In his blog entry BobP attempts to answer the very interesting concept of "Cluttered Desk, Cluttered Mind" which leads to the question... what does an empty desk mean?

Learn about Clerical people and Imaginative people. Which one are you? Does your orgainzational methods give it away?

Health insurance is not cheap, and with premiums continuing to skyrocket alongside the price of health care, the outlook is not bright. For the self employed, the issue of health insurance is one that hits right in the wallet. Since self employed individuals are unable to qualify for group discounts offered to large companies, then the cost of self employed health insurance becomes of foremost concern. Deciding on what type of self employed health insurance to choose depends a great deal on the current state of your business and how you expect it to grow in the next few years.

If your business is run solely by yourself (for example no partners or employees) then you are certainly in the toughest self employed insurance situation. That is because the most expensive insurance rates occur for policies that are granted to only a single person. There are two reasons for this. First of all, small groups or individuals are not able to collectively bargain with the insurance agency. Insurance agencies are more likely to offer favorable rates to those who are willing to bring in many policy holders at once. Another reason is that the more people who are insured by a single policy, the more the risk is spread amongst all policy holders. This lowers the risk for the insurance agency and allows them to offer more favorable rates for coverage.

If you expect your company to grow in the near future to include employees or partners, it is probably a good idea to consider purchasing temporary health insurance. Temporary policies are not as robust as permanent coverage, but they can get you through until the time comes that you can qualify for a group discount.

Fortunately, Congress has noted the plight of self employed individuals. Now, most of the costs of self employed health insurance are tax deductible, and other legislation is pending that should ease the burden further.

More information: Self Employed Insurance

Here is a photo of what must be my computers (of course no one else would admit to having such a terrible setup)! This is a perfect example of how not to use a wire lan rack.

There is no organization. There are cables and other things all over the place. The monitor is on the floor, keyboards jammed in sideways. Can you type on a keyboard wedged between two computers?

If you spend your hard earned money on a lan rack (and you should if you have a few computers), please do not follow in my foot steps. Use the lan rack as an opportunity to organize your computers, cables and accessories properly.