Not only a really big batch, but a lot of difficult questions. No wonder I put these off for so long. They’re long, rambly, and without pictures, so if you ever picked a post to skip, pick this one. Here goes…
December 22 Startup. What’s a business that you found this year that you love?
I’m almost always skeptical of startups, mostly because so many new businesses claim to have a “revolutionary” or “innovative” business model, but for the most part, they’re either recycling something that has already been done, or embarking on something that just doesn’t add up financially (and folding a year or two later). I mean, I’m certainly no business expert, but we all knew where ChaCha.com was headed long before they got there. That being said, I have always been fascinated by businesses that use micro-targeted marketing, especially as an integral part of their revenue system. I guess the real attraction is due to the fact that technology plays such a big role in tracking the trends and mining the data to support such marketing, and it’s something that I think still has a lot of unexplored (and sometimes ethically debatable) potential. So while I haven’t used this business enough yet to know if I “love” it or not, I’d definitely say that the most fascinating startup I’ve seen this year is Alice.com, which sells basic household products (non-perishable grocery, toiletry, cleaning, etc). Its business model sort of expands on the logic behind the “bonus” cards grocery stores give out — they get to track and analyze our spending habits, and in exchange they offer us discounts and targeted coupons. The difference is that Alice not only offers targeted coupons, they also ship everything you order for free, saving an actual shopping trip, occasional (targeted) free samples (beats coupons, no?), and prices that are comparable to Food Lion. Their selection is sort of hit-and-miss right now, presumably since they’re so new, but they do have a lot of interesting smaller brands and organic / green products I wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else. The customer reviews are useful, too. Alice stores a list of your products, and allows you to schedule an order frequency, emailing to remind you when it’s time to re-purchase something. It’s not something I think I’ll use exclusively (I’m the kind of person who doesn’t realize she needs more deodorant until she’s completely out, for example), or even all that often, but I’ve already found a couple of new favorite brands to keep me coming back occasionally at least, and I don’t think I mind trading my shopping trends for a few free samples.
December 23 Web tool. It came into your work flow this year and now you couldn’t live without it.
Mint.com is an easy answer. I have been using this site for a couple of years at least, but this is the first year I’ve really put it to work. This tool is truly incredible. It organizes all of my online banking — checking, savings, credit cards, investments, 401k, property values (well, I have a car, a bike, and a macbook — those count, right?), and keeps up with all of it. It automatically categorizes every transaction on all of my cards, and remembers my settings (”checks in amount x are always category y,” for example). It sends me alerts when my accounts are running low, credit card bills are due, or large transactions hit my accounts. It graphs my spending by category, lets me create my own categories, and lets me set budgets for my spending. I never have to think about how much money I “actually” have between my checking account and credit card bills — it figures all of that out for me. As for 401k / investments, it tracks each stock and its trends, like a little WSJ ticker or something. Being slightly obsessive-compulsive, charts and graphs are exciting to me anyway, and these are so well-laid out and useful.
I saw someone balancing his checkbook at work last week, and was shocked to realize that some people still actually have to put time and effort into keeping finances straight. I know I am a spoiled child of the 21st century, but I honestly can’t fathom why anybody these days isn’t using online banking and finance management. I itemize my taxes, and this is going to make it (almost) painless.
(And for those of you wondering what Mint’s business model is, yes — they’re also on the “micro-targeting” end of things. Their privacy policy protects you from anything too intrusive, but they are collecting aggregate trends and data to provide you with “targeted” sponsor offers along the lines of checking accounts, credit accounts, savings, etc. where they think you will maximize your savings, and they probably make additional profit selling such statistics. Again, this is somewhere I don’t mind trading a little bit of my generic spending trends for a valuable service.)
December 24 Learning experience. What was a lesson you learned this year that changed you?
I think I’m always learning something. This has been a big year of “learning” for me, at least if I try to remember what I was like a year ago, but it’s kind of hard to put my finger on specific “lessons” that I’ve learned. I think a big one (and one that is still very much a “work in progress”) is this:
“Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.” – Psalms 46:10
If I were to list my top favorite words of all time, “productivity” would be in the top half. I am a chronic Type-A personality. I don’t deal well at all with boredom, waiting on people, not having a set schedule, or days where I don’t accomplish much. I have had many days where I have actually cried because I slept past ten in the morning. When I am feeling stressed, I don’t take a nap or schedule a break — I make a to-do list, which I somehow find delightful and calming. (Just reading this makes me question my own sanity, honestly.) In short, “being still” has never been a strong point of mine. But reading about Mary and Martha, or Jesus’ time with His disciples, or even just Paul’s words about the fruits of the Spirit, it’s obvious that I’m missing out when I let myself get stuck into thinking that my value comes from how many check marks I can put on the to-do list each day. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about and are thinking “wow, she’s crazy, what a ridiculous problem to have,” you are probably right, but I know that there are others of you out there (somewhere? hello?) who understand the battle against a misguided sense of accomplishment. So that’s the lesson I’m fighting learning the most lately.
December 25 Gift. What’s a gift you gave yourself this year that has kept on giving?
Materialistically, you mean? I finally allowed myself to buy a reliable car, which is somewhat unlike me, and probably a sign that I am growing up / getting old.
If I allow a more broad interpretation of “gift,” I have spent a lot of really fun time with friends this year. Probably my favorite relaxing “activity” this year has been over at Anna and Justin’s with the game crew, playing Balderdash or Gin or Catch Phrase or Rook or whatever seemed fun.
December 26 Insight or aha! moment. What was your epiphany of the year?
… I don’t actually care about politics. I mean, I used to, a little bit, and then I for a while I was pretty opinionated on it. But this year, it just started seeming so irrelevant, when compared with the “big picture.” I don’t consider myself un-patriotic, and I stay informed enough to vote intelligently. But in so many parts of the world, people are living under governments so much worse than ours. Don’t get me wrong — I am not taking issue with anyone who enjoys or is involved with or opinionated about politics. I’m just saying that when I really started considering myself as a child of the Kingdom of God, I feel outraged for those suffering all over the world, and a lot of the pressing debates here in the states seem pretty trivial in comparison.
December 27 Social web moment.
After forgetting its existence for months at a time, only to log in and find myself aghast at the tasteless spam gracing my profile page, I finally deleted my MySpace account. Boo yah.
listening to: Dashboard Confessional – The Swiss Army Romance (Yep, the whole album. Turns out this “reflecting back in time” thing took me a bit further back than just January 2009…)
December 13 What’s the best change you made to the place you live?
