Sidebar – Fun Lawyer Comics
Are you looking for something to brighten up your day? You’re in luck! I did a little research and found some lawyer comics for you.
Stu’s Views has a nice collection of lawyer and legal cartoons. They’re even organized by topic. There are some nice ones under constitutional law.
Juris Comics also draws lawyer comics. They don’t have as many available online, but they’re still worth a peek.
Finally, check out LawComix Scribble-in-Law. These comics are a bit more up my alley, since the creator spends more time on the message and humor than they drawing. Still funny!
Do you have a favorite comic site? Share it with us!
Update (Aug. 13, 11:20p) – Stephanie West Allen posted some great lawyer fun on her blog last Thursday. Thanks for the link, Stephanie!
[tags]comics, cartoons[/tags]
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Join Professional Organizations Early
When you join a new profession, it’s important to consider what professional organizations to join. And do this early! I’m going through this process right now, so here are a few things I’m considering.
Plan long term
Don’t just think of yourself as having a job. Plan for your long term career. What organizations might be helpful as that career evolves? Where might you make contacts who could help with job leads in the future?
Don’t forget local
In our global society, it’s easy to forget that we live in a smaller community. Your town and state probably has lots of different organizations that you could join. Some of these might not be specifically directed at your profession, but they focus on your local community or region. You need to connect with local people, especially if you’re looking for clients.
Ask about dues
Depending on the organization, dues can vary greatly. Some local groups I’ve looked into ask for $50 per year. Other groups could want as much as several hundred per year. Get all the info up front and decide if the group really warrants the cost. And see if your employer will cover some of the dues for you. It never hurts to ask!
Watch out for time
I don’t need to tell you that time is limited. When you’re assessing different groups, figure out the total time commitment for each one. Do they have a weekly meeting or a monthly lunch? Do these meetings conflict with other groups? Just make sure you have your eyes open and don’t over commit yourself.
Your advice?
Do you have any suggestions on evaluating what organizations to join? Have you joined groups that you wish you hadn’t? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
[tags]networking, professional organizations[/tags]
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15 Tips for an Easy Move
Are you about to move? Do you want a way to make it quick and easy? Too bad I can’t give you that.
But I can give you some tips that I’ve learned. Hopefully these will help your move go a little easier.
- Throw away – Do it early and do it often. We all have more stuff than we need, so get rid of some.
- Sell – Some of your extra stuff might be valuable, so get a little money out of it. Craigslist is your friend here.
- Donate – Be sure to donate some of your unused stuff to charity, like Good Will or the Salvation Army. You could even give it to your church’s rummage sale.
- Start early – Don’t wait until moving day to pack. Begin packing early, especially things you don’t need daily.
- Buy baggies – Get sandwhich baggies & larger freezer bags. Use them to keep hardware together for the bed or for storing items such as shower curtain rings.
- Hire help – Give yourself and your friends a break by hiring temporary labor for loading & loading.
- Reserve equipment – You can’t rely on equipment availability, especially during heavy moving season. Reserve your truck or trailer to save stress on moving day.
- Fill holes with caulk – Don’t bother with a putty knife and spackel. Fill sheetrock nail holes with a squeezable tube of caulk. Less mess, and easier cleanup.
- Get a dolly – For only a few dollars, you can rent a utility dolly. Don’t even try moving boxes without one.
- Extra boxes – You don’t want to run out of boxes, so get more than you think you’ll need. Many places give 100% of your money back for unused boxes.
- Barter for help – If hiring laborers is too expensive, barter with your labor. Help someone else move, in return for them helping you.
- Split it up – Even if you’re moving locally, load and unload on separate days. That spreads out the work and gives you more time for the move.
- Label clearly – Buy several Sharpies and label every box you pack. Include the room where it goes, along with a couple words about what’s inside.
- Hardware box – Keep all your furniture hardware, picture hangers, and other gizmos in one box. This will make setup at your new place much quicker.
- Toilet paper – Make it findable! Even if you think you’ll remember which box you put it in, label it clearly. Put a couple rolls in another box. Put another roll in the truck cab. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to find a roll at your new place.
Do you have any great moving tips? Let’s share them with each other. What else are the comments for?
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BigContacts Will Super-Size Your Contacts
My new job is going to be heavy with networking, meeting people, and connecting with others. So I need a killer system to track all of this activity. That’s what got me searching for a strong contact manager.
