Dogs: a blessing from God

Betterment Investing and Saving Money

I was recently looking for a better way to save and invest money, so I was doing some research and came across Betterment.com

Betterment easily lets you set savings goals, and they invest your money in Vanguard backed stocks and bonds. I don't know a ton about investing, or more precisely, very very little, but I do know that Vanguard has very low rates, has been around along time and it's also what the company I work for uses for our 401K. It's done pretty good for me with my 401k, so I thought I'd also give this a shot.

The thing I like about Betterment is the ease of use, the interface is great, setting goals is easy, and not having to know a ton about the financial world is appealing to me, over just sticking my money into a super-low returning savings account. It also has a ton of great reviews by companies and people who actually seem to know what they're talking about. The best thing to me though is that I can take money out as I see fit, or put money in. No penalties for taking the money out, so if I chose to lower my 401k investing a bit and throw some of that money towards this, then I can access that money in non-emergency or emergency situations without getting tax penalties like would happen if I pulled money from my 401k.

Anyways, check it out and read some reviews. If it seems like something you might like, and want to try out for free for 30 days you can sign up. If I or you get three other people to sign up then your year is free, so there is a referral aspect to each account.... so if you do decide it's a good match for you, it would be great if you could click on of the links I've put in this post, so I could get a free year of their service. Thanks.

From FrugulRules website "What makes Betterment so unique from other brokerages is that you do not trade individual stocks or mutual funds, but you invest in a bucket of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that are personalized to your specific goals."

Here are some reviews of the service from much more knowledgeable sites and people than me:

• http://www.frugalrules.com/betterment-review-investing-option/
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/brightscope/2012/05/02/why-betterment-wealthfront-and-other-online-investment-firms-are-wrong-about-financial-advisors/ 
• http://www.biblemoneymatters.com/betterment-review/ 
• http://investorjunkie.com/8745/betterment-review/

I'm finding it pretty amazing how fast you can save some money when you have a goal and you can login to an app on your phone or computer and see how you're doing.  There is some risk to investing like this, but if you're investing long term, then it's minimized.  Some people recommend not looking at it every day to see how its doing, and as a person who doesn't follow the markets or other things, that's not too appealing to me anyways.  Good luck and start saving!

More Than Just Parks

This is one of my favorite places on earth:

The first short film from More Than Just Parks, this video is an incredibly stunning journey through Olympic National Park.

Natural Health tidbits

Found this on someones blog post and thought it had some good info... not sure on any proof though, but I've run across most of this info before, so one has to think there my be some validity to it:

For those in need of pain relief from a bad tooth try Garlic tabs or capsules, It is one of the strongest natural antibiotics on the planet as well as Oil of Oregano. Scientifically proven. Both are also anti viral!
IF a disease in the body is causing issues try taking mega-doses of vitamin c. The sicker a person is the more vitamin c they need as it gets depleted when any illness crops up. There is a point when you reach saturation of Vitamin C when you get diarehea. When you reach this point just back off a little on the vitamin C. Vitamin C is anti bacterial and anti viral. There are 4 primary reasons people get sick. Heavy metals from food, (from soil), Chemicals from food (sprayed on food to keep bugs or fungus away), A Virus, (see benefits of xylitol ), and bacteria ( doctor will also call it a microbe but it is actually a parasite that is in vegetables, fruits and under cooked meat.) They are in the earth and you can pick them up by skin contact with the soil. Microscopic in size and possibly at the quantum level according to latest theory. Look into bentonite clay for chelating metals and chemicals out of the body. Also, many herbs can do this. Clean your Liver by using a herbal cleanse. It Also cleans gallbladder. Use cayenne pepper on cavity to relieve pain.
Put it on with a damp q-tip. It is hot try not to touch the tongue or side of the mouth. Use baking soda without aluminum to brush teeth. Selenium helps cure some cancers. Cayenne pepper tea will kill a tumor (10 cups per day) Turmeric cures many disease and prevents or helps others. High dose of Vitamin C relieves pain. Type 1 diabetes can be caused by fluke worm in the pancreas. Vitamin D prevents cold/flu. if you take enough!
Much more but not enough room. Oh! 4 glasses of water 45 minutes before breakfast
may cure every disease known according to the Japanese medical society ..issued earlier this year! Research all the above, I am not a doctor but have researched medicine alternatives for years and have read over a million pages of conventional and alternative
medicine. Do not take any herb or begin any protocol without seeing your doctor first and talking about what you are going to do. Cayenne pepper lowers blood pressure. Any medicine you take can be enhanced by cayenne pepper so be careful in what you do. Raisins raise blood pressure! Good luck to you all! Hope this helps someone. Pass it on! - See more at: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/teeth-needing-root-canals-can-heal-with-diet-alone/#sthash.q3C1dDJt.dpuf

WANTED: Vintage Honda stuff, vintage Toyota, and vintage Subaru 360 van

I admittedly have a weird obsession with old stuff, mostly old Japanese stuff in the category of mini bikes (Hondas, Kawasakis, Yamahas), mini cars (Honda N600, very early Civics, Subaru 360 van), and vintage collectible Honda motors... among other things I like and would like to own.

There are a few things I would like to find and buy, so if anyone has these things, knows where I can find them or other info for locating them, please contact me.

• Honda N600 car
• Honda Cuby T10 engine
• Honda e60 generator
• Anything old and Honda
• Vintage Honda mini bikes: Honda z100, Honda cz, z50m, z50a, z50, Honda Motocomp, etc.

Parkour with Jumpy

It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.

Yes, Google has built its empire by listening to data, but we reserve our awe for the sort of vision that Steve Jobs brought to Apple, and we nod along at the famous answer he gave when asked how much market testing he did for the iPad: “None,” he said, echoing Henry Ford. “It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.” 

Is it really considered more mentally stable to

Is it really considered more mentally stable to repress your natural desires and sit at a desk or serve hamburgers or ring-up purchases of plastic items made in china, 40 hours a week, so you can afford to sit in a box, watching a light box or  listening to auto-tuned music the rest of the time?

Smoothing skin in Photoshop

I do work on pictures of people on a by-weekly basis.  Often time I found myself going into the images, masking out the skin, then applying a Gaussian blur to the skin or using the blur tool to smooth out skin and make it look nice and angelic or at least softer.

Most people wouldn't want an untouched photo, done by a novice photographer being featured as a home page background image without a little work.  Those are the types of images I get.

Another technique I found as a time saver is to:

• Copy the persons image to a new layer (Cntrl J)
• Convert it to a smart layer, so the filter I'm going to add can be reedited at any time
• Select the skin tones via Select > Color Range and select the skin tones with the chooser
• Once selected, go to Filter > Reduce Noise
• Reduce Noise Settings 
•  Strength ~ 8
• Preserve Details ~ 4
• Reduce Color Noise ~ 7
• Sharpen Details ~ 4
• Check the box for Remove JPEG Artifacts

Now you should be seeing smoother skin with a smart filter that you can double click on in the layers pallet and readjust your settings at any time to change your levels of smoothing.

I forgot this technique since I used it a couple weeks ago, so this time I'm documenting it ;)

How To Make a Wordpress Website

Here's a useful, How to Create a WordPress site, video: