Wrapping Up 2008 And Plans For 2009

I want to do two things on this post, wrap up 2008 and share my blog plans for 2009.

FrugalNYC 2008

I started blogging regularly in 2008. Much of my motivation had to do with changes in my perspectives and inspiration found from other blogs. I've made two changes to my FrugalNYC blog layout in 2008. The first time on August 19, 2008 and the current format took place on November 12, 2008. I've also joined Twitter, after some hesistation, I joined and have found it very useful (and also time consuming - as I thought). I added an additional blog, FrugalTech, to hold content for all tech related posts I write about.

I've found that the more I write about something the more I understand it. It's like teaching, the more you teach the more you will learn. I will continue to be a student of life and learn from every aspect of my life. I will share lessons I've learned on this blog. I've learned numerous lessons since I started blogging. I have gained a fair amount of readership on my blog along the way, Thank You!. I hope you will continue to spread word of FrugalNYC and what I write about. For an archival record, the most viewed FrugalNYC posts in 2008 are below.

FrugalNYC's Top 10 Popular Posts For 2008

1. Souvenir From The Big Apple
2. How to talk yourself out of any Purchase
3. 10 Free Blackberry Games
4. 10 Free Places To Visit In NYC Today
5. Our Visit To The Queens Zoo
6. Governor's Island
7. Symptoms Of Cold and Flu Season
8. Mandarin Radio
9. Life Lessons Learned From Digging Out A Car
10. Six Random Things About Me

FrugalNYC in 2009

Some of my goals for 2009 for this blog are listed below. Above all else, I want to make sure I provide content that you and my future audience will enjoy. Please continue to spread word about FrugalNYC and please continue to provide me great feedback for improvements and for what you would like to see. My goals for 2009 are:

1. Keep my posts short and to the point - focus on Simplicity.
2. Better utilize Twitter to spread word of FrugalNYC. Please Tweet about FrugalNYC!
   
3. Provide useful content on productivity, motivation, frugality, frugal living in NYC, frugal activities in NYC, and other interest to myself and my audience.
   
4. Continue writing and improve my Central Park Series posts, among other series I will be working on. Possible series include NYC libraries, zoos, NYC shops, restaurants and more.
5. Last but not least, turn pro, and make this income producing - so I can dedicate myself to providing you all with more interesting and helpful tips!
   

I have a lot of work ahead of me, thank you for coming along for the ride and for spreading word of my blog. For additional links to frugal tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC in any way (guest posts, articles, ideas, interesting links, advice, financial assistance, or anything else), feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add this to your RSS reader.

Frugal Friday Tip! Save $2 per call to 411 by using 1800-FREE411 for directory assistance. It will also give you MaqQuest directions to anywhere in the US for free. You just have to listen to a short 12 second ad.

Photo courtesy of ronnie44052

Windows notepad productivity

Many people have their favorite text editors, usually for simplicity or for its features. Personally, I tend to like, and continue to use, Windows Notepad.

The Features I like about it are:

• Simple cut and paste.
• F5 for current date and time, using the ".LOG" trick makes it even more useful.
  
• Ubiquity on all windows machines.
• Simple uncluttered interface, helps get writing done.
  

Simple cut and paste

The cut and paste function in notepad is just the built-in windows clipboard, and it does the job just fine for my simple writing needs. Perhaps its because I'm only journaling and writing blog posts and not a book, but I find the simple to remember Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V easy to use and remember. Of course the all important Ctrl+S to save my changes every couple of minutes also helps. Yes having extra undos, auto-save and multiple clipboards can make certain tasks easier, and that's why some people like the other editors, but I have no need for it right now. Maybe if I start to write a book, I may switch to something else, but I have a feeling I would continue to use it for writing drafts and for the below reasons.

F5 for current date and time

The F5 shortcut key for current date and time, is very handy for journaling. Remember this function key and you may end up using windows notepad for your daily journaling needs. Using a Notepad trick can save you even that one keystroke everytime you open up a log file. Put the text ".LOG", without the quotes, on the first line of a text file file and the file will get automatically updated with the current Date and Time stamp.

Ubiquity on all windows machines

I've used other applications for writing, but I keep coming back for notepad's simple and unclutterred interface. Obviously being available on every windows computer makes it easy to pick up anywhere you go.

Simple uncluttered interface

Lack of formatting features in Notepad has actually helped me. The lack of bold, underline, italics, and other simple formatting features can be a benefit. Even in writing this blog, I usually write my article on a text only based editor (I'm doing so right now) and fix up the formatting and links when I post. This helps me concentrate on writing a post when I do my writing, and work on formatting when I post it online to blogger.

Using Notepad is frugal in time and computing resources. It doesn't cost you a cent, and there is no learning curve to fiddle and learn a new application. It would take you time and effort to find and download a new editor. Sometimes you do want that, but for me, it's good to have a simple trusty editor always ready for me to write. One problem I've seen with Notepad is the formatting can get a little messy with the line breaks if you edit the file in certain parts. The easy fix is to save the file, exit, and then reopen the file. This usually gets the formatting back in shape.

What is your favorite text editor? Now that you read why I use windows notepad, will you use it? If you don't use windows notepad, why not?