One of the only good things about Outlook is the contact manager. I love Gmail, but its contacts system seriously stinks. But I’ve found a system that beats them all!
BigContacts is the most robust, powerful, but simple contact manager I’ve ever used. It can track everything you ever wanted to know about a contact, email them, send a letter, and dance the jitterbug. OK, I haven’t found a jitterbug function, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
This post is just an initial post to spur your consideration of BigContacts. I plan to write a full tutorial on this awesome application, along with some pretty screen captures and maybe even a video. It works so well, and it even looks slick to boot!
The free version of BigContacts allows up to 500 contact entries. You can get up to 1,000 for $11.95 per month. And you can get even more space for a bit more per month. With web & mobile access, what’s not to love?!
[tags]BigContacts, contact manager[/tags]
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Oxygenics Showerhead, a GREAT Shower Accessory
This is NOT a sponsored. I’m just thrilled with this product!
Are you looking for a small home improvement that will provide great benefits? If so, order yourself an Oxygenics showerhead!
We just moved into a new rental townhouse. It’s a pretty nice place to live, but our shower head was pitiful. It put out a tiny trickle of water, and not a steady trickle like those spiffy rain shower heads. This thing was more like a broken water gun, barely squirting enough water to soak your hair.
To fix the problem, we went shopping for a new showerhead. Our requirements were pretty simple: a blasting jet of water. We weren’t looking for a rainfall shower head or a hand held shower head. We just wanted a strong, steady stream of water.
That’s when we found the Oxygenics Elite Showerhead
Installation was a snap. I quickly removed the old shower head and cleaned the pipe. Then I wrapped the threads with Oxygenics’ included Teflon tape. I didn’t even need a wrench to screw the Oxygenics Elite Showerhead onto the pipe. And we were ready to go!
I got to give this unit its first test, and I was quite impressed. For just a few dollars, we turned the tiny dribble of water into a steady jet of pressurized H2O. It’s not quite to the level of a massaging shower head, but it suits our needs just fine. It was well worth the investment!
The Oxygenics Elite Showerhead won’t improve your productivity, and it’s not related to the law, but it’s a killer bath fixture.
[tags]showerhead, bath fixture, oxygenics[/tags]
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How Do You Manage Two Computers?
Do you use two computers? One at work, and another one at home? Or maybe you use two different computers at home for some reason.
How do you manage your data and programs? How do you keep everything synchronized? Or do you not even bother?
For years I’ve only had a single computer – a trusty laptop. But now that I’m a full time employee, I have to use the work-issued desktop for my job. I’ll continue to use my beloved Inspiron e1405 for blogging and personal matters.
But I want both machines as similar as possible. Data isn’t a problem – since I won’t really need work files at home or vice versa. But programs, contacts, preferences, shortcuts, etc are problematic!
So, I thought I’d poll you awesome readers. Then I’ll do some further research and create a post for everyone!
How do you manage two computers?
[tags]computers, synchronize[/tags]
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Great Personal Finance Tips
It’s not directly about productivity, but I do write about money from time to time around here. Thus, I’d like to point out Brett’s edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance. He had a ton of contributions, and there are lots of great articles to read. Oh yeah, he included an article I wrote. 🙂
[tags]money, carnival of personal finance[/tags]
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Sell Textbooks Online – How to Maximize Your Cash
This post was submitted for the Carnival of Making Real Money.
Everyone knows that you can sell used books back to your college book store. But your best source of cash is to sell textbooks online. And here’s the ultimate guide to maximize your cash!
My wife figured out this method, and we executed it together. We sold several boxes of used books and textbooks, earning over $570.
Round up your books to sell
You first have to gather up the books to sell. It’s important to round these up all at once, to maximize your possible cash. Put everything you want to sell in a stack.
When deciding what to sell, don’t ignore any of your books. Even if you think nobody will want an old, ratty copy of A Tale of Two Cities, put it in your “sell” pile. And definitely include newer, best selling books that you’ve already read.
Also, consider taking used books off of other people’s hands. Your classmates, friends, and family might have books they no longer want. Offer to dispose of the books for them, and add them to your “books for sale” stack.
Create a book buy back list
Now that you have your books to sell, you need to catalog them. It sounds like a daunting task, but book buyback programs operate based on the ISBN of each book.
