How does this work? Well, if you already have a Twitter account (you slick social networker you), follow @cltraffic. If not, sign up for one and follow cltraffic.

Don’t want to sign up for an account on a stupid website just to get traffic reports? No problem! Send “follow cltraffic” to 40404 as a text message on your mobile phone and accept the confirmation message. Standard text message rates apply blah blah blah, don’t cry to me if your bill goes through the roof and I don’t make any money off this.

I put this together in under an hour, but I’m already looking at ways to improve it and make it more relevant to Charlotte drivers, like adding estimated travel times along common routes. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

The best part about this? I work from home, so I’ll probably never use this like other people will. I like it that way.

Not in the Charlotte area? You can still donate online, or even better, find your own local food banks and help them out. Make a difference in your area, even if it’s just a small one.

Location: I’ve now been in Charlotte for a little over a month. It’s nice. Not Florida at all but that’s not a bad thing either. It’ll be really nice to get into my own place come July though. I love my relatives but I hate cramming my life into a spare room in their house.

The kid: Still doing really well, and still on track for an early October arrival. I’ve given up the idea of being “ready” for a kid. It’s not gonna happen now and it’s not gonna happen in October. I can only hope I’m ready enough. Also, I’m now convinced that a circle of hell is devoted to doing the baby registry at Babies R Us.

My car: it’s 6 years old and has 130,000 miles on it (but in spite of that it runs very well). It’s also the only car my wife and I have had for the last 3 years. We need another one, SOON. We’ve been looking at the VW Passat, Tiguan, Honda CR-V and some others. Seems like every car model has gotten bigger and more expensive since my last round of car buying back in ‘02.

That’s about it for now. Stay tuned for another exciting update next Friday! Or sooner if I can think of something good.

Working from home has its perks.

Waves crashing on Fort Lauderdale Beach

Originally uploaded by iamvinnie

Got the moving truck and I’m ready to start packing. I went to the beach this morning one last time and took some pictures to remember it by. I didn’t use the beach nearly as much as I should have in the last 2 years I was here, but at least these will give me something to remember and a reason to come back. Enjoy the waves crashing in this video, sorry there’s no sound but my camera doesn’t have any way to record it. Have a safe weekend everyone and I’ll be posting again from another part of the country soon.

I found myself in the latter situation, so I started dropping feeds, people, and even entire categories that I’m not really focused on anymore. Cutting my number of followed sites by 45% is going to give me about 80% less content to filter through, but the remaining 55% of sites I’m still following provide most of the value anyway (deeper news analysis, friends, etc.).

Something I’m learning about myself: analysis breeds paralysis. For most things I need to know just enough to make a decision on it; any more is likely to leave me spinning my wheels in place. I’m not doing this because of some need to be productive. I just want to sharpen my mind a little more and I can’t do that when I’m tempted to graze and skim on information a few times a day. I’m already down to twice a day for email, the feed reduction should help too.

I’m going to miss it down here more than I thought. I’d love to stay, but I know my family will have a better life up there. This move is bittersweet. It’s really weird knowing that in a week you’ll be in a completely different place, and that in six months your life will barely resemble what it is now. I know it’s for the better. At least, I think it’s for the better.

I make decent money now, at least enough not to worry about paying the mortgage or filling up my gas tank each week. I could probably find another job doing what I do that pays more, but I’m not really looking. Why? Because my needs are being met and I’m getting paid in other ways: time and independence.

I work from home. This brings a huge level of freedom to my workday, even though I have bosses and projects coming from above like every other full-time employee. I can work in my pajamas or blast music while I work and it’s okay as long as I’m showing results. That same set of values, that rewards trust by prioritizing work produced over time logged in a cubicle, also keeps me rich in time. As someone who’s about to start a family this is becoming far more important, and as someone who’s trying to stay in shape it’s nice to go swim or lift weights during my lunch hour.

Now that I’m rich in time outside of work, and my job is more of a complement to how I want to live my life, I’m also finding that I value that non-work time a lot more and will fight harder to keep it. The funny thing is, by setting a higher price on my free time (and informing people of that price) I’ve actually been getting more offers to do business on that off time. I’m also having an easier time of rejecting those who waste my time, a nice side effect.

And what of long term plans? Saving for retirement, 401Ks and all that? Well I’m putting some money away too, especially with kids coming, but I’m not really sure I’m going to retire at 65 like most people plan to. I’ve been working since I was 14 and I’ve gone nuts during any period of unemployment longer than a week or two. I’ll probably take breaks from working throughout my life, but I’m not going to lump it all at the end. And I’m sure as hell not depending on Social Security or Medicare being around in 40 years.

An easy counter-criticism here would be “Yeah but you still make enough money to pay the bills, I’m not that well off. Your thoughts suck!” And I’ll agree that money is basically everything when you have none of it. I don’t mean to demean a situation like that at all. But if you are doing reasonably well but have a constant desire to chase money, ask yourself “Why?” Will it really buy you the lifestyle you want? Are there other ways to achieve that lifestyle that don’t necessarily involve working yourself to near death? There probably are.

I don’t know why I’m writing all this. Maybe it will help some kid who chooses a major because they think it’s a money train. Maybe someone who’s being beaten up by today’s economy can take solace in the fact that money isn’t everything, and there are other currencies to consider. If this made you think, or laugh, or whatever, leave a comment and let me know.

“But Vinnie” you say, “isn’t twitter that place where self-important bloggers BS all day?”

Well, yeah. But look past that for a minute. There are lots of other people besides bloggers and geeks on there. Like company CEOs, or teachers, or librarians or even presidential candidates. But more importantly, there are people near you that are twittering their day away as well. You can learn a lot about where you live just by following them. Want to find a good restaurant? Look at someone’s old tweets, they were probably texting from a cool new place.

So for Good People Day 2008 (thanks @garyvee) I’m singling out everybody on twitter. I’m learning a lot from you guys in lots of different areas and it’s a real eye-opening experience. Thanks!