Enjoying retired life so far....

After two years at it, I am indeed enjoying retirement, and also keeping busy -- magic club, arts committee, watercolor and oil painting classes, music lessons, and trying to launch a Web business with wine advice. 

My to-do list is lengthy--but it's all stuff I'd like to accomplish, rather than stuff I need to do to make money (though I could use some freelance writing/editing work, with the market killing my retirement funds).

It's easy to spend a lot of time not doing a lot of anything. My target this year (2009) is to make some serious progress on my blogs (posting regularly, so I can justify marketing them to my friends), figuring out how to get good info and real answers for the newly retired in my site, BoomersRetired.com, and developing SavvyTaste.com, with my partner Lew Perdue.

To which end I just received the book, "Self DIscipline in 10 days," which just MIGHT let me make more effective use of my time. Its initial chapter makes it seem promising. I'll keep you posted....

Need an artist's studio? In Alameda (San Francisco CA)

An artist looking for studio space? How about some nice rooms in the lovely island community of Alameda, near Oakland, in the San Francisco Bay Area?

Contact Debra Owen, Executive Director, Frank Bette Center for the Arts. 1601 Paru St, Alameda, CA, 510-523-6957.

(www.frankbettecenter.org)

$500 a month -- good deal.

Definition of "Reality"

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. "

Philip K. Dick (1928 - 1982) 

"How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" 1978.

Google's Latitude--great software GPS on your cell phone!

Google's new location feature for cell phones, Latitude, has been getting lots of press, good and bad.

Because one of its features--the one they talk about most--is that you can invite friends to know where you (or your cell phone) are at, exactly, I've seen a number of the usual "my privacy is being invaded--arrrgh!" blog postings. Idiots. You can choose who to let know where you are, how accurately they find you, and you can turn it off selectively any time you want. Sheesh.

But the "find a friend" function, for all the publicity, is not the Cool Feature. Latitude is --> afree GPS on your cell phone!Its most widely useful (but non-Social Web2) feature is, no doubt about it, the fact that it will give you turn-by-turn instructions (with map if you like) to any destination on Google Maps. For free.

It works with any smart phone -- mine is a nearly obsolete Palm Centro -- and your phone does NOT have to have GPS features enabled! Google Latitude uses 'cell-tower triangulation,' rather than GPS satellites, to figure out where your phone is. 

It's not the most feature-filled GPS -- no voice speaking turns aloud, and the accuracy of the location feature is less than that of a GPS satellite -- but - did I mention it's free? And you don't have to have carry around a second device.

This is a *great* light-duty GPS-in-your-Cell Phone product. Free. (Except you have to have data services enabled on your cell phone, so you'll pay data charges if you use it heavily.)

I personally like it plenty! Go to Google.com/Latitude, put in your cellphone number, and download the software to your phone from the message they send you. You'll be glad you did!

mac