brian schettler

These were too big to post in Twitter, so I’ll put them up here. These are questions I hope Dave Ramsey answers in the upcoming Town Hall for Hope event on April 23rd.

1. In Financial Peace University, you state a good target interest rate for mutual funds is 12% to 18%. What is a rate we can realistically expect in the next two to five years? Ten years?
2. With all the money being dumped into the economy by the U.S. government, we’re sure to see some serious inflation coming in the next few years. What is the best way to protect ourselves?

Thanks, Dave! I’m very excited about #THFH and am looking forward to it.

Tags: daveramsey, financial peace, town hall for hope

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{
    printf("A fact about Brian: %s\n", brian.RandFact());
}

Tags: facebook

A quick note, I’ve ditched XP 64-bit edition and moved to Ubuntu 8.10. At times it feels like a great release, I enjoy the free software and the neat things that come along with it. Specifically: I love the compiz desktop effects, mainly the “expose” clone. I’ve also installed the Avant Window Navigator, which is a clone of the Max OS X dock, and it works really nicely. I also love the package manager, where new software is very close and easy to install. But there is a few things that drive me up the wall, such as getting my printer and scanner working. And sometimes things just don’t work for apparently no reason at all. But, I’m determined to stick with it and challenge myself to learn how to use it. I can always run Windows in a VM for when I need it (but even that is having some problems right now). It’s frustrating and I don’t have a lot of time to mess with it because of school and work, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

Tags: linux, ubuntu, windows

See this previous post about looking for last semester’s online information before it’s taken down. You might find study guides, homeworks, etc. Always worth a shot.

Tags: classwork, online, osu, School, semester

If you’re getting a little tired of classic Christmas music, you might try The Christmas Lounge streaming internet radio station. I found it last year and I really enjoy the modernization of all the songs I grew up with. So far I’d have to say my absolute favorite song is Cathedral Brass – Joy to the World (Mocean Worker Remix) (30 second sample).

Tags: christmas, modern, music, remix

I know I’m late, but here’s some thoughts. I’m generally optimistic about Barack Obama. Two big reasons:

1. He is a much better role model to young minorities than rappers and athletes.
2. He understands technology and I think that’s good. There’s a lot of potential to use technology to improve government and I hope we see progress in this area. Also for policies like net neutrality.

I was generally optimistic until I saw that Obama was bringing on lots of old Clinton people. I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. One way I’ve heard it explained is that as someone who is inexperienced, he needs to be surrounded by people who know how to use the system, and hopefully he will ditch them after two years or so. Otherwise this wasn’t so much the “change” that was promised. I definitely think having Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State is a big mistake, because I don’t think she is capable of allegiance to anyone except herself. If a situation arises where it’s either her or Obama, she will put herself first.

Tags: clinton, Government, hillary, obama, politics, president

Well, finals are over so I can return to blogging for a bit. I have some thoughts I’ve been saving up, so expect to see those soon.
And also, the new Wordpress (2.7) is very nice.

Tags: Blog, School

Somehow I thought it was two weeks away, but I just looked at my calendar and realized it’s next week. To get you ready to vote it’s a good idea to look up some sample ballots. Ones for Stillwater are located here, but I think you should be able to find some for your area by searching for “[your county name here] county election board.” It’s a good idea to know all the judges you’re going to confirm and all of those peskily-worded state questions ahead of time, plus it’s considerate.

Tags: ballot, election, election board, prepatation

I’m probably not going to have very much time in the next two weeks for political analysis, with school and work and everything (somebody has to contribute to GDP and pay taxes to pay for the bailout). The way I see it now, I think Obama will when the election. I hope I’m wrong, but here are some of my thoughts:

1. The financial meltdown. I think when the economy goes bad, people will vote with their wallets. They’re more likely to give “the other guy” a shot at running it for the next four years. But, I think McCain’s strong suit is the economy/tax policy and hopefully people realize that.
2. Obama’s campaign appeals to people’s feelings. Hope and Change are the two big buzzwords from Obama’s campaign, but what does that mean in concrete terms? Even all of his campaign material is done in a “happy warm fuzzies” kind of way. I think younger voters are especially swayed by this kind of marketing. It’s what makes them feel good. The facts and policies matter less.
3. The Republican party has moved away from conservative ideals. There’s no such thing as a small, limited government anymore. There are no free market principles. Like the article linked to a few days ago, I think the Republican party needs a wake up call to gather around the core principles, and a humiliating loss is probably the only way to do it.

I hope I’m wrong, but I guess we’ll see in two weeks. I would be okay with an Obama presidency if we had a Republican majority in Congress, but the idea of a Democratic president and a Democratic super-majority scare me (same thing with Republican president and Republican Congress)…the government works best when divided and all that, you know.

Tags: 2008, election, Government, president

Just thought I’d throw out a link to winkflash. Sarah and I got some photos made of the wedding and used them. We were pleased with the results. We first ordered a small batch with and without their “image enhancement” to compare and we both agreed that with image enhancement looked better. Also, I thought the option to add a white border around the edge of the photo was a nice addition.

Tags: online services, photos, print