To get the most cash for your books, you’ll need to create a master ISBN list. This allows you to easily shop the books around to multiple buyers and maximize your cash.
Take each book, find the ISBN (usually on the back cover or copyright page), and enter the numbers into a simple text file on your computer. Put one ISBN on each line.
During this process, try to keep the books in the same order as your ISBN list. That lets you quickly link a book to its ISBN.
Sell your textbooks
This is the easy part! All you have to do is see which buyers want your books. Fortunately, there are lots of online book buyers, and they have varying needs and prices.
Here are several book buyback sites to get you started:
- Book Byte –
- AbeBooks –
- Books into Cash
- Book Buyer Online
- We Buy Textbooks
- Blue Rectangle
- Money for Books
Go to each book buying site and enter your master ISBN list into their textbook selling form. Just copy and paste from your text file into the ISBN field. The buy back site will then tell you which books they want.
Now you just look through the sites and find the best price for each book. Best selling books will have higher prices, and some books might not be wanted by anyone. You can parse through the lists and max out your cash with this price comparison method.
Prepare the shipments
After you decide which books to sell to which buyback site, you can get ready to ship them. Each site has similar instructions, but read them all carefully.
Generally, the site will have you print a packing list for the shipment. And they will provide a postage-paid label for your box. Print out the shipping documents and get each shipment in a box, ready to go.
It’s important to double check your packing lists, so you send the books to their proper destinations. With several shipments going out, it can get confusing if you’re not careful.
Ship your books
The book buyback programs will give you postage-paid shipping labels. Just tape these on your boxes, and you can drop them off at the Post Office.
If you have several large boxes, you can ask the Post Office for a cart. They’ll give you a big cart to wheel out to the parking lot, saving your back and several trips in & out.
Note: Some of the book buyers ask you to insure the books. You will have to pay for insurance, but it should only be a few dollars.
Collect the cash
You won’t see your money overnight; be patient. The books are shipped media mail, so they take a while to arrive at the buyer’s warehouse. Then the buyer processes them. Finally, your payment is sent.
Most book buyers will pay by check or PayPal. I’ve used both methods with various buyers, and they work equally well.
Any questions?
I’m no expert at book buyback programs, but I want to share what I have experienced. If anything is unclear, or you encounter problems, please let me know. Post a comment below, or contact me.
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Personal Injury Attorney Network
No one ever wants to incur a personal injury. One of the worst parts of being injured is dealing with the medical bills and lost wages that you’ll incur. If you have a serious personal injury, these expenses can easily add up to thousands of dollars and even higher.
This is why you might consider consulting a personal injury attorney. They can’t just conjure money out of thin air, but an attorney might be able to help, if your injury is someone else’s fault.
Total Injury can help you connect with personal injury attorneys in your area. You can easily search for attorneys around you, and then you get their contact information. It’s really a piece of cake.
One of the cool features is the case review form. You enter your contact information, select the type of injury you sustained, and enter additional comments. The information is then sent to an attorney for review.
To round out the offerings, Total Injury also has information about different types of personal injuries. You can find out different information about your claim, its possible value, and the nature of your case. The site also has details on obtaining a cash advance for your claim. That’s an interesting method of getting cash now to pay your bills.
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Pay Yourself to Get Things Done
Do you ever have problems getting motivated? I sure do.
Why not reward yourself when you get things done? By “reward,” I mean money. Pay yourself to get things done.
My problem
I’m trying to ride my bike more. But it’s hard to get motivated to ride. The irony is that I like riding.
So when I was on my ride this evening, I came up with this “pay myself” idea. I’ll reward myself for riding my bicycle. I think it will help get me motivated.
The bike payment plan
The plan I came up with is pretty simple. For every day that I ride at least 30 minutes, I’ll put $0.75 in my “bike fund.” I can use this money, and only this money, to buy cycling gear.
This is still the planning phase, so my plan might change slightly. I want to get the right balance where I will have to ride a lot to buy any gear. But I also want to get some new gear fairly often, to show the fruits of my efforts.
What’s your plan
The best part of this idea is that it can work for many things. And maybe you could “pay” yourself with something other than money.
Do you have a place in your life where you could implement this idea?
[tags]gtd[/tags]
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About Andrew Flusche
Lawyer, bicyclist, husband.
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