I guess I do have a lot of time on my hands. Well actually I don’t, but I found time (stayed up late) to make a little movie that shamelessly promotes my blog. If you have 2 minutes (and 53 seconds), I’d like to show it to you.

C’mon, click the button. I promise I won’t rub dirt on your carpet and then blog about the many ways I can get the stain out. Nor will this shameless blog promotion stain your clothes (I hope you don’t either), it does not contain background music (okay there’s a little at the end), but if you want to hum “We are the World” while you read it, that would not be inappropriate and best of all, it’s rated G for girl needs a life! Please dim the lights…

If I had some animation skills, I could do a better video. I might look into doing something really, really simple, like talking stick figures and hand puppets. So if one day you have nothing to post, throw this up there and join in the shameless blog promotion movement. Spread the Word!

P.S. Have you done any shameless blog promotion? What did you do?

EDIT: Same shameless blog promotion, but with music this time. Pick your pleasure, you can have it both ways. With music or without. Hey when you guys are right, you’re right. I’m shrugging my shoulders. Ahh, it was fun and shameless!

Does money buy happiness? In my opinion, I think it can buy a measure of happiness because it allows you to have a greater number of choices in life. If you have money, you can choose steak over chicken, if that’s your thing. If you have money, you can choose to work or not work, full-time. If you have money, you can choose whether to live in the ghetto or a nice neighborhood.

I compare money to a tool in a tool box, you use it to get things done. Are you really overjoyed to be in possession of that hammer? Does that saw really make you giddy with joy? Well it’s possible, but the real happiness is not with the “tool”, but in the benefits that tool brings.

Even after someone accumulates a lot of money it does not guaranty a constant happiness. I can think of a handful of entertainers who seem to “have it all”, but their life shows they are not happy. Why? George Loewenstein, an economist at Carnegie Mellon University says: “Part of the reason is that people aren’t very good at figuring out what to do with the money.” They have the “tools”, but they don’t know how to use them properly. Imagine if you used your saw incorrectly, the results could be devastating!

While money can bring some happiness, it’s not enough. Our primary goal in life cannot be to pursue money, I think happiness in life has to do with choice and purpose. Simply being in possession of the “tool” is not enough, the novelty wears off.

So if money doesn’t bring lasting happiness, then what does? There’s a quote Suze Orman says at the closing of her show each week and it goes like this: People first, then money, then things. This is not her exact definition, but it’s the way I look at it: When we value people with our money we are able to do things that brings happiness.  People first, then money, then things.

This is just my own personal view of money and happiness. Can money buy happiness? You bet! Can money make you miserable, absolutely! Look at the tools in your toolbox and build with a purpose.

How much money would it take to make you happy? Do you think that money can buy happiness or even the key to it? If you never had to worry about money again, but still had to work, what would you do? I think your answer would be what truly makes you happy.

While holding my breath, I’ve been making some changes to my blog over the past few days. I’m comfortable with adding widgets and making minor coding changes, but if it gets too complicated I rather just leave it alone for fear of messing it up. I know Barbara has a test blog where she tries out her configurations first, as do I. Do you?

How do you go about making changes to your blog, particularly if you are on WordPress, but not limited to. Do you just make the changes or do you test it out first? I always make a backup of my blog before I proceed with any changes, I’m that scared.

So what’s new here? For starters, my blog can now be accessed by using this url: ThinkingOutLoudBlog.com. Hopefully for some this may be a lot easier to remember than valeriemorrison.net/blog.

On the sidebar is a widget for popular posts and below the comment section of each post is a list of 5 random posts you may or may not have read.

There’s also a new page up top called Meet the Blogger, that’s about me. It’s really a bunch of rambling, maybe you’ll find it interesting or it could put you to sleep.

I also opened up ThinkingOutLoudBlog.com store over at CafePress. A small portion of all sales go to charity me.

Hope you like!

Would you sell your blog? I’ve never heard of this practice before, but yesterday I came across a post on a blog that I subscribe to from the new owner introducing himself to the former owner’s readers. I wasn’t an active commentator on his blog, but I was a regular reader and for a few seconds I flirted with the feeling of abandonment.

This got me thinking, of course, would you continue to read (or comment) on a blog you frequented if it changed ownership? I visit my regular blogs because that person has become a ‘friend in my head’, I want to know how they are doing. It’s not always about content.

To me it’s like having a ‘friend’ move to another house, but hanging out with the new owners. I’m not saying we can’t be ‘friends’, but it would be awkward at first.

Now I have seen displays on blogs advertising its worth (find out your blog’s worth here) and I never took it seriously but found it to be more entertaining than anything else. It is worthy of a question though: Would you sell your blog? Why or why not? Would you continue to read or subscribe to a blog if the original owner sold it?

The only reason I would sell my blog is because I’m never going to blog again and I know it, besides who would want to buy it? (Uh, if someone out there wants to buy my blog, please contact me, we need to talk.) Maybe the niche of the blog matters? I recently sold a website, complete with forum members because I will never start another one of that kind again. I’m just not sure of blog selling. Heck, I don’t even want to monetize my blog, but I’ll never say never. Did you hear that Oprah?!

“A man there was, tho’ some did count him mad, the more he cast away, the more he had.” This is a quote from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. The character Gaius solves the riddle thus: “He that bestows his Goods upon the Poor Shall have as much again, and ten times more.”

Do you think that giving makes you richer? Studies show that people who give charitably make more money than those who don’t and not because they have money to give, but because giving encourages receiving. When people see you giving, they want to give to you.

According to The Giving U.S.A. Foundation it estimated “that Americans donated nearly $300 billion to charity in 2006.” This figure doesn’t surprise me, as a nation we are a giving people, especially when it comes to responding to disaster.

I do think we expect those who are doing well financially to give a lot and often. On two personal finance blogs that I read, one blogger ‘seemed’ to pass judgment on an episode of Oprah’s Big Giveaway for promoting handing out “plastic toys” to a group of kids instead of doing something that would have lasting benefit.

Another blogger wrote a post about a governor who made almost $300,000 in 2007, but reported less than $200.00 on his tax return. The governor’s character and priorities were questioned and his donations were used as a comparison to their own or someone else’s giving. When I make charitable donations throughout the year I never claim them as deductions on my taxes. I never give to charity just to get a tax deduction but I’m also not giving thousands of dollars.

It’s been my personal experience that when I give to someone in need or donate to a charity, I get back what I just gave if not more. I’m not sure how much richer I am, but it does make me a lot happier.

How do you feel about giving, do you think it makes you richer?