Franzone Family Blog

There are social networks these days to cover just about any niche or interest that you may have. This includes financial matters like investing and stock trading. MyWallSt.net is just a site like this. If you are into investing and want to bounce ideas off of other like-minded folks then there are plenty here. You can setup your profile, make new online friends and all of the other nifty social networking that comes along with a site like this.

The main reason you may want to head over there, however is that they have something called the rookie challenge. This is a fantasy investment game. That’s right a game. You use virtual cash to trade stocks from real companies. This is a really great educational tool that can a) allow novice traders to test the waters without any risk or b) let veteran traders evaluate new strategies. In any case… it’s FREE. Sign up for free, setup your stock profile and get

trading with $100,000 virtual dollars. As if that’s not a good enough deal, at the end of trading every Friday evening (after 5:00 PM) the rookie trader with the highest percent gain and a total equity greater than $100,000 is declared winner for the week for cash prizes up to $1,000.

I just posted on my main (technical) blog about a giveaway that DevDad (Stay At Home Dad, Geek Style) is holding. It’s the Stay At Home Dad iMac Give-Away. Here’s a picture of the beauty below.

The interesting bit is that he has partnered with SitterCity to be able to provide this nice prize. Who is SitterCity? If you need a babysitter or petsitter you can go to the site, type in your zip code and find a listing of people who can fill the job. The site provides user feedback and ratings on their listed sitters as well as an indication of whether or not they have a background check on file. There are many details to view about potential sitters including their preferred rate, whether or not they have their own transportation, years of experience, educational background and they may also have a profile video.

If you are a sitter, for children or pets, and you need to find work in your area then this site is for you also! You will be able to register on the site and provide all of your pertinent information in your profile. Now people in your area will be able to find you, which means more jobs… and more money!

Since I’ve been making the daily trek to Fort Walton I have taken up the task of tracking my gas mileage. I’m not sure why, I guess it’s just something to do besides complain about how much gas I’m using. I had to fill up yet again this morning and so entered the pertinent data into my gas mileage log. Hmm… that’s odd. I only got five miles per gallon this time. Oh, I see the problem. I entered the miles from the odometer incorrectly.

So I left the building and went to my truck to get a true value. I’d have to subtract the fifty miles since my drive over, but I could get close enough. Oh that’s great! The trip meter is still at zero and the odometer reads exactly what I had written down. Drat! The thing is broken.

So why do you care about all of this? I have no idea… after all you’re the one reading it.

Today I had a slight hiccup in my iPod running experience that turned out to be pretty cool. When I was selecting the music for my run I had originally selected a trance/dance mix as usual. However when I pushed the button to start my Nike+ workout it reverted to a shuffle of my entire iPod. No problem as most of the stuff on my iPod Nano is running oriented anyway. The interesting thing was that the first song it picked was Offering by Third Day. This was a new music genre that I’d never tried to run to before… but it turned out really nice. It was early in the morning, hardly any people were out and I was running down the road worshiping God. I may have to try that again!

As far as the actual run goes, it felt really good. You can see by the chart below that I progressively picked up the pace throughout the run. My average speed was about 10′56″ per mile, but at the end of the run I was running at just over 10 minutes per mile. I’m still not ready for the Olympics, but it feels good to just be out there exercising.

Online Discount Mart is trying to get rid of a lot of their summer inventory of home and garden merchandise. You can find some great deals! Not only do they have some great lawn and garden decorations, but they also have their fall and/or Halloween decorations available. They also a decent selection of garden furniture and wind chimes. Head on over for some super summer savings!

This post has been sponsored