological problem I’m having is that I’ve been skinnier, so I know I can be skinnier. Never mind that was because I barely ate because I was broke. Although it was also because I ran a lot more. But the trick here is that I need to be doing this because I enjoy the benefits of eating better and being in better shape, not out of shame and guilt.

  My goals for 2009 are:

  1. Run a race. Any race. I clearly only stick to running when I’ve paid money to enter a race.
  2. Stop using the weather/my location as an excuse not to run. I’ve become a total wuss about the weather, even though I have plenty of cold weather running gear.
  3. Get a new bike, because I really do not enjoy riding the bike I have and it keeps me from riding as much as I could.
  4. Take another stab at biking to work.
  5. Take more responsibility for my eating habits. Missy feeds me. I need to learn to do it myself (and to feed her, too).
  6. Somewhat related to that, there needs to be a shift in my eating habits, and it’s only gonna happen if I do it myself because I can’t expect Missy to do it for me. Not sure yet what form this will take. Less red meat? Less meat all together? TBD.

  I expect that I’ll have some mixed results here. It will require some discipline for sure. How I eat is as much about learning as it is about making radical changes. Actually thinking ahead about preparing meals is a total mindset shift for me. That change is far bigger than changing what I eat in the first place. As far as exercise, I already know what to do; I just have to do it.

And now that I look at all that, I’m overwhelmed. This year is not going to be a piece of cake.

One thing I’ll have to do is review progress more often and use it to keep up momentum. I got a huge high off of looking back at 2008. What more could I have done if I’d ridden that high more often?

One thing I’ll have to do is what I do at work when I’m feeling unmotivated which is turn on some tunes and schedule tasks/micromanage myself to death. I like Garrick’s idea of scheduling tasks as time blocks on a calendar as opposed to keeping a To Do list. Sometimes I have to not give myself a choice.

One thing I’ll do is get back to some 30-day challenges in 2009. I had some great successes with some of the ones I tried in late 2007 and early 2008.

Accomplishing these goals should be much like the 100 Pushup Challenge: Not at all easy, but totally doable.

I was gonna go right to the resolutions things to think about doing differently for 2009, but thought it might be helpful and useful to see how far I’ve come in 2008 first.

The short answer is that my life, right now, is the best it has ever been. I am the happiest I have ever been.

!!!

Here’s what I’ve accomplished this year. In no particular order:

• I paid off two of my three credit cards. I have struggled with my debt in a variety of ways for a long time. To make such progress, feel such success, and experience such freedom has been astounding.
• I earned a promotion and a hefty raise at work. This is mostly a reward from the previous two years’ hard work. It also reflects my boss’s confidence in me, which is much appreciated because I really respect and genuinely like him.
• I lived in this house, with Missy. It’s different to me to feel such stability and comfort in my living situation.
• I joined the Board of Directors of the Twin Cities Women’s Choir. I was completely flattered to have been asked and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to give back to an organization that has provided me with so much happiness and joy.
• I auditioned — solo! by myself! — for ENCORE! and got in. I don’t do auditions. The whole point of singing in a choir is so that no one can hear just me. But I really enjoy the experience of singing with the smaller group and I had to do it if I wanted to continue. So I did.
• I met and made new friends through the beauty of the internet and a trip to SXSWi. It’s so wonderful to put face, voice, and presence to a screen name. It blows me away how Twitter more than any other medium has significantly contributed to my online relationship-building, and how it translates to offline/meatspace relationship experiences.
• I have consumed the healthiest diet of my entire life. This may have dubious status as an “accomplishment” because this is almost entirely due to my just eating what Missy puts in front of me. And Coke Zero. The availability of nutrition facts online has led me to selecting healthier options at some of my favorite places to eat.
• I enjoyed several vacations with Missy, including a wonderful trip to Costa Rica. I have always been one to just go places by myself if that’s what I want to do, whether I was meeting people there or not. Missy and I travel really well together. Road trips, plane trips, fun trips, friend trips, family trips, whatever. Going places — and enjoying them with her to boot — has been phenomenal.
• I launched two websites — cinna.mn and fresh.mn — and acquired The Dish. That move to fresh.mn, on a very low level, had been a long time in the making. I’m glad I took the leap. cinna.mn was almost an afterthought; what I’ve learned is that there’s clearly a niche in this community to be filled. The Dish… that all happened so fast. I didn’t really see that coming, but it’s a perfect fit, a wonderful opportunity, and I’m so grateful to Ann Freeman for that.
• I enjoyed Christmas with my family. I won’t dive into the history of this. Suffice it to say that I truly looked forward to going to Detroit for Christmas. That hasn’t happened in a looooooong time. Probably since college. It had everything to do with my personal growth and present state of happiness. My family welcomed me back, welcomed Missy in, and we both enjoyed the visit.
• My relationship with Missy is stronger than ever. I am so in love with this woman. We’re still shmoopy. To still be this shmoopy after 21 months is… well, I didn’t think we’d still be this shmoopy after 21 months. And I know 21 months is peanuts in the grand scheme. This relationship, for me, right now, still holds a lot of shiny newness. I’m still in awe of me/her/us. And yet I can feel it evolving and maturing. This is what the books, poems, songs, and movies get written about. Wow. Just, wow.

So some guy in New Jersey was mad because eHarmony only offers hetero pairings, he sued, and eHarmony decided to settle. They’re now offering homo pairings at a new site, compatiblepartners.net.

Stupid. And not just because of that domain name.

Warren had said in past interviews that he didn’t want to feature same-sex services on EHarmony — which matches people based on long questionnaires concerning personality traits, relationship history and interests — because he felt he didn’t know enough about gay relationships.

I believe him.

So, dude that was angry at being made to feel like a “second-class citizen”? Now you’re getting a second-class product. Are you happy?

In honor of the day, I present you with the best Thanksgiving blog post ever, as declared by Kat.

I will fulfill my Turkey Day obligation and state that I am most thankful for Missy who has made me happier than I had ever imagined I could be, for our health (current colds notwithstanding), the roof over our heads (current suburban location notwithstanding), and the decent job with the awesome boss that pays me well enough to have been able to afford to pay down my credit card debt by $15,000 in fiscal ‘09. And for Barack Obama.

Let the people say “Amen!”

After meeting with Twin Cities Daily Planet editor Mary Turck, I’m pleased to announce that cinna.mn and fresh.mn are two of TCDP’s newest media partners.

One of the things I like the most about TCDP is that they aggregate most of the Twin Cities community and ethnic media in one place. The web presence of these organizations varies wildly and it’s hard to follow them all, especially when you’re a high volume consumer of the internet such as myself. The mechanism by which they do this is their media partnership program.

So what the heck is a media partner?

Media partnership, at it’s most basic, is an agreement to allow TCDP to republish your site’s content. In exchange, you are free to re-publish any of TCDP’s original reporting (i.e., not items they republish from other sites) on your own site. In addition, you’re added to their long list of media partners which I hear people occasionally browse. Every article of yours that TCDP republishes includes your byline, your photo or avatar, a short blurb about your site, and a linkback and contact info.

What this means for cinna.mn and fresh.mn is that if TCDP’s editors see anything they like and want to republish, it may go out in the daily email newsletter and it’ll appear in the “blogs” section of the website. My first article at TCDP was published on Friday, Nov 21:

Media partners fall into a few different buckets, like the aforementioned “Community and Ethnic Media” bucket. cinna.mn and fresh.mn are in the “Contributing Blogs” bucket. There’s also “Neighborhood Associations” and “Arts Media and Blogs.” Some sites are regularly syndicated for their Community Newswire.

Aside from all that, TCDP seems to be pretty open to suggestions regarding the structure of media partnerships and ways to use and distribute content.

If you’re interested in media partnership for your Twin Cities-related site, email info@tcdailyplanet.net.

I need to set up a standalone section of cinna.mn. It’ll probably have its own Wordpress install since I don’t feel like mucking with categories and feeds and category feeds and publishing different categories on different pages. Since cinna.mn is so new, it doesn’t currently have much by way of Google Juice.

So does it make more sense to set up the new section as a subdomain or a subdirectory? From what I’ve read (because people ask this question on the internets a lot), it used to be that the subdomain mucks up your google juice, but it sounds like that’s not so much the case anymore?

I’m thinking it probably doesn’t matter much either way. I’m leaning towards the subdomain route purely for web address aesthetics, but it sounds like the managing of a subdirectory is easier. It’ll live on my server in a folder under the cinna.mn domain either way, right?

(Anyone who says “should’ve gone with Drupal” is fired